Accepted tutorials

All tutorials will be held in parallel on Monday, September 19, with the following time schedule:

• Morning session 9:00-12:30, with a break 10:30-11:00
• Lunch break
• Afternoon session 14:00-18:00, with a break 15:30-16:00

T2 Development of Interactive Applications for Mobile Devices

Tutorial website

Length & Format

Full day.

Description

Mobile devices have become a pervasive part of our everyday live. People have mobile phones, smart phones and PDAs with them nearly always and everywhere. The design and implementation of applications for these devices is currently still a novelty for a lot of developers and researchers. Also, for decision makers it is often omplicated to estimate the risk of a planned project or to compare the capabilities of different software platforms of mobile devices. Beside this, the design and implementation of user interfaces and interactive applications for mobile devices is very different from the development of programs for desktop PCs, because of the physical differences of
the devices and the context of use. The aim of this tutorial is to give an overview of three widely deployed platforms for mobile devices: Pocket PC (Windows Mobile), Symbian and J2ME (Java 2 Micro Edition). Each platform will be addressed in an individual session whereby we introduce and discuss the technical basics, fundamental APIs (e.g. for sensors like camera or microphone), and development tools for the
implementation of user interfaces and interactive applications. Furthermore, we will present a stepby- step walkthrough of a little programming example and explain the role of interesting APIs and functionalities. In the last session we will describe several types of mobile devices, their input/output capabilities and the differences in the User Interface design for them. The various User Interface environments currently available for mobile phones and PDA will be briefly introduced to underline the complexity in designing applications for several devices and platforms. In the next step, the overall User Interface design process will be developed from the user to the screen. Ergonomic Criteria, User Interface Design recommendations and User Experience checklists will be presented afterwards. Finally, we will discuss trends and expectations in applications and platforms for mobile devices.

Target Audience

The tutorial should be of interest to researchers and developers who want to get a quick start as well as detailed information in application development for mobile devices and the HCI aspects that should be considered in the design and implementation of such programs. This tutorial should be of interest to people who are not familiar with the topic of the tutorial as well as to people who already have basic experiences with mobile application development. We will address on the one hand aspects that are of interest when starting to develop applications for mobile devices and on the other hand we will present also details and practical experiences. The tutorial does not require any background knowledge specific to mobile device development.

Instructors

Enrico Rukzio is a computer science doctoral candidate and research assistant in the Media Informatics group in the computer science department at the University of Munich. He is currently working in the European Project Simplicity. His general research interests are mobile interactions and applications as well as context-aware services. Enrico Rukzio is a supervisor of the practical course "Programming of applications for mobile devices" which was held in the last term at the University of Munich. Furthermore he supervised several advanced seminars and practical courses in the field of mobile applications and interactions. He is also one co-organizer of the workshop Pervasive Mobile Interaction Devices (PERMID 2005).

Michael Rohs is a computer science doctoral candidate and a research assistant at the Institute for Pervasive Computing at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. His main research interests include technologies for linking real-world objects to computational resources as well as human computer interaction in mobile and ubiquitous computing. He developed a visual code system for camera phones. He received an MS in computer science from the University of Colorado at Boulder, USA, and a Diplom in Informatik
from Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany.

Daniel Wagner is a computer science doctoral candidate and received his MSc from Vienna University of Technology. During his studies he worked as a contract programmer and joined Reality2, developing VR software. After finishing his Computer Science studies, Daniel was hired as a lead developer by BinaryBee working on high-quality single- and multi-user webgames. Next he was employed as a developer for Tisc Media, doing 3D engine development. Recently Daniel was hired as a consultant by Greentube for the development of "Ski Challenge ’05". Daniel currently has a job as a researcher at Graz University of Technology, doing his PhD thesis on truly mobile Augmented Reality. His current research interests are real-time graphics and assively
multi-user augmented reality on mobile devices.

John Hamard graduated in 2000 from the Paris V University with a Master Degree in Ergonomics. Since 2001, he is a researcher on Man-Machine Interaction at DoCoMo Euro-Labs and has been involved in the IST-SCOUT project. John Hamard is now contributing to the IST-SIMPLICITY and IST-MOBILIFE projects. He also worked at ETH-Zurich, INRIA and France Telecom R&D as a usability specialist in order to evaluate and conceive Graphical User Interfaces for various services and applications (e.g. drawing software program, professional web portal, interactive television services).

T3 Handheld Usability: Design, Prototyping, & Usability Testing for Mobile Phones

Length & Format

Full day.

Description

This tutorial presents handheld device UI design, prototyping, and usability strategies. Handheld devices include pagers, PDAs, and mobile telephone handsets. Hardware UI, operating environments, and wireless networking will be presented. Information architecture, paper prototyping, and usability testing of handheld devices will be taught with team exercises. The goal is to present challenges and strategies for designing user interfaces for handheld devices. A brief introduction to types of handheld devices and operating environments will set the stage for a more in-depth discussion and hands-on learning activities centered on design & information architecture, paper prototyping, and user testing. Exercises will focus on applying the skills and strategies learned to design a user interface for a mobile telephone handset.

• Compare and contrast interaction components of handheld devices with desktop computers
• Define and detail handheld devices’ hardware and operating environments, broken into phones, PDAs, and pagers
• Present a process for designing information architecture for handheld devices
• Detail user interface design characteristics (widgets, features, etc.) for each handheld platform
• Introduce paper prototyping for handheld devices
• Address usability testing of handheld device prototypes and formal testing of hardware

Target Audience

Intermediate. Attendees are expected to have a basic background in desktop software and web site design, prototyping, and usability testing. However, this tutorial provides review of all of these concepts. In the past, this tutorial has attracted participants with a wide range of experience. Attendees have ranged from desktop usability experts to user interface designers for handset manufacturers and telecommunications carriers. Participants have praised the breadth and depth of the material. We maintain that the target audience is an individual with a good understanding of user interface design and usability testing, but who is interested in learning how to apply those principles to the handheld platform. However, the breadth and depth of this material does apply to practitioners already working in the field of handheld devices.

Instructor

Scott Weiss is the Principal of Usable Products Company, an ease-of-use consultancy focused on mobile device usability and design. Usable Products’ clients include Vodafone, Nokia, Sun Microsystems, Sprint, LG, Microsoft, and Intel. Scott’s work experience includes career positions at Apple, Microsoft, Sybase, and Autodesk. His design work spans contributions to Macintosh System 7.0, Microsoft Windows 95, and Microsoft Schedule+, the predecessor to Microsoft Outlook. He is the author of “Handheld Usability” (Wiley: 2002), the definitive text on mobile UI design, usability, and prototyping. He has lectured and/or taught at Parsons New School University, Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon, NYU, ACM’s SIG-CHI, DIS, HFES, AMIA, UPA, and Mobile HCI.

T4 Mobile Interaction Design

Length & Format

Full day.
The tutorial will use both presenter-led material and groupbased exercises throughout the sessions. Design exercises will encourage attendees both to critique existing approaches as well as posing their own solutions. We will also use video clips and handheld demonstration systems developed by ourselves and other researchers.

Description

This tutorial comprehensively covers important mobile interaction challenges, key design approaches, and provides specific guidance for emerging application areas including information access and mobile photography. This tutorial is about shifting the mobile design perspective away from “smart” phones, to people who are smart, creative, busy, or plain bored. Our aim is to help attendees to overcome the frustrations of the previous disappointing handheld “revolution” by providing the billion-plus potential mobile users with future products and services that can change their (or even the whole) world. The tutorial will both introduce interesting and empowering mobile design philosophies, principles and methods as well as giving specific guidance on key emerging consumer application areas such as image browsing and information access.

Target Audience

This tutorial will appeal to a broad audience. Some will be novices to the field of mobile interactive service and device design; others will be developers and researchers with experience in producing innovative work themselves. The material in the morning session will also be accessible to those involved in non-technical roles such as mobile analysts and strategists.

• For developers and designers: the tutorial will give challenging, fresh perspectives on the goals of and approaches to mobile interaction design. The afternoon session will highlight in an integrated way state-of-the-art approaches to service and product provision.
• For industrial and academic researchers: The morning session will provide provoking questions and the afternoon session will present these attendees with comprehensive set of research pointers. Those working on the topics of information access, image access and mobile communities will be given insights into the current and evolving thinking surrounding these application areas.
• For students: people engaged in graduate studies in the mobile area will benefit from seeing the “bigger picture”. The design methods and perspectives presented in the morning session provide useful tools for anyone involved in developing concept and prototype systems; while the afternoon session gives a dynamic “literature review” of areas where there is still active, useful research going on.
• For mobile business and marketing analysts and strategists: the morning session will offer an interesting analysis to help explain previous hits and flops as well as pointing the way for successful future innovation.

Instructors

Matt Jones has recently moved from New Zealand to Wales (UK) where he is helping to set up the Future Interaction Technology Lab at Swansea University. He has worked on mobile interaction issues for the past ten years and has published a large number of articles in this area. He has had many collaborations and interactions with major handset and service developers including Orange, Reuters, BT Cellnet, Nokia and Adaptive Info; he is a co-founder of a new mobile design company, Bijou technologies, and has one mobile patent pending. He is an editor of the International Journal of Personal and Ubiquitous Computing and on the steering committee for the Mobile HCI conference series. Along with Gary, he has recently completed the draft of a book for Wiley entitled Mobile Interaction Design.

Gary Marsden is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. Besides his academic interests in designing interaction for mobile computers, a large part of his time is spent in examining how mobile computers can be used for upliftment in the developing world. He has given numerous public talks on mobile technology, and written many articles for academic and popular publications. He has also run tutorials and consulted widely on mobile technology issues for a number of companies.

T5 How to Set-up a Corporate User Experience Team: Key Success Factors, Strategic Positioning, and Sustainable Organisational Implementations

Length & Format

Half day.
The tutorial is designed as a half-day presentation/discussion/exercise session. The presentation part will include both theoretical concepts of the tutorial topic, and descriptions of the organisers’ practical experiences. The discussion and exercise part will include group work to designated problem statements and moderated discussions to foster the exchange of ideas.

Description

This tutorial addresses strategic and organisational aspects of user experience work in companies, based on experiences in the mobile service industry. It focuses on the question of how to successfully set-up a Corporate User Experience Team in the areas of conflict between top management, marketing, sales, IT, customer service, and product development. Besides the presentation of general motivations and drivers for corporate user experience work and several concepts for doing so, the tutorial in particular represents the authors’ experiences in setting-up such a team, discusses key success factors, and the role of selected strategic concepts (ROI, BSC). The organisers will provide an insight into Austria’s largest telecom & mobile service providing company – mobilkom austria – and the role of user experience there within. The tutorial provides attendees with the information required in order to be successful in establishing user experience work, and with insights and ideas for strategic positioning.

The tutorial’s main objectives are the provisioning of useful information regarding the setup of a Corporate User Experience Team, key success factors in doing so, and strategic concepts for positioning and establishing a sustainable role with an organisation. During discussions and group work, attendees will be asked to develop strategies, critically reflect on their experiences, and will be driven to uncover hidden areas of conflicts within corporations (with respect to user experience work).

Target Audience

Intermediate/Advanced. The tutorial is intended for user experience managers, especially in fast moving industries like the mobile industry (telecom companies, service providers, etc.), user experience consultants, project managers, and marketing managers and strategists. Attendees are expected to have a basic background in HCI, usability engineering and user experience, as well as strategic thinking.

Instructors

Tobias Herrmann is Head of Team User Experience within the mobilkom austria, Austria’s largest telecom and mobile service providing company with 3.2 million customers. The team’s scope covers all fields of activities, including Usability/User Experience consultancy, “classical” Usability/workflow engineering, e-prototyping or conception of User Experience models resp. performance measurements. Furthermore, the User Experience Team – positioned as Competence Center for the mobilkom austria group - accounts for all types of usability/User Experience specific topics within the subsidiary companies VIPnet (Croatia) and SI.mobil (Slovenia).

Peter Messner is Managing Consultant with USECON, a consultancy specialised in usability engineering, user interface design, and user experience. He is responsible for setting up user experience projects, their coordination and project management. Peter consults several large and renowned companies in Austria, like mobilkom austria, Telekom, Erste Bank, or betandwin.com. Peter is also project manager with CURE (Center for Usability Research & Engineering), where he participates in projects at the forefront of European research. He was helding lectures at a multitude of business fairs, schools, and international conferences. Peter holds an MSc in Economics and Computer Science both the University of Technology in Vienna and from Stockholm University, and a Doctorate in Social and Economic Sciences from the University of Vienna.

T6 Data Collection and Analysis Tools for Mobile HCI Studies

Length & Format

Half day.
The tutorial content will be presented by the instructor in the form of PowerPoint slides interspersed with hardware and software demonstration. Several data collection and data analysis systems will be set up. Following the presentations, participants will be invited to gain hands-on experience with these tools.

Description

This tutorial offers participants an intensive half-day course in video technology, software tools and integrated solutions for mobile HCI studies. After this tutorial you will be completely up to date with the latest proven methods and tools for data collection and analysis. If your next project is an ethnographical field study or a mobile usability test, attend this tutorial to learn how to select the right tool for the job and how to put it to optimal use. In this tutorial, participants will:

• gain knowledge and understanding of the state of the art in video technology and software tools supporting field studies and usability testing with mobile devices and/or mobile users
• learn the latest developments in computer and video technology relevant to data collection, storage and presentation
• learn how software tools support the key data collection and analysis steps
• learn how to select the optimal tool or combination of tools for a given study
• get hands-on experience with various tools for data collection and analysis

Target Audience

This tutorial is intended for HCI researchers and usability practitioners who are planning to set up new research or test facilities or upgrade existing facilities. Working experience with field studies, usability testing and observation of users is assumed. Basic understanding of video technology is useful.

Instructors

Tobias Heffelaar received a M.Sc. in computer psychology (more precisely Social Science Information Technology) from the University of Groningen, with a major in Human Machine Interaction. During the last six years he has been working for Noldus Information Technology. Tobias has extensive experience in setting up software and hardware tools for HCI research and usability testing. He has also been involved in the design and documentation of Noldus' observational data collection and analysis tools. He is an experienced trainer, with a total of more than 100 courses taught in laboratories across Europe. He also served as a tutorial instructor at the CHI 2004 and CHI 2005 conferences. Tobias currently manages Noldus' internal usability engineering and usability testing activities. He is also available as a usability consultant for other companies.

Rüdiger Beer is the general manager of Noldus Information Technology GmbH in Freiburg , Germany . Being very interested in all new mobile computer and video technology he has become an expert in this field. Rüdiger was involved in the development of many mobile solutions for behavioral research with Noldus tools since DOS-times. Rüdiger holds a diploma and a Ph.D. in natural sciences from the University of Bayreuth and is an experienced trainer and lecturer in methods and techniques in behavioral research.