Designing Collaborative Technology for Intergenerational Social Play over DistanceCollaborative social play not only offers entertainment but also acts as a powerful catalyst in nurturing intergenerational relationships and strengthening community ties. In order to explore user preferences and interaction dynamics within this context, we investigated remote intergenerational communication through an analysis of 15 groups of parents and children from 16 families. Given the importance of collaborative activities in family and intergenerational connections, we aim to understand how these interactions and practices can adapt to remote environments. Our findings highlight both similarities and notable differences in the use of communication methods, workspace, and objects between parents and children. Particularly, we observed distinct patterns in gestural and verbal communication and identified specific challenges encountered by children in remote settings. Our findings also revealed the dynamics of play sessions, especially when co-located participants are involved, shedding light on the complexities of remote intergenerational communication. Our work offers valuable empirical insights on designing more effective and engaging remote collaborative platforms for families.2024YYYe Yuan et al.Session 4a: Intergenerational ConnectionsCSCW
Designing Smart Home Technology For Passive Co-Presence Over DistanceWhen families live in the same home, they feel a sense of connection through the subtle, passive aspects of family life. Over distance, these passive aspects are hard to experience as most communication technologies support sharing conversations or activities. Through a research-through-design methodology, we explored the design of smart home technologies for passive co-presence over distance. Based on our design explorations, we arrived at an interaction space which includes the dimensions of Activity, Solitude, Synchronicity, and Spontaneity. Our research-through-design process additionally resulted in the design of two smart home systems. The There Chair employs the senses of touch and sight to passively display when a remote family member is sitting at the dining room table. The Fragrance Frame is a paired picture frame that detects when a remote family member is passing by their frame, and emits a scent reminiscent of togetherness. We reflect on our design decisions and propose considerations for future design.2024HSHanieh Shakeri et al.Augmentative & Alternative Communication (AAC)Context-Aware ComputingSmart Home Interaction DesignDIS
Multimedia-Enabled 911: Exploring 911 Callers’ Experience of Call Taker Controlled Video Calling in Simulated EmergenciesEmergency response to large-scale disasters is often supported with multimedia from social media. However, while these features are common in everyday video calls, the complex needs of 911 and other systems make it difficult to directly incorporate these features. We assess an ME911 (Multimedia-Enabled 911) app to understand how the design will need to deviate from common norms and how callers will respond to those non-standard choices. We expand the role of 911 call taker control over emergency situations to the calling interface while incorporating key features like map-based location finding. Participants’ experiences in mock emergencies show the non-standard design helps callers in the unfamiliar setting of emergency calling yet it also causes confusion and delays. We find the need for emergency-specific deviations from design norms is supported by participant feedback. We discuss how broader system changes will support callers to use these non-standard designs during emergencies.2024PDPunyashlok Dash et al.Simon Fraser UniversityUncertainty VisualizationCybersecurity Training & AwarenessCHI
PhotoClock Design: Reliving Digital Photo Memories as Clock Ticks in the Present MomentAs digital photos grow exponentially, people need new approaches to engage with their photos over time. We describe our study of PhotoClock, a mobile application that leverages the temporal metadata embedded in digital photos to encourage contemplation of memories bound up in one’s photo archive. PhotoClock uses the clock-time of the present moment to re-present one’s photos taken around that same time of the day in the past. As time ticks away relentlessly, PhotoClock highlights the ephemeral and ongoing quality of time. We conducted the field study with 12 participants over 8 weeks. Our goals are: (i) to investigate the reflective potential of clock-time as an alternative design approach for supporting memory-oriented photo interaction, and (ii) to explore conceptual propositions related to slowness and temporality. Findings revealed that PhotoClock generated diverse and reflective experiences on participants’ life stories. We conclude with implications and opportunities for future HCI and design research.2023ACAmy Yo Sue Chen et al.Universal & Inclusive DesignInteractive Narrative & Immersive StorytellingDIS
Dr.’s Eye: The Design and Evaluation of a Video Conferencing System to Support Doctor Appointments in Home SettingsThe spread of COVID-19 has encouraged the practice of using video conferencing for family doctor appointments. Existing applications and off-the-shelf devices face challenges in dealing with capturing the correct view of patients' bodies and supporting ease of use. We created Dr.’s Eye, a video conferencing prototype to support varying types of body exams in home settings. With our prototype, we conducted a study with participants using mock appointments to understand the simultaneous use of the camera and display and to get insights into the issues that might arise in real doctor appointments. Results show the benefits of providing more flexibility with a decoupled camera and display, and privacy protection by limiting the camera view. Yet, challenges remain in maneuvering two devices, presenting feedback for the camera view, coordinating camera work between the participant and the examiner, and reluctance towards showing private body regions. This inspires future research on how to design a video system for doctor appointments.2023DHDongqi Han et al.Simon Fraser UniversityVR Medical Training & RehabilitationTelemedicine & Remote Patient MonitoringSmart Home Interaction DesignCHI
Exploring Memory-Oriented Interactions with Digital Photos In and Across Time: A Field Study of ChronoscopeWe describe a field study of Chronoscope, a tangible photo viewer that lets people revisit and explore their digital photos with the support of temporal metadata. Chronoscope offers different temporal modalities for organizing one’s personal digital photo archive, and for exploring possible connections in and across time, and among photos and memories. We deployed four Chronoscopes in four households for three months to understand participants’ experiences over time. Our goals are to investigate the reflective potential of temporal modalities as an alternative design approach for supporting memory-oriented photo exploration, and empirically explore conceptual propositions related to slow technology. Findings revealed that Chronoscope catalyzed a range of reflective experiences on their respective life histories and life stories. It opened up alternative ways of considering time and the potential longevity of personal photo archives. We conclude with implications to present opportunities for future HCI research and practice.2023ACAmy Yo Sue Chen et al.Simon Fraser UniversityHead-Up Display (HUD) & Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS)Data StorytellingCHI
Sensing Their Presence: How Emerging Adults And Their Parents Connect After Moving ApartWhen emerging adults move out of their parents’ homes for the first time, their needs for togetherness and connection evolve, as do their parents’. In co-located homes, people often experience togetherness passively by sensing one another’s presence in their environment. However, when no longer living together, methods of experiencing togetherness change. Thus, we conducted an interview and co-design study with 16 pairs of parents and emerging adults that explores this concept across distance. The study uncovered differences in the connection needs of emerging adults and their parents, including their goals in connecting, the amount of communication they needed, and their needs for privacy and transparency. We additionally found that passive connecting factors included ambient sounds of the home, visual shared experiences and traces of one another in the home, ambient home smellscapes and smell memories, touching left-behind objects or gifted objects, and the taste of family recipes and the ambience of family mealtimes. We discuss suggestions for designing for passive co-presence based on this new knowledge.2023HSHanieh Shakeri et al.Simon Fraser UniversityContext-Aware ComputingChildren & Family IoTSocial Robot InteractionCHI
Remote Wavelength: Design and Evaluation of a System for Social Connectedness Through Distributed Board Game PlayPlaying remote tabletop games is a fun way to connect with distant friends. Yet most systems for remote tabletop gaming lack support for tangible and social interaction, two important aspects of gameplay for most players. We are interested in how to better design systems for remote tangible gameplay that support social connection. We investigate this topic through the design and evaluation of a prototype system for playing the board game Wavelength across two locations. First, we describe the design goals that informed our prototype: “Remote Wavelength”. Then, we discuss the results of a qualitative user study in which ten friend groups played Remote Wavelength. Our findings indicate that a synchronized, tangible gameboard benefits player engagement, communication, and awareness. Our results also illustrate the value of integration across communication and gameplay systems. We conclude by offering considerations for the design of both digital and remote tangible gameplay systems.2023CMChelsea Mills et al.Simon Fraser UniversityMultiplayer & Social GamesDigitalization of Board & Tabletop GamesCrowdsourcing Task Design & Quality ControlCHI
RescueCASTR: Exploring Photos and Live Streaming to Support Contextual Awareness in the Wilderness Search and Rescue Command PostWilderness search and rescue (WSAR) is a command-and-control activity, where a Command team manages field teams scattered across a large area looking for a lost person. The challenge is that it can be difficult for Command to maintain awareness of field teams and the conditions of the field. We designed RescueCASTR, an interface that explores the idea of deploying field teams with wearable cameras that stream live video or sequential photos periodically to Command that aid contextual awareness. We ran a remote user study with WSAR managers to get an understanding of the opportunities and challenges of such a system. We found that the awareness provided by the camera footage could give additional confidence and comfort to Command, as well as reduce the need for explicit communications. However, it could also impact workers’ traditional roles and responsibilities, shifting the burden of responsibility toward Command. We conclude that, while wearable-camera footage could be beneficial to Command, they need to have the tools and means to narrow their focus within the abundance of information provided. Furthermore, camera streams should not be thought of as a replacement for more direct communications, but rather as another tool available to help Command supplement their understanding of events in the field and help them narrow their focus.2022BJBrennan Jones et al.Disaster Response; Disaster ResponseCSCW
Family and Friend Communication over Distance in Canada During the COVID-19 PandemicDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, communication technologies have allowed people to maintain connections with their loved ones over distance. At the same time, we do not yet have a deep understanding of if and how communication needs amongst family and friends change as a result of physical distancing and travel restrictions and how technologies could be better designed to support these needs. For these reasons, we conducted an exploratory study to investigate the use of communication technologies and family communication needs during the first fourth months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. We used contextual interviews with 18 participants and an open-ended survey with 12 respondents. Our results show that people began the pandemic with a period of shifting and trialing new communication practices; this included increased communications with family and friends. People tried to recreate in-person situations with large group video calls beyond the typical two-household connection found pre-pandemic. This created challenges related to control and participation, and saw people explore ways to increase a sense of shared atmosphere over distance with efforts to increase physicality. Yet large amounts of technology use generally did not persist as participants abandoned many forms of online interaction over time in a form of technology detachment and sometimes cleanse. These results point to design lessons for times of extreme disconnection between family and friends, such as during a pandemic, where control, participation, and atmosphere receive deep consideration.2021YHYasamin Heshmat et al.Teleoperation & TelepresenceParticipatory DesignDIS
Exploring Opportunities to Aid Generation of Input Action Ideas for Tangible User InterfacesNovice tangible interaction design students often find it challenging to generate input action ideas for tangible interfaces. To identify opportunities to aid input action idea generation, we built and evaluated a tool consisting of interactive physical artifacts coupled with digital examples of tangible systems and technical implementation guidance. Through video recorded design sessions and interviews with twelve students, we investigated how they used the tool to generate input action ideas, how it supported them, and what challenges they faced. We found that the tool helped in generating input action ideas by enabling to experience input actions, supporting hands-on explorations, and introducing possibilities. However, introducing examples at times caused design fixation. The tool fell short in supporting the planning of technical implementation of the generated ideas. This research is useful for tangible interaction design students, instructors, and researchers to apply in education, design similar tools, or conduct further research.2021UBUddipana Baishya et al.Simon Fraser UniversityCircuit Making & Hardware PrototypingCustomizable & Personalized ObjectsCHI
An Autobiographical Design Study of a Long Distance Relationship: When Telepresence Robots Meet Smart Home ToolsLong distance couples often face challenges in maintaining their relationship over distance because computer-mediated communication tools typically only support a limited range of relationship maintenance behaviors. To explore a broader design space that might help combat this problem, we conducted an autobiographical design study that explores the usage of a telepresence robot coupled with voice-activated smart home devices. The telepresence robot provided an embodiment for one remote partner who could talk through the robot to control the smart devices in the remote location. We studied how the setup was used by a long distance couple over a three month period to share their home and nurture and maintain their relationship. The study revealed how such a setup can promote feelings of ownership, belonging, and normalcy, as well as a diversity of interactions and social connections. Implications for design include the importance of supporting effortful, personalized, varied, and shared interactions.2020LYLillian Yang et al.Smart Home Interaction DesignTeleoperation & TelepresenceDIS
FamilyStories: Asynchronous Audio Storytelling for Family Members Across Time ZonesFamily members who are separated across time zones can easily miss out on feeling connected. We designed and studied the usage of an asynchronous storytelling system, called FamilyStories, to explore the use of audio-based sharing. FamilyStories allows family members to share activities and experiences over distance in different time zones using three different devices that contain different contextual features. To evaluate the design, we conducted a five-week long field study with two family member pairs. Our results show the value of slow, flexible, and non-suggestive interfaces for asynchronous audio communication. We also found ephemerality helped in the sharing of 'instant' feelings, while large time zone differences could be 'synchronized' with time delayed messages. We raise these as design opportunities for asynchronous audio storytelling systems.2020YHYasamin Heshmat et al.Simon Fraser UniversityHome Voice Assistant ExperienceFood Culture & Food InteractionCHI
City Explorer: The Design and Evaluation of a Location-Based Community Information SystemMany working professionals commute via public transit, yet they have limited tools for learning about their urban neighborhoods and fellow commuters. We designed a location-based game called City Explorer to investigate how transit commuters capture, share, and view community information that is specifically tied to locations. Through a four-week field study, we found that participants valued the increased awareness of their personal travel routines that they gained through City Explorer. When viewing community information, they preferred information that was factual rather than opinion-based and was presented at the start and end of their commutes. Participants found less value in connecting with other transit riders because transit rides were often seen as opportunities to disengage from others. We discuss how location-based technologies can be designed to display factual community information before, during, and at the end of transit commutes.2019CPCarolyn Pang et al.Simon Fraser UniversitySmart Cities & Urban SensingCommunity Engagement & Civic TechnologyCHI
An Exploratory Study of the Use of Drones for Assisting Firefighters During Emergency SituationsIn the near future, emergency services within Canada will be supporting new technologies for 9-1-1 call centres and firefighters to learn about an emergency situation. One such technology is drones. To understand the benefits and challenges of using drones within emergency response, we conducted a study with citizens who have called 9-1-1 and firefighters who respond to a range of everyday emergencies. Our results show that drones have numerous benefits to both firefighters and 9-1-1 callers which include context awareness and social support for callers who receive feelings of assurance that help is on the way. Privacy was largely not an issue, though safety issues arose especially for complex uses of drones such as indoor flying. Our results point to opportunities for designing drone systems that help people to develop a sense of trust with emergency response drones, and mitigate privacy and safety concerns with more complex drone systems.2019MKMd. Nafiz Hasan Khan et al.Simon Fraser UniversityDrone Interaction & ControlTeleoperation & TelepresenceCHI
Exploring DIY Practices of Complex Home TechnologiesWe are surrounded by increasingly complex networks of smart objects, yet our understanding and attachment to them is rather limited. One way to support stronger end users’ engagement with such complex technologies is by involving them in the design process and, with the advent of Arduino prototyping platform, even in their making. While DIY practice offers the potential for stronger user engagement with physical artifacts, we know little about end users’ DIY practice of making complex electronic technologies and their potential to ensure engagement with such devices. In this article, we report on interviews with 18 participants from two green communities who built and used an open source DIY energy monitor, with the aim to explore the end users DIY practices of making such complex electronic devices. Findings indicate four key qualities of DIY monitors: transparent modularity, open-endedness, heirloom, and disruptiveness, and how they contribute to more meaningful engagement with the DIY monitors, elevating them from the status of unremarkable objects to that of things. We conclude with three implications for design for supporting end user development of complex electronic DIY: designing transparent open hardware technologies, standardizing communication protocols for the current and future DIY of IoT, and deliberately calling for personal investment and labor in the assembling of DIY kits.2018CSCorina Sas et al.Lancaster UniversityDesktop 3D Printing & Personal FabricationEnergy Conservation Behavior & InterfacesCHI
SIG on Telepresence RobotsIn this document we explain the need and plans for a SIG Meeting at CHI on telepresence robots. We describe the organization of this SIG, our expected attendees, procedure and schedule of topics to be discussed, as well as our recruitment plan. Our goal is to provide a forum to discuss key issues surrounding the uses and usefulness of telepresence robots, including challenges and best practices.2018HMHouda El mimouni et al.Drexel UniversityTeleoperation & TelepresenceCHI
The Benefits and Challenges of Video Calling for Emergency SituationsIn the coming years, emergency calling services in North America will begin to incorporate new modalities for reporting emergencies, including video-based calling. The challenge is that we know little of how video calling systems should be designed and what benefits or challenges video calling might bring. We conducted observations and contextual interviews within three emergency response call centres to investigate these points. We focused on the work practices of call takers and dispatchers. Results show that video calls could provide valuable contextual information about a situation and help to overcome call taker challenges with information ambiguity, location, deceit, and communication issues. Yet video calls have the potential to introduce issues around control, information overload, and privacy if systems are not designed well. These results point to the need to think about emergency video calling along a continuum of visual modalities ranging from audio calls accompanied with images or video clips to one-way video streams to two-way video streams where camera control and camera work need to be carefully designed.2018CNCarman Neustaedter et al.Simon Fraser UniversityUncertainty VisualizationDigitalization of Board & Tabletop GamesCHI
Geocaching with a Beam: Shared Outdoor Activities through a Telepresence Robot with 360 Degree ViewingPeople often enjoy sharing outdoor activities together such as walking and hiking. However, when family and friends are separated by distance it can be difficult if not impossible to share such activities. We explore this design space by investigating the benefits and challenges of using a telepresence robot to support outdoor leisure activities. In our study, participants participated in the outdoor activity of geocaching where one person geocached with the help of a remote partner via a telepresence robot. We compared a wide field of view (WFOV) camera to a 360° camera. Results show the benefits of having a physical embodiment and a sense of immersion with the 360° view. Yet challenges related to a lack of environmental awareness, safety issues, and privacy concerns resulting from bystander interactions. These findings illustrate the need to design telepresence robots with the environment and public in mind to provide an enhanced sensory experience while balancing safety and privacy issues resulting from being amongst the general public.2018YHYasamin Heshmat et al.Simon Fraser University360° Video & Panoramic ContentTeleoperation & TelepresenceCHI
Shopping Over Distance through a Telepresence RobotComputer mediated-communication tools (CMC) support loved ones in maintaining connections with one another over distance, yet it can be difficult to actually do activities together. We studied the use of telepresence robots for supporting distance-separated loved ones in engaging in the joint activity of shopping over distance. One partner shopped in person while the other used a telepresence robot from a remote location. As a point of comparison, we had a second group of participants use video chat on a tablet, instead of a telepresence robot. Compared to the tablet group, we found that when partners communicated through a telepresence robot, the remote partner’s personality and presence were strongly expressed through the movements and physicality of the medium. However, the use of the telepresence robot introduced tension between partners regarding responsibility, dependency, and contribution to the act of shopping. These results demonstrate the benefits of a mobile embodiment for remote partners, as well as the need for greater physical capabilities to support both physical connection and remote contribution to leisure activities.2018LYLillian Yang et al.Presence and DistanceCSCW