Urban User Experience: Seamless Interactions with

Information in the City of the Future

Diogo Almeida

Diogo, from Portugal

MSc Environmental Engineering? A little bit of everything:

Energy, Climate Change, Air, Soil, Water, Pollution, Zoology, Botanics, Microbiology, Economy, Chemistry, Physics, Health, Mathematics, Sanitation, Urban Planning…

Lovely and potentially more fulfilling, but HCI is just so cool.

background

Myself

background

YDreams (3 years)

IT+ Design: NUIs for Education, Advertising, Stores, Museums

User Studies and Usability of NUIs / Concepts for Sales / Game Design / Robotics / Interactive Paper / FabLabs / Getting Funding

Change the way people access information.

Worked at...

background

New University of Lisbon

Environmental engineering Undergrad & Masters (1 semester):

Ubicomp / Collective Intelligence / Flash / DIY / 3D Modeling

Dharamsala / Himalaya

Tibetan Monks & Community (2 months)

Computer skills (Basic + Advanced) / English

Taught at...

currently

Keio University, Graduate School of Media Design

PhD program - the edge of my T

UX

Many disciplines / understand the complex system as a wholeEnvironmental Eng. (Study)

Thesis (Study)

YDreams (Work)

Keio (Research)

Depth

Breadth

background

Aikido (10 years)

Interaction and deep study on how the human body moves

Travelling (22 countries / Japan, 35 Prefectures)

Backpacking, no guides, interact with local people, cultures

HHI – Human Human Interaction?

Passionate about...

now

Overwhelming senses

Obtrusive

Difficult to use

Time-Consuming

Technology & People Coexisting

Information Age: information is the most valuable asset today

Recent explosion of different ‘Natural User Interfaces’: a steptowards Ubiquitous Computing

Designers’ conceptual models ≠ Users’ mental models

New research area: where design, psychology, IT and environment meetThere is little research on how to better integrate information intourban fabric and citizens’ daily lives

why?

Driving Forces

To Address UX Problems

Information overload and inaccessibility: terabytes generated daily, but are unavailable or in unusable form;

Context: information lacks metadata, context. Underperforming;

Multicultural adaptiveness: not designed for international users (e.g., same color, opposite meaning);

Standards and seamlessness: lack of integration in the urban fabric No interaction standards (e.g., e-ticket interoperability);

objectives

researchplan

Society

IT

Information

DesignUrban

Environment

Urban UX Dimensions

The city as an integrated“System of Products”

Connected nodes Hypermedia

Each place studied as anInteractive Productby itself

‘Information System’ concept

researchplan

New Concept

Tokyo, Japan

Make it attractive(Richard Florida)

Apply Brand Experience

researchplan

If the city is a product...

Define its usability, flaws and where and what is in need of redesign:

Usability Heuristics

Iterative Cycle model

(Kaizen改善)

Apply to where information…

…is being collected

…is being displayed

…is being acted upon

Results in tune with

people’s needs

Requirement Analysis

Design for Requirements

Prototype

Evaluate with Users

Innovative Approach

researchplan

Describe how citizens use their city - ethnographic perspective:urban behaviors (e.g., IC card, keitai), mobility (e.g., study crowds with fluid mechanics)

Evaluate usability of existent urban information systems:

using interactive application evaluation heuristics

Develop design guidelines using previous studies:specific to urban technologies, improving interaction with information

Assess guidelines’ usability with real users:in order to certify that developed guidelines are better suited to citizens’ needs

Apply research in influential project(s)

Main Tasks (derived from the Iterative Cycle)

researchplan

To limit the scope of my research. For that…

Trying to find the main problems to solve. For that…

Trying to understand what is happening in urban areas now.

recentfocus

Earbuds Various gradients of privacy in public space.

Not responding to what’s happening around her/him.

Deflect attention. Means “I’m already busy”.

City Soundtrack.

Tool to organize space/time and the boundaries around the body in public space.

recentfocus

recentfocus

Earbuds Various gradients of privacy in public space.

Not responding to what’s happening around her/him.

Deflect attention. Means “I’m already busy”.

Tool to organize space/time and the boundaries around the body in public space.

“Smart City” Is it good? Ethical implications.

Analyzing and matching patterns to predict.

“Too Smart City”? Where to stop?

recentfocus

Envelopes of the city: Boundary between privately owned andpublic space.

A platform for information sharing,interface to inform citizens.

Where to place interfaces?: Flux of humans. Engagement.

Scale: Macro -> Micro. Quantitative -> Qualitative

recentfocus

Space Sharing:

How people sit.

What are the rules of space sharing.

Where/Which places are preferable.

Why does it happen the way it does. Psychological/social/environmental reasons?

Choice?Always next to someone.

t 2D:1D:

People distribution through space – math model?

Where do people agglomerate?

recentfocus

Illusion of separation

After knowing the primary reason, other, seemengly differentspaces can be better designed.

Same rules may apply.

Sitting in a train = sitting on a bench in a park / lining up for ATM = lining up for a restaurant

recentfocus

Two kinds of experiments:

Pre-existing urban digital or analog artifacts 1st - observe users and requirements (people interacting with something pre-existent);

2nd - design for those requirements;3rd - prototype (several different designs);

4th - test with real users

nextsteps

After: Experiments

New innovative design from scratch

1st – formulate hypothesis (e.g.: use other ways of communication other than visual representation? Unobtrusive and location-based sound, light, haptics);

2nd – design;

3rd - prototype (several different designs);

4th - test with real users

nextsteps

Mapping patterns of urban cognitive activity using Brain-Computer Interface - University of Texas, Austin

Comparative study, Portugal / Japan Urban UX- CENSE (Center for Environment and Sustainability Research)

SBST IRIS project, Integrated Urban Model to simulate behavior/mobility- SMART (MIT-Singapore Alliance for Research and Technology).

nextsteps

Potential Collaborations

Ultimately:

Make the city and information systems

easier to understand

pleasant to use

responsive to society’s needs.

summary

sonyCSL

Thank You