Paul Cairns
University of York, Computer Science, Faculty Member
Human-Computer Interaction draws on the fields of computer science, psychology, cognitive science, and organisational and social sciences in order to understand how people use and experience interactive technology. Until now, researchers... more
Human-Computer Interaction draws on the fields of computer science, psychology, cognitive science, and organisational and social sciences in order to understand how people use and experience interactive technology. Until now, researchers have been forced to return to the individual subjects to learn about research methods and how to adapt them to the particular challenges of HCI. This is the first book to provide a single resource through which a range of commonly used research methods in HCI are introduced. Chapters are authored by internationally leading HCI researchers who use examples from their own work to illustrate how the methods apply in an HCI context. Each chapter also contains key references to help researchers find out more about each method as it has been used in HCI. Topics covered include experimental design, use of eyetracking, qualitative research methods, cognitive modelling, how to develop new methodologies and writing up your research.
The aim of this paper is to report the patterns that emerged as a result of conducting two studies: first, a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) that investigated Agile and User Centred Design Integration (AUCDI) challenges, strategies and... more
The aim of this paper is to report the patterns that emerged as a result of conducting two studies: first, a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) that investigated Agile and User Centred Design Integration (AUCDI) challenges, strategies and success factors and included a total of 71 AUCDI experience reports, lessons learned, and success and failure AUCDI case studies. Second, an interview study that investigated challenges and practices faced by industrial AUCDI attempts. The patterns that emerged are related to various aspects of the integration process, for example, design, prioritizing User Centred Design (UCD) activities, usability testing, UCD practitioners, documentation and communication between the customer and the development team.
Research Interests:
Agile development processes and User Centred Design (UCD) integration have been gaining increased interest, in part due to the complementarity of the techniques, the benefits each can apply to the other, and the challenges associated with... more
Agile development processes and User Centred Design (UCD) integration have been gaining increased interest, in part due to the complementarity of the techniques, the benefits each can apply to the other, and the challenges associated with their combination. This paper describes a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) that was conducted on Agile and UCD integration. The aim of this SLR was to identify various challenging factors that restrict Agile and User Centred Design Integration (AUCDI) and explore the proposed practices to deal with them. The study included a total of 71 papers and excluded 80 papers published from the year 2000 till 2012. AUCDI challenges and their respective proposed practices and success factors were synthesized. A description and taxonomy of AUCDI challenges and its respective success factors and practices were reported. Practitioners can utilise the results in identifying potential AUCDI challenges and practices or success factors to deal with them.
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This workshop re-opens the discussion of the challenges faced by academia when preparing students to take jobs in industry. The workshop's goal is to develop a framework by which academia and industry can better communicate and... more
This workshop re-opens the discussion of the challenges faced by academia when preparing students to take jobs in industry. The workshop's goal is to develop a framework by which academia and industry can better communicate and resolve their differing needs and goals. The workshop will provide practical guidance for academia and industry to take forward and continue the dialogue.
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HCI methods and tools are often used cross-culturally before being tested for appropriateness and validity. As new tools emerge, they must be cross-culturally validated to ensure that they work with all audiences, not just those in the... more
HCI methods and tools are often used cross-culturally before being tested for appropriateness and validity. As new tools emerge, they must be cross-culturally validated to ensure that they work with all audiences, not just those in the country in which they were developed. This paper presents the validation of a technology acceptance model over nine culturally-diverse countries. The model validated is the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). The paper also explores ongoing analysis of the culture ...
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Two studies were designed to identify cross-cultural patterns of mobile phones usage and preferences for User Interfaces among Korean and British users.. The first study was a quantitative study (Questionnaires analysed by factor... more
Two studies were designed to identify cross-cultural patterns of mobile phones usage and preferences for User Interfaces among Korean and British users.. The first study was a quantitative study (Questionnaires analysed by factor analysis), whose results demonstrated the two groups have different frustrations with and are satisfied by different aspects of mobile phone. The second study was a qualitative study (User Evaluation), which showed different values and focuses on different aspects of the User Interface.
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In the past, remote user testing has offered promising results when compared to its local counterpart. Nonetheless, the comparison studies conducted insofar have relied on small independent samples, measuring key metrics and have not... more
In the past, remote user testing has offered promising results when compared to its local counterpart. Nonetheless, the comparison studies conducted insofar have relied on small independent samples, measuring key metrics and have not focused on the qualitative objectives of user testing. The current study addresses these issues in order to reinforce the efficiency of the remote method in the key metrics but to also examine its ability to reveal qualitative data. Mainly, our data suggests that remote user testing requires more time to ...
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Two studies were designed to identify cross-cultural patterns of mobile phones usage and preferences for User Interfaces among Korean and British users.. The first study was a quantitative study (Questionnaires analysed by factor... more
Two studies were designed to identify cross-cultural patterns of mobile phones usage and preferences for User Interfaces among Korean and British users.. The first study was a quantitative study (Questionnaires analysed by factor analysis), whose results demonstrated the two groups have different frustrations with and are satisfied by different aspects of mobile phone. The second study was a qualitative study (User Evaluation), which showed different values and focuses on different aspects of the User Interface.
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Research Interests:
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This paper investigates how hand-held technology might be used to augment existing electronic programme guides (EPGs), to better support television planning. Using the results of a television planning diary study, we developed and... more
This paper investigates how hand-held technology might be used to augment existing electronic programme guides (EPGs), to better support television planning. Using the results of a television planning diary study, we developed and evaluated design concepts to allow users to learn about potentially interesting programmes via their mobile as well as using recommendations from family and friends. We present results
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Number entry is a ubiquitous activity and is often performed in safety- and mission-critical procedures, such as healthcare, science, finance, aviation and in many other areas. We show that Monte Carlo methods can quickly and easily... more
Number entry is a ubiquitous activity and is often performed in safety- and mission-critical procedures, such as healthcare, science, finance, aviation and in many other areas. We show that Monte Carlo methods can quickly and easily compare the reliability of different number entry systems. A surprising finding is that many common, widely used systems are defective, and induce unnecessary human error. We show that Monte Carlo methods enable designers to explore the implications of normal and unexpected operator behaviour, and to design systems to be more resilient to use error. We demonstrate novel designs with improved resilience, implying that the common problems identified and the errors they induce are avoidable.
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Given the proliferation of devices like infusion pumps in hospitals, number entry and in particular number entry error is an emerging important concern in HCI. There are clearly design features that could greatly improve accuracy in... more
Given the proliferation of devices like infusion pumps in hospitals, number entry and in particular number entry error is an emerging important concern in HCI. There are clearly design features that could greatly improve accuracy in entering numbers but the context of the task could also play an important role. In particular, the emotional state of a person is known to strongly influence their response to a difficult situation and hence the errors that they make. In this paper, we consider the impact of the emotional state of the user on the accuracy with which people enter numbers. Our experiment shows that participants who are in a more positive emotional state are more accurate. The effect is small but could be very important when considering the potentially highly-charged emotional contexts where many healthcare devices are used.
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ABSTRACT Questionnaires are commonly used to measure attitudes toward systems and perceptions of search experiences. Whilst the face validity of such measures has been established through repeated use in information retrieval research,... more
ABSTRACT Questionnaires are commonly used to measure attitudes toward systems and perceptions of search experiences. Whilst the face validity of such measures has been established through repeated use in information retrieval research, their reliability and wider validity are not typically examined; this threatens internal validity. The evaluation of self-report questionnaires is important not only for the internal validity of studies and, by extension, increased confidence in the results, but also for examining constructs of interest over time and across different domains and systems. In this paper, we look at a specific questionnaire, the User Engagement Scale (UES), for its robustness as a measure. We describe three empirical studies conducted in the online news domain and investigate the reliability and validity of the UES. Our results demonstrate good reliability of the UES sub-scales; however, we argue that a four-factor structure may be more appropriate than the original six-factor structure proposed in earlier work. In addition, we found evidence to suggest that the UES can differentiate between systems (in this case, online news sources) and experimental conditions (i.e., the type of media used to present online content).
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In this cross-sectional study, we investigated the influence of personal BMI on body size estimation in 42 women who have symptoms of anorexia (referred to henceforth as anorexia spectrum disorders, ANSD), and 100 healthy controls. Low... more
In this cross-sectional study, we investigated the influence of personal BMI on body size estimation in 42 women who have symptoms of anorexia (referred to henceforth as anorexia spectrum disorders, ANSD), and 100 healthy controls. Low BMI control participants over-estimate their size and high BMI controls under-estimate, a pattern which is predicted by a perceptual phenomenon called contraction bias. In addition, control participants' sensitivity to size change declines as their BMI increases as predicted by Weber's law. The responses of women with ANSD are very different. Low BMI participants who have ANSD are extremely accurate at estimating body size and are very sensitive to changes in body size in this BMI range. However, as BMI rises in the ANSD participant group, there is a rapid increase in over-estimation concurrent with a rapid decline in sensitivity to size change. We discuss the results in the context of signal detection theory.
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ABSTRACT The controls for digital games understandably have an important part in building up the gaming experiences that people have. Whilst there is substantial work on innovative controllers for consoles, like the XBox Kinect,... more
ABSTRACT The controls for digital games understandably have an important part in building up the gaming experiences that people have. Whilst there is substantial work on innovative controllers for consoles, like the XBox Kinect, relatively little has been done to understand the effect of the different control mechanisms that can be used to play games on mobile devices like smartphones. A well-defined framework of naturalness has emerged as potentially useful concept in area of game controllers. This paper reports two experiments that look at how the naturalness of the game controls influences the experience of immersion in mobile games. It seems that where there is an a prior natural mapping, this will improve immersion in the game but in the absence of a prior mapping, naturalness alone is not sufficient to account for immersion. This opens up the need for a more thorough investigation of this area.
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ABSTRACT Agile development processes and User Centred Design (UCD) integration have been gaining increased interest, in part due to the complementarity of the techniques, the benefits each can apply to the other, and the challenges... more
ABSTRACT Agile development processes and User Centred Design (UCD) integration have been gaining increased interest, in part due to the complementarity of the techniques, the benefits each can apply to the other, and the challenges associated with their combination. This paper describes a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) that was conducted on Agile and UCD integration. The aim of this SLR was to identify various challenging factors that restrict Agile and User Centred Design Integration (AUCDI) and explore the proposed practices to deal with them. The study included a total of 71 papers and excluded 80 papers published from the year 2000 till 2012. AUCDI challenges and their respective proposed practices and success factors were synthesized. A description and taxonomy of AUCDI challenges and its respective success factors and practices were reported. Practitioners can utilise the results in identifying potential AUCDI challenges and practices or success factors to deal with them.
Research Interests:
Abstract. Music is an integral feature of most, if not all, computer games. Games soundtracks are carefully composed to optimise the gaming experience. Given this, one would expect there to have been an abundance of academic research... more
Abstract. Music is an integral feature of most, if not all, computer games. Games soundtracks are carefully composed to optimise the gaming experience. Given this, one would expect there to have been an abundance of academic research investigating how music affects the gaming experience. Although there have been a few studies (eg in Sanders and Cairns1 where the impact of listener's enjoyment of the music was shown to significantly impact on gamers' levels of immersion), research in this area is still fairly minimal. This poster ...
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Abstract: Interaction with a machine is different in a vast number of ways from interacting with a person. For the most part such interactions must be treated separately and it is a positive characteristic that the person is aware that... more
Abstract: Interaction with a machine is different in a vast number of ways from interacting with a person. For the most part such interactions must be treated separately and it is a positive characteristic that the person is aware that he/she is interacting with a machine. Yet we pose the suggestion that human-machine interactions could be enhanced if the machine were endowed with the human-like trait ofliveness'(derived from performance theory) while at the same time avoiding the hazard of Mori's Uncanny Valley (derived from robotics). We report ...
ABSTRACT Promoting ethical, responsible, and caring behavior in young people is a perennial aim of education. Schools are invited to include moral teaching in every possible curriculum. Efforts have been made to find non-traditional ways... more
ABSTRACT Promoting ethical, responsible, and caring behavior in young people is a perennial aim of education. Schools are invited to include moral teaching in every possible curriculum. Efforts have been made to find non-traditional ways of teaching such as games or role play or engaging students in moral dilemmas. However, classroom environments need to consider time constraints, curriculum standards, and differing children's personalities. Computer systems can offer rich environments that detect and respond to ...
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Abstract The ACM and IEEE are currently revising their joint Computer Curriculum. The purpose of this workshop is to discuss and formulate a context for the HCI component of the undergraduate curriculum in terms of the current teaching... more
Abstract The ACM and IEEE are currently revising their joint Computer Curriculum. The purpose of this workshop is to discuss and formulate a context for the HCI component of the undergraduate curriculum in terms of the current teaching practices of HCI educators. The goals of the workshop are to provide rich methods for capturing pedagogical content knowledge that would support HCI educators using the revised curriculum in their teaching.
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A post-completion error is a specific form of omission error occurring after some task goal has been accomplished - for example, forgetting to collect your original after photocopying. Using a novel experimental paradigm, this study... more
A post-completion error is a specific form of omission error occurring after some task goal has been accomplished - for example, forgetting to collect your original after photocopying. Using a novel experimental paradigm, this study demonstrates the cognitive robustness of post- completion error: that it occurs not only in routine procedural tasks but also in problem-solving situations. The effect of
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ABSTRACT Over the past 30 years science has played a key role in shaping and advancing research in Human-Computer Interaction. Informed in part by methods, theories and findings from the behavioral sciences and from computer science,... more
ABSTRACT Over the past 30 years science has played a key role in shaping and advancing research in Human-Computer Interaction. Informed in part by methods, theories and findings from the behavioral sciences and from computer science, scientific contributions to HCI have provided explanations of how and why people interact through and with technology. We argue that the contribution of science to HCI could be enhanced if key challenges are met. During a SIG meeting we will discuss the challenges and potential responses and set an agenda for the coming years.
ABSTRACT Previous research into the experience of videogames has shown the importance of the role of challenge in producing a good experience. However, defining exactly which challenges are important and which aspects of gaming experience... more
ABSTRACT Previous research into the experience of videogames has shown the importance of the role of challenge in producing a good experience. However, defining exactly which challenges are important and which aspects of gaming experience are affected is largely under-explored. In this paper, we investigate if altering the level of challenge in a videogame influences people's experience of immersion. Our first study demonstrates that simply increasing the physical demands of the game by requiring gamers to interact more with the game does not result in increased immersion. In a further two studies, we use time pressure to make games more physically and cognitively challenging. We find that the addition of time pressure increases immersion as predicted. We argue that the level of challenge experienced is an interaction between the level of expertise of the gamer and the cognitive challenge encompassed within the game.
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Abstract The workshop aims to help researchers share experience and expertise on the use of video games as research instruments in HCI and related disciplines. It will focus on existing uses, methodologies, results and issues with using... more
Abstract The workshop aims to help researchers share experience and expertise on the use of video games as research instruments in HCI and related disciplines. It will focus on existing uses, methodologies, results and issues with using video games, and is expected to lead to a better shared understanding of their current and future use across a variety of disciplines.
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ABSTRACT Immersion is a phenomenon experienced whilst playing digital games. Some argue that it is linked to time perception, where gamers claim that they are losing track of time while they are immersed in the game. In this work in... more
ABSTRACT Immersion is a phenomenon experienced whilst playing digital games. Some argue that it is linked to time perception, where gamers claim that they are losing track of time while they are immersed in the game. In this work in progress, we describe an attempt to investigate the relationship between immersion and time perception. We manipulated attention because it is known to influence immersion and time perception differently. The results suggest that the experimental manipulation only affects time perception but not immersion. We therefore argue that there is a dissociation between immersion and time perception but further work is needed to investigate this in detail.
A post-completion error is a specific form of omission error occurring after some task goal has been accomplished - for example, forgetting to collect your original after photocopying. Using a novel experimental paradigm, this study... more
A post-completion error is a specific form of omission error occurring after some task goal has been accomplished - for example, forgetting to collect your original after photocopying. Using a novel experimental paradigm, this study demonstrates the cognitive robustness of post- completion error: that it occurs not only in routine procedural tasks but also in problem-solving situations. The effect of