Browsing by Author "Voida, Amy"

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    Asymmetry in Media Spaces
    (2008) Greenberg, Saul; Voida, Amy; Voida, Stephen; He, Helen Ai
    In any collaborative system, there are symmetries and asymmetries present in both the design of the technology and in the ways that technology is appropriated. In typical CSCW research and development, however, there seems to be more focus on supporting and fostering the symmetries than the asymmetries. Throughout more than 20 years of media space research, for example, there has been a recurrent theme - researchers pursuing increased symmetry, whether achieved through technical or social means. The research literature on the use of contemporary awareness systems, in contrast, displays little if any of this emphasis on symmetrical use; indeed, this body of research occasionally highlights the perceived value of asymmetry. In this paper, we unpack the different forms of asymmetry present in both media spaces and contemporary awareness systems. We argue that just as asymmetry has been demonstrated to have value in contemporary awareness systems, so might asymmetry have value in CSCW research system development, as well. To illustrate, we present a media space that emphasizes and embodies multiple forms of asymmetry and does so in response to the unique needs of a particular work context.
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    Collocated Intergenerational Console Gaming
    (2009-06-24T21:54:18Z) Voida, Amy; Greenberg, Saul
    We present results from a multi-generational study of collocated group console gaming. We examine the intergenerational gaming practices of four generations of gamers, from ages 3 to 83 and, in particular, the roles that gamers of different generations take on when playing together in groups. Our findings highlight the extent to which existing gaming technologies are amenable to interactions within collocated intergenerational groups and the broader set of roles that have emerged in these computer-mediated interactions than have previously been documented by studies of more traditional collocated, intergenerational interactions. We articulate attributes of the games that encourage intergenerational interaction.
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    Communication, Collaboration, and Bugs: The Social Nature of Issue Tracking in Software Engineering
    (2009-06-16T15:50:52Z) Bertram, Dane; Voida, Amy; Greenberg, Saul; Walker, Robert
    Issue tracking systems help organizations manage issue reporting, assignment, tracking, resolution, and archiving. Traditionally, it is the Software Engineering community that researches issue tracking systems, where software defects are reported and tracked as ‘bug reports’ within an archival database. Yet issue tracking is fundamentally a social process and, as such, it is important to understand the design and use of issue tracking systems from that perspective. Consequently, we conducted a qualitative study of the use of issue tracking systems by small, collocated software development teams. We found that an issue tracker is not just a database for tracking bugs, features, and inquiries, but also a focal point for communication and coordination for many stakeholders within and beyond the software team. Customers, project managers, quality assurance personnel, and programmers all contribute to the shared knowledge and persistent communication that exists within the issue tracking system. We articulate various real-world practices surrounding issue trackers and offer design implications for future systems.
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    The individual and the group in console gaming
    (ACM, 2010) Voida, Amy; Carpendale, Sheelagh; Greenberg, Saul
    In this paper, we present results from a study of collocated group console gaming. We focus, in particular, on observed gaming practices that emphasized the individual gamer within a gaming group as well as practices that emphasized the gaming group as a whole. We relate each of these practices, where possible, to specific elements of the game design including game mechanics, interaction design, and special effects design. We argue that the classic distinction between competitive and cooperative modes of gameplay does not fully transfer to account for the interpersonal dynamics within collocated gaming groups.
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    The Mii and the Wii: Emphasizing the Individual and the Group in Console Gaming
    (2009-06-19T22:29:10Z) Voida, Amy; Carpendale, Sheelagh; Greenberg, Saul
    In this paper, we present results from a study of collocated group console gaming. We focus, in particular, on observed gaming practices that emphasized the individual gamer within a gaming group as well as practices that emphasized the gaming group as a whole. We relate each of these practices, where possible, to specific elements of the game design, including game mechanics, interaction design, and special effects design. We argue that the classic distinction between competitive and cooperative modes of gameplay does not transfer to fully account for the interpersonal dynamics of collocated gaming groups.
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    Supporting Emergency Shelter Staff: The Co-Design and Deployment of a Human-Centred Data-Navigation Interface
    (2024-06-14) Masrani, Teale; He, Helen Ai; Messier, Geoffrey; He, Helen Ai; Messier, Geoffrey; Dimitropoulos, Georgina; Voida, Amy
    This thesis presents insights from a year-long co-design study with frontline staff at an emergency housing shelter in Canada: The Calgary Drop-In Centre. The homelessness sector encounters high rates of staff turnover due to mental health issues. If these issues interrupt important frontline work, vulnerable clients could miss the opportunity to escape homelessness. While prior research in HCI focuses on designing technology to be used by those experiencing homelessness, I focus on how to design tools to support the frontline staff at emergency shelters. As part of their program-delivery, staff at the Drop-In Centre hold weekly meetings to decide how to move forward with clients who have threatened shelter safety. These discussions are strenuous as staff must consider all aspects of the incident to make a fair decision. During these meetings, staff navigate through an abundance of data about each interaction clients have with the shelter. Navigating through this large volume of data is burdensome, especially since making these decisions already bears a high cognitive and emotional load. Therefore, I collaborated with the Drop-In Centre to co-design and deploy an interactive data-navigation interface for these collaborative decision-making meetings about vulnerable clients. While co-designing the new tool, a design ethnography methodology was employed to understand the role that data and technology play in decision-making, and identify takeaways for future work. From June, 2022, to November, 2023, I conducted one-on-one interviews with staff, facilitated group co-design workshops, engaged in field observations, and elicited feedback on three iterations of the tool. Reflexive thematic analysis was employed to generated themes regarding how staff experience the tool, and their perceived benefits and challenges of using data to make high-stakes decisions about clients. Based on these themes, I articulate high-level design implications. This work emphasizes the need for designers and HCI researchers to consider (1) the degree to which users are willing to outsource their decision-making processes to data, and (2) users' differing preferences for rich, granular data, compared to abstracted visualizations and aggregate measures. The insights gained from this work are transferable to other human-centred organizations where staff make high-stakes, data-driven decisions about their clients.
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    Three Perspectives for Evaluating Human-Robot Interaction
    (2010-03-19T19:34:32Z) Young, James; Sung, JaYoung; Voida, Amy; Sharlin, Ehud; Igarashi, Takeo; Christensen, Henrik; Grinter, Rebecca
    The experience of interacting with a robot has been shown to be very different in comparison to people's interaction experience with other technologies and artifacts, and often has a strong social or emotional component { a fact that raises concerns related to evaluation. In this paper we outline how this difference is due in part to the general complexity of robots' overall context of interaction, related to their dynamic presence in the real world and their tendency to invoke a sense of agency. A growing body of work in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) focuses on exploring this overall context and tries to unpack what exactly is unique about interaction with robots, often through leveraging evaluation methods and frameworks designed for more-traditional HCI. We raise the concern that, due to these differences, HCI evaluation methods should be applied to HRI with care, and we present a survey of HCI evaluation techniques from the perspective of the unique challenges of robots. Further, we have developed a new set of tools to aid evaluators in targeting and unpacking the holistic human-robot interaction experience. Our technique surrounds the development of a map of interaction experience possibilities and, as part of this, we present a set of three perspectives for targeting specific components of interaction experience, and demonstrate how these tools can be practically used in evaluation.
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    Wii All Play: The Console Game as a Computational Meeting Place
    (2008-09-25T17:01:01Z) Voida, Amy; Greenberg, Saul
    In this paper, we present results from a qualitative empirical study of collocated group console gaming. We focus on motivations for, perceptions of, and practices surrounding the shared use of console games by a variety of established groups of gamers. These groups include both intragenerational groups of youth, adults, and elders as well as intergenerational families. Our analysis highlights the numerous ways in which console games serve as a computational meeting place for a diverse population of gamers.
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    Wii all play: the console game as a computational meeting place
    (ACM, 2009) Voida, Amy; Greenberg, Saul
    In this paper, we present results from a qualitative study of collocated group console gaming. We focus on motivations for, perceptions of, and practices surrounding the shared use of console games by a variety of established groups of gamers. These groups include both intragenerational groups of youth, adults, and elders as well as intergenerational families. Our analysis highlights the numerous ways that console games serve as a computational meeting place for a diverse population of gamers.