000 Informatik, Wissen, Systeme
In this paper we present a device to support the communication of couples in long-distance relationships. While a synchronous exchange of factual information over distance is supported by telephone, e-mail and chat-systems, the transmission of nonverbal aspects of communication is still unsatisfactory. Videocalls let us see the partners' facial expression in real time. However, to experience a more intimate conversation physical closeness is needed. Stroking while holding hands is a special and emotional gesture for couples. Hence, we developed a device that enables couples to exchange the physical gesture of stroking regardless of distance and location. The device allows both sending and receiving. A user test supported our concept and provided new insights for future development.
United-pulse
(2008)
This paper introduces a device that creates remote intimacy by the use of two rings named "united-pulse". Each ring can measure the wearer's heartbeat and send it to the partner's ring. Hereby, artificial corporeality is created between the couple. By means of a working prototype, united-pulse has been successfully tested. Among the 28 participants the prototype has attracted large interest. Through the heartbeat - the essential vital sign - a feeling of being very close to the partner is provided. Touching the ring allows a small moment of intimacy in situations where emotional support is needed.
Today numerous telecommunication services are implemented and brought to users. Common for these services is that their interfaces differ tremendously. As a consequence users have to learn the usage of each interface. Amorelation provides the new approach of meshed interaction design patterns (MIDP) that enable service usage in a consistent way for arbitrary telecommunication services. These patterns enable the design of complex interfaces for a variety of interfaces in a convenient and similar manner. With other words, through MIDP receives the user an unified user experience for a variety of applications. A novelty of this approach is the linkage between the modeling of patterns and interface design, which is achieved by a hierarchical structuring of the patterns. The MIDP approach is applied to a Mobile Messaging Service. This application is evaluated with and without MIDP by well-known usability measures like efficiency and ease-to-use.
"THREADS" is an efficient and feasible virtual tool which in theory is easily accessible from everywhere, where users can surf the internet. Nowadays with laptops, netbooks and mobile phones this is possible wherever one goes. This leaves a lot of potential for such a workspace related Software as proposed in this thesis. The problem of finding something specific in a mass of data, even if it is located on ones own storage, is familiar to every Person, that uses a Computer System and especially if it is used together with other people. This thesis has to be seen as an approach to make it easier to find data and to have an overview of things, that are not so obvious on first sight. The author has decided to leave as much room to the user as possible to set own preference of search and consider different search behavior. People are very different, not only within different cultures or different age groups also within friends or farnily. This is why the future of the digital world needs to focus more on individuals and has to be more adaptable and dynamic. All aspects considered it can be concluded that this thesis has dynamically improved during the process of researching and developing a concept. This concept can be taken into further development and with the help of users, a successful final product can be developed that will help to strengthen the position of user experience work inside a scrum team.
Fritzing
(2009)
Today a growing community of DIY-practitioners, artists and designers are using microcontroller-based toolkits to express their concepts for digital artifacts by building them. However, as these prototypes are generally constructed using solder-free technologies, they are often fragile and unreliable. This means a huge burden of care and upkeep for these inventions when they are either exhibited or sold.
We present a software application called Fritzing which allows artists, designers and DIY-tinkerers to prepare their hardware inventions for production. Through an interface metaphor based on the typical workflow of the target group, Fritzing has proven its ability to provide useful support in the steps following the invention of an interactive artifact.
Fritzing serves also as a tool for documenting these interactive artifacts. As sharing of knowledge has been a driving force within this new DIY-movement, there is a need for a consistent and readable form of documentation which Fritzing can provide.
Fritzing has also proven to be a useful tool in teaching electronics to people without an engineering background.