British HCI Group annual conference HCI2007: Engage: Panel 'Practising what you preach' Thursday September 14, 2006. 1130-1300 Session chair: Nico Macdonald For information on panel and panelists see: http://www.spy.co.uk/Events/Panels/HCI2006/ Edit 1.0 These note are for reference only, and should give a general sense of the ideas discussed. Please don't cite panelists or audience contributors directly without their approval. Audience contributors have been identified by name as well as possible. However, this information is of low reliability. Panelists - - - - Professor Robert Zimmer, Department of Computing, Goldsmiths, University of London Professor Angela Sasse, Department of Computer Science, UCL Kai En Ong, Senior Designer, BBC Factual and Learning James Howard, Design and Development Manager, BBC Sport Interactive Panel discussion and remarks - - - - Angela: involved in working with industry around mediated interaction and rich media. We help them learn. Jens Riegelsberger (see paper from HCI2005 [Rich Media, Poor Judgement? A Study of Media Effects on Users' Trust in Expertise http://www.bcs-hci.org.uk/hci2005/confprog-pap.asp]) study with Amazon on use of images. Work on mobile TV (see CHI2004) on football coverage on mobile TV on frame rate vs resolution. Taken up by Alcatel. See study in ACM Multimedia on impact of text degradation on mobile TV. Chair: What examples of successful knowledge transfer initiatives are there? James: learning from games design, books on techniques, flow diagrams to engage people beyond your department. Kai: books are key (Jesse James Garrett, Steve Krug), Web sites (infodesign, 'the purple one'). Can't think of any projects informed by research on UI design for 5-16 year olds. Audience research. Have drawn on Nielsen Norman Group usability guidelines for children and teenagers. More immediate. See work from Futurelab pilot projets: its communications are more easily accessible (eg: posters/pamphlets, nicely designed, put up in shared space such as a kitchen). Chair: What are the challenges for practitioners? James: consistent user experience across multiple events across sporting types and to iTV and mobile phones. As our audience is to big, we need to design for lowest common denominator. Also, we don't set our deadlines, they are set by organisations such as the IOC. Audience discussion - - - - Chair: How are research agendas set? To what extent are they, or should they, be influenced by industry? Robert: could be working together with BBC more [to set agendas] Shane Morris, freelance interaction designer: are practitioners actually missing out [by not accessing HCI research]? Angela: look at what happens in the long run. BBC could look at this more easily. How much is a guideline worth [ie: they need more than guidelines]? Take-away messages based on research _is_ valuable. Limits imposed by limits of marketing department brief/knowledge. James: guidelines are transient. Interested in better visualisation of stats [refering to Robert's work on information visualisation]. Robert: BBC should be at the forefront. Books don't make sense here. Technology development _shaped_ by designers [ie: designers should be involved in settin the technology agenda?]. Brendan Crowther, BBC: does knowledge transfer work? BBC just-in-time learning culture. Lots of _wish_ to communicate between BBC and Arts and Humanities Research Council. Academic important for strategic but not immediate [challenges]. Chair: importance of getting languages and perspectives in line. James: what you see on the catwalk is not what you would see in the shops [ie: research is not necessarily actionable in industry]. What user experience for 2008 Olympics [ie: could research help with this longer term challenge?]. Robert: much stuff on BBC site has been recently researched. These things do come out of research. Work together early. Valuabele to have BBC input. William Wong, Interaction Design Centre, Middlesex University [http://www.cs.mdx.ac.uk/research/idc/]: 20 year timescale. Need technology forecasting. Need more strategic designers. Chair: [re-states Robert's point around emerging technology] Angela: be wary of staring at next new product. See McCarthy and Wright 'lived experience' concept. William: that is what we do. Angela: we need funding for large scale studies [in this mould] on user needs and contexts. William: need to tie HCI development to wealth creation. Shaheen, Department of Computer Science, Queen Mary [http://www.dcs.qmul.ac.uk/]: need a dynamic approach. Need academics/practitioners who understand each other. Eg: at Creativity and Design workshop on Tuesday [The First International Symposium on Culture, Creativity and Interaction Design http://www.bcs-hci.org.uk/hci2006/programme/tuesday.html]. Kai: see BBC audience research team. Incredible body of knowledge. Shaheen: academic research is broader. Phil, Business School, Manchester Metropolitan University [http://www.business.mmu.ac.uk/]: retrospective research? James: too much focus on linear experience from [missed]. Not enough on how people really living. Too much on TV consumption hours. Paul Infield, consultancy lead, IBM: 2000 word journal paper probably worst KT format. What is most effective way of communicating knowledge? Chair: we should clarify that the discussion is not about guidelines. [In response to earlier comment] There was also a Tell Me More summit on user participation. Chair: What are the best formats for communicating research insights? James: Scott McCloud comic, book, learn from practice. Robert: have [research] done concurrently [to facilitate better communication] Kai: placards and beer mats! Conferences and mailing lists? But three weeks to do a thing and looking for "small useful branch" to cling to. Chair: bigger issue of design managers, producers, etc [and their impact on making time for consulting research]. Not an issue we can address effectively here. Angela: management _is_ key. Need to share language and culture (same terms, different meanings). Know where you can come in. "Usability researchers need to go a lot more native... Too concerned with impressing one another." Need to get into the communities, who are sometimes very grateful. Couch guidance in terms that can be understood, and where it fits. Tech confernces should have usability streams. See RAE Industrial Secondments with academics working in companies. Kai/Robert: [propose] speed dating William: [value of] BCS events Angela: need more 'proof of the pudding showcases'. Demonstrate, don't just tell me about your new method, and why results better than designers using [other/current techiques]. Show the wins you can make. May convince management as well. William: know their agenda Janet Reed: would like to see case studies of where research informed design Post-event discussion - - - - William: mentioned the 'take away messages' feature of the UPA's Journal of Usabilty Studies [http://www.upassoc.org/upa_publications/jus/jus_home.html]