21  Lecture 4: Social Aspects of HCI

21.1 Conversation Rules

When conversing with others, there are various mechanisms and ‘rules’ we follow, including:

• Mutual Greetings
  • Hi there, hi
• Turn-taking to coordinate conversation
• Back-channeling to signal to continue and following
  • Uh-uh, umm, ah
• Farewell Rituals
  • Bye then, see you
• Implicit and explicit cues
  • looking at watch, fidgeting with coat and bags -> implicit
  • explicitly saying “oh dear, must go, look at the time, I’m late” -> explicit

A design implication for this is that multiple apps have been developed to support conversations when people are ‘at a distance’ from each other. Many applications have been developed, including emails, videoconferncing, instant messaging, chatrooms, and collaborative virtual environments.

21.2 Synchronous Computer-Meditated Communication

Conversations are supported in real-time through voice and/or typing. Examples include video conferencing and chatrooms.

Benefits:

• Can keep more informed of what is going on
• Video conferencing allows everyone to see each other providing some support for non-verbal communication
• Chatrooms can provide a forum for shy people to talk more

Problems:

• Video lacks bandwidth so judders and lots of shadows
• Difficult to establish eye contact with images of others
• People can behave badly when behind the mask of an avatar

21.3 Asynchronous Communication

Communication takes place remotely at different times. Examples include email, newsgroups, and computer conferencing.

Benefits include:

• Read any place any time
• Flexible as to how to deal with it
• Powerful, can send to many people
• Can make saying things easier

Problems include:

• Flaming
• Spamming
• Message Overload
• False expectations as to when people will reply

Flaming is when a user writes incensed angry email expressed in uninhibited language that is much stronger than normally used when interacting with same person face-to-face. It includes the used of impolite statements, swearing, exclamation marks, and capitalized sentences or words. They can lead to misunderstandings and bad feelings among recipients.

Message Overload Many people experience message overload, receiving over 30 emails or other messages a day and find it difficult to cope and may overlook important messages. Filtering, threading, and the use of signaling to indicate the level of importance of a message (via the sender or recipient), through color coding, bold, font, or exclamation marks, are all techniques that have been developed to help people manage their emails.

False Expectations Many people assume that others read their messages several times a day and reply to them there and then. However, many people now reply to emails when they have time to do so.

21.4 New Communication Technologies

Provides novel ways of interacting and talking.

21.4.1 Virtual Environment (VE)

A computer-generated simulation which allows the user to interact with it and with each other in real time.

21.4.1.1 Collaborative Virtual Environments

The rooftop garden in BowieWorld is a CVE. Users take place by “dressing up” as avatars.

21.4.1.2 VideoWindow

VideoWindow is a shared space that allowed people 50 miles apart to carry on conversation as if in same room drinking coffee together. 3 x 8 ft ‘picture-window’ between two sites with video and audio.

21.4.1.3 Hypermirror

Hypermirror allows people to feel as if they are in the same virtual place even though in physically different spaces. People in different places are superimposed on the same screen to make them appear as if in the same space.

21.4.2 Awarness of others

Involves knowing who is around, what is happening, and who is talking with whom.

Peripheral awareness is

• keeping an eye on things happening in the periphery of vision
• Overhearing and overseeing - allows tracking of what others are doing without explicit cues.

21.4.2.1 Clearboard

Clearboard is a transparent board that shows other person’s facial expressions on your board as you draw.

21.4.2.2 Portholes (Xerox PARC)

Regularly updated digitized images of people in their offices appeared on everyone’s desktop machines throughout day and night.

21.5 Notification Systems

Users notify others as opposed to being constantly monitored. It provides information about shared objects and progress of collaborative tasks. Examples include tickertape and babble.

21.5.1 Tickertape

Tickertape is a scrolling one-line window going from left to right including group name, sender’s name, and text message.

21.5.2 Babble

Circles with marbles represents people taking part in a conversation in a chatroom.

21.6 Key Points

• Social mechanisms, like turn-taking, conventions, etc., enable us to collaborate and coordinate our activities
• Keeping aware of what others are doing and letting others know what you are doing are important aspects of collaborative working and socialising
• Many collaborative technologies (groupware or CSCW) systems have been built to support collaboration, especially communication and awareness