The Think Aloud Protocol (TAP) is a verbalisation technique widely employed in HCI user studies to give insight into user experience, yet little work has explored the impact that TAPs have on participants during user studies. This paper utilises a brain sensing technique, fNIRS, to observe the e↵ect that TAPs have on participants. Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a brain sensing technology that o↵ers the potential to provide continuous, detailed insight into brain activity, enabling an objective view of cognitive processes during complex tasks. Participants were asked to perform a mathematical task under 4 conditions: nonsense verbalisations, passive concurrent think aloud protocol, invasive concurrent think aloud protocol, and a baseline of silence. Subjective ratings and performance measures were collected during the study. Our results provide a novel view into the e↵ect that di↵erent forms of verbalisation have on workload during tasks. Further, the results provide a means for estimating the e↵ect of spoken artefacts when measuring workload, which is another step towards our goal of proactively involving fNIRS analysis in ecologically valid user studies.

All organisations face the challenge of how to assess performance beyond current financial metrics. These challenges are felt especially strongly by social enterprises, organisations that use business methods to achieve social goals. Social enterprises need to evidence superior social outcomes, are normally accountable to a complex range of stakeholders and yet are often rated low to medium in terms of organisational capacitythus whilst they have a great need for rounded measurement, they may in practice lack the ability to make use of the different approaches on offer.This paper examines the current and potential use of the conventional Balanced Scorecard model, by social enterprises. The Adventure Capital Fund provides case study evidence of extensive use of a modified Scorecard. The model used is dynamic, combining reflection on the organisation's current position, 'near term' and long term issues.Experience to date suggests that the medium term snapshot provided by the Scorecard is the most valuable, allowing organisations and especially boards and senior executives to keep a 'strategic grip' in a period of rapid change and focus on those actions that have best chance of changing performance in the round.

This paper explores the design space of bio-responsive entertainment, in this case using a film that responds to the brain and blink data of users. A film was created with four parallel channels of footage, where blinking and levels of attention and meditation, as recorded by a commercially available EEG device, affected which footage participants saw. As a performance-led piece of research in the wild, this experience, named #Scanners, was presented at a week long national exhibition in the UK. We examined the experiences of 35 viewers, and found that these forms of partially-involuntary control created engaging and enjoyable, but sometimes distracting, experiences. We translate our findings into a two-dimensional design space between the extent of voluntary control that a physiological measure can provide against the level of conscious awareness that the user has of that control. This highlights that novel design opportunities exist when deviating from these two-dimensions -when giving up conscious control and when abstracting the affect of control. Reflection on of how viewers negotiated this space during an experience reveals novel design tactics.

Smart pervasive sensor networks are becoming an important part of our daily lives. Low-power, high-availability and high-throughput 5G mobile networks provide the necessary communication means for highly pervasive sensor networks, introducing a technological disruption to health monitoring. The meaningful use of large concurrent sensor networks in healthcare requires multi-level health knowledge integration with sensor data streams. In this paper, we highlight some software engineering and data-processing issues that can be addressed by metamorphic testing. The proposed solution combines data streaming with filtering and cross-calibration, use of medical knowledge for system operation and data interpretation, and IoT-based calibration using certified linked diagnostic devices.

No abstract

A note on versions:The version presented here may differ from the published version or from the version of record. If you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher's version. Please see the repository url above for details on accessing the published version and note that access may require a subscription. ABSTRACTRecent efforts have shown that functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) has potential value for brain sensing in HCI user studies. Research has shown that, although large head movement significantly affects fNIRS data, typical keyboard use, mouse movement, and non-task-related verbalisations do not affect measurements during Verbal tasks. This work aims to examine the Reliability of fNIRS, by 1) confirming these prior findings, and 2) significantly extending our understanding of how artefacts affect recordings during Spatial tasks, since much of user interfaces and interaction is inherently spatial. Our results show that artefacts have a significantly different impact during Verbal and Spatial tasks. We contribute clearer insights into using fNIRS as a tool within HCI user studies.

No abstract

Purpose It is possible for civil engineering (CE) students to graduate from a degree programme without gaining experience on a construction site. The implementation of virtual field trips using virtual reality (VR) in CE education is a development that can address this phenomenon and help facilitate the consolidation of abstract theories into tangible competences. This project aims to solve a fundamental CE education problem: once a structure has been completed, it is often impossible to see how it was built; hence, how can you demonstrate the construction process to a student? Design/methodology/approach This research used the opportunity of a new campus library development to record its construction sequence. This was achieved by visiting the site eight times to take panoramic stereoscopic photos of the construction process. By its nature, using VR as a didactic tool facilitates experiential learning, but this project also incorporates discovery learning and situated cognition to develop students’ understanding of the construction process. Findings The use of VR in education is becoming increasingly common, but the explicit pedagogy used in these environments is rarely obvious or stated. This project draws upon current VR education discussions and explores the development of a VR environment with a pedagogical context. Originality/value The development of the VR resource draws upon the pedagogical frameworks of discovery learning (Bruner, 1961) and situated cognition (Lave and Wenger, 1991). A further unique aspect of this research is the use of stereoscopic cameras to capture the library’s construction over time.