Research Directions in Situated Computing

Online proceedings 

Workshop at CHI 2000, ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
Sunday, 2 April 2000

Organizers:Michel Beaudouin-Lafon and Wendy E. Mackay

University of Aarhus
Dept of Computer Science

Aabogade 34
DK-8200 Aarhus N - Denmark
{mbl, mackay}@daimi.au.dk
 

Deadline for position papers: 28 January 2000. Send a 2-3 page PDF or Word file by email to mbl@daimi.au.dk.

Abstract

The goal of this one-day workshop is to launch a special interest area within CHI concerning the concept of situated computing. The notions of context and situations of use have been at the center of a body of recent research. The time has come to create a community around this theme and define a corresponding research agenda. The workshop is organized around two main activities: presenting current research by the participants and discussing directions for future research.

Description

This workshop addresses the problem of explicitly incorporating context throughout all aspects of interactive system design. The term "situated computing" describes socio-technical systems in which situations of use and context play a central role in the use of computers. Since most computing is arguably situated computing, we need to reflect on our current understanding of context, establish a common language for discussion and define processes for developing "systems-in-use".

Levels of context

Context operates at the physical, human, social and organizational levels:

Physical context

The form factor of computers directly reflects the physical context of their use. While a desktop computer may be appropriate on a desk, other shapes, such as PDAs or wearable computers, are more suitable for other situations. Augmented reality, for example, merges computers with ordinary physical objects. By blurring the limits between what is and what is not a computer, it seeks to better integrate the physical and computational worlds.

Human context

Computers are used by people: They must be designed to take advantage of human characteristics. Today's interfaces exploit only a small fraction of human capabilities, overloading the visual channel while virtually ignoring audio and tactile feedback and reducing the flexibility and virtuosity of the human body to tapping keys and pointing. At the cognitive level, computers should complement inadequate skills, such as short-term memory, without trying to take over intellectual skills requiring human judgment. People act within an implicit context that affects patterns of work in complex ways. Computers should respond flexibly, allowing users to react and shape the current context, without having to explicitly define it in the computer's terms.

Social context

Most computer systems were designed for single users, even though much work is done in a group: sharing data, exchanging documents, and communicating with each other. CSCW and groupware systems have had little impact on the corporate world, mostly because they fail to account for the real needs of users in a social context. Social interaction is characterized by a variety of communication patterns and substrates, formal or informal, synchronous or asynchronous, direct or mediated, which are often implicit. Current technology gets in the way of social interaction because it forces explicit actions from the user. For example, our peripheral awareness helps us monitor and react to what is happening in the environment. Few computer systems support, much less enhance, peripheral interaction.

Organizational context

Organizations, and the work practices within them, evolve constantly in the face of a changing environment. Many computer-based workflow systems have failed, not because they cannot accommodate officially-sanctioned models of work, but because they no longer support informal, user-created work patterns. Their rigidity forces users to develop complex work-arounds, "making the possible impossible", or costing time and defeating the purpose of the system. The challenge is to design computer systems that work in symbiosis with, rather than in opposition to, the organizations they support. Successful computer systems must support user-centered evolution of computers and work practices together.

Even though user-centered design teaches us to put users at the center of the design process, all too often the users are put there only to watch. We must move beyond simply designing systems with users and begin to create flexible, co-adaptive systems that support appropriation by the users.

Current Research in Situated Computing

The issue of context is attracting increasing interest. Some labs have developed whole programs:

While researchers and designers have begun to address these ideas individually, addressing them together remains a challenge. Situated Computing requires a multidisciplinary approach, using triangulation to examine these issues from multiple theoretical and empirical perspectives. Research in Situated Computing also requires access to real-world situations, making industry involvement essential. It draws from various fields related to Human-Computer Interaction:

Plan of workshop

The workshop will be organized around two main activities: presenting current research by the participants and discussing ideas for a research agenda.

Schedule

The workshop will comprise one day. The morning will involve a general introduction, followed by brief presentations by participants. Participants will be limited to 5 slides and asked to keep presentations between 5 and 10 minutes. Prior to lunch, we will identify a set of topics and corresponding groups. After lunch, the groups will break out into separate sessions to brainstorm ideas and lay out a research agenda. Each group will be asked to select a presenter, who will present the group's ideas and concerns to the full workshop, in the closing session. The final wrap-up will include an opportunity for participants to give feedback about the workshop, discuss how to capture the results in written form (most likely for the SIGCHI Bulletin), and the directions for the future.

Breakdown of subtopics

In particular (but not limited to:)

Participants

This workshop is designed to bring together researchers who work in diverse areas of human-computer interaction and actively address context and situations of use in the design, development and evaluation of interactive systems.

The workshop will be limited to 20 people. Selection of participants will be based on their participation statements (see below) and our goal of encouraging diversity in the group.

Facilitation of workshop activities

We will select at most four groups, so we will need three break-out areas in addition to the main meeting room. We will need four flip charts and pens, and one overhead projector. We also need a method for showing computer slides. Participants will be encouraged to bring video examples of their work, so we would like either a video monitor or video projector, and a VHS multi-standard tape player.

Pre-workshop activities

Each participant will be asked to write a two-page workshop participation statement. Statements should describe the participantís interests in situated computing within the context of their work. We will make the accepted position papers available on a web site prior to the conference. We will also encourage participants to bring videos or samples of their work.

Submissions should be sent by email to mbl@daimi.au.dk as an attached PDF or Word file.

Plans for dissemination of results

Since one of the goals of the workshop is to launch a special interest area within CHI, we will set up a mailing list, web site and plan future activities. We plan to write a summary of the workshop for the SIGCHI Bulletin to highlight the research issues generated by the participants. The next step will be to propose a special issue of Communications of the ACM on the topic of Situated Computing.

Organizersí Backgrounds

Michel Beaudouin-Lafon is a Professor in Computer Science at Paris-Sud University in France and currently visiting University of Aarhus in Denmark. His research interests include novel interaction techniques, CSCW, and engineering of interactive systems. He founded the French HCI association, AFIHM, and is a member of IFIP Working Group 2.7/13.4 (Engineering for Human-Computer Interaction). He has chaired several working groups in France and has organized several workshops at the French HCI conference, IHM. He has been active in the CHI community by participating in several CHI conference committees as Panels co-chair, Demonstrations co-chair and Western European Liaison.

Wendy E. Mackay has organized numerous workshops over the years, including "Video as a Research and Design Tool" and "Computer Augmented Environments" sponsored by SIGCHI, "Scenario-based Design" at CSCW'94, and "Managing Perspectives" at DIS'97. She is currently Chair of the upcoming DARE'2000 conference (Designing Augmented Reality Environments).

She has been working in the area of augmented reality since the early 1990's. Her work involves both in-depth field studies of people in real-world settings and the participatory design of new augmented reality prototypes. The goal is to build upon the existing work context and physical artifacts, augmenting them with computers, rather than replacing them. Mackay started her career as an academic Psychologist, and then received her Ph.D. from MIT in the Management of Technological Innovation. She developed or managed over 30 software products and the industry's first multimedia system (IVIS) for Digital Equipment Corporation. She also managed research and development groups in multimedia at Digital, MIT and Rank Xerox EuroPARC. Most recently, she has been a Professor Associé at the University of Paris-Sud and is currently a visiting professor at the University of Aarhus, Denmark.

References

Beyer, H. & Holtzblatt, K. (1998) Contextual Design. Defining Customer-Centered Systems. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.

Greenbaum, J. and Kyng, M. (1991) Design at Work: Cooperative Design of Computer Systems, NJ: Erlbaum Associates.

Harris, J. & Henderson, A. (1999) A Better Mythology for System Design. In Proceedings Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI99, ACM Press, p. 88-95, 1999.

Hull, R., Neaves, P., Bedford-Roberts, J. "Towards Situated Computing." Proceedings of the First Annual International Symposium on Wearable Computing, Cambridge, MA, October 13-14, 1997. pp. 74-81.

Mackay, W.E. (1990). Users and Customizable Software: A Co-Adaptive Phenomenon, Mass. Instititute of Technology.

Mackay, W. & Fayard, A.L (1997a) HCI, Natural Science and Design : A Framework for Triangulation Across Disciplines, DISí97 : Designing Interactive Systems. Amsterdam, Holland.

Suchman, L. (1987) Plans and Situated Actions Cambridge England: Cambridge University Press

Wellner, P., Mackay, W. & Gold, R. (1993) Computer-Augmented Environments: Back to the Real World. Special issue of Communications of the ACM, 36 (7).