“Data voids are a security vulnerability that must be systematically, intentionally, and thoughtfully managed.”
When talking about data voids, people often forget that there are different kind of information and most importantly the process of getting information. Search engines, for example, use another strategy compared to social media platforms. Search engines like Google or similar have lots and lots of data, but people’s approaches to search engines typically begin with a query or question in an effort to seek new information. However, not all search queries are equal. So, if you’re searching for a term like “ironing”, you’ll most certainly get some adds and some organically produced output (SEO), but nothing about “extrem ironing” (although it is quite fun to look at these pictures). In comparison to that social media, where users primarily consume an algorithmically curated feed of information. When there is not enough, too little or no data at all about a certain topic it is called a data void. When search engines have little natural content to return for a particular query, they are more likely to return low quality and problematic content. As already mentioned before, bad or low quality content ist harmful to our society.
According to datasociety.net there are five types of data voids in play:
Breaking News: The production of problematic content can be optimized to terms that are suddenly spiking due to a breaking news situation; these voids will eventually be filled by legitimate news content, but are abused before such content exists.
Strategic New Terms: Manipulators create new terms and build a strategically optimized information ecosystem around them before amplifying those terms into the mainstream, often through news media, in order to introduce newcomers to problematic content and frames.
Outdated Terms: When terms go out of date, content creators stop producing content associated with these terms long before searchers stop seeking out content. This creates an opening for manipulators to produce content that exploits search engines’ dependence on freshness.
Fragmented Concepts: By breaking connections between related ideas, and creating distinct clusters of information that refer to different political frames, manipulators can segment searchers into different information worlds.
Problematic Queries: Search results for disturbing or fraught terms that have historically returned problematic results continue to do so, unless high quality content is introduced to contextualize or outrank such problematic content.
So how can we fill these voids with qualitativ data?
The biggest problem with these newly occurring data voids is the enormous speed in which they are spread and some of them are spread through apps like WhatsApp or Telegram. So the main problem is how can we know if there is a data void in development. In the following video it is explained why fast response to search engines most searched questions with fact checking is so important.
At the end of this research post the most important question for me is how can we filter and label all of this content properly and fast enough to not let these kinds of data voids arise.
Harms framework to explore the risks posed by data voids
One and in my personal opinion the most promising solution could be a browser based plugin which would have to be operated by an independent platform fo experts. This platform must have its own funding so that there can be no rumors of corruption, propaganda and so on. This means it could be like an individually paid virus detection software, but for detecting false information, filtering and labelling it and also filling data voids as soon as they arise.
Have you ever thought about the environment during a meeting? Maybe only if you are bored or if the environment is disturbing or distracting the participants. But what if the space plays a bigger role in the sense of the ‘human’ aspect in web meetings? Geographical distance is usually the main reason for holding a web meeting. This includes that there is no physical meeting space at all. How does this influence the meeting? When we meet in presence, we immediately have the sense of coming together as a team or at least as a group.
In the last blog entry I wrote about proxemics and environments and how this subconsciously influences our communication. I found out, that in web meetings:
relational space does not matter
personal hierarchy is not visible
side conversations are not possible (only via private chat messages)
environment do not seem to matter even though they can influence the meeting situation and communication
front view of all participants is not natural (unless you are a lecturer) and differs from presence meetings
In comparison to the other mentioned points in my last entry, space and environment make out one of the biggest differences between presence and digital meetings in my opinion. I think they could be a crucial part of making a web meeting experience more human. But how? Let’s have a closer look at the meaning of ‘room’ and ‘space’ or the german words ‘Raum’ and ‘Platz’. Definitions or translations of these words look really diverse to me. In my research I focused on the german research on ‘Raum’ as it describes best what I mean. I will use the english word ‘space’ to make the text easier to read. The Duden has seven different meanings of space which range from physical to mathematical to hypothetical meanings. Space is a much discussed controversy in philosophy and physics. Especially the philosophical and sociological aspects seem to be important in regard to my topic of meetings and communication.
There used to be two main concepts about the meaning of space: The absolutistic and the relativistic. The absolutistic room can be seen like a container which is either empty or filled with humans, things, spheres or characteristics. The division between space and matter results in the assumption that spaces exist independently from actions. In contrast to that the relativistic space concept sees space only as a result of relations between bodies. That means that the space only exists through actions what exclude the influence of physical spaces.
Following the hypotheses of M. Löw, the two previous named concepts have to be seen in combination. Löw’s concept of space is called the ‘relational’ spatial model and represents the ‘duality of space’. The concept follows the assumption of a space as a result of actions but simultaneously as a legal, social, cultural and spatial structure of actions. This means, a space needs actions to exist but also consists of its own structures that enable or limit those actions. A space can be seen as a structure and not as a certain dimension or unit.
In this point of view we can notice that a space is not necessarily dependent from a physical space and results from our own actions and relations. With this in mind we could also say that space is something completely imagined – if we want to. Furthermore the concept mentions that the structure of a space itself has an influence on our actions and relations. Sticking to the idea of an imagined space: Do we naturally give the space a structure even if it is not a real place? Or do we try to adapt it to the structure of a comparable, real or at least visual space?
When we imagine the look, the smell and the taste of a lemon and then imagine biting into that lemon, we usually feel our body reaction to that without physically experiencing the situation. It also works with spaces: Imaging a really nasty autobahn toilet, we automatically start shaking in disgust. These examples only work because of our previous experiences. If we never tried biting into a lemon, we do not know our reaction to it. In our imagination it could taste sweet or even salty which results in another physical reaction.
In this point of view, we could assume that the imagination of a certain place is related to our previous experiences with that kind of space or related structures. We also can assume that the imagination of the room can lead to something like an imagined reaction. But what does that mean for (online) meeting environments? Everyone of us met someone somewhere before. We know how to greet each other or keep the right personal distance to our meeting partner. We usually know how to use the objects in the meeting environment: Chairs for sitting and a table to share food or to look at the same piece of paper. We are used to the background music in restaurants, the ambient noise of the park or the silence in business meeting rooms. But what about online meeting environments? No matter which meeting we are in, we usually stay at the same place (or we at least search for a quiet place). Does this affect the meeting? And if yes, how?
Thank you for reading! If you have any thought, idea or comment on that topic (or just for chatting), feel free to contact me – I would be happy to get in touch 🙂
Keywords space, room, environment, online meeting, web meeting, web conferencing, telecommunication, online communication, connectivity, remote communication media
Sources Martina Löw: The Sociology of Space: Materiality, Social Structures, and Action (2016) Gabriela B. Christmann: Zur kommunikativen Konstruktion von Räumen (2016) Johannes Moskaliuk: Zoom-Fatigue – Drei Erklärungsansätze, warum Videokonferenzen so anstrengend sind https://wissensdialoge.de/zoom-fatigue-drei-erklaerungsansaetze-warum-videokonferenzen-so-anstrengend-sind/; last review 17.01.2021
Aged 67 | Housewife | Married | Lives with her husband in Istanbul
She thinks digital is a means of facilitation of life.
She has been using digital devices for 6 years.
She has a tablet, a smartphone, TVs and a laptop.
She has internet connection and she uses it to communicate with relatives, browse social media, learn new stuff and check news.
She mostly uses her phone and tablet to connect.
She feels adapted to the digital world.
She uses visual aids and bigger letters on her tablet, she uses a remote with bigger buttons for her TV.
She manages daily works by herself or with her husband. She knows about the services but she doesn’t use them because of trust issues and difficulty of usage.
Interviewee 2 & 3
Aged 68 and 72 | Housewife and Retired Doctor | Married together | Live in Istanbul
They think digital is the outcome of fast development of technology.
They have been using digital devices for 10 years.
They have 2 smartphones, a tablet, a laptop, a desktop and TVs
They have internet connection and they use it to browse social media.
She uses her tablet and he uses the laptop to connect. Also they both have phones that are connected to Whatsapp.
They feel partially adapted because they just use a small part of it.
They use visual aids on all their digital devices that they need to read from (phones, laptop, tablet). She has a hearing aid and she needs a bit louder then usual to hear sounds.
She manages the daily works by herself. They are aware of the services provided and they order food and buy clothings through them. However they also have difficulty of usage.
Interviewee 4
Aged 66 | Retired teacher | Married | Lives in Orth an der Donau
Digitalisierung ist für mich die rasante Entwicklung neuer Technologien, die meinen Alltag erleichtern, aber auch verändern.
Ende der 1990er Jahre erhielt ich mein erstes Handy, meine erste Digitalkamera und der erste Computer hielt Einzug in meiner Familie.
Smartphone, Computer, Kamera, Internetradio, Fernseher, digitalgesteuerte Heizung, Navigationssystem im Auto.
Ja, ich habe eine Internetverbindung im Haus. Ich benutze sie, um emails zu schreiben und zu beantworten, um meine Bankgeschäfte zu erledigen, um Recherchen im Internet zu betreiben, um Fotos zu archivieren und zu versenden, um zu telefonieren, um Waren zu bestellen.
Ich verwende einen Stand PC, einen Laptop, ein Smartphone, einen Fernseher und ein Radio.
Ich komme im Alltag gut zurecht, solange es sich um Prozesse handelt, die mir schon vertraut sind. Bei Problemen oder Neuerungen hole ich mir gerne Hilfe bei meinen Kindern.
Nein.
Ich erledige Bankgeschäfte seit vielen Jahren über das Internet und bestelle auch manche Artikel des täglichen Lebens online. Lebensmittel, Kosmetikartikel, Bücher und alles, was in meiner näheren Umgebung in Fachgeschäften erhältlich ist, kaufe ich dort ein.
Momentan möchte ich bewusst die meisten Einkäufe nicht in der digitalen Welt tätigen und die bestehende Infrastruktur (vor allem kleinere Fachgeschäfte im Ortskern) stärken. Wenn ich so gesundheitlichen Gründen dazu nicht mehr in der Lage sein sollte, werde ich sicher mehr Einkäufe online erledigen.
Ich verwende WhatsApp auf meinem Smartphone, E-banking, Benachrichtigungen mein Heizsystem betreffend.
Interviewee 4
Aged 66 |Retired pharmaceutical worker | Married |Lives in Orth an der Donau
Calculation machines using +/-
With the first computers during my studies (late 60s/early 70s)
Desktop, laptop, smartphone, car navigation, internet radio…
Yes – for e-mailing, searching the web, phone (communication)
Desktop, laptop, smartphone
Slightly (20%) compared to the digital generation
No
Use internet sometimes for shopping
Only aware of few services , use only a few.
WhatsApp, Zoom, some other Apps
Insights
In many elder households, the main digital device used are TVs but there is a great interest in new devices such as tablets and smartphones which are usually used for social media.
These people do not want to be left out, get isolated. They want to be included in the process of development but they tend to be afraid to use new technologies/devices which is either caused by the warnings from the younger ones in the family or their own experience of not being able to use new tech.
Extensive use of social media can be observed, their main reason to use new digital devices and internet is the massive emergence of social media in our lives.
Elderly people are feeling partially adapted to the digital world and they use digital devices pretty often, although sometimes they have some problems, it can be seen that they have a big place in this digital dominant era and this should affect design accordingly.
The first AR application used as marketing campaign was in 2008 when BMW designed their first AR advertisement for a Mini model. The advertisement consisted of a printed magazine which created a digital 3D model of the Mini model when it was held in front of a computer’s camera. The user was able to control the perspective of the car by tilting and rotating the magazin.
Only 10 years later 272 AR applications could be found in the Android app store tagged with “Shopping”.
That 49.4% of 60 668 german user of the internet are interested in AR technologies in combintion with furnishings was the reslut of a survey in 2013. Also in 2018 52.2% of 1 008 asked person at the age of 18 – 69 years could imagine to install one to five apps for digital support with AR while shopping. A extraordinary high interest was noticed for information about products (77.8%) and special offers (64.8%).
Why can AR improve the shopping experience? With AR the shopping experience gets • more effective • richer • more entertaining • more informative
So the shopping experience gets influenced in a positive way. This leads to more mouth to mouth propaganda, a better recognition of the product and also increase purchase intent. On the other hand the customer can feel unsave with is privacy because of using a digital app.
While for many people Augmented Reality is still a pretty new thing, companies which are working with AR, no metter in which field, will be defined as modern an progressive business. As long as it is not standard to use such new technology for advertisement or marketing in general, the recognision is very high and the connection to the brand deep emotional. The number of mobile AR users is predicted to reach 200 million within 2021. So we will surely be in contact with much more AR interactions.
Examples of more AR ads
Burger King The campagne “After all, flamed grilled is always better” (2019) of Burger King was about burning down the ads of competition in Brazil. The user could scan and ad of the competition with the app and burn the ad virtual down. The best of the campagne: it is not only fun for the user but they also get one free whopper by using the burning feature.
Burger King – Burn That Ad
Adidas – more virtual sneakers In 2018 Adidas created an AR lenese the allow customers to preview its new Ultraboost 19 sneakers. With using the Snapchat app, the user was able to unbox and learn more about the shoes by tap on the Adidas logo.
The ongoing pandemic is not only impacting our daily lives. It is also impacting a lot of different industries. While the automotive industry was already changing drastically before the pandemic, the coronavirus is accelerating different trends even more. These trends will likely also influence the new normal after the pandemic.
Different surveys show that people are finding more and more comfort in car ownership. The usage of personal cars nearly doubled in some areas after the outbreak of the coronavirus. Additionally people in China and the US who do not own a car intended on purchasing a car for health and safety reasons. Tech-savvy car shoppers have also increasingly used services for comparing models, prices and deals online. The Google search volume for “best car deals” has grown by 70% globally in March 2020 compared to the same time one year prior. Because most of the car dealerships were closed, a survey also showed that customers would be willing to use review videos, digital showrooms, online configurators, at-home test-drives and vehicle delivery as an alternative to a visit at their local car dealership. While dealers did offer vehicle delivery and car configurators online before the pandemic, only a few of them had the resources to execute a full vehicle purchase online.
Because of the lockdown and the restrictions from the government, auto shows and large conferences and therefore also vehicle launches had been canceled. While some manufacturers shifted to online launches for their new vehicles, some of them were just delaying them. Online vehicle launches and the car buying process will not be the only parts of the connected customer journey that need to be optimized in the future. To be able to achieve the best car experience possible, all processes along the customer journey have to be improved in the future. Good examples for digital customer experiences can be found in the consumer-tech sector from companies like Amazon, Airbnb and Netflix.
The Car Experience
Brand Touchpoints
Brand touchpoints are all points of contact where a potential customer comes into contact with the company. They can either be digital or physical. Examples for digital touchpoints would be websites, e-mail, social media profiles, apps, extended reality applications and many more. Physical touchpoints in the automotive industry include showrooms and the employees there, all company buildings, employees of the company itself, the actual car, the packaging and all print products like catalogues and posters. All touchpoints together can be visualized with a customer journey.
A customer journey illustrates how a user gradually comes into contact with different touchpoints and what he/she is doing there. Customer journeys can be created for different processes or even long time usage. For the best car experience possible, it is important to improve and adapt the interaction on all touchpoints.
The car buying journey is an example for a customer journey in the automotive industry. It includes every interaction throughout all touchpoints between an automaker and their potential client.
During this journey, about 95% of new car buyers are researching online before actually contacting a dealer. This number is also likely to increase even more in the next few years. The online research includes searches on Google, watching Videos on YouTube, engagement on social media and visiting the company website. Currently about 60% of the total time a customer is spending on buying a car is spent online. While Tesla customers already have to buy the entire car online and therefore also spend a higher percentage of time online, most automakers still require their customers to go to a dealership for purchasing the vehicle. With the development during the current pandemic and the changing needs of the connected customers it is also more likely that customers from different car manufacturers will spend more time online in the future. More automakers will need to enable their customers to buy a car online without visiting the dealership first. Digital dealerships and virtual showrooms might also help improve the car experience.
Despite the fact that automotive customers are usually well informed, only 1 in 3 car buyers knows the exact model and make of the car they are going to buy. Potential customers in the automotive industry also rely on more personalized information from multiple channels and devices.
Every customer journey can be divided into different phases. These phases may have different names or are split up in even more phases depending on the company and product but generally they are quite similar across industries. The typical car buying journey for new car buyers is divided into the following phases.
Awareness
The first phase is all about awareness. It starts when the potential customer realizes that he/she has a problem or a specific need. In the automotive industry this problem could be that the current car is breaking down or that the customer simply wants a new car. This phase also includes organic searches online about how to solve the problem, seeing an ad for a product or solution online or engagement on social media. Potential customers might skip all of the following stages and buy the product directly but this mostly happens with smaller and cheaper products and is unlikely to happen during the car buying process.
Information Gathering / Interest / Consideration
The second phase starts when the potential customers are actually beginning with research. This research could include a simple Google search, watching videos about the product or a detailed car review on YouTube, reading a professional review, visiting the website of the automaker and more. During this phase the buyer acquires knowledge about different brands and products that will most likely solve his problem. This phase ends when the potential customer has narrowed down a list of options.
Tied in with the information phase is the decision phase. The transition from information to decision often starts with the online configuration of the dream car. During this phase the potential customer also starts visiting a dealership for further information and getting a tangible feeling for the car, the features and the quality. A test drive with the actual car plays an essential role because it is the best way to get in contact with the full car experience before actually buying it. In most cases, except for Tesla customers, this phase also marks the leap from online to physical contact with the brand and product. Because new car buyers visit only two dealerships on average before going to the next phase, it is really important to focus on giving every customer the best experience possible.
Purchase / Action
During this phase the potential customer is actually buying the product after checking deals and offers from different dealerships. This phase also includes final decisions, price negotiations and the actual signing of the contracts. But this phase is actually not the end of the car buying process and a smooth transition to the next phase is especially important for the dealership.
Retention / Service / After Sales
The retention phase is one of the hardest but also most important phases for the dealership and automaker during the car buying process. It is all about building a long lasting relationship with the customer. This phase already starts with the first interaction between dealership and buyer during the decision phase. It also includes every activity after the purchase process and is essential for turning a buyer into a loyal customer. The goal of this phase is that the customer is coming back to this dealership for every service and ideally also the purchase of the next vehicle. That is the reason why it is important to convince the buyers that this dealership is the best place for all their vehicle needs. This phase also includes personalized emails or offers already considering the exchange value of the current car or invitations to special events and test drives.
Example
The following image shows a good example of a automotive customer journey. This map tracks the customer through all phases of the car buying process and also includes the different touchpoints along this journey. But because every client is different and takes different paths when buying a car it is also important to consider different routes and touchpoints depending on the target audience.
For the research on the field of artificial intelligence I collected lots of information from different websites and videos. In the beginning I had problems to gather everything in a nice manner. Positioning images in a Microsoft word document seems like an undoable task. Pen and paper didn’t allow me to copy and paste anything. With Indesign I started layouting stuff which didn’t need a layout. After trying out some tools and being frustrated with the restrictions, I was searching for a tool which could help me to save links and videos, structure information, add text, thoughts and images. It should be easy to use in the process and the output should look appealing without too much design effort. After trying out some online note-tools, I found Milanote [1]. You can have a look at my collection to see more examples for AI driven designs and articles [11]. Milanote is a free online tool for organizing creative projects. It shall help gathering information and structuring it however its desired. I fell in love instantly.
The tool Milanote helped me to structure notes and gather all different kinds of information. View the whole collection at [11]
There is a lot to know about the typology, methods and kinds of AI. In the last blogpost I already explained the difference between machine learning, artificial intelligence and neural networks. The AI systems we know today are based on machine learning. How a simple machine learning algorithm works is not too difficult to understand. There are tons of YouTube videos which explain the basics, I recommend the video of 3Blue1Brown [2] because of it’s visual explanation. But anything will do.
I took a closer look at how I could use artificial intelligence in my own field of interest. As an interaction designer, there are many intersections where AI can help to create. I came across the website of Google AI experiments [3] where different AI projects are shared. “AI Experiments is a showcase for simple experiments that make it easier for anyone to start exploring machine learning, through pictures, drawings, language, music, and more.” It says on the website. It’s collection of work from Google teams and other creative teams in different fields which used AI to find a solution to problem. You find AI examples for learning, drawing, writing, music and other experiments. Just the shear sum of creative work built with AI struck me.
I was especially impressed by the “teachable machine” by the Google Creative Lab [6]. They invented a free online tool, where you can build your own machine learning model in such an easy way… to be honest- it feels somehow rude how easy this tool makes machine learning seem. The video was very inspiring, showing all kinds of solutions and ideas built with pattern recognition. I think this is a huge step in the development of AI and machine learning. I tried the tool if it can spot if I’m wearing glasses or not. First you need to gather pictures of what the method shall recognize. Taking a few selfies of myself wasn’t too difficult. Secondly, by just clicking a button (yes just clicking a button!!) you can train your model and boom that’s all.
The teachable machine makes machine learning crazy easy to non-programmers
This opens up a whole new world to non-programmers and will allow thousands of creative people stepping into the field of machine learning/AI. I have the feeling that using this online tool for a own project might still be more difficult that it seems in the first place, since you need to set up the communication between your model and your code, but still- I’m impressed. Furthermore, this new technique of collecting data of an object opens up a whole new perspective. One of the annoying parts of training a machine learning code was, that you had to feed the model with tagged data. We all know those reCAPTCHA pictures from Google, where you need to click on the pictures which show traffic lights, cars, busses, road signs and stuff like that. What we are doing there is not only a proof for a login, but we are actually feeding and AI with very precious information [4]. (I sometimes click on the wrong images on purpose to confuse Google)
Furthermore, I made a list of how AI could be used in our field of work. This collection is driven a lot by which technologies we used in our first semester.
Use pattern recognition and build physical systems with Arduino – Use an Arduino to build a hardware solution where physical things are triggered. – Get the input of an event via image (computer vision) or via sound. – React to that event with your Arduino device. – Example: showed in the video of the teachable machine [5]. Could be used to switch on a light of a disabled, open the little door when the system sees the dog approaching, sort trash by filming the trash etc.
Use pattern recognition to control an object in virtual space – Use Unity to control an object in a virtual space. – Can track hand gestures or body movement to navigate or manipulate within a virtual 2D or 3D space.
– Can use for interactive applications in exhibitions 2.1 The more neural activity your brain has, the more likely you will remember something. If you get the body to move, you can trigger the muscle memory and the user might find it easier to remember your content. For example: teach music theory not only with information or sound but using the gap between your fingers to visualize harmony theory. 2.2 A higher immersion can lead to more empathy. For example if you made the experience of being an animal in a burning jungle with virtual reality for instance, you might feel more empathy for this concern. A lived experience is more likely to influence emotionally rather than just telling a person that animals are dying in fire.
Draw images with sound – Create “random” images which are drawn by incidents in the real world. – For the implementation you could use processing or p5. – Example: you could record with your Webcam, film the street and trigger an event when a blue car is driving by. This could change how a picture is drawn by code. You could also use certain sounds instead.
Visualizing data – Collect data and visualize it in images or in a virtual space. – Huge amounts of data can be classified and structured by machine learning to create strong Infographics. – Data can be very powerful and reveal insights which you wouldn’t think of. There are good examples where well-structured meta data showed coherences, which didn’t seem related to the data itself. An episode of the design podcast 99% invisible talked about how a list of e-mails within a company showed information of who is a manager and who was probably dealing with illegal and secret projects – without reading one e-mail [7]. Moreover, David Kriesel gives with his presentations an impression of how powerful meta data is [8]. With the power of machine learning and AI we could reveal information which don’t seem obvious in the first place. – Example: https://experiments.withgoogle.com/visualizing-high-dimensional-space
UI design, recommendations and personalization – Use machine learning (ML) in your UI to make navigation easier and quicker. – Personalize systems for your user and create experiences where the user can move freely within your application
– Best practice found in article [9]: 5.1. Count decisions as navigation steps Count how many decisions need to be made for navigating though system. Reduce them with ML. The ML-generated suggestions shouldn’t make the user evaluate the options, otherwise the ML doesn’t make any sense here. 5.2. A predictable UI is necessary when the stakes are high Do not use ML for critic navigation/finding. Human works best in such cases. Consider using it for browsing and exploration. 5.3. Be predictably unpredictable Basically, hide the new ML feature. Think it depends on use case. 5.4. Make failure your baseline ML will make mistakes. Built the system that if mistakes happen, it doesnt take longer to erase them rather than just doing the job on your own in the first place.
Use AI for creative exchange – Use AI as a communication in creating new concepts. – AI is good in making links and connections to similar fields. Also, it’s good at bringing randomness into the game. – Example of writers which chat with AI to boost their ideas. Since ai is built with a neural network its kind of works like our brain, so it’s capable of bringing fascinating ideas for the field it’s programmed for. And since it’s a machine and not a human it can bring new perspectives into thinking (see youtube “Prescursors to a Digital Muse” below). – Example: The AI for the game GO, played a move which seemed like a bad one to a human but maximized the winning probability since it was interested in winning the whole game and not conquering as many fields as possible. Professional GO players examined the new thinking of the game which is played since the 4th century, with a new perspective [10].
Get rid of repetitive tasks I was so fascinated when I saw how the new iPhone does all the photo editing which I used to do in hours of work, automatically. Of course, it does mistakes and is not as accurate, but come on, who enjoys cropping of a curly haired person in Photoshop. Using a cropped image and putting it somewhere else is the fun part, not the cutting out. At least for me. When such tasks are done by a machine, we can concentrate on all the other ideas we have with that curly-haired-person-image.
Example video for 6. Use AI for creative exchange.
On the search on where AI is and where designers are, you could often read about the fear that AI will take away the jobs of designers. Since AI is capable of doing a lot of work which was dedicated to designers for a long time, it’s definitely true in some ways. But we need to evolve and adapt to technology. A lot of frustrating and repetitive tasks can be done by the machine, take advantage of this and start creating from that point. We can create much larger scaled projects when we can deal with such technologies.
In terms of user experience, the rules for 3D are different from those for 2D. Therefore, there must also be other or new design processes or models that incorporate this very option of interaction. The important thing in VR or MR is to find the perfect balance between interaction in the virtual world and using the most suitable tools. Since VR or MR only works if users can interact with the virtual world, it is important to consider to what extent the user has influence. For example, a very poor user experience is when intermediate scenes last too long and the user switches from being an active participant to a passive one. So if both the visualization of the world, the sound or the acoustics and all haptic stimuli are right, the user can move seamlessly through the world. A big help can be when a spacious and familiar environment is used, as well as changing, natural sound or acoustics, and that the user gets feedback when they do certain things or when the world changes, for example. Since the virtual world usually seems very large and the user has too much freedom it is useful to include directional cues as orientation. These guide the user in a certain direction, tell that user what to do or show him/her certain destinations. This helps to give the user a greater immersion and the purpose of this experience is more easily understood.
The company Punchut developed a VR Experience Framework in which any interactive world can be placed. The framework consists of the 3 axes actual to rendered/simulated reality, fixed point to free movement and the interaction in passive to active participant. Another important key point in VR or MR plays the time, because the environment and the experiences are constantly changing. So this must also be taken into account.
A user can only trust the environment, empathize with the world, or change if the physics of the world are developed far enough. By changing, it is meant that the user can learn or develop certain skills in, for example, medical applications or the rehearsal of difficult situations in VR. Since medical applications rather rarely contain narrative elements, it is nevertheless necessary to follow the basic rules when designing for VR. Emotions can also be generated by very simply designed rooms. It has been shown that a customizable avatar with different skin color, gender or body type can be freeing for some users, making them more likely to drop inhibitions and feel braver or more adventurous. Most importantly, however, are the hands, as these are used to interact with the virtual world. The most suitable interaction option is hand tracking, which means no attached UI elements like controllers for example. The reason for this is that it allows the user to completely put themselves in the avatar’s shoes. Especially when the feeling of presence is very strong, it is important to let the user reacclimatize after the VR experience to be able to get used to real life again. This can take a few seconds to even minutes. It can be helpful to accompany the user slowly from the virtual to the real world by taking off the headset, slowly bringing in the sound of the real world or the awareness of one’s own orientation. It can happen that people hesitate before using VR, because they are either put off by the headset, the controllers or the fact that they dive with their whole body into another world. To convince potential users otherwise, you can try to introduce them to VR slowly and let them explore the world and its features first. In the best case, virtual reality can even seem like magic. Furthermore, motion or simulation sickness is a big issue. People can suffer from nausea or vomiting, paleness, dizziness, and headaches if their physical perception of themselves differs from what they experience in VR. For example, the eyes think the body is moving even though it is not. To prevent this disease, all consequences and impacts must be prevented or recognized in advance.
UX principles
Bill West came up with 8 best practice principles to ensure a good user experience in VR. This is a summary:
The virtual world should resemble a real world as much as possible. Components of this are, for example, lighting mood, shadows or backgrounds
Users must have a clear role and know exactly what the goal and task of the VR application is
The user is only truly integrated when he forgets that he is in a virtual environment. Users must therefore be involved through interactive elements
The more senses are engaged, the better the VR experience is
Users can quickly become overwhelmed, which is why it is so important to focus the attention on the important things. If something does not serve a purpose, it should be left out
To avoid confusing users, interactions should be consistent and cues should be introduced in both visual and audio forms
The correct placement of objects is important in order not to cause discomfort to the user. The best distance between the user and the object is between 1 and 20 meters
Safety and comfort are important issues. There should be enough space for the user to move around safely. Motion sickness can be avoided by eliminating all conflicts between different sensory inputs. In addition, it should always be possible to pause the VR experience
Ergonomics in XR
Iron Man
The subject of VR has been addressed in movies like Iron Man for quite some time. However, a helmet like the one Tony Stark wears would be very exhausting after 10 minutes at the latest, because the user interface is too much and would overwhelm the user. The following two diagrams should help to make the VR experience as ergonomic and pleasant as possible:
Sources:
An Experience Framework for Virtual Reality, Jared Benson, Ken Olewiler, Joy Wong Daniels, Vicky Knoop, Reggie Wirjadi (02.06.2016), https://medium.com/punchcut/an-experience-framework-for-virtual-reality-f8b3e16856f7
Design Insights for Virtual Reality UX, Jared Benson, Ken Olewiler, Joy Wong Daniels, Vicky Knoop, Reggie Wirjadi (08.06.2016), https://medium.com/punchcut/design-insights-for-virtual-reality-ux-7ae41a0c5a1a
8 Ways to Create a Better UX in Virtual Reality, Bill West (20.06.2019), https://learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/8-ways-to-create-a-better-ux-in-virtual-reality
Designing User Experience for Virtual Reality (VR) applications, Sourabh Purwar (04.03.2019), https://uxplanet.org/designing-user-experience-for-virtual-reality-vr-applications-fc8e4faadd96
Picture Iron Man: https://www.pearlriverflow.com/the-mire/2019/5/6/the-iron-man-hud-is-terrible
Das Projekt Affordance++ zeigt eine Möglichkeit, dass Objekte und Gegenstände den Nutzern zeigen wie sie zu verwenden sind. Mittels elektrischer Ströme werden die Muskeln der Probanden zu einer Bewegung animiert.
Am Beispiel des Experiments mit der Spraydose von Pedro Lopes werden Nutzer aufgefordert, mit einer Sprühdose, eine Form auf ein Blatt Papier zu sprühen. Alle Probanden wollten sofort mit dem Sprühen beginnen. Nun wurden diese aber durch die elektrische Muskelstimulation – EMS daran erinnert, die Dose vor der Benutzung zu schütteln, damit sich die Inhaltsstoffe in der Dose vermengen. Das Design einer Spraydose animierte die Nutzer nicht zum Schütteln. Pedro Lopes hat diesen wichtigen Schritt in sein Experiment integriert, um zu zeigen, wie es gelingt, dass Nutzer von Produkten und Objekten gelernt bekommen, wie diese ordnungsgemäß zu verwenden sind um mögliche Fehler in der Benutzung zu vermeiden.
Die Möglichkeit, mit virtuellen Objekten zu interagieren zeigt ebenso ein Experiment von Pedro Lopez. Ein Spieler bewegt sich mittels VR-Brille in einem virtuellen Raum. Beim Berühren von virtuellen Wänden erfahren die Spieler durch elektrische Signale ein haptisches Feedback.
Die Aufgabe im Spiel ist es mit großen Würfeln zu interagieren und diese von A nach B zu befördern. Sobald der Spieler mit einem Würfel interagiert, wird die Masse des Würfels durch die elektrische Muskelstimulation – EMS Simuliert und überträgt sich somit auf den Spieler.
Das Projekt “Ad infinitum” von Pedro Lopez wurde im Jahr 2017 im Zuge des Ars Electronica Festivals vorgestellt. Die Installation zeigt, wie kinetische Energie von Menschen abverlangt werden kann indem mittels elektrischer Energie die Handgelenksmuskulatur stimuliert wird.
Der Proband greift nun nach dem Griff und lässt die Muskelstimulation seine Muskeln in eine unwillkürliche und automatische Kurbelbewegung führen. Diese kinetische Energie von der Kurbel wird über einen Dynamo in die Maschine zurückgeführt und zur Stimulation wiederverwendet.
Sign language is mainly used by the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing community. But it is beneficial for the communication of people with disabilities including Autism, Apraxia of speech, Cerebral Palsy, and Down Syndrome as well.
History
Today it is assumed that the communication through signs was developed even before the vocal communication. Native Americans communicated with tribes and Europeans using hand guestures. Benedictine monks were known to sign during the daily periods of silence.
The Spanish Benedictine monk Juan Pablo Bonet is named to be the first creator of a formal sign language for the hearing impaired. In the 16th-century he was teaching deaf to communicate with gestures. After that he started exploring and developed an education method for deaf where they should shape letters with the hand in association with the phonetic sounds by their oral voice. In 1755 the French Catholic Priest Charles-Michel de l’Épée founded the first public school for deaf children. He added the signs of the pupils to a manual alphabet creating a complex system with all relevant grammatical elements. His system became the first sign language and spread across Europe and to the United States of America. Establishing new schools for deaf throughout the countries, new signs from different households where brought to the schools and new alphabets and sign languages developed. Today modern signing systems differ through pronunciation, word order and even express regional accents.
picture from https://kidcourses.com/asl-alphabet-handout/picture from http://fakoo.de/
Fingerspelling
The use of hands to represent the letters of the alphabet is called “fingerspelling”. It helps signers to name people, specific places and words which have no established sign within the language. For example signers would spell out the word “oak” by fingerspelling while there is a specific sign for “tree”. There are different sign language alphabets around the world and due to little modifications each manual alphabet has its uniqueness. These are carried out either with the use of one hand (like American Sign Language(ASL)) or with two hands (like British Sign Language(BSL) and Australian Sign Language (Auslan)).
Signs
There are between 138 and 300 different types of sign languages around the world. Due to the visual nature and grammar of the sign languages the wordorder differs from spoken languages. This is why it can be difficult to some signers to speak the words while they are signing. As well as speaking must be trained regularly because they have to get used to speaking while focusing on breathing, volume and pausing their voice they can not hear.
To grasp the understanding and usage of “digital” among elderly a research will be conducted. Firstly a secondary research will portray what literature and globally collected data say about this matter. Secondly interviews will be held with senior citizens to understand their point of view. Then these interviews will be supported by the netnography data that is collected from social media. And finally insights on the research will be given.
Secondary Research
When sufficient amount of data collected, the result is that seniors have adjustability, memory and motor related problems when it comes to digital usage. Furthermore, there is an increase in the number of seniors who go online and own smart phones. Which drives the question of how this usage is shaped among elderly.
40% of older adults do not have basic digital literacy skills, and of those, more than half do not use the internet at all.
Fields, Jessica. “We Are Leaving Older Adults out of the Digital World.” TechCrunch, TechCrunch, 5 May 2019, techcrunch.com/2019/05/05/we-are-leaving-older-adults-out-of-the-digital-world/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAKydI8Dx9DnE-RD-LmTngMdSBnWdW-OJm8GdSazDJ5zcRkyw3mnIvbUHgWJxpJdNmS3PieoR0FlZj2lfr-hBitUmExFx6DsJNv1EIF0dwjLSFwWks-H_9VVBrEtnY1T_gsOe5-7PGS1i25mosqYTDZW72U4tMBsaoeo8qZFp_pjO.
Comparison of occasional internet usage in Germany
Why seniors use social media?
Interview Questions
What does digital mean to you?
When did digital get into your life?
What can you name in your home which are digital?
Do you have internet connection in your home? If so, for what purposes do you use it?
What kind of devices do you use to use internet?
How adapted do you feel yourself in this digital world?
Do you use any assistive solutions while using your digital devices? (accessibility settings like bigger letters or louder audio etc.)
How do you manage your daily work? (grocery shopping, banking)
Are you aware of the services the digital world offers to deal with these types of works? If so, do you use them?
What services do you use?
Netnography
According to the netnography results majority of the elderly users in social media use it to contact close ones and relatives. They use it as a tool to recall old memories and keep track of birthdays and close ones.
