In this post I would like to discuss the circles in Google+ based on our recent experience designing InterruptMe. First of all, I got very happy when I saw that Google+ has the circles because it validates the approach we proposed for InterruptMe, which is that people has assymetric relationships, and assymetric not only because…
The last week I received the notification of acceptance for the two papers we worked on so hard in the spring. The first one was submitted to Ubicomp and it’s about the Rabbit a fantastic project where I have been doing hardware, software, interaction techniques, UI design, etc. In this paper I collaborated with Aurelien…
One day before starting my enrollment as a PhD student I was called for a project meeting at Aarhus where I learnt what my project was going to be about: “Design a good user interface for using the new grid technology and displaying the large amount of data in a simple manner. In addition, the…
The PhoneVortex is a little project that came to me during a coffee break and I couldn’t help but implement it. The basic idea is that by using a tabletop you can have a much bigger UI for your phone.
A phenomenological perspective on interaction (like Heidegger’s or Merleau-Ponty’s) describes it as a loop, where the interaction is followed by feedback, and this one triggers refletion that supports the understanding of the interaction and thereby of the system. This new understanding iteratively shapes the following interactions with the system, leading to the formation of mental models about the systems’…
Ubiquitous computing technologies, according to Weiser’s vision, fade in the background of user’s attention. This has been discussed as invisibility, and the discussion continues on whether this invisibility is physical, as when sensors are hidden or embedded in everyday products, or psychological, as when the engagement of the user with the technology is such that…
TagCloud from my thesis proposal Latex source!
This year at CHI 2010, there was a very interesting paper+panel about infrastructures in HCI research called “The Infrastructure Problem in HCI“. The paper identifies different types of user experience difficulties caused by underlying infrastructures. The central conclusion of the paper was a call for the HCI community to become more involve in creating technical…
I began my participation in CHI2010 in Atlanta, USA, participating in the workshop “Bridging the Gap: From Contextual-Analysis to Design“. At the session I presented our position paper on contextual analysis for infrastructure awareness, and to my satisfaction it was very well received. Later on, we divided into groups and mine worked on the subject…
For our work on GridOrbit we developed both software and hardware. One very simple, yet very useful, piece of hardware is the ProximityBar, which is a set of ultrasonic sensors that capture the distance of the nearest object to the public display. We are using the ProximityBar to infer the presence of people in from…
I am taking a PhD course on Interaction Design which I am finding very fun and interesting, even though I am the less qualified of the attendees and certainly the only one with, borrowing from one of the readings, a positivist background. For the next session I have to present a set of readings which…
Hello All, As a good salesman is to be able to push his product in a few lines, researchers are expected to present their work in a few lines as well. The hypothetical case is to be in the elevator and meet that famous professor you want to pay a visit in his lab. He…
I have got multiple friends who are coming back home to Colombia after a work season abroad. And since I plan to do so sometime in the future, I am very interested in hearing about their “coming back” home, and specially the job market. Most of them are very disappointed after their first weeks because…
Some weeks ago, I took part in the Doctoral Colloquium of the Pervasive 2009 conference. For getting into it, I had to write a 8 pages paper describing what I have been doing and the expected results. Everything looked nice and easy, it was going to be a plain presentation and simple discussion. However, before…
Hello All, Next week I will be attending the Ubiquitous Computing Spring School at the University of Nottingham. According to the programme it’s going to be such cool experience (they even asked us to bring our swimming suits for the pool at the hotel’s spa). They also asked us to bring a poster for our…
Hello All, OK, I know I have been pretty quite lately with this blog, but today I will tell you what has been keeping me busy. First of all: University. I have just been notified that my PhD work has been accepted for the Doctoral Colloquium at Pervasive 2009 in Nara, Japan. You can just…
Another great TED speech. Regards, Juan David
Grid computing as been “the power behind” many applications. Grid solutions have covered services from file sharing, to web serving, to high load algorithm execution. Grid architectures have been traditionally those of server farms and clusters. However, recent works try to use P2P networks in the construction of grids with highly distributed and heterogeneous computers. …
This is my first persona construction according to Lene Nielsen’s parameters: Scott MacScience Jensen is a 28 years old 3rd year PhD student. He is rather tall, fit body, and always very formally dressed. He is single, but lives together with his girlfriend Marie in an apartment close to the university in Aarhus. He and…
The usage of Personas in Interaction Design initiatives has been my focus of reading the last few days. However, I have mainly focused on the works of Cooper and Nielsen. Today I was given a lead about a more pragmatical short paper presented at the NordicCHI 2008 titled “Personas: From Theory to Practices“. I strongly…
Juan David Hincapié-Ramos 