Sunday, January 10, 2010

Book Chapter: Democratising Technology: A Method

Light, A. (2009) Democratising Technology: A Method, in Designing for the 21st Century: Interdisciplinary Methods and Findings (ed T. Inns), Ashgate Publishing

Democratising Technology (DemTech) was a research project that explored creative aspects of discussing digital technology with the groups being marginalised by it. In particular, the project sought to equip those most excluded from technological change with new ways to apprehend, address and evaluate the possible social and political worlds it creates. In setting up the project, there were two main goals:

1. To discover a method of inclusion that could be employed as a ‘portable workshop’, supported by an explanatory DVD.
2. To provide a showcase for inclusive thinking through the creation of artworks and an exhibition.

Barriers to Bridging: Can we cross Global Divides with Trac(k)ing Technology?

Light, A. (forthcoming) Barriers to Bridging: Can we cross Global Divides with Trac(k)ing Technology?, special issue on ‘Labelling the World’, Pervasive Computing

Product tracking technology is increasingly available to big players in the value chain which connects producers to consumers, giving them new competitive advantages. Such shifts in technology do not benefit small producers, and especially those in developing regions, to the same degree. This paper looks at the practicalities of trying to level the playing field by making a form of tracing technology available for any producer to use. In doing so, it goes beyond considering engineering solutions to examine what happens in the context of use, reporting on work with partners in Chile and India and reflecting on the potential for impact on business and community wellbeing. Reporting on the results of the “Fair Tracing” project, the paper argues that a generic trac(k)ing tool for use with the different commerce systems employed across developing regions is not likely to be useful as such. It concludes with some insights into the tensions that arise in designing a viable socio-technical system around this type of tool and considers what the wider implications may be.

The Panopticon reaches within: how digital technology turns us inside out

Light, A. (forthcoming) The Panopticon reaches within: how digital technology turns us inside out, Journal of Identity in the Information Society,

The convergence of biomedical and information technology holds the potential to alter the discourses of identity, or as is argued here, to turn us inside out. The advent of digital networks makes it possible to ‘see inside’ people in ways not anticipated and thus create new performance arenas for the expression of identity. Drawing on the ideas of Butler and Foucault and theories of performativity, this paper examines a new context for human-computer interaction and articulates potentially disturbing issues with monitoring health rather than wellbeing. It argues that by adopting explicitly social framings we can see beyond the idea of medical interventions for health to recognize the political implications of the new categorizations and their implementation in code. In the process, it critiques traditional ways of understanding machine-body relations within the field of technology design.

Performing Charlotte: a Tool to bridge Cultures in Participatory Design

Light, A., Kleine, D and Vivent, M. (2010) Performing Charlotte: a Tool to bridge Cultures in Participatory Design, International Journal of Sociotechnology and Knowledge Development, 2(1),

This paper describes the use of a performed persona as a device in cross-cultural design activities. The device serves to elicit knowledge and manage expectations in the context of participatory design workshops to explore the purpose and function of a tool for tracing the supply chain of ethical goods from producer to consumer. The use of the method with the staff of a wine producer in Chile is analyzed and the benefits and challenges identified in using the form live in workshops. We conclude that the device offers potential but also requires some confidence and skill to invoke.

Geezers, Turbines, Fantasy Personas: Making the Everyday into the Future

Light, A., Simpson, G. and Weaver, L., Healey, P.G. (2009) Geezers, Turbines, Fantasy Personas: Making the Everyday into the Future, in Proc. Creativity and Cognition 2009, Berkeley, Oct 2009

Winner of award for best paper promoting social creativity

This paper describes how a project to challenge digital exclusion resulted in GeezerPower: an artwork that is both a statement about reusable technologies and about older people’s continuing interest in the world of the future. We use the story of its production to illustrate and reflect on new methods for engaging people in decisions about the design of technology. And we explore how creative practice informed the design of an intervention workshop inspired by performance art and an exhibition of artists collaborating with older people. We conclude with some comments on marginalization, engagement and envisioning futures.

Research Project as Boundary Object: negotiating the conceptual design of a tool for International Development

Light, A. and Anderson, T. (2009) Research Project as Boundary Object: negotiating the conceptual design of a tool for International Development, in Proc. ECSCW 2009, Vienna, Sept 2009

This paper reflects on the relationship between who one designs for and what one designs in the unstructured space of designing for political change; in particular, for supporting “International Development” with ICT. We look at an interdisciplinary research project with goals and funding, but no clearly defined beneficiary group at start, and how amorphousness contributed to impact. The reported project researched a bridging tool to connect producers with consumers across global contexts and show players in the supply chain and their circumstances. We explore how both the nature of the research and the tool’s function became contested as work progressed. To tell this tale, we invoke the idea of boundary objects and the value of tacking back and forth between elastic meanings of the project’s artefacts and processes. We examine the project’s role in India, Chile and other arenas to draw out ways that it functioned as a catalyst and how absence of committed design choices acted as an unexpected strength in reaching its goals.

The Panopticon and the Performance Arena: HCI Reaches within

Light, A. and Wright, P.C. (2009) The Panopticon and the Performance Arena: HCI Reaches within, in Proc. INTERACT 2009, Uppsala, Aug 2009

The impact of new technologies is hard to predict. We suggest the value of theories of performativity in understanding dynamics around the convergence of biomedical and information technology. Drawing on the ideas of Butler and Foucault, we discuss a new, internal, context for HCI and raise potentially disturbing issues with monitoring health. We argue that by adopting explicitly social framings we can see beyond the idea of medical interventions to tools for wellbeing and recognize more of the implications of looking within.

Commissioned Report: Social Justice and User-centred Design

Light, A. and Luckin, R. (2008) Social Justice and User-centred Design, Futurelab Opening Education series, 2008

http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/publications-reports-articles/opening-education-reports/Opening-Education-Report1128

This review provides an introduction to the concept of social justice and the practices of user-centred design (UCD), looking at how theories for changing the world marry up with methods to implement these changes. It then explores the potential role of technology-enhanced learning (TEL) within this framework.

Commissioned Report: The Future of Computing — Visions and Reflections

Light, A. (2007) The Future of Computing — Visions and Reflections, Oxford Internet Institute, OII / e-Horizons Forum Discussion Paper No. 11

http://apo.org.au/research/future-computing-visions-and-reflections-1

‘The Future of Computing: A Vision’ was a senior women’s forum, organised by The e-Horizons Institute (University of Oxford) and Women@CL. It ran for two days in late March 2007 and brought together senior women in computer science and related disciplines to consider their vision of the future of computing and what these visions could and should mean for the computer science research agenda. This meeting followed a forum in 2004 on the role of women in computer science, where the absence of female voices in IT appeared as a major topic. This document is a digest of the themes related to future computing research that emerged from these two days of discussions, beginning with a brief summary of the three talks given as part of the event.

Workshop Presentations 2008 - 2009

Light, A. (2009) A Development Perspective on the Challenges in Implementing ‘Auto-Identification’ of Products, Globicomp workshop, Ubicomp ’09, Orlando, Sept 2009

Light, A. (2009) Building the Equal-but-Different Society, Considering Gender in ECSCW, ECSCW'09, Sept 2009

Light, A. (2009) Inclusivity, Interaction Design and Culture: how the other half live, Design Principles and Practices 3, Berlin, Feb 2009

Thompson, S. and Light, A. (2008) The Skinningove Jetty Project, ReLIVE08, Milton Keynes, Nov 2008

Light, A. (2008) Adding Method to Meaning, Philosophy, Organization and Technology (POT) 2008, Oxford, July 2008

Christmas Baubles and History Tinsels

Petrelli, D. and Light, A. (2009) Christmas Baubles and History Tinsels, Workshop on Digital Object Memories, Intelligent Environments (IE’09), Barcelona, Spain, July 2009

Winner of design study award

This design proposal explores the concept of tangible digital mementos concealed inside baubles to be periodically revisited at special occasions. A photostory describes the concept and a technical description provides details. We outline how this concept could be extended to other objects, like tinsels, creating chains for stories.

Negotiations in Space: the Impact of Receiving Phone Calls on the Move

Light, A. (2009) Negotiations in Space: the Impact of Receiving Phone Calls on the Move, in The Reconstruction of Space and Time: Mobile Communication Practices, (eds) Ling, R. and Campbell, S., Transaction Publishers

It could be said that telephony has only come of age with the cellular phone, in that wireless technology allows a move from location-centered to person-centered phoning. Stripped of the cables that tied phones to a particular point, the full sense of tele-phoning (from the Greek tele = far away and phone = voice ) can be enacted. Phones are now associated with discrete voices. This reflects a change in use as well as in technology; whereas households and businesses primarily had landline phones, cell phones quickly attached themselves to individuals. Person-centered phoning embodies new relationships. The defining quality might be summed up as mobility through possession. These different aspects of the new relationship are captured by the names that the new phones have come to be known by, e.g., 'mobile' in Britain, 'handy' in Germany, ‘keitai’ in Japan.

Whose Convergence? When Technology meets Experience

Light, A. (2007) Whose Convergence? When Technology meets Experience, in Proc. Towards a Philosophy of Telecommunications Convergence conference, Budapest, Sept 2007

Convergence is most often understood in a technical sense, as different strands of the Information Society come together. But to focus upon this is to draw attention away from the factors that encourage the design of good networked tools. This paper takes an experiential view of how people engage with the things around them and, presenting a case study of an MP3player/phone, offers a different idea of convergence, which prioritises the humans at the centre of the system and the activity spaces they move through.

An Analysis of Building Habitat with Networked Tools

Light, A., Miskelly, C. and Thompson, S. (2008) An Analysis of Building Habitat with Networked Tools, in Proc. OzCHI 2008, Cairns, Dec 2008

Interactive network technologies are taking our attention away from our habitat and distributing it worldwide. Can outward-pointing tools be turned back to focus on local needs? We examine social networking tools and location sensitive media for their potential to connect people to their environment in different ways, putting the tools’ use in context through an analysis of socially-motivated design practice. We explore two case studies of designing and conclude with a description of how we can support the embedding of social practices, and thus people, in their habitat through design interventions.

Communication Spaces

Healey, P.G., White, G., Eshghi, A., Reeves, A. J. and Light, A. (2008) Communication Spaces, Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 17 (2-3)

Adventures in the Not Quite Yet: using performance techniques to raise design awareness about digital networks

Light, A., Weaver, L., Healey, P.G. and Simpson, G. (2008) Adventures in the Not Quite Yet: using performance techniques to raise design awareness about digital networks, in Proc. DRS, Sheffield, July 2008

Technologists promise a future in which pervasive, distributed networks enable radical change to social and political geographies. Design of these abstract, intangible futures is difficult and carries a special risk of excluding people who are not equipped to appreciate the ramifications of these technological changes. The Democratising Technology (DemTech) project has been exploring how techniques from performance and live art can be used to help people engage with the potential of ubiquitous digital networks; in particular, how these techniques can be used to enfranchise people with little technical knowledge, but who nonetheless will have to live with the design consequences of technical decisions. This paper describes the iterative development of a performance workshop for use by designers and community workers. These workshops employ a series of simple exercises to emulate possible processes of technological appropriation: turning abstract digital networks into imaginable, meaningful webs. They were specifically designed to target a technologically excluded group, older people, but can also be used with other groups. We describe the process of workshop development and discuss what succeeded with our test groups and what failed. In offering our recommendations for working in this space, we consider the methodological issues of collaborating across science/art/design borders and how this impacted on evaluation. And we describe the final result: a recipe for a performance workshop, also illustrated on a DVD and associated website, which can be used to explore the dynamics of technical and social change in the context of people’s own lives and concerns.

Brokering between Heads and Hearts: an analysis of designing for social change

Light, A. and Miskelly, C. (2008) Brokering between Heads and Hearts: an analysis of designing for social change, in Proc. DRS 2008, Sheffield, July 2008

This paper describes a fluid and responsive design process identified among certain practitioners involved in solving social problems or inspiring social change. Their practice is both user-centred and participative in its approach and addresses the shortcomings of many top-down initiatives. These people work tactically to weave together policy knowledge,funding opportunities, local initiative and ideas for improving social and environmental conditions, acting as connectors, activists and facilitators in different contexts at different times. Although their activities are recognisably related to more conventional designing practices, the materials they use in finding solutions are unusual in that they may include the beneficiaries themselves and other features of the social structure in which they are effecting change. We present an ethnographic study of practices in designing that focuses on social initiatives rather than the tangible products or systems that might support them. We explore the how design practices map to the process of winning local people's commitment to projects with a social flavour. To situate the discussion in a political context we draw on de Certeau’s distinction between strategic and tactical behaviour and look at how our informants occupy a space as mediators between groups with power and a sense of agency and those without.

Designing for e-Social Action: An Application Taxonomy

Dearden, A. and Light, A. (2008) Designing for e-Social Action: An Application Taxonomy, in Proc. Design Research Society 2008, Sheffield, July 2008

On Social Function: New Language for Discussing Technology for Social Action

Dearden, A. and Light, A. (2008) On Social Function: New Language for Discussing Technology for Social Action, in Proc. DIAC 2008, California, June 2008

Transports of Delight?: What the experience of receiving (mobile) phone calls can tell us about design

Light, A. (2008) Transports of Delight?: What the experience of receiving (mobile) phone calls can tell us about design, in special issue on 'Enchantment, Experience and Interaction Design', Personal and Ubiquitous Computing 12 (5), pp 391-400

This paper takes a phenomenological approach to analysing people’s accounts of receiving phone calls, drawing on Heidegger and Feenberg. Accounts of calls received on a mobile phone are compared with those on landlines, charting progress from location-centred to person-centred phoning. A range of naturally-occurring contexts are discussed in terms of the experience of balancing the activities of talking on the phone with activities in the immediate environment, and the enchantment sustained or sacrificed. The study suggests that recipients’ enchantment with phoning is affected by their freedom and desire to project towards the caller and create shared spaces, and reveals some factors that impact on the transitions of attention required to do so. It concludes with the design implications of taking this view of interactions with and through phones.

Empirical Vernacular Philosophy, or towards an Existential HCI

Light, A. (2008) Empirical Vernacular Philosophy, or towards an Existential HCI, HCI workshop on 'Critical Issues in HCI', Liverpool, Sept 2008

I propose an empirical vernacular philosophy – the interpretation of technology through the study of the meaning of particular technologies - in use and in context - to those in the process of making sense of them. This is to place people (and their agency and experience) at the heart of the research process. Light (2006) describes a hermeneutic method and Light (2008) applies this to the design of mobile phones, while Light and Miskelly (forthcoming) uses the approach to explore use of Web 2.0 and location-sensitive media for creating habitat. Light, Briggs and Martin (2008), and Light et al (2008) look at research techniques that elicit values and meanings by emphasising participants’ context rather than offering a pre-defined research narrative. This work attempts to produce material of practical value to designers but to do so with awareness of the many ways that identity, meaning and use interrelate and the impossibility of separating the social and technical at an existential level as well as in the everyday.

Defamiliarising Design

Light, A., Blythe, M and Reed, D. (2008) Defamiliarising Design, Design Principles and Practices 1(4) pp63-72

Runner up, best paper award

This paper asks what might make for a design-friendly culture as more people are implicated in the making of everyday interactive systems. The tools offered below are exercises to broaden the view at the start of a design process, even before the space of the problem is contemplated. They are intended to sit well with user-centred design processes, bringing a dash of fun with some serious intent. They are thought games to occupy the 'trading zones' (Galison 1997) in multi-disciplinary teams as they learn about each other and the project before them. They are experiential, in as much as they are more concerned to teach by doing and raise awareness through experience (Dewey 1938) rather than solely convey information.

The Challenge of Representing a Sociotechnical System: Fair Tracing and the Value Chain

Light, A. (2008) The Challenge of Representing a Sociotechnical System: Fair Tracing and the Value Chain, Workshop on Sociotechnical Aspects of Interaction Design, London, May 2008

The Fair Tracing project has as its heart the representation of a sociotechnical system, with its emphasis on the social, economic and environmental aspects of food production as a means of profitably connecting Fair Trade producers in developing countries with ethical consumers in the North. The political elements of the production system will be displayed as part of telling the story of the value chain. The case study is interesting in that not only have we set out to explore and understand the value chain and the information flows accompanying it, but the findings will inform two aspects of the project: first, the design of the system and what use would be reasonable to expect of busy people; second, the representation at the interface that users see when they choose to learn more about the circumstances of production. A significant challenge will be representing the politics of production relationships in the design of the Fair Tracing system in such a way that the tool remains agnostic, but the power relations can be understood – and even challenged.

Invited Talks 2007-8

Light, A. (2008) Value Chains, Food Miles and Politics at the Interface, keynote at Hopper Colloquium 2008, London, May 2008

Light, A. and Luckin, R. (2007) Social Justice and User-centred Design, invited opening talk at Futurelab workshop on ‘Design for Social Justice’, Bristol, Oct 2007

Light, A. (2007) Leonardo, Interdisciplinarity and the Future, invited opening talk at Equator project workshop on the ‘Future of HCI’, London, June 2007

Untitled: Emerging Cultural Forms in the Digital Age

Blythe, M., Light, A. and O'Neill, S. (2007) Untitled: Emerging Cultural Forms in the Digital Age, editors' commentary for Culture, Creativity and Technology special issue of Human Technology

http://www.humantechnology.jyu.fi/archives/february07.html

The age of mechanical reproduction had profound effects on the creation, distribution, and perception of art and other cultural forms (Benjamin, 1992). As the age of digital reproduction progresses, change is becoming equally, if not more, radical. The speed and scale of technological development presents a series of complex challenges for research. This has become evident in human-computer interaction (HCI), a field of study that emerged from “man–machine studies” (Dix, Finlay, Abowd, & Beale, 1998). As well as acknowledging the existence of women, the new title reflected the shift from the mechanical to the digital age; but, in the last 5 years, there have been such major changes in the study of HCI that this title now seems dated. When computers were largely confined to the workplace, it was clear that interacting with them was a specialized activity that necessitated study. Computing technology is now a part of the way we cook, clean, work, communicate, and play; it is, as the title of this journal declares, a human technology. HCI as a title seems at once too narrow and too broad. It includes interaction with microwaves, dishwashers, and credit cards but also the creation of image, music, and text. Emerging technologies offer new possibilities for the creation and delivery of artworks, new modes of operation within artistic communities, alternatives to the traditional view of galleries, and new means of appreciating older cultural forms.

When Scoring doesn't Matter: The Aesthetics of Performance in Arcade Games

Healey, P.G. and Light, A. (2007) When Scoring doesn't Matter: The Aesthetics of Performance in Arcade Games, Proc. Affective Communication conference, Co Design suppl 1, 2007

The tendency to consider aesthetics as a property of an individual experience of an event, object or process obscures the public and social character of much aesthetic experience. The position developed in this paper is that an important way of looking at the public aspects of aesthetics is through performance. Performance, in this context, is taken to mean the design of actions for observation by others with all the attendant interactions that this encourages. This is in contrast to the 'performance' of the products we are discussing.

Adding Method to Meaning: a Technique for exploring Peoples' Experience with Digital Products

Light, A. (2006) Adding Method to Meaning: a Technique for exploring Peoples' Experience with Digital Products, Behaviour & Information Technology, 25 (2), pp175-187

This paper suggests a method for gathering and interpreting people’s accounts of experiences with technology to inform design. The method combines an interviewing technique that seeks to collect detailed retrospective accounts with discourse analysis as a way of making sense of them. After a description of what each part might contribute, a study looking at what happens when people enter text into websites demonstrates some possibilities of the method. Finally the applicability of the method is discussed.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Reports, Workshops and other Early Presentations

Light, A., Naef, M. and Healey, P.G. (2006) Designing the Third Space, Synthetic Sensations conference, Kingston University, London, June 2006

Healey, P.G. and Light, A. (2005) When Scoring doesn't Matter: The aesthetics of performance in arcade games at the HCI2005 workshop on Understanding and Designing for Aesthetic Experience, Edinburgh, Sept 2005

Light, A. (2005) Perceptions of Separation: place, space and the experience of the mobile phone at the INTERACT 2005 workshop on Space, Place and Experience in Human-Computer Interaction, Rome, Sept 2005

Light, A. (2003) Invited talk: Computing for the Real World: Networks, People and What to do with Them, Dust or Magic Conference, Oxford Brookes University, March 2003

Light, A. (2003) 'Systems Literacy and the Narnia Effect: Using Education to protect Human Sovereignty over the e-Environment' at the ICS/Oxford Internet Institute Symposium, Sept 2003.

Light, A. (2003) Invited talk: E for Experiential at the E-Learning Experience Seminar, User-Lab, Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, October 2003

Light, A. (2000) Invited talk: The Private Life of Websites: British Information Providers on the Web and their Audience, Proc International Symposium on New Competencies for the Production and Consumption of Computer-based Media, Bornholm, Denmark, May 2000.

Light, A. (1998) Fourteen Users in Search of a Newspaper: the Effect of Expectation on Online Behaviour, CSRP 507, University of Sussex, 1998.

Light, A. (1999) Vermersch’s explicitation interviewing technique used in analysing human-computer interaction, CSRP 513, University of Sussex,1999.

New Patterns of Power and Participation? Designing ICT for Informal and Community Learning

Cook, J. and Light, A. (2006) New Patterns of Power and Participation? Designing ICT for Informal and Community Learning, E-Learning 3(1) pp51-61

The UK and other governments have demonstrated faith in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) as a means of achieving a participative and inclusive society through various high profile initiatives. It is also claimed that ICT or e-learning can bring about new patterns of power and participation for excluded learners. In this context, our paper will examine the following questions: What new patterns of power and participation are ICTs enabling through e-learning? And what else is needed for a participative and inclusive society? The paper will address the questions from two different perspectives. First, we will look at the small but growing empirical base in the area of informal and community learning, including the description of a previously unreported study in this area. Second, we discuss what is required to design digital media that plug into the motivations of ‘real people’ in a way that empowers them. It is this merging of interdisciplinary perspectives that, we argue, is needed if we are to enable true power and participation for e-learners. Specifically, we will illustrate how the careful design of ICTs can contribute to empowerment.

Designing to Persuade: the Use of Emotion in Networked Media

Light, A. (2004) Designing to Persuade: the Use of Emotion in Networked Media in Interacting with Computers, 16, pp729-738

This commentary looks first at the paradigm shift taking place in analysis of people’s interactions with digital products and services – from evaluating performance to researching experience – in line with trends towards the connectivity, mobility and domestication of devices. It then asks what impact this shift has on our understanding of emotion and technology use; exploring the rise of ‘generative’ situations, in particular when the producer of a networked service has different intentions from the user’s and the stimulation of affect may be considered desirable. The author’s work analysing the emotional impact of the design of networked media is outlined. The paper concludes with some thoughts on the ethics of manipulation.

Usable Reflexivity

Blythe, M. and Light, (2004) A. Usable Reflexivity, at the CHI2004 workshop on Reflective HCI, Vienna, April 2004

Human Computer Interaction (HCI), as an applied and interdisciplinary research area, has been said to lack a theoretical basis (eg [Mackay 1998], [Scaife et al 1994]). It has also been seen as based as much upon developments in the technology industries as it is upon any philosophy or methodology. The success of HCI projects is to some extent defined by their release back into the commercial world [Sutcliffe 2000] and part of the goal of many researchers is to work in a way that enables industry to develop "better" computer products and services, where "better" is understood in a performance paradigm [Light, forthcoming]. This can lead to an unquestioning acceptance of business values, an uncritical embrace of natural science as a model for social science, and a technological determinism that sits poorly with reflexive practice. How then can radical HCI studies that draw on cultural studies, critical theory, and phenomenological approaches and practices reach out to commercial culture?

Book Reviews

Light, A. Cognition in a Digital World (ed. van Oostendorp 2003), Convergence, 2005

Light, A. The Invisible Computer (Norman 1998), New Media and Society, 1999

Participants, Consumers and the Politics of Design: British Information Providers on the Web reconfigure the Audience

Light, A. (2003) Participants, Consumers and the Politics of Design: British Information Providers on the Web reconfigure the Audience at Towards a New Media Paradigm. EU COST A20 Conference, University of Navarra, Pamplona, June 2003

This paper explores how audiences for information have changed with the onset of networked media. The new interface between media producers and consumers bridges formerly distinct worlds with the potential of ‘always-on’ digital devices. It introduces the effect of a ‘remote but co-existent producer’ who can feed customised pages over a network to a user who had requested them, either by responding directly or by using ‘software as proxy’. Typically, with changes in form come alterations in the relations possible and desirable between the parties interacting. This paper describes how media companies, in designing interactive websites, are sending out strong messages about their intended audience and its expected behaviour. By focusing on the attitudes of a small group of British information providers as they transfer part of their core activity to the Web, it has been possible to track a change in their conceptualisation of audience from receptive to interactive. The paper concludes in an analysis of the strengths of two opposing trends - towards adopting an ‘inclusive’ or an ‘authoritative’ interaction design policy for visitors - and examines the background to these developments. It ends by looking at the implications for wider concepts of audience.

A Need to Commune

Light, A. (2003) A Need to Commune, Interactions special issue on HCI and Mass Communication

A director of a small company recently told me that he liked to watch television in the evening so that he could join in discussions about it with his workforce the next day. The bonding that ensued was a cheap, effective management tool, while the business of watching the box was something he enjoyed.

Critical incident technique and explicitation interviewing in studies of information behavior

Urquhart, C., Light, A., Thomas, R., Barker, A., Yeoman, A., Cooper, J., Armstrong, C., Fenton, R., Lonsdale, R. and Spink, S. (2003) Critical incident technique and explicitation interviewing in studies of information behavior in Journal of Library & Information Science Research, 25, pp63-88

The objectives are to discuss the effectiveness of two related techniques, critical incident technique and explicitation, used in a variety of social science research settings, and to critically review their application to studies of information behavior. The current application of both techniques is compared to Flanagan’s early guidelines on the critical incident technique and discussed in relation to recent experience in the use of the critical incident technique in the JUSTEIS and VIVOS projects, and also the use of explicitation in projects concerned with text entering on interactive Web sites. JUSTEIS is concerned with identifying trends, and reasons for those trends, in the uptake and use of electronic information services in higher education in the UK, and the paper examines experience gained over the first two cycles, 1999/2000, and 2000/2001. VIVOS was a one-year project (2000/2001) concerned with evaluation of virtual outreach services at various health library sites in England. Comparing the experiences gained on the projects suggests that critical incident methods could usefully be extended and enriched by some explicitation methods to elicit the degree of evocation required for current and future studies of Internet use.

Audience Design: Interacting with Networked Media

Light, A. (2003) Audience Design: Interacting with Networked Media, Interactions special issue on HCI and Mass Communication.

The networking of media raises new challenges, such as how to exploit interactivity independent of platform, how to promote trust in content and how to present material in such a way that communications are personally relevant and socially responsible. This paper explores how audiences for information have changed with the onset of networked media and what design implications this raises in the areas mentioned. Two design policies are suggested, based on the goals of different information providers interviewed as part of a study of perceptions of interaction.

HCI Education and Training: Satisfying the Stakeholders

Light, A., McManus, B., Minocha, S. and Rosbottom, J. (2003) HCI Education and Training: Satisfying the Stakeholders at the HCI Educators Workshop, Napier University, April 2003

Academics tread a fine line in satisfying a range of stakeholders’ requirements. Our paper identifies the wide variety of stakeholders involved, even peripherally, in HCI education and training, their expectations, what their contribution might be, and the implications for a Higher Education curriculum. We examine the conflicts among stakeholder demands, as well as how they complement one another in terms of their requirements and expectations.. Finally, we examine what opportunities are provided, for HCI educators who are endlessly refining the curriculum. We step back to take an overview: Where are we in the system? How is it changing? What can we do about it? How do we protect educational values, with so much else at stake?

More than an Interface: Using ICT to connect the people of Fiankoma and Brighton

Light, A. and members of the Fiankoma Project (2003) More than an Interface: Using ICT to connect the people of Fiankoma and Brighton, at the HCI 2003 Workshop on Designing for Civil Society, Bath, Sept 2003

The Fiankoma Project used video and other media to stimulate communication and enhance cultural awareness. We encouraged local communities in the village of Fiankoma in Ghana (whose day-to-day lives are agricultural, without electricity or running water) and in Brighton, UK, to create representations of themselves, their society and their experience, which could then form the basis of a dialogue between the two groups and also be circulated more broadly to educate and involve others in development awareness work.

E for Experiential

Light, A. 'E for Experiential' at the E-Learning Experience Seminar, User-Lab, Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, October 2003

Interactivity and User Commitment: Building Relationships through Interaction on Websites

Light, A. (2001) Interactivity and User Commitment: Building Relationships through Interaction on Websites, People and Computers 15, ed. Blandford, A., Vanderdonckt, J. and Gray P., London: Springer-Verlag, pp459-474

Promoting services through networked media requires more than an understanding of commerce. It requires a sense of what user behaviour takes place at the service interface, and how different activities are viewed by potential participants. It also demands knowledge of which of these activities may strengthen users’ interest in interacting as the producer wishes. First, a new framework to describe interaction is needed if we are to make connections between activities conducted online. Then, the understanding gained may be used to consider interaction design. A series of studies into the nature of interaction through websites is analysed here to provide modes of description for the particular nature of networked systems. This framework is then used to look at how site activities can be designed to promote participation. It shows that certain design features will promote a more social relationship between producer and user, assisting in the development of trust.

Reception Studies informs the Analysis of Future Audiences for Websites

Light, A. Reception Studies informs the Analysis of Future Audiences for Websites, HCI2002 Workshop on Understanding User Experience: Literary Analysis meets HCI

Beliefs about the role of the (mass) communicator and audience have been changing rapidly with the introduction and use of networked media. These beliefs have influenced the behaviour of website producers as they experiment to find commercial models of information provision and offer sustainable forms of interaction with visitors to their sites. This study explored how some large British information providers tackled the challenge of interacting through the Web, their attitude to their audiences and the significance of this in design terms.

Beyond the Interface: Users’ Perceptions of Interaction and Audience on Websites

Light, A. and Wakeman, I. (2001) Beyond the Interface: Users’ Perceptions of Interaction and Audience on Websites in special issue of Interacting with Computers on ‘Interfaces for the Active Web’, 13, pp325-351

Dynamic pages and the increasing number of functions that websites can perform are changing users’ relations with the Web. Little has been reported on how the experience of using this kind of interactive site differs from the ‘point and click’ interactivity of the early Web. This paper reports on a qualitative study of users who entered text while visiting a website of their choice. It shows how the process brought with it two levels of awareness: that of the interface, and that of the social context beyond the interface. The paper goes on to describe the perception of audience that emerged from analysing users’ accounts. It also gives details of the data collection method, which is based on the work of Vermersch and has not been widely used outside France for analysing interaction with computers. The implications for website design are considered.

The Influence of Context on Users' Responses to Websites

Light, A. (2001) The Influence of Context on Users' Responses to Websites, Proc ISIC/ New Review of Information Behaviour Research, 2001

This paper describes three studies that explore external influences on users’ perceptions of websites. The three studies investigate the effect of the identity of the site's producer, of the site's subject matter and of the user's behaviour with interactive information tools. They show that though perceptions are personal, they are influenced by several contextual factors within the control of designers. The rest of the paper looks at how these perceptions influence users' information-seeking strategies and the implications of these perceptions for site design.

Representing the Producer: the Use of Semiotic Analysis to inform the Design of Interactive Components in Networked Media

Light, A (2001) Representing the Producer: the Use of Semiotic Analysis to inform the Design of Interactive Components in Networked Media DSVIS 2001, Glasgow, Scotland, June 2001

This paper describes how semiotic analysis can be applied to aid the design of interactive components for websites and other networked digital media. This kind of analysis can supplement existing design strategies by articulating the relationship between the producer and users of a networked system. It can support requirements capture by stripping away the form of the interactions planned for the site, leaving the intentions of the participants to determine the nature of components. By focusing attention on the relationship building function of the presence, content and context of an interactive device, the analysis promotes a fuller understanding of design issues in terms of acceptability as well as usability. To illustrate this technique, the paper examines the results of several studies into how users make sense of the interactive devices that can be provided on websites.

“My name’s Chris…”: the Effect of Producer Visibility on the Use of Interactive Websites

Light, A. and Wakeman, I. (2000)“My name’s Chris…”: the Effect of Producer Visibility on the Use of Interactive Websites Proc. OZCHI2000

The use of websites for requesting products and services raises issues of trust and accountability relating to the producer of the site. An experiment was conducted into the effect of producer visibility at the point that users make such requests of a site. The experiment explored the effect of three statements which used different forms of address towards the users of an anonymous recruitment agency site: passive, corporate and personal. Users were asked for their responses to each voice in terms of trustworthiness, accountability and friendliness. The results suggest that the different voices influence users in consistent ways, depending on the nature of the service being offered. The implications for design are discussed.

Conversation as Publishing: the Role of News Forums on the Web

Light, A. and Rogers, Y. (1999) Conversation as Publishing: the Role of News Forums on the Web, in special issue of Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication on Persistent Conversation, 4(4)
http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol4/issue4/

The development of the World Wide Web (Web) has allowed publishers to move away from traditional newspaper models of news presentation to introduce more flexible products that offer both an information source and more scope for interaction with and between users. The opportunity to involve users more in the creation of news content has been exploited in various ways: for instance as discussion forums or as visitor responses to particular questions. This paper reports on an experiment investigating one form of this new kind of interaction, drawing on data from an email questionnaire sent to visitors to The Guardian newspaper’s Election 97 website who observed or participated in a series of themed discussion forums in the run up to the 1997 British general election. We present an evaluation of the visitors’ behaviour in the forums, their motivation and their perceptions of the discussion space. We discuss the findings in relation ot the underlying model of the website, pointing out how , despite the flexbility offerred by this new mode of interaction, the traditional publisher-contributor relationship remains preferable.

Towards a Design Methodology for Adaptive Applications: 'Giving the User the Choice between a Picture and a Thousand Words'

McIlhagga, M., Light, A. and Wakeman, I. (1998) Towards a Design Methodology for Adaptive Applications: 'Giving the User the Choice between a Picture and a Thousand Words' First Workshop on HCI and Mobile Devices, Glasgow, 21st - 22nd May 1998.

Design Choices for Adaptive Applications

McIlhagga, M., Light, A. and Wakeman, I. (1998) Design Choices for Adaptive Applications, the Fourth Annual ACM/IEEE International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking (Mobicom 98), Dallas