Computing and Information Systems - Theses
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ItemDown the superhighway in a single tome: understanding information browsing and how to support it online( 2018)The term browsing can refer to a number of different activities, particularly when it comes to information behaviour. It has been used to refer to web browsing; the act of moving from one information source to another assimilating information along the way, or citation chaining, moving through a network of articles that cite each other in the hope of discovering new information. It also refers to what might be termed collection browsing, the act of examining a related group of things and selecting some for further examination later. It is this latter form of browsing I address in this thesis. Browsing is a natural part of the human information seeking process, recognised in all the major models of information seeking behaviour. Browsing is particularly useful when an information need is loosely defined, when an information seeker is assessing an information source, or when they are looking for inspiration or serendipity. One information type that is commonly mentioned when discussing browsing is books, perhaps because the library shelves are so supportive of browsing. It is notable that—in contrast to search—browsing has been the subject of little research, and is largely unsupported online. In an age of increasing information digitsation—90% of the books in Australian university libraries are now ebooks—information seekers’ options for approaching information problems are vastly reduced. While a number of systems to support browsing have been developed in recent years, none of them have seen the wide uptake of search—despite information seekers’ insistence that browsing is important. This low uptake is perhaps because—despite its known importance—we do not really understand what browsing behaviour is. This thesis attempts to address the thorny problem of browsing, focusing particularly on library browsing. The approach taken is three-pronged. First, quantitative analysis of library borrowing records of physical and digital books is used to demonstrate the impact of browsing on borrowing behaviour. It is clear from this analysis the shelf location affects the borrowing of physical books, just as the observational literature has suggested it might; it is also clear that ebooks are not borrowed in the same patterns. Next, an observational study in two libraries is used to understand both the physical actions and the overall strategic behaviours involved in shelf browsing. Based on this a typology of browsing strategies has been developed. Thirdly, using this typology and our understanding of the physical behaviours used in browsing, a set of system design recommendations is presented. These recommendations are compared to existing systems that have been described as supporting browsing, including recommender systems, search result lists, and a number of bespoke browsing systems, demonstrating that no system meets the requirements of browsing as an information behaviour. The contribution of this thesis is a new theory of browsing behaviour, incorporating both the physical actions and overall strategies of browsers. It further describes several new requirements for browsing-supportive information systems, and a new conceptualisation of browsing as a behaviour.
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ItemBetween cardboard and computer: the hobbyist experience of modern boardgames( 2018)Boardgames date back to at least 3500 BCE, yet little attention has been paid to the experience of playing them. Today, boardgames are increasingly popular, with increasing visibility in popular culture as well as significant increases in sales. Although they are sometimes dismissed as an activity for children, boardgames have attracted dedicated hobbyists who have accrued significant knowledge of the practices, mores, history and culture of boardgaming. The aim of this thesis is to understand how hobbyists experience and practice boardgaming. In particular, the thesis seeks to understand how serious leisure hobbyists describe and define their hobby and how this guides and informs their practices. Further, I explore the effects of digitisation on the hobby, and the role of the boardgame’s materiality not only in hobbyists’ descriptions of their practices but also during play. I achieve this aim through a mixed-methods, constructionist, qualitative, approach which privileges the opinions and behaviours of hobbyist boardgamers and intentionally examines gaming from the different perspectives of games, gamers and gaming. In doing so, I address a significant gap in the understanding of boardgames as playable, played artefacts and as a site of interaction. Study 1 focuses on digitisation of boardgames. In this study I identified three key tensions around the conversion of boardgames to digital format, where boardgamers’ and developers’ priorities and wishes conflict. I argue that these tensions can inform not only the digitisation of boardgames but also the development of natively digital games. Study 2 focuses on hobbyist boardgamers. I found that hobbyist boardgamers enjoy sociality, intellectual challenge, variety, and materiality in boardgaming, and identified a range of specialist practices that create and reflect hobbyist expertise. This study examines some of the differences between hobbyist and casual boardgamers. It shows that the values that hobbyist boardgamers espouse are reflected and embedded in their hobbyist practices. Study 3 focuses on the experience of play. This study examined and observed the play of boardgames. It shows that the materiality that hobbyist boardgamers value so highly plays an important role in the overall cognitive system of the game. Moreover, it shows that even competitive play is a deeply and fundamentally cooperative activity. Through these three studies, I highlight that materiality plays an important role not only in the physicality of a boardgame, but in hobbyist boardgamers’ enjoyment of and enthusiasm for their hobby and in the play of a boardgame. I broaden the focus of boardgame research to see the game as more than an artefact but also an assemblage of play. The thesis contributes a deep understanding and rich description of the experience of play as a site of distributed cognition, and of cooperation, as game rules and components, players, and situated activities and interactions are combined and negotiated. It demonstrates that cooperation is a necessary enabler of competitive play, and that it permeates the spectrum of play activities. This has ramifications not only for the design of boardgames but for the design of digital games and of other collaborative activities.
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ItemSupporting bodily communication in video consultations of physiotherapy( 2018)Physiotherapists are increasingly organising video consultations to support their patients over-a-distance. Physiotherapy is all about movements, and physiotherapists work on improving the subtle differences in the movements to restore the functioning of the affected body part. However, there exists a limited understanding on how physiotherapists assess and treat patient’s movements over video particularly when the limitations of video technology in mediating bodily information are already known. This thesis attempts to fill the gap by investigating how interactive technologies can support physiotherapists in understanding the patient’s bodily information during video consultations. To address this question, I conducted three studies each employing a different methodology. Study 1 examined the challenges that physiotherapists face in interpreting patients’ bodily information during video consultations through a field study. This study highlighted that video technology limits physiotherapists in understanding subtle differences in patient’s movements particularly related to lower limbs. Findings of this study guided the development of a research prototype, SoPhy - a wearable technology that monitors lower limb movements of patients over-a-distance. SoPhy consists of two parts: (1) a pair of socks with embedded sensors that captures patient’s movements; and (2) a web-interface that displays information about weight distribution, range of movement, and foot orientation to physiotherapists in real-time. Study 2 and 3 were focused on the evaluation of the developed prototype first in the laboratory through experimental research, and then in the hospital setting through field deployments. Study 2 showed that SoPhy increased the diagnostic confidence of physiotherapists in assessing lower limb movements over video. And Study 3 showed that SoPhy enhanced the clinician-patient communication, and guided more accurate assessment and treatment of the patients during video consultations. This thesis makes four contributions: First, it provides a detailed understanding of how bodily communication is employed by physiotherapists during video consultations. Secondly, it develops an understanding of the limitations of video technology in supporting the tasks of physiotherapists. The third contribution is a novel technology, SoPhy, that communicates information of patient’s weight distribution patterns over-a-distance to support physiotherapists in their clinical tasks. Finally, the thesis demonstrates that the efficacy of physiotherapists to assess and treat patients over video can be enhanced by using sensing technologies like SoPhy. The thesis aims to stimulate interest in designing novel technologies that can support effective assessment and treatment of body movements over-a-distance.