Designing usable ubiquitous computing

This paper demonstrates that in order to design successful ubiquitous computing, designers must consider concurrently both the end user interactions in the context of use and the sustainability of the technology and its underlying infrastructure. We describe methods used to create more useful collaboration and communication between users, designers and engineers in designing ubiquitous computing systems. We tested these methods in a real domain in an attempt to create a system that is affordable, minimally disrupts the end-user's workplace and improves human-computer interaction.

Springboards into design : exploring multiple representations of interaction in a dental surgery

This paper demonstrates that in order to understand and design for interactions in complex work environments, a variety of representational artefacts must be developed and employed. A study was undertaken to explore the design of better interaction technologies to support patient record keeping in a dental surgery. The domain chosen is a challenging real context that exhibits problems that could potentially be solved by ubiquitous computing and multi-modal interaction technologies. Both transient and durable representations were used to develop design understandings. We describe the representations, the kinds of insights developed from the representations and the way that the multiple representations interact and carry forward in the design process.

A participatory design agenda for ubiquitous computing : a case study in dental practice

This paper reflects upon our attempts to bring a participatory design approach to design research into interfaces that better support dental practice. The project brought together design researchers, general and specialist dental practitioners, the CEO of a dental software company and, to a limited extent, dental patients. We explored the potential for deployment of speech and gesture technologies in the challenging and authentic context of dental practices. The paper describes the various motivations behind the project, the negotiation of access and the development of the participant relationships as seen from the researchers' perspectives. Conducting participatory design sessions with busy professionals demands preparation, improvisation, and clarity of purpose. The paper describes how we identified what went well and when to shift tactics. The contribution of the paper is in its description of what we learned in bringing participatory design principles to a project that spanned technical research interests, commercial objectives and placing demands upon the time of skilled professionals.

Bridging technical and HCI research : creating usable ubiquitous computing

This paper describes methods used to support collaboration and communication between practitioners, designers and engineers when designing ubiquitous computing systems. We tested methods such as “Wizard of Oz” and design games in a real domain, the dental surgery, in an attempt to create a system that is: affordable; minimally disruptive of the natural flow of work; and improves human-computer interaction. In doing so we found that such activities allowed the practitioners to be on a ‘level playing ground’ with designers and engineers. The findings we present suggest that dentists are willing to engage in detailed exploration and constructive critique of technical design possibilities if the design ideas and prototypes are presented in the context of their work practice and are of a resolution and relevance that allow them to jointly explore and question with the design time. This paper is an extension of a short paper submitted to the Participatory Design Conference, 2004.

Discourse and assessment

Many contemporary currents in applied linguistics have favored discourse studies within assessment; there have been calls for cross-fertilization with other areas within applied linguistics, critiques of the positivist tradition within language testing research, and the growing impact of Conversation Analysis (CA) and sociocultural theory. This chapter focuses on the resulting increase in discourse-based studies of oral proficiency assessment techniques. These studies initially focused on the traditional oral proficiency interview but have since been extended to new test formats, including paired and group interaction. We discuss the research carried out on a number of factors in the assessment setting, including the role of the interlocutor, candidate, and rater, and the impact of tasks, task performance conditions, and rating criteria. Recent research has also concentrated more specifically on the assessment of pragmatic competence and on the applications of technology within the assessment of spoken language, including the comparability of semidirect and direct methods for such assessment and the use of computer corpora.

Investigating feelings towards mathematics among Chinese kindergarten children

Prior to entering schooling settings, many children exhibit intuitive knowledge of mathematics and many have mastered basic addition combinations. However, often as a result of formal instruction, some children begin to dislike or fear mathematics. In this study, children at a kindergarten in China took a smiley-face survey to determine how their feelings and beliefs about mathematics were affected throughout their kindergarten years.Results suggest that even children in this study have a better number sense and mathematics achievement, they appear to develop mathematics anxiety in Chinese cultural context.