Video podcast

Congratulations to Kah Liu on passing his Master’s Thesis defense! He passed a few weeks ago, but we wanted to put video up!

Thesis: Measuring Display Interaction in Presence of Context Information

Committee:
Don Patterson (Chair)
Gillian Hayes
Chen Li

Traditional directory kiosks present users with common facilities information that may be difficult to understand because it is out of the context of the user. Our study implements contextual information onto a kiosk display and studies the user interaction with context information.

Our study is separated into four phases to precisely measure the interactions of the
traditional kiosk display system and compare the results to the interactions on a
contextual kiosk system. Phase One was designed to establish a baseline for the
interactions with the traditional display. Phase Two determined the effects of moving the display in location with a higher amount of traffic. Phase Three studied the interactions with a contextual display with search and compared the quantitative data with the previous phases. Phase four is exit interviews to gather qualitative data on the contextual kiosk display.

Our results show that contextual data is welcomed by patrons of the display. However,
there are many concerns surrounding the validity, generalization, and subjectivity of the information. Many felt uncomfortable using the context due to their unfamiliarity with
the system. Even with concerns, patrons used context more when it was available and
interviewees rated a contextual display higher than a display with traditional facilities
information.

Congrats Kah!!