Computing and Information Systems - Theses
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ItemSupporting the User Experience of Running with Mixed Reality Stories( 2019)Mixed reality stories (MRS) are stories designed to create a mixed reality experience with particular activities, such as running. A wide commercial success of a mixed reality stories designed for running suggested that such a format could provide unique benefits compared to other kinds of mixed reality systems. Yet little is known about how the user experience of running with mixed reality stories can be supported. This thesis aims to address this problem. To reach this aim I conducted three empirical qualitative studies. Study 1 explores the experience of running with an existing commercially successful mixed reality story. In this study, 11 participants ran with the MRS for three weeks and reported on their experience via semi-structured open-ended interviews before and after the trial, along with keeping a running diary throughout the study. The study helped to evaluate which aspects are most significant for constructing the user experience of MRS, how runners balance different aspects on the go, the importance of participants’ attitudes towards running, and also indicated that MRS format is different from both conventional audiobooks and traditional mixed reality systems. Study 2 focuses on how creative writers address running when working on the stories. During this study, three writers created three distinct stories with different approaches to connecting the physical and virtual worlds. Semi-structured discussions with the writers, along with the analysis of the stories they created helped to understand the differences between the approaches they used, and how writers repurpose familiar story mechanics for addressing running. Finally, Study 3 examines how runners perceive mixed reality stories. In it, 36 participants completed 45 runs with the three MRS created in the previous study. Similarly to Study 1, their experience was captured via semi-structured open-ended interviews after their runs. The findings of the study introduced four stages of story perception and revealed how such perceptions depend on participants’ personal relationships with running. Moreover, Study 3 validated, clarified, connected and extended findings from the first two studies, thus bringing the thesis to closure. Overall, this thesis addresses the gap in our understanding in how the user experience of running with mixed reality stories can be supported by clarifying how MRS are different from both traditional stories and other mixed reality systems, and how they enhance running by providing welcome distractions and by changing the meaning of the running. It suggests how runners balance different aspects of a complex experience by voluntarily engaging when it suits them. Finally, it breaks down the three most significant aspects of the MRS experience—running, story and MRS elements—to provide more understanding of how they work, and suggests how these insights could be used in practice.
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ItemDigital technologies and encounters with zoo animals( 2019)Zoos worldwide are beginning to deploy digital technologies for both visitors and animals. Such installations include interactive signage for visitors and touchscreen computers for animal cognition research. Zoos present animals in carefully crafted settings, with the aim of inspiring visitors’ respect and concern for wildlife. However, little is known about the effects that digital technologies can have on visitors’ encounters with zoo animals. This thesis addresses this knowledge gap by investigating the design of digital technology that might support zoos in shaping visitors’ perceptions of animals. Through four studies, different methodological approaches are brought to bear on this question. This thesis commences by surveying the broader context of the zoo, through a first study which investigates digital technologies at a selected zoo. This case study examines the deployment and use of interactive systems against deeper themes relating to the zoo’s mission and exhibit design intentions. The outcomes of this study reveal tensions related to the introduction of digital displays within the naturalistic setting that zoos construct. The second study focuses on a particular design project to identify the special considerations relating to design of animal interactives, digital technologies to be used by zoo animals. Research through design approaches are adopted to examine the co-design of an interactive installation for use by orangutans. From this study emerge twelve considerations for designing animal interactives in zoos. These considerations respond to zoos’ visitor engagement strategies, animal interaction aims, and constraints associated with conducting iterative design in the zoo setting. The third study continues the trajectory of design, providing a formative evaluation of the animal interactive. This study, conducted as part of the design process, examines how the design intentions manifest in Study 2 were realised in visitors’ responses to the installation. Interviews conducted with visitors at the exhibit reveal a variety of cognitive and emotional forms of empathetic responses. Study 3 brings into focus the concept of belief in animal mind as a significant aspect of people’s responses to seeing animal interaction, motivating the subsequent evaluation of effects on perceptions of animal minds. The fourth study comprises a systematic evaluation of the effects of the animal interactive on visitors’ perceptions of animals. Study 4 combines qualitative methods to probe deeper notions of belief in animal mind, and quantitative methods to measure the effects of the animal interactive. This final study of the thesis entails a field experiment, to compare perceptions of visitors who witnessed use of the animal interactive to those of a control group who did not. In the final Discussion, four themes are developed which transect the studies. Addressing the social dimensions of animal-human-computer interaction, digital technology in naturalistic settings, anthropomorphism, and interactive design with animals, these themes respond to contemporary challenges for the field of animal-computer interaction.