S. C. Edwards and P. D. Ritsos, “A Framework for Modelling Human Emotion,” in Workshop on Computational Modeling in Human-Computer Interaction, CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (ACM CHI 2019), Glasgow, UK, 2019. This paper describes the design of a modular framework, for constructing models of interacting systems. In particular, systems that can adapt and have different objectives; we also consider that these objectives could be of an emotional/hedonistic form. To that end, we introduce Pask’s conversation theory, and Boyd’s thoughts on decision making under uncertainty. In conclusion we describe modes of studying interacting systems.
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J. W. Mearman, P. W. S. Butcher, P. D. Ritsos, and J. C. Roberts, “Tangible papercraft visualisations for education,” in Workshop on Troubling Innovation: Craft and Computing Across Boundaries Workshop, CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (ACM CHI 2019), Glasgow, UK, 2019. We have been exploring how papercraft can be used to create ‘data physicalisations’ of student data, which act as physical artefacts and data sculptures that can be used in discussions. Papercrafting is cheap and quick to produce, and easily disposed of. Papercrafting student data is powerful as it acts as a focal point for discussions about the progression of their students and the effects of any extenuating circumstances. During such meetings teachers often reference spreadsheets and dashboard visualisations to explore the data. They focus and shift their attention to individual students, often commenting on individual performance and circumstances in turn. Tangible depictions, such as the ones we present, can be passed around, facilitating discussions, and can act as a focal-point for conversation. We present several prototypes and discuss our design process.
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J. C. Roberts and P. D. Ritsos, “Critical Thinking Sheets: Encouraging critical thought and sketched implementation design,” in EduCHI 2019 Symposium: Global Perspectives on HCI Education, CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (ACM CHI 2019), Glasgow, UK, 2019. Learners are often asked to create an interface as part of their course. For example, they could be asked to “create a calculator”, “develop a stopwatch” or “develop an image processing app”. But students often struggle to know how to start. At the same time, teachers want their students to think critically about their assignments and plan how they will build an interface. We have developed, and used for two academic years, a structured “critical thinking sheet (CTS)”. It is a method to help students consider a problem from different views, and help them critically consider different aspects of the task. The sheet gets the learners to (1) sketch the solution, (2) explain the challenge, (3) detail system components, (4) list algorithmic steps, and (5) explain next steps and issues of implementation. In this paper we introduce the sheet, explain how we have used it, and discuss learner experience.
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