CD Review

Castle Park: Public Art in Practice Derrick Price, Martin Rieser and Sue Swingler University of West of England ISBN 1–86043–060–0     

MRx as a participatory platform

Abstract

Facilitating and supporting various modes of social interaction has been part of Mixed Reality (MR^x)¹1 As defined in the introductory article for this series, MR^x experiences are conceptualized as site-specific; hybrid; and aesthetic, performative and/or social (For a detailed history of MR see, Introduction to this special issue) (Rouse et al., 2015b Rouse, R., Engberg, M., JafariNaimi, N., and Bolter, J. 2015b. “MR^x Design and Criticism: The Confluence of Media Studies, Performance, and Social Interaction.” Digital Creativity 26 (3/4). doi:10.1080/14626268.2015.1100124.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). design experiments and discourse over the past twenty years. But what vision of social interaction is sought and advanced through Mixed Reality environments? In this paper, I identify two dominant ways that social interaction is envisioned in MR^x designs, broadly construed as material and political, and illustrated through a series of examples. I further draw on them to highlight the potentials, boundaries, and limitations of each with regards to the kinds of social interactions that are sought and cultivated through the integration of digital media on physical space. I suggest that as MR becomes mainstream, it is important to go beyond these visions to consider whether and how MR^x environments might connect with the economic, social, and cultural specificity of local sites to meaningfully serve the always evolving social needs and purposes of their communities.     

MRx as a performative and theatrical stage

Abstract

This article provides one component of a new interdisciplinary, humanities-based framework for MR^x design and criticism along with Engberg and Bolter's article, “MR^x and the Aesthetics of Locative Writing and JafariNaimi's article, “MR^x as a Participatory Platform. As defined in the introductory article for this series, MR^x experiences are conceptualised as site-specific; hybrid; and aesthetic, performative and/or social. This article develops a performance studies and theatre history perspective on MR^x. By outlining historical examples relevant to contemporary MR^x practice, a set of best practices are derived. These strategies are conceptualised as central questions, which are then applied in the analysis of four examples of recent MR^x works, along with suggestions for how these strategies may be used during the design process.     

Participatory design in interactive media design education for the solution of unfamiliar design problems: a case study on a disabling environment and an emerging technology

This paper investigates the effectiveness of participatory design study in rendering the students' capability of producing innovative design solutions to problems with uncertainties with which the students have no prior experience. At the project, the students were given a case to work on augmented reality technology with which they had no previous experience and design a tactical interface for sailing boats, a field they had no competence in. While the students were asked to develop proposals for this design problem with which they were inexperienced, a two-stage study was conducted to enable them to produce ideas on the topic. This paper discusses the impacts of such a participatory method in terms of design education. At the end of our study, it was observed that the students were positively influenced by the process in which they worked collaboratively with an expert user group.     

Designing for engagement in mixed reality experiences that combine projection mapping and camera-based interaction

Abstract

Projection mapping is a group of techniques for projecting imagery onto physical three-dimensional objects in order to augment the object or space with digital content. Most projection mapping experiences and events are non-interactive, partly because of the many inherent design problems in designing for interaction is such situations. This article explores one approach to this tricky issue by analysing a group of four interactive mixed reality experiences that combine projection mapping with camera-based interaction techniques. The approaches used are described, and their deployment in a variety of situations is analysed using engagement and play theories. The works suggest that some projection mapping techniques can be used in the service of creating engaging interactive exhibits and installations, but that the effectiveness of the approach relies on it placing the experience and interactions clearly in our own physical world, rather than behind a screen or in an artificial image space.     

Impact of the usage of social media in the workplace on team and employee performance

How does the usage of social media in the workplace affect team and employee performance? To address this cutting edge and up-to-date research question, we ran a quasinatural field experiment, collecting data of two matched-sample groups within a large financial service firm in China. We find that work-oriented social media (DingTalk) and socialization-oriented social media (WeChat) are complementary resources that generate synergies to improve team and employee performance. The instrumental value provided by work-oriented social media is reinforced by the expressive value provided by socialization-oriented social media, which help firms to create business value from information technology investments.     

How compulsive use of social media affects performance: insights from the UK by purpose of use

Positive outcomes of social networking use in both informal and non-educational settings have attracted significant research attention. These benefits include social capital formation, higher job performance and satisfaction, an increased sense of belonging, improved knowledge management skills, and enabling of life-long learning opportunities. Compulsive use of social networking, however, remains a major issue among the younger users, potentially leaving a long-lasting impact on the younger population. Concerns have been raised regarding links between the compulsive use of social media and individual academic, social and physical performance. This study explores the motivations for social networking use, their relations to compulsive use, and implications for academic, physical and social performance, in an effort to inform strategies for the appropriate adoption and utilisation of social networking technologies. The study employs a finite mixture approach to segmenting the sample, and results show that two distinct groups motivated by utilitarian and social objectives respectively drive compulsive use by British students. Unlike previous studies, the UK sample does not display differences in terms of age or gender. This finding highlights the trend of gender agnostic views of social platforms by developers. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for practice and future research.     

Establishing criteria of rigour and relevance in interaction design research

Interaction design research is a unique discipline embracing practicing professionals, design educators and academic researchers, but attracting attention from people with different backgrounds and interests has lead to the question of what constitutes ‘good research’. What is rigorous and relevant interaction design research and how do we recognise and evaluate it? Most current attempts at dealing with these issues tend to be on loan from other disciplines, and may overlook, conceal, or knowingly exclude some of what makes interaction design research such a unique field. Our primary contribution is that what may be perceived as three different design research activities—design practice, design exploration and design studies—have their own purposes, intended outcomes, and internal logic. Each approach must be examined in its own right and the notions of rigour and relevance have to be based on a firm understanding of the particular purpose of each approach.     

Exploring educational immersive videogames: an empirical study with a 3D multimodal interaction prototype

ABSTRACT

Gestural interaction devices emerged and originated various studies on multimodal human–computer interaction to improve user experience (UX). However, there is a knowledge gap regarding the use of these devices to enhance learning. We present an exploratory study which analysed the UX with a multimodal immersive videogame prototype, based on a Portuguese historical/cultural episode. Evaluation tests took place in high school environments and public videogaming events. Two users would be present simultaneously in the same virtual reality (VR) environment: one as the helmsman aboard Vasco da Gama’s fifteenth-century Portuguese ship and the other as the mythical Adamastor stone giant at the Cape of Good Hope. The helmsman player wore a VR headset to explore the environment, whereas the giant player used body motion to control the giant, and observed results on a screen, with no headset. This allowed a preliminary characterisation of UX, identifying challenges and potential use of these devices in multi-user virtual learning contexts. We also discuss the combined use of such devices, towards future development of similar systems, and its implications on learning improvement through multimodal human–computer interaction.     

Towards the design of usable multimodal interaction languages

This paper presents novel recommendations for the design of usable multimodal command or query languages. These recommendations have been inferred from the results of three empirical studies focused on the use of spontaneous speech (first study) and the synergic use of spontaneous versus controlled speech and gestures for interacting with current application software (second and third studies). In particular, we propose a method for designing multimodal languages that can be considered as an appropriate substitute for direct manipulation in all contexts precluding the use of mouse and keyboard, and for all standard categories of users, especially the general public.     

3-D projection installations—three design strategies for a new medium

Abstract

Three-dimensional projection installations are particular kinds of augmented spaces in which a digital 3-D model is projected onto a physical three-dimensional object, thereby fusing the digital content and the physical object. Based on interaction design research and media studies, this article contributes to the understanding of the distinctive characteristics of such a new medium, and identifies three strategies for designing 3-D projection installations: establishing space; interplay between the digital and the physical; and transformation of materiality. The principal empirical case, From Fingerplan to Loop City, is a 3-D projection installation presenting the history and future of city planning for the Copenhagen area in Denmark. The installation was presented as part of the 12th Architecture Biennale in Venice in 2010.     

基于增强现实的虚拟城市规划关键技术研究

增强现实是虚拟现实技术的重要分支,已经被成功的应用到众多领域.探讨了增强现实应用于虚拟城市规划的可行性,并给出了一种新颖的基于增强现实技术的城市规划方法.它可以满足城市规划对虚实交互、人机交互的要求,充分体现出增强现实技术在城市规划应用中的优势.介绍了系统结构与工作流程,着重分析了所采用的基于标识的虚实注册方法,并给出了运行结果.     

Documenting mixed reality performance: the case of CloudPad

This article introduces an original documentation and archiving tool, CloudPad, that integrates ‘cloud computing’ into the annotation and synchronisation of mixed media resources. Through CloudPad users are able to view a documentation, edit a version of it, and record their own comments in response to it. Whether users may have created and/or experienced a particular work, or whether they may simply wish to consult a work's documentation, their journey through these records and annotations are subsumed into the work's documentation, thus augmenting the ‘original’ artwork's field of social engagement. Before discussing CloudPad in detail, we proceed to explain how recent debates in performance documentation influenced our methodology and development, and the general challenges of mixed reality documentation that CloudPad aims to address.     

Key values driving continued interaction on brand pages in social media: An examination across genders

Brand pages in social media provide companies with a competitive marketing tool to create added value for their firms and customers. Past studies suggest that understanding what customers really value in brand pages is the most vital step in promoting their continued interaction, and that the relative impacts of customer values on continued interaction are contingent on individual demographic factors such as gender. However, little research has examined the relationships between customer values and their intention to engage in continued interaction, and how these relationships are moderated by gender, in the context of brand pages. This study identified eight value factors to measure customer values on brand pages, then examined their impacts on customers' continued interaction intention, and studied gender effects on the latter relationship. Our proposed hypotheses are mostly supported by data collected from users of Sina Microblog brand pages and analyzed by partial least squares.     

Recognizing CEO personality and its impact on business performance: Mining linguistic cues from social media

Upper echelons theory suggests that CEO personality will influence organizational performance. However, difficulty in measuring CEO personality restrains related research. We capture linguistic cues CEOs leaving on social media and recognize their personality by text mining. To our knowledge, it is the first study introducing social media text mining approaches into the research stream that empirically inquires and extends upper echelons theory. Then, we investigate the CEO personality’s impact on both operational and financial performance. Results show that CEO Extraversion, Emotional Stability, and Agreeableness improve Cost Efficiency and Profitability, while CEO Conscientiousness reduces them. CEO Openness to Experience negatively influences Profitability, and all facets of CEO personality improve Employee Productivity except for CEO Conscientiousness. The contribution of our research is multi-sided: (1). methodologically, we introduce a text mining approach to measure CEO personality; (2). theoretically, we provide empirical evidence for upper echelons theory; (3). practically, our results help companies evaluate CEO candidates from a personality perspective.     

移动增强现实浏览器的信息可视化和交互式设计

为探究解决增强现实浏览器人因问题的方法,通过对移动增强现实环境中的人因问题进行分析,提出一个新型设计流程,并在实际设计中论证其有效性.首先对移动增强现实浏览器进行用户需求分析,并将需求转化为任务;然后将抽象信息可视化为数据视图,并采用概览与细节方法对构成视图的视觉元素进行布局;再使用渐进式交互法组织离散数据视图,生成交互界面;最终通过对浏览器原型的迭代设计解决评测过程中发现的人为设计错误.可用性测试结果表明,采用该方法设计的增强现实交互系统增进了用户对目标的认知,改善了用户体验.     

Analyzing market performance via social media: a case study of a banking industry crisis

Analyzing market performance via social media has attracted a great deal of attention in the finance and machine-learning disciplines.However,the vast majority of research does not consider the enormous influence a crisis has on social media that further affects the relationship between social media and the stock market.This article aims to address these challenges by proposing a multistage dynamic analysis framework.In this framework,we use an authorship analysis technique and topic model method to identify stakeholder groups and topics related to a special firm.We analyze the activities of stakeholder groups and topics in different periods of a crisis to evaluate the crisis’s influence on various social media parameters.Then,we construct a stock regression model in each stage of crisis to analyze the relationships of changes among stakeholder groups/topics and stock behavior during a crisis.Finally,we discuss some interesting and significant results,which show that a crisis affects social media discussion topics and that different stakeholder groups/topics have distinct effects on stock market predictions during each stage of a crisis.     

Social media,design and creative citizenship: an introduction

ABSTRACT

This article serves as an introduction to a special issue of the journal Digital Creativity, which addresses the challenges, potentials and meaning of different creative forms of citizenship enacted through social media. The articles in this special issue paint a complex picture of the expressions and meaning and citizenship. This introduction aims to provide a wider context for the contributions to this special issue by reviewing some of the claims made for the creative civic potential of social media and identifying a number of issues and questions that might inform analyses of the subject.     

The influence of user interaction and participation in social media on the consumption intention of niche products

Social media may be particularly adept at promoting niche products because of the tendency of consumers to participate in generating reviews and discussing such products, thereby raising interest in them. In this study, we investigate how patterns of user interaction in discussing a niche cultural product may influence participation levels, which in turn enhance consumption intentions. We show that higher levels of participation can indeed enhance consumption intention. Furthermore, interaction patterns with high inclusiveness and betweenness centralization may enhance participation levels, whereas out-degree centralization and core-periphery have a detrimental influence. Implications for research and practice are discussed.