Research and Design

PhD Thesis: A Young Nomad's Guide to New Digital Terrains 

  • The Swarm patent is the result of research conducted by Dr Christine Satchell for her PhD thesis A Young Nomad's Guide to New Digital Terrains.  
  • The research investigated what users wanted from their mobile phones in order to inform the design of new technology 
  • Conducted in conjunction with RMIT University, the Smart Internet Technology CRC and The University of Melbourne.  
  • Led to a series of patents, mobile phone prototypes, tier A publications and extensive media coverage.  

Abstract

In the early twenty first century, the mobile phone plays an integral role in helping young people shape their identity and achieve social goals. This means that designers of mobile phones are not only creating an artefact that will have a functional purpose for the end user, but one that will be saturated with cultural meanings. In response, the research conducted for this thesis aims to investigate the use of mobile phones in youth cultures so the social and cultural intricacies of interactions can be understood. Consistent with a user centred design approach, the insights from the user study are applied to the development of new technology. The result is the development of The Swarm; a patened mobile phone prototype that meets the specific social and cultural needs of the young users in the study. Integral to this is the development of a methodological approach that embeds cultural theory within Human Computer Interaction and more specifically, the user centred design process.

The User Study

Three Year Anthropological Investigation
  • The research spanned three years and took the form of an ongoing anthropological investigation of mobile phone users in Melbourne, Australia. 
  • The focus was not on the use of technology; but on the culture that underpinned use. 
  • This was reflected in the data which revealed that user needs were not about technology; they were about culture, style, fashion, identity, friendship and deceit. 
  • Translating such complex and subtle user needs into design called for a philosophical framework to contextualize these nuances of mobile culture.  A unique methodological approach was called for. 

Methodology
  • The Swarm research and design process is dedicated to understanding the cultural nuances of everyday user behavior in order to inform the design of new technology. 
  • Integral to this is the development of a methodological approach that embeds Cultural Theory within Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and User Experience Design (UX). 
  • The development of this method was in itself significant as it represented a departure from the dominant, lab based approaches to understanding users at the time.
  • Informed by the influences of French critical theorists such as Baudrillard, Deleuze and Guttari, and Barthes, the approach led to a nuanced understanding of mobile phone users that uncovered not only what they were doing, but also why they were doing it.

Findings

Translating User Needs into Design Implications 
  • The process of translating user needs into design implications was assisted by the use of the method which used cultural theory to interpret the data and helped address the problem by bringing in a level of theoretical abstraction that allowed the necessary ‘creative leap’ between user needs and design implications to be made. 
  • The data revealed what participants were doing and the additional cultural theory analysis provided insights into why they were doing it and what the implications for future interaction might be.

Emerging Themes User Needs and Design Implications
Four distinct emerging themes, user needs and corresponding design implications emerged.  These User Needs and Design Solutions were then embodied by the Swarm Scenario Prototype.

1. Emerging Theme: Disconnected Physically but Connected Digitally 
  • User Need: Young people are living increasingly fragmented lives. Mobile phones can provide cohesion.​
  • Design Implication: The mobile phone becomes a virtual  home base where you can always be found. The user is represented in their virtual lounge room by an avatar that shows them as being engaged in a specific activity.

2. Emerging Theme: Reducing Unnecessary Interactions
  • User Need: Users want connectivity not constant contactability.
  • Design Implications: Avatars depict the users’ current activity. As the activity changes, the avatars update accordingly. See at glance what your friendships network are doing. Draw on social and cultural etiquette before calling. Gives serendipity a nudge by facilitating interactions that may not have occurred.

3. Emerging Theme: Facilitate Multiple Identities
  • User Need: Just as in real life, we represent ourselves differently in digital space  according to the context of the situation.
  • Design Implication: The avatars can be  expressed simultaneously in a range of context, displaying a different status to individuals or groups. 

 4. Emerging Theme: Adding Context and Personalization
  • User Need: The convergence of cameras and mobile phones means users can create their ‘ideal digital self’ for social communication.
  • Design Implication: Capture and display up to the minute pictures to customize the look of the phone to make it reflect a continual digital representation of  real life.

The Swarm Future Use Scenario Prototype

  • The Swarm Scenario-Prototype provides a narrative that tells the story of use which provides a meta-description of the way the depicted technology operates.
  • It was found that the use of this technique helps to prevent ‘conceptual drift’ and contributed to a common understanding within the design group. 
The scenario is presented in full here.

Usability Studies

Traditional Usability Studies
  • The Swarm prototype was tested with groups of employees working within three companies. These included an Engineering and Mining Firm; A Television Network; and a Digital Marketing Company.  
  • The longest of these tests was with the engineering firm who used The Swarm for six months. 
  • The study found that the ability of The Swarm to help remote engineers connect and share information with the relevant contacts in the city was an important feature that had relevance in new and unexpected contexts.

Usability Study by Media
The contribution of this research can be viewed from the perspective of potential users in terms of analysing how they responded to the media coverage. 
  • At least 50 web sites, including New Scientist, Yahoo India, Netscape and IEEE have sprung up discussing the Swarm. 
  • This has led to bloggers testing out the interactive web version and reporting back on its social and cultural usability. 
  • This Internet chatter has been catalogued and provides valuable insights into what aspects of the Swarm are ‘user friendly’. The process of analyzing the web sites, blogs and discussion threads not only helps to ensure the rigor of the current prototype, it brings in a new set of users whose needs can be incorporated into the next iteration of the prototype thus further democratizing the design process. Selected screen shots of Swarm related media coverage, reviews, discussion threads and blog extracts are presented in the Media Section.

The process of analyzing the web sites, blogs and discussion threads reveals a common theme, best encapsulated by Yahoo India’s banner, “A cell phone system that shows you are at work while being at a party.” It would seem that at a time when the convergence of mobile technologies, intelligent environments and ubiquitous computing is heightening a culture of surveillance, The Swarm allow users to control their digital presence, what information they are revealing about themselves and to whom. This suggests that we now have a ‘synthetic world’ where we can redefine ourselves and our ability to control what our digital identity is revealing about us is vitally important. 

Prototypes, Publications, Media Coverage and Usability

The research lead to a series of Prototypes,Tier A Publications, and extensive Media Coverage.