For the occasion of the publishing of our report on the quality of eGovernment in Switzerland (see details), I find worthwhile recalling that, in the context of a project aimed at raising the skills and the awareness on user-centered design in the Italian public administration, Lorenzo Cantoni and I have designed and developed 2 multimedia tutorials (requiring 30' study effort each), one on "designing for usability" and one on "evaluating usability", with specific examples for public administration website project managers, web masters and designers.
The tutorials are in italian and freely accessible:
>>> Designing for Usability
>>> Evaluating Usability
The tutorials frame usability and user experience design in the context of web communication and requirements understanding.
Friday, February 22, 2008
The Quality of eGovernment in Switzerland - New Report Published!
The TEC-Lab at the University of Lugano has just published a report (in italian, french and german) about the status of the eGovernment in Switzerland, particularly from a communication and usability perspective.
I have prepared the final report, which extracts the key finding of 3 studies which have been recently conducted by research centers in Switzerland to assess the quality of eGovernment in terms of citizens' satisfaction, information and servide offer, and future development.
Report online and Press Release >>>>>>>
I have prepared the final report, which extracts the key finding of 3 studies which have been recently conducted by research centers in Switzerland to assess the quality of eGovernment in terms of citizens' satisfaction, information and servide offer, and future development.
Report online and Press Release >>>>>>>
Herman Hesse Storytelling Series - by TEC-Lab, University of Lugano and Politecnico di Milano
>>>> Storytelling about Herman Hesse - just publihsed (in italian): Alla Ricerca della Verità
La serie editoriale Hermann Hesse è sviluppata in collaborazione tra l’Università della Svizzera italiana (TEC-Lab), il Politecnico di Milano (HOC-Lab) e la Fondazione Hermann Hesse Montagnola. L’obiettivo principale di queste narrazioni è di diffondere la cultura del Museo Hermann Hesse, in un modo sia informativo che di intrattenimento.
La serie comprende delle narrazioni su temi generali legati alla vita di Hesse e alla sua opera creativa, in connessione alle mostre che verranno organizzate presso il Museo Hermann Hesse a Montagnola (Collina d’Oro). Il formato narrativo consiste in una serie di “storie” che presentano i vari temi dell’argomento prescelto. In ogni storia, una narrazione audio è accompagnata da immagini evocative. Questo formato consente di conoscere l’argomento prescelto in un modo rilassato, grazie all’ascolto della narrazione audio e al susseguirsi delle immagini.
Per chi volesse saperne di più, è possibile accedere a un livello più approfondito di informazioni.
Grazie alla tecnologia resa disponibile al TEC-Lab dal Politecnico di Milano, ogni titolo sarà fruibile come sito web, un numero di files iPod e un CD-ROM. Questo formato è già stato implementato con successo in varie altre applicazioni prodotte dal TEC-Lab e dal Laboratorio HOC (alcuni esempi sono disponibili in rete sul sito www.policultura.it/beniculturali.htm).
>>>> Storytelling about Herman Hesse - just publihsed (in italian): Alla Ricerca della Verità
La serie editoriale Hermann Hesse è sviluppata in collaborazione tra l’Università della Svizzera italiana (TEC-Lab), il Politecnico di Milano (HOC-Lab) e la Fondazione Hermann Hesse Montagnola. L’obiettivo principale di queste narrazioni è di diffondere la cultura del Museo Hermann Hesse, in un modo sia informativo che di intrattenimento.
La serie comprende delle narrazioni su temi generali legati alla vita di Hesse e alla sua opera creativa, in connessione alle mostre che verranno organizzate presso il Museo Hermann Hesse a Montagnola (Collina d’Oro). Il formato narrativo consiste in una serie di “storie” che presentano i vari temi dell’argomento prescelto. In ogni storia, una narrazione audio è accompagnata da immagini evocative. Questo formato consente di conoscere l’argomento prescelto in un modo rilassato, grazie all’ascolto della narrazione audio e al susseguirsi delle immagini.
Per chi volesse saperne di più, è possibile accedere a un livello più approfondito di informazioni.
Grazie alla tecnologia resa disponibile al TEC-Lab dal Politecnico di Milano, ogni titolo sarà fruibile come sito web, un numero di files iPod e un CD-ROM. Questo formato è già stato implementato con successo in varie altre applicazioni prodotte dal TEC-Lab e dal Laboratorio HOC (alcuni esempi sono disponibili in rete sul sito www.policultura.it/beniculturali.htm).
>>>> Storytelling about Herman Hesse - just publihsed (in italian): Alla Ricerca della Verità
ACM ICD'08 Workshop on Marginalized Young People: Inclusion Through ICT
INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP CALL FOR PAPERS
"MARGINALIZED YOUNG PEOPLE: INCLUSION THROUGH ICT"
held at
ACM IDC 2008 - Interaction Design and Children, Chicago - USA, June 11-13, 2008
For more information on the workshop >>>
For more information on ACM IDC 2008 >>>>
Poverty, not belonging to the mainstream culture and language, lack of
competences, and lack of motivation are some of the main factors for
exclusion of young people from full participation in Western societies. As
several empirical studies show, all young people tend to use digital
technologies increasingly, but big differences exist in how they are using
digital media. At the individual level and, more and more, at the social
level, many young people today live in both worlds: the physical world, and
the virtual world that ICT makes accessible “anytime, anywhere”. As this
trend continues, It becomes crucial to explore these new kind of digital
divide that is arising among young generations, which does not result from
having no or limited access to ICT, but is produced by remaining only a
user vs. becoming a critical actor who can exploit virtual experiences in
order to increase his or her cultural, social and even economic capital.
The workshop aims at bringing together technologists, empirical
researchers, designers, educators, sociologists, or decision-makers in any
domain involving young people, to explore together some of the following
issues.
· What are main factors of exclusion from positive participation in
Digital Media activities?
· How can ICT solutions and learning environments for inclusion
look like?
· What success stories/best practices can be told about positive
impacts of ICT in these young people’s lives?
A selection of the best papers from the workshop will be published in the
ACM IDC’08 proceedings and at the ACM digital library, and will be
presented during the main conference.
SUBMISSION
Workshop position papers submission should be made electronically in PDF
format, and may be up to 4 pages formatted according to the anonymous
abstract template
Position papers should be submitted not later than 3 March 2008 (6:00pm
PST) directly to workshop organizers:
Franca Garzotto (Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy)
ORGANIZERS
Prof. Franca Garzotto (contact person)
HOC - Hypermedia Open Center, Department of Electronics and Information,
and School of Industrial Design, Politecnico di Milano, Milan (Italy)
Prof. Dr. Heidi Schelhowe
DiMeB: Digital Media in Education, Center for Computing Technologies
(TZI)Informatik, University of Bremen, Bremen (Germany)
PROGRAM COMMITTEE
Davide Bolchini, University College London, UK
Antonella De Angeli, The University of Manchester, United Kingdom Nicoletta Di Blas, Politecnico di Milano Françoise Decortis, University of Liège Tal Drori, Holon Institute of Technology, Holon, Israel Piero Fraternali, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Kaj Grønbæk, University of AArhus, Denmark Barry Harper, University of Wollongong, Australia Ole Iversen University of Aarhus, Denmark Rosa Lanzilotti, University of Bari (Italy) Fabio Paterno’, ISTI-CNR, Pisa, Italy Caterina Poggi, University of Wisconsin, USA Simos Retalis, University of Piraeus, Greece Thomas C. Reeves, University of Georgia, USA Francesca Rosella, CuteCircuit, Stockholm, USA Gustavo Rossi, La Plata National University Argentina Elisa Rubegni, University of Lugano, Switzerland Mikael B. Skov, Aalborg University, Denmark Karsten Wolf, University of Bremen, Germany
Paper submitted to 2008 Hypertext Conference: "Investigating Success Factors for Hypermedia Development Tools"
We have just submitted a full paper to the Hypertext Conference 2008:
Paper abstract:
<< What are the key factors that contribute to the “success” of a hypermedia development tool? We have investigated this issue in the context of non ICT professional environments (e.g., schools or small museums), which have limited “in-house” technical competences and must cope with very limited budget. The paper discusses a set of success factors that can be relevant for hypermedia tools devoted to the above target, and presents a tool for multichannel hypermedia development that we designed in our lab having these factors in mind. We discuss the success of our system and report a wide empirical study in which the different success factors have been measured. >>
Paper by Davide Bolchini, Franca Garzotto, Paolo Paolini.
Paper abstract:
<< What are the key factors that contribute to the “success” of a hypermedia development tool? We have investigated this issue in the context of non ICT professional environments (e.g., schools or small museums), which have limited “in-house” technical competences and must cope with very limited budget. The paper discusses a set of success factors that can be relevant for hypermedia tools devoted to the above target, and presents a tool for multichannel hypermedia development that we designed in our lab having these factors in mind. We discuss the success of our system and report a wide empirical study in which the different success factors have been measured. >>
Paper by Davide Bolchini, Franca Garzotto, Paolo Paolini.
Article submitted to IEEE Requirements Engineering Conference: "Evaluating Communication Requirements"
We have just submitted a full paper to the IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference about Evaluating Communication Requirements -
here is the abstract for the submitted paper:
<< As it is important to elicit communication requirements for systems (such as websites and multimedia applications) with persuasion goals towards its users, it is even more crucial to be able to assess at which degree the expected communication impact has been achieved. On the basis of previous work and successful experience in communication requirements analysis, this paper presents a method to evaluate the fulfilment of communication requirements of content-intensive multimedia applications. The evaluation method is based on a lightweight set of value-driven conceptual tools and on a straightforward process that involves both communication and requirements experts, as well as final end users. With respect to existing evaluation methods focusing on usability requirements, our approach targets the communication effect of the design on the user experience and considers a number of aspects that go beyond pure ease of use. The paper presents our method, discusses a real life project in which it has been adopted, and reports an empirical study that has been carried on to validate its quality. >>
Paper submitted by Davide Bolchini, Franca Garzotto, Paolo Paolini and Elisa Rubegni.
here is the abstract for the submitted paper:
<< As it is important to elicit communication requirements for systems (such as websites and multimedia applications) with persuasion goals towards its users, it is even more crucial to be able to assess at which degree the expected communication impact has been achieved. On the basis of previous work and successful experience in communication requirements analysis, this paper presents a method to evaluate the fulfilment of communication requirements of content-intensive multimedia applications. The evaluation method is based on a lightweight set of value-driven conceptual tools and on a straightforward process that involves both communication and requirements experts, as well as final end users. With respect to existing evaluation methods focusing on usability requirements, our approach targets the communication effect of the design on the user experience and considers a number of aspects that go beyond pure ease of use. The paper presents our method, discusses a real life project in which it has been adopted, and reports an empirical study that has been carried on to validate its quality. >>
Paper submitted by Davide Bolchini, Franca Garzotto, Paolo Paolini and Elisa Rubegni.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
SciVee.tv - Pioneering New Modes of Scientific Dissemination
An innovative way to share scientific research - by video-publishing papers (PubCasts) and researchers presenting their findings...a growing paradigm?
It seems promising so far and surely successfull in terms of exposure of a publsished scientific paper (look at the NUMBERS of views) or maybe for not yet published papers, or in its infancy).
http://www.scivee.tv/
It seems promising so far and surely successfull in terms of exposure of a publsished scientific paper (look at the NUMBERS of views) or maybe for not yet published papers, or in its infancy).
http://www.scivee.tv/
TED - Ideas Worth Spreading: Incredibly Inspiring Talks from an annual unique conference
TED VIDEO talks are now available online at www.ted.com >>>>
from TED.com
<<
TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.
The annual conference now brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).
TED.com makes the best talks and performances from TED available to the public, for free.
>>
Thursday, January 24, 2008
2008 Horizon Project Report just published (by New Media Consortium)
The Horizon Project yearly publishes a report illustrating key state-of-the-art advances and trends in new media technologies, and their use for education, learning and creative thinking.
The report is full of interesting links to new tools and applications, as well as to experiences from universities and organizations worldwide.
The 2008 Horizon Report has just been published and is available on the New Media Consortium Website >>>>>>>
Hot topics are:
* video communication
* collaborative webs
* mesh-ups
* and much more.....
The report is full of interesting links to new tools and applications, as well as to experiences from universities and organizations worldwide.
The 2008 Horizon Report has just been published and is available on the New Media Consortium Website >>>>>>>
Hot topics are:
* video communication
* collaborative webs
* mesh-ups
* and much more.....
New article published:"Simple, Fast, Cheap: Success Factors for Interactive Multimedia Tools"
I just got one paper published on PsyhNology Journal, on low-cost multimedia development: Read the paper >>>>
Abstract:
This paper discusses key factors contributing to the “success” of interactive multimedia development tools in non ICT professional contexts.
We define “success” in terms of acceptability and large scale usage by entities and institutions who may need to build interactive multimedia artifacts but do not have technical competences “in-house” and must cope with very limited financial resources.
Schools or museums, for example, may want to exploit interactive multimedia for communication or educational purposes, but are bound to many resource-related constraints. In this perspective, we argue that simplicity, low-cost,
and ultra short “time-to-market” are key requirements for interactive multimedia development tools to be accepted and widely adopted by non ICT professionals.
To support his claim, we illustrate an exemplary tool that meets these requirements and was developed at our lab within the Policultura Project.
The tool was successfully used by cultural heritage experts in Italian small museums and by over 1300 students of 55 schools in Italy, and brought important educational and social benefits to all stakeholders involved.
Abstract:
This paper discusses key factors contributing to the “success” of interactive multimedia development tools in non ICT professional contexts.
We define “success” in terms of acceptability and large scale usage by entities and institutions who may need to build interactive multimedia artifacts but do not have technical competences “in-house” and must cope with very limited financial resources.
Schools or museums, for example, may want to exploit interactive multimedia for communication or educational purposes, but are bound to many resource-related constraints. In this perspective, we argue that simplicity, low-cost,
and ultra short “time-to-market” are key requirements for interactive multimedia development tools to be accepted and widely adopted by non ICT professionals.
To support his claim, we illustrate an exemplary tool that meets these requirements and was developed at our lab within the Policultura Project.
The tool was successfully used by cultural heritage experts in Italian small museums and by over 1300 students of 55 schools in Italy, and brought important educational and social benefits to all stakeholders involved.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Monday, January 14, 2008
Videos from our students in Lugano...studying new media and IDM....(videos are in italian)
Our undergraduate students at the University of Lugano post these nice videos
after the "hard-working" course of new media....
after the "hard-working" course of new media....
Facebook and Usability - by Jared Spool
Usability challenges and lessons learned at Facebook - told by Jared Spool from User Interface Engineering >>>
Design for “Infosuasive” Web Applications - paper to be presented at WWW2008 conference
We just got a paper accepted at the "World Wide Web 20008 International Conference".
Here is the paper abstract:
Value-Driven Design for “Infosuasive” Web Applications
Davide Bolchini, Franca Garzotto, Paolo Paolini
An infosuasive web application is mainly intended to be at the same time informative and persuasive, i.e., it aims at supporting knowledge needs and it has also the (declared or not declared) goal of influencing user’s opinions, attitudes and behaviors. Most web applications, in fact, are infosuasive (with the exception of those the aim of which is mainly operational).
In this paper, we investigate the complex set of elements that inform the very early design of infosuasive web applications. We propose a conceptual framework aimed at supporting the actors involved in this process (strategic decision makers, marketers, business managers, brand designers, communication designers, graphic designers, information architects, technology experts) to integrate their different viewpoints, to organize the variety of issues that need to be analyzed, to find a direction in the numerous design options, and to finally represent the results of this activity in an effective way.
Our approach is value-driven since it is centered around the concept of communication value, regarded as a vehicle to fulfill communication goals on specific communication targets. We place the analysis of these aspects in the wider context of web requirements analysis, highlighting their relationships with business values analysis and user needs analysis. We pinpoint how values and communication goals impact on various design dimensions of infosuasive web application - contents, information architecture, interaction, operations, and lay-out. Our approach is multidisciplinary, and was inspired by goal-based and value-based requirements engineering (often used in web engineering), to brand design (often used in marketing), and to value-centered design “frameworks” (as proposed by the HCI community). A case study exemplifies our methodological proposal, discussing a large project in which we are currently involved.
by the way, the conference features outstanding keynote speakers ("outstanding" at least by their title) >>>
Communications of the ACM - new! DIGITAL edition
browse the fully digital edition of CACM, in its new - magazine-like - design:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
How FAST is Facebook growing?
Facebook CEO and Founder presentation to FaceBook developers...
http://developers.facebook.com/videos.php
The NUMBERS of Facebook are just....impressive.
Nielsen and Web 2.0: will they get along?
the usability guru says that web2 is a demonstration that "what's hyped is rarely what's most profitable". However, this is the destiny of the major innovation that drove the web to what it is.
It is true that web2 adds complexity to "traditional" information architecture and usability principles striving for simplicity. Still, web2 apps are heavily used by millions of users everyday, suggesting that the usability (in its traditional view)can be overcome when other drivers (social cohesion and stickiness) are running the business.
It is true that web2 adds complexity to "traditional" information architecture and usability principles striving for simplicity. Still, web2 apps are heavily used by millions of users everyday, suggesting that the usability (in its traditional view)can be overcome when other drivers (social cohesion and stickiness) are running the business.
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