Outside Where? A Survey of Climates and Built Environments in Studies of HCI outdoors

Title of the Paper

Outside Where? A Survey of Climates and Built Environments in Studies of HCI Outdoors

Bibliographic Information

• Subject Area: Research on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) in outdoor environments
• Keywords: Human-Computer Interaction, Outdoor HCI, Built Environment, Climate Classification, User Experience, Diversity Studies, Technology Adaptation, Outdoor Computing

Research Background and Issues

• Research Questions:
  • Experiences of outdoor computing vary by location and environmental conditions, such as weather and power supply.
  • Is there a lack of outdoor HCI research conducted under diverse climate and built environment conditions in existing studies?
• Significance:
  • Climate change may amplify the impact of different weather conditions on HCI systems, necessitating research that encompasses a broader range of environmental variables.
  • Outdoor HCI research in natural or undeveloped areas remains very limited, which may affect the universality of technology design.
• Research Background:
  • An analysis of 699 papers revealed that most outdoor HCI research is concentrated in areas with low diversity in climate and built environment conditions, such as temperate climates (Class C) and urban environments.
  • Related research primarily focuses on the distribution of HCI resources and the diversity of design.

Proposed Solutions

• Research Methods:
  • Conduct a content analysis of papers extracted from CHI conferences and related literature from 2015 to 2021.
  • Use the "Recreational Opportunity Spectrum (ROS)" and "Köppen-Geiger Climate Classification" to categorize and classify the built environments and climates in outdoor HCI research.
• Innovations:
  • Proposed a method based on climate and built environment classification to evaluate the coverage of existing research.
  • Precisely located research sites using maps and online data tools to reveal areas of research concentration.
• Implementation Steps:
  • Screen each paper to exclude those without clear research locations, descriptions of outdoor interactions, or relevance to the topic.
  • Determine the ROS classification and climate classification based on the latitude, longitude, and surrounding environmental information of the research site.
  • Perform statistical analysis to identify geographical and environmental gaps in HCI research.

Research Findings

• Specific Findings:
  • 101 studies were classified, with the majority concentrated in urban and temperate/continental climate regions: 82 studies were located in urban areas, and only 8 studies were set in semi-primitive environments.
  • Polar climates (Class E) were represented by only 1 study, and tropical climates (Class A) accounted for only 7 research sites.
  • No studies were conducted in areas with significant altitude variations or remote undeveloped regions, highlighting the influence of geographical and transportation constraints on research choices.
• Advantages:
  • Systematically revealed the distribution of climate and environmental conditions in different outdoor HCI research locations.
  • Called for more attention to underrepresented environments and locations, such as semi-primitive, natural areas, and unique climate conditions.
• Experimental or Evaluation Results:
  • The vast majority of studies occurred within 10 kilometers of the researchers’ institutions, indicating high geographical dependency.
  • The lack of environmental diversity limits the applicability of research findings to non-urban environments.
• Limitations and Future Directions:
  • Limitations:
    • Did not sufficiently cover other important factors beyond climate and built environment, such as cultural and economic distribution.
    • Limited to CHI papers, excluding research findings from other relevant conferences.
  • Future Directions:
    • Expand research to undeveloped areas, non-EU and non-North American regions, and other significant climate environments.
    • Increase the recording of specific weather conditions to avoid generalizations based solely on climate classification.
    • Conduct research on specific user groups (e.g., children, individuals with disabilities) to comprehensively analyze participants’ social backgrounds.

Recommended Measures

1. Promote Broader Outdoor HCI Experiments:
   • Conduct research under diverse weather conditions, such as rain, snow, and extreme cold.
   • Pay special attention to the potential impact of climate change on user experience.
2. Encourage Regional Diversity in Research:
   • Advocate for technology research in primitive and semi-primitive environments.
   • Focus on the potential impact of technology on human experiences in well-preserved natural environments.
3. Clearly Define Research Locations and Environmental Information:
   • Use explicit classification systems (e.g., ROS) to describe the built environment characteristics of research locations.
4. Record Specific Weather Conditions:
   • Document actual weather conditions in research reports to help assess the generalizability of research findings.
5. Focus on User Group Diversity:
   • Expand the scope of research to include user groups with diverse age, cultural, and ability backgrounds.