IwC Special Issue “Feminism and HCI: New Perspectives” Special Issue Editors’ Introduction

As a word and as a set of theories and practices, feminism is a poorly understood concept. However, feminist perspectives have a lot in common with user- and value-centered design processes such as those espoused within the field of Human Computer Interaction. Examples include consideration of alternative viewpoints, considerations of agency (who get to say/do what and under what circumstances) and the development of reflective and reflexive methods for understanding how, when, where and why people do what they do. In the “Feminism and HCI: New Perspectives” special issue, we have invited researchers and practitioners to reflect on the ways in which feminist thinking, theory, and practice can and does have an impact on the field of Human Computer Interaction. This introductory editorial offers more background to our view that there is great value to understanding the actual and potential impact of feminist thinking on HCI, followed by a précis of each paper. We close with some observations regarding common themes, points of contention and possibilities for future work.     

Constructing essentialism: Computers and Composition and the “‘risk’ of essence”

Feminist authors in Computers and Composition have generally favored social constructionist approaches to identity, yet a subtle reliance on essentialist assumptions about women (sometimes tied directly to the body) still exists. In order to explore this phenomenon, I rely on the theories of Diana Fuss and Elizabeth Grosz to unpack the essentialist/constructionist binary. Then, relying on Laura Brady's explication of “strategic” and “tactical” deployments of essentialism in composition studies, I discuss two previous articles in Computers and Composition that successfully negotiated issues of women's identity partly through essentialist assumptions. The ways in which the articles under discussion here essentialized teenage girls become stepping stones toward a reconstruction of girls’ identities. Thus, although essentialism can be problematic, feminists interested in writing and technology can still take what Diana Fuss calls a “‘risk’ of essence” to further feminist goals.     

Applying the technology acceptance model in a study of the factors affecting usage of the Taiwan digital archives system

The rapid development of information and communication technology and the popularization of the Internet have given a boost to digitization technologies. Since 2001, The National Science Council (NSC) of Taiwan has invested a large amount of funding in the National Digital Archives Program (NDAP) to develop digital content. Some studies have indicated that most respondents had no confidence in particular digital archive websites. Thus, with the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as a theoretical basis, the focus of the present study was to identify the factors influencing usage. Extension of the roles of perceived playfulness and interface design was also explored to identify the reasons that digital archives might not be accepted by some users. The present study used a random sampling method to distribute questionnaires to digital archive users via e-mail. The Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) method was used to verify the appropriateness of the study model and whether the hypotheses were confirmed. Study results indicated that the “interface design” is an important factor that influences people to use the digital archives, and that it is separate from the “human factor” and the “human–computer interface” (HCI). Moreover, the results showed that HCI had a significant impact on the “perceived ease of use” and on “usage intentions.” However, the human factor interface showed a significant impact only on “perceived ease of use.” With respect to the hypotheses regarding “usage intentions,” the “perceived usefulness,” “perceived ease of use,” “attitude,” and “perceived playfulness” were not related to “usage intentions.” Therefore, it is necessary to consider the quality of interface design in the development of digital archives in order to promote usage.     

Specifying relations between research and the design of human-computer interactions

This paper argues the need for more effective: human-computer interactions; design of such interactions; and research to support such design. More effective research for design would result in more effective human-computer interactions. One contribution to more effective research would be the specification of relations between research and the design of human-computer interactions. The aim of this paper is to propose such a specification. Frameworks for specifying relations are proposed for: disciplines; the human-computer interaction (HCI) general design problem; and validation. The frameworks are used to model, and so to specify, the relations: between HCI research and the HCI general design problem; and within the particular scope of HCI, to support HCI research. Together, the models specify the relations between HCI research and the design of human-computer interactions. Meeting these specifications renders HCI knowledge coherent, complete and “fit-for-design-purpose”. An illustration of the relations, thus specified, is provided by a model of the planning and control of multiple task work in medical reception and its hypothetical application. The same frameworks are also used to specify the relations between Cognitive Science and the understanding of natural and artificial forms of intelligence. Lastly, they are further used to identify the relations not specified between Cognitive Science and the design of human-computer interactions. The absence of such relations renders Cognitive Science knowledge not coherent, complete nor “fit-for-design-purpose” (as opposed to “fit-for-understanding-purpose”). It is proposed how the relations specified for HCI and Cognitive Science might be used in the assessment of relations between other research and the design of human-computer interactions. Finally, the paper recommends that such an assessment should be undertaken by any discipline, such as Cognitive Science, which claims a relation between its research and the design of human-computer interactions. Such an assessment would establish whether or not such relations are, or can be, specified. The paper concludes that specification of relations is required for more effective research support for the design of human-computer interactions.     

Contending with Terms: “Multimodal” and “Multimedia” in the Academic and Public Spheres

Scholars have begun naming and defining terms that describe the multifaceted kinds of composing practices occurring in their classrooms and scholarship. This paper analyzes the terms “multimedia” and “multimodal,” examining how each term has been defined and presenting examples of documents, surveys, web sites and others to show when and how each term is used in both academic and non-academic/industry contexts. This paper shows that rather than the use of these terms being driven by any difference in their definitions, their use is more contingent upon the context and the audience to whom a particular discussion is being directed. While “multimedia” is used more frequently in public/industry contexts, “multimodal” is preferred in the field of composition and rhetoric. This preference for terms can be best explained by understanding the differences in how texts are valued and evaluated in these contexts. “Multimodal” is a term valued by instructors because of its emphasis on design and process, whereas “multimedia” is valued in the public sphere because of its emphasis on the production of a deliverable text. Ultimately, instructors need to continue using both terms in their teaching and scholarship because although “multimodal” is a term that is more theoretically accurate to describe the cognitive and socially situated choices students are making in their compositions, “multimedia” works as a gateway term for instructors and scholars to interface with those outside of academia in familiar and important ways.     

Integrating cognitive load theory and concepts of human–computer interaction

With the continually increasing complexity of e-learning environments, there is a need for integrating concepts of cognitive load theory (CLT) with concepts of human–computer interaction (HCI). Basic concepts of both fields were reviewed and contrasted. A literature review was conducted within the literature database “The Guide to Computing Literature,” searching for “cognitive load theory” and “Sweller.” Sixty-five publications contained “cognitive load” in their titles or abstracts. Each publication was checked to see whether it contained the concepts of intrinsic, extraneous, or germane cognitive load. The review showed that CLT concepts have been adopted in HCI. However, the concept of germane cognitive load has attracted less attention up to the present time. Two conceptual models are proposed. The first model divides extraneous cognitive load into load induced by the instructional design and load caused by software usage. The model clarifies the focus of traditional usability principles and of existing instructional design principles derived from CLT. The second model fits CLT concepts into the basic components of user-centered design. The concept of germane cognitive load illustrates that an increase of cognitive load can be desirable when designing e-learning environments. Areas for future interdisciplinary research are sketched.     

Making epistemological trouble: Third-paradigm HCI as successor science

Epistemological issues have long been debated by feminist philosophers aiming to answer the question, “what difference does it make to take gendered points of view seriously in the construction of knowledge?” Coming out of this history, a strand of work in feminist science studies has argued for the necessity of “successor science:” new forms of science based in standpoint epistemology, i.e. a recognition of the necessarily situated points of view of scientific knowledge-makers. In this paper, we argue that such a successor science has already come into being within the field of HCI, though it is perhaps not recognized as such by its practitioners.In particular, we identify a cluster of research we term the ‘third paradigm.’ This cluster of research cuts across HCI research areas as typically organized by topic area. Instead, this research shares an underlying epistemological orientation closely aligned with standpoint epistemology, focused around an acknowledgment of the social, cultural, and physical situatedness of both users and analysts. Feminist philosophers of science argue that a logical outcome of standpoint epistemology is the need for science to reflexively grapple with the limitations of its own ways of knowing; we conclude such an outcome may also be in store for the third paradigm.     

Integration of communicative hand movements into human-computer-interaction

During face-to-face communication, the dialog partners can see and hear each other. Each speaker produces a variety of phenomena parallel to speech. Some of them, e.g. intonation, are coded vocally, others are coded by motor responses (facial expression, gestures, etc.). If human-computer-interaction (HCI) tries to mimic this situation, at least some non-verbal phenomena have to be integrated into natural language input and output. A multitude of new devices (mouse, joystick, touch-screens, etc.) have enabled this transition to multimodal HCI. Gestures which illustrate the content of the verbal message are especially suitable for integration into HCI. A relevant subset of them is pointing gestures, which specify elements of the visual context. They are performed frequently because their use shortens and simplifies the verbal output. As an illustration of these considerations, the NL dialog system XTRA (University of Saarbrücken) is presented. It allows reference to elements of a tax form by the combination of textual input and simulated pointing gestures. In order to explore the regularities of this form deixis, an experiment has been carried out within the framework of the XTRA-project. Furthermore, its results were taken for an evaluation of the currently used simulation technique.Michael Wille is a researcher in the AI laboratory at the University of Saarbrücken. He has studied computer science, economics and cognitive psychology. he has worked on expert systems for SIEMENS (hardware diagnosis). His master's thesis (1989) was called Evaluation and Extension of a Module for the Simulation and Analysis of Pointing Gestures. His main research interest is multimedia interaction.Dagmar Schmauks is a researcher in the AI laboratory at the University of Saarbrücken. She has pursued studies in philosophy, linguistics and psychology. Her doctoral thesis (1990) was entitled Deixis in Man-Machine-interaction. Since 1985 she has worked in a special collaborative program on AI and knowledge-based systems at the University pf Saarbrücken. Her main research interest is multimedia interaction.     

Editorial: the evolving partnership between cognitive science and HCI

The theme of this special issue is “The Role of Cognitive Science in Human-Computer Interaction” (HCI). A generally accepted definition states that the main goal of HCI is to advance the design, implementation, and use of interactive computing systems by human beings (ACM, SIGCHI, 1992). Since the current primary use of computers is as tools for acting on and for observing the (information) world, the role of cognitive science-interpreted broadly as an endeavour to understand intelligent behaviour-is, consequently, tied to the questions:• how do our interactions with computing systems affect our representations of the objects that we manipulate?• how does interactions design influence our senses and our actions?• how does using computers to perform tasks transforms our notions of the relationships that exist in the world around us?     

Doing ‘organizational work’: Expanding the conception of professional practice in ergonomics

Literature on ergonomic practice contains many discussions of how ergonomists should work but far less attention has been paid to how they do work and the factors that influence their practice. In an effort to improve our understanding of ergonomic practice as it occurs and how it is conditioned by broader contexts, we conducted an interview study with 21 ergonomists in Canada. We were particularly interested to understand the different kinds of activities study participants engaged in during the course of their work, the challenges they faced and the strategies they employed for facing these challenges. Findings indicate that in the course of their professional practice ergonomists engage in a variety of types of activities. This includes consulting on risk factors as well as a proactive role of fostering the application of ergonomics in organizations. The process of advocating for ergonomics brought study participants into a variety of interactions and collaborations with workplace parties in a type of activity we have called “organizational work”. In the course of doing organizational work, ergonomists utilize different strategies, including “political manoeuvring”, tailoring data collection and report presentations to clients’ concerns and ‘goal hooking’ in order to make the case for implementing ergonomics in workplaces. The article concludes with a list of “tips” for practicing ergonomists that are suggested by the analysis.     

FOE estimation: Can image measurement errors be totally “corrected” by the geometric method?

For the FOE estimation, there are basically three kinds of estimation methods in the literature: algebraic, geometric, and the maximum likelihood-based ones. In this paper, our attention is focused on the geometric method. The computational complexity of the classical geometric method is usually very high because it needs to solve a non-linear minimum problem with many variables. In this work, such a minimum problem is converted into an equivalent one with only two variables and accordingly a simplified geometric method is proposed. Based on the equivalence of the classical geometric method and the proposed simplified geometric method, we show that the measurement errors can at most be “corrected” only in one of the two images by geometric methods. In other words, it is impossible to correct the measurement errors in both of the two images. In addition, we show that the “corrected” corresponding pairs by geometric methods cannot in general meet some of the inherent constraints of corresponding pairs under pure camera translations. Hence, it is not proper to consider the “corrected” corresponding pairs as “faithful” corresponding pairs in geometric methods, and the estimated FOE from such pairs is not necessarily trustworthier. Finally, a new geometric algorithm, which automatically enforces the inherent constraints, is proposed in this work, and better FOE estimation and more faithful corresponding pairs are obtained.     

Sampling using a ‘bank’ of clues

An easy-to-implement form of the Metropolis Algorithm is described which, unlike most standard techniques, is well suited to sampling from multi-modal distributions on spaces with moderate numbers of dimensions (order ten) in environments typical of investigations into current constraints on Beyond-the-Standard-Model physics. The sampling technique makes use of pre-existing information (which can safely be of low or uncertain quality) relating to the distribution from which it is desired to sample. This information should come in the form of a “bank” or “cache” of parameter space points of which at least some may be expected to be near regions of interest in the desired distribution. In practical circumstances such “banks of clues” are easy to assemble from earlier work, aborted runs, discarded burn-in samples from failed sampling attempts, or from prior scouting investigations. The technique equilibrates between disconnected parts of the distribution without user input. The algorithm is not lead astray by “bad” clues, but there is no free lunch: performance gains will only be seen where clues are helpful.     

Playing stupid, caring for users, and putting on a good show: Feminist acts in usability study work

As a feminist HCI agenda develops, feminist analyses of behaviour must venture beyond the dominant liberal feminist approach to include other feminist approaches. Using the personal narrative or auto-ethnographic method, this article explores the role of gender in usability work, a common research practice in HCI. In this article, the author interprets three gendered behaviours that occur in usability work - playing stupid, caring for and about users, and putting on a good show - demonstrating that while these behaviours appear anti-feminist in a liberal feminist framework, they appear feminist in alternative feminist frameworks, such as relational/care-giving, sex-positive, multicultural, post-colonial and Third Wave. The article demonstrates how a feminist HCI agenda that embraces the multiplicity of feminisms necessarily forces a re-examination of usability work’s relationship to both feminism and HCI research methods.     

A scale-adjusted measure of “Urban sprawl” using nighttime satellite imagery

“Urban Sprawl” is a growing concern of citizens, environmental organizations, and governments. Negative impacts often attributed to urban sprawl are traffic congestion, loss of open space, and increased pollutant runoff into natural waterways. Definitions of “Urban Sprawl” range from local patterns of land use and development to aggregate measures of per capita land consumption for given contiguous urban areas (UA). This research creates a measure of per capita land use consumption as an aggregate index for the spatially contiguous urban areas of the conterminous United States with population of 50,000 or greater. Nighttime satellite imagery obtained by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program's Operational Linescan System (DMSP OLS) is used as a proxy measure of urban extent. The corresponding population of these urban areas is derived from a grid of the block group level data from the 1990 U.S. Census. These numbers are used to develop a regression equation between Ln(Urban Area) and Ln(Urban Population). The ‘scale-adjustment’ mentioned in the title characterizes the “Urban Sprawl” of each of the urban areas by how far above or below they are on the “Sprawl Line” determined by this regression. This “Sprawl Line” allows for a more fair comparison of “Urban Sprawl” between larger and smaller metropolitan areas because a simple measure of per capita land consumption or population density does not account for the natural increase in aggregate population density that occurs as cities grow in population. Cities that have more “Urban Sprawl” by this measure tended to be inland and Midwestern cities such as Minneapolis-St. Paul, Atlanta, Dallas-Ft. Worth, St. Louis, and Kansas City. Surprisingly, west coast cities including Los Angeles had some of the lowest levels of “Urban Sprawl” by this measure. There were many low light levels seen in the nighttime imagery around these major urban areas that were not included in either of the two definitions of urban extent used in this study. These areas may represent a growing commuter-shed of urban workers who do not live in the urban core but nonetheless contribute to many of the impacts typically attributed to “Urban Sprawl”. “Urban Sprawl” is difficult to define precisely partly because public perception of sprawl is likely derived from local land use planning decisions, spatio-demographic change in growing urban areas, and changing values and social mores resulting from differential rates of international migration to the urban areas of the United States. Nonetheless, the aggregate measures derived here are somewhat different than similar previously used measures in that they are ‘scale-adjusted’; also, the spatial patterns of “Urban Sprawl” shown here shed some insight and raise interesting questions about how the dynamics of “Urban Sprawl” are changing.     

The educational electronic book as a tool for supporting children’s emergent literacy in low versus middle SES groups

The effects of an educational electronic book (e-book) on 149 five- to six-year-old kindergarteners’ emergent literacy levels were researched in two SES groups: low (LSES) (79 children) vs. middle (MSES) (70 children). In each SES group, children were randomly assigned to four groups. Three groups were assigned to work individually in one of three e-book activity modes: “Read story only”, “Read with dictionary”, or “Read and play” during three similar activity sessions and the fourth group served as a control which received the regular program of the kindergarten. Pre- and post-intervention emergent literacy measures included word meaning, word recognition, and phonological awareness. Results show that word meaning of children from both middle and low SES improved following the educational e-book activity, regardless of mode. Second, LSES children’s emergent literacy levels showed relatively greater improvement rates than did those of the MSES children. Third, children in the “Read with dictionary” and “Read and play” activity modes showed more improvement in their emergent literacy levels than did those in the “Read story only” mode. Implications for future research and for education are discussed.     

Robotic vocabulary building using extension inference and implicit contrast

TWIG (“Transportable Word Intension Generator”) is a system that allows a robot to learn compositional meanings for new words that are grounded in its sensory capabilities. The system is novel in its use of logical semantics to infer which entities in the environment are the referents (extensions) of unfamiliar words; its ability to learn the meanings of deictic (“I,” “this”) pronouns in a real sensory environment; its use of decision trees to implicitly contrast new word definitions with existing ones, thereby creating more complex definitions than if each word were treated as a separate learning problem; and its ability to use words learned in an unsupervised manner in complete grammatical sentences for production, comprehension, or referent inference. In an experiment with a physically embodied robot, TWIG learns grounded meanings for the words “I” and “you,” learns that “this” and “that” refer to objects of varying proximity, that “he” is someone talked about in the third person, and that “above” and “below” refer to height differences between objects. Follow-up experiments demonstrate the system's ability to learn different conjugations of “to be”; show that removing either the extension inference or implicit contrast components of the system results in worse definitions; and demonstrate how decision trees can be used to model shifts in meaning based on context in the case of color words.     

An investigation of mating and population maintenance strategies in hybrid genetic heuristics for product line designs

This research builds on prior work on developing near optimal solutions to the product line design problems within the conjoint analysis framework. In this research, we investigate and compare different genetic algorithm operators; in particular, we examine systematically the impact of employing alternative population maintenance strategies and mutation techniques within our problem context. Two alternative population maintenance methods, that we term “Emigration” and “Malthusian” strategies, are deployed to govern how individual product lines in one generation are carried over to the next generation. We also allow for two different types of reproduction methods termed “Equal Opportunity” in which the parents to be paired for mating are selected with equal opportunity and a second based on always choosing the best string in the current generation as one of the parents which is referred to as the “Queen bee”, while the other parent is randomly selected from the set of parent strings. We also look at the impact of integrating the artificial intelligence approach with a traditional optimization approach by seeding the GA with solutions obtained from a Dynamic Programming heuristic proposed by others. A detailed statistical analysis is also carried out to determine the impact of various problem and technique aspects on multiple measures of performance through means of a Monte Carlo simulation study. Our results indicate that such proposed procedures are able to provide multiple “good” solutions. This provides more flexibility for the decision makers as they now have the opportunity to select from a number of very good product lines. The results obtained using our approaches are encouraging, with statistically significant improvements averaging 5% or more, when compared to the traditional benchmark of the heuristic dynamic programming technique.     

“Wanted: Some Black Long Distance [Writers]”: Blackboard Flava-Flavin and other AfroDigital experiences in the classroom

This essay examines how students of African descent at a predominantly black college on the East Coast digitally perform their ethnic identities and rhetorics in a freshman composition course. The essay begins by showing how multiple uses of signifying frame students’ Blackboard discussions where they use a type of trickster motif to enact their agreements, disagreements, challenges, and questions, very much akin to Flava Flav's initial cultural role as part of the Rap/activist group, Public Enemy. Students’ online writing groups are then examined by focusing on one particular group, the “Black Long Distance Writers,” whose title signifies and signals the work of the African American writer and activist, John Oliver Killens, most notably, his seminal 1973 essay, “Wanted: Some Black Long Distance Runners.” The understandings of these “Black Long Distance Writers” bear the most powerful definition of literacy and computer-based writing instruction because their framework is not contingent upon making digitally divided minorities more technologically advanced and better at one type of English, its culture of power, or its academic discourses. Instead, these students experience rhetoric and writing as a way to alter the ways that knowledge is constructed for them and about them, “revocabularizing” the academy and its technologies. Such freshman writers are re-envisioned in this kind of cyberspace as constructors of and co-participants in black intellectual and rhetorical traditions … now AfroDigitized.     

Reducing online identity disclosure using warnings

In an experimental design, we tested whether written warnings can reduce the amount of identity information exposure online. A psychological attack on information privacy that has been shown to be effective in previous research was launched. This attack took advantage of the fact that people respond to certain types of requests in a relatively automatic, or mindless, fashion. The experiment manipulated the word that was used in the alert header: “warning”, “caution”, or “hazard”. All warnings proved to be effective in reducing disclosure, but “hazard” proved to be most effective. Also warnings were more effective in reducing disclosure of driver's license numbers than email addresses. The discussion (a) provides tentative conclusions why these patterns were obtained, (b) suggests how to design warnings in cyber-environments, and (c) addresses future possibilities for research on this topic.