Reflections by Susie Wee

Alex Vorbau is a true believer of social technology. He uses social technology in all aspects of his daily life and his career, and he even focussed his work blog on Social Technology Innovation. But, he had a bad experience that made him question his beliefs. Take a look at his blog post on Thoughts on Anonymous Cowards. Alex started a legitimate web business with his wife. Someone out there decided that they didn’t like his business, so much that they decided that they would try to sabotage it. They used the very same social web technologies that Alex develops, but they used it against him, and, they hid behind the anonymity of the internet to do it. This really is an example of social web technology gone bad.

I love how social web technology gives everyone a voice. I love that people can publish information with the click of a button. I love that people can post comments, both positive and negative, about what they read. I love the rich world-wide user-generated information pool that social web technology creates. And, I love that I can contribute to it with my own comments and my own blog posts. But what do we do when people abuse the freedom that social web technology has given them?

The social web world is an amazing self-governed community, self-governed by writers and readers. If I am honest in my posts, I feel I am rewarded by appreciation from blog readers. If I am dishonest in my posts, I feel I will get corrected by the blog community. And, if I admit to and correct my errors, I feel the community will forgive me and allow me to rebuild my credibility. I think blogging teaches you to be open, honest, and thoughtful. While as a blogger I am open about my identity, I actually like the fact that blog readers can post comments anonymously, especially when it helps them be honest about something they feel deeply about and can’t express openly.

But what do you do when anonymity gets abused? What do you do when anonymous cowards attack well-meaning people?

Do we start developing social web technologies that don’t allow anonymity? Do we start developing tools that limit or inhibit information sharing? Do we start developing tools to police the abusers?

I can’t help think about the amount of social web innovation that is lost by attacking and demotivating well-meaning social web users and social web innovators. I wonder if the anonymous cowards realize the impact of what they are doing. What should we do?

Last week I was on a panel on “HCI for Multimedia Communications” at the ICME 2007 conference in Beijing. The organizers and panelists were as follows:

Title

• HCI for Multimedia Communications

Organizers

• Qiong Liu, FX Palo Alto Laboratory, USA
• Zhengyou Zhang, Microsoft Research, USA

Panelists

• Zhengyou Zhang, Microsoft Research, USA
• Tom Huang, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
• John Weng, Michigan State University, USA
• Susie Wee, Mobile & Media Systems Lab, HP Labs
• Arnold Smeulders, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands
• John Smith, Watson Research Center, USA

We kicked off with each panelist stating their position on the topic, and then went into Q&A with the audience. The panelists contributed a variety of perspectives and the audience raised many interesting questions. Below are a few of my thoughts that I shared in the discussion.

Coupling experience with technology: When we think about multimedia communication, we should start from the user experience, and then think about the technology to enable it. There should be a close coupling between experience design and the enabling technologies.

Existing communication experiences: Technology can recreate existing communication experiences in situations where it is not possible. For example, technology can recreate effective face-to-face conversations for people who are geographically distant, as in HP’s Halo virtual collaboration system.

New communication experiences: Technology can also be used to enable new comunication experiences for people. For example, instant messaging, blogging, photo sharing, and social networking are examples of new types of communication experiences that did not exist without the enabling technology.

Experience- Many simultaneous communication threads: HCI for multimedia communications should consider the new ways that people communicate, and specifically account for today’s multitasking world where many communication threads are used simultaneously. For example, it is common for people to be reading email, browsing the web for research, getting instant messages, and getting phone calls simultaneously.

Experience- Share experiences instantly: As I was in Beijing, I constantly took photos and uploaded them to Facebook for my friends and family to see. They were able to share my Beijing experience while I was still there. We take this capability for granted today, but note that this was not so easy to do a few years ago.

Experience- Anyone can publish instantly: On top of sharing photos instantly, I can also publish instantly with my blog. In other words, I can create a publication at the click of button for the world to see without asking anyone for help or permission. This has a few implications:

1. I can publish on a wide variety of topics. At one time, I imagined all my publications would be technical. Now I have publications called “Blogging on the Beach”, “Team sports and work”, and “Top 10 Tips for How to Talk in Groups”.
2. Since so many people like me can publish instantly, there is information overload and a lot of irrelevant information out there.
3. On the other hand, the fact that there are so many publishers greatly increases the chance that there is something out there that is useful to you and perhaps written by someone who shares your perspective or background.

People tag and vote: We are in a world of too much information and a scarcity of attention, so the question is how do you find what you want. Search and analysis are important. Tagging and voting can help. So, the advice for multimedia communications HCI is to use the proper balance of analysis and user feedback. Don’t spend too much time analyzing if you have a situation where you can just go out and ask for user feedback. Since we are now in a world where people can tag and vote, use it when appropriate!

Measure quality of multimedia communications HCI by usage: Since there is a scarcity of attention, I think the best way to measure quality in multimedia communications HCI is by measuring usage. My advice is to build prototypes, attract users, and study their usage. You will learn a lot by doing this, including what is important, what are you missing, and what are users interested in.

How do we measure quality in multimedia communications HCI? Quality metrics should consider the multi-session nature of the communication experience that exists today.

How do we measure quality in multimedia communications HCI? Build prototypes. Attract users. Track usage (e.g., google analytics), user feedback (e.g., diggs), and quantitative metrics (analysis).

What will be an ideal interface for multimedia communication? An ideal interface will be simple, intuitive, and easy to use. You shouldn’t need to read a manual to figure out how to use it.

Should the ideal interface have intelligence behind it? Only if it has predictable behavior. The interface must be predictable so users can learn to use it.

Should the interface have a human form? Not always. An HCI system for medical surgery should not have a false human interface.

What are your thoughts on the topic of HCI for multimedia communications?
Did you attend the panel discussion? If so, what did you think of it?
What advice do you have for the panel organizers and panelists?

Tags: HCI for multimedia communications, communication experience, human computer interaction, interface, IEEE ICME, Qiong Liu, Zhengyou Zhang, Tom Huang, John Weng, Susie Wee, Arnold Smeulders, John Smith, HP

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Alex wrote a very interesting post on sharing our lives in little pieces. He talks about how various new web technologies allow us to share pieces of our lives in different ways. Alex really captures the way I feel about social web tools such as blogging and Facebook- I feel that they give me a place to share a glimpse of my life that I might not have shared otherwise, and they let me do it easily. Blogging lets me share my thoughts through casual posts and Facebook lets me share my travels through casual photos.

This got me thinking about how far we’ve come with today’s web technology and about how easy it is to communicate and share. It reminded me of my childhood memories of how my mom shared her new life in America with her parents who were back in Korea. My mom and dad were born and raised in Korea, and moved to the US after college in the 1960s. In those days, international travel was expensive and seldom done, international phone calls were expensive and seldom used, and pictures took days to get developed… and you had to wait until you finished the roll of film to get it developed! So, my mom communicated with her parents by writing letters and sending them through “air mail”.

I remember my mom sitting in the spot in the living room where the sunlight shined through the windows, with a warm cup of coffee in her hands as she thought about what to write, and then handwriting a letter to her parents on special “air mail” paper, the kind with a red- and blue-striped border. I think she might have been restricted to writing everything on one page. Imagine the adventure of moving to a foreign country at a time when it was hard to communicate back home with your family and friends. Imagine wanting to share stories about your new life in America, your husband’s career, your three kids’ lives, and your adventures about living in a foreign country while learning a new culture and language. Imagine being restricted to a one-page, hand-written letter that takes one or two weeks to get delivered and waiting another one or two weeks to get a response.

Today, I probably travel to Asia more often than my mom wrote letters or called home. I can send an email or publish a blog post that can be read instantly by people around the world at the click of a button. I can snap a picture on my digital camera and share it easily and instantly. I can call my mom and dad from practically anywhere using my mobile phone. Let’s take a moment to celebrate on how far we’ve come!

Now for the next phase. I am fortunate that my friends and loved ones live in places where they can get to a computer and get to the internet, though admittedly they do this with varying degrees of ease and regularity. But, I still know many people who have made the pilgrimmage to a new country but have friends and family in places where they can not connect to the web easily and regularly and in a cost-effective way.

Where are these people who can’t get connected easily in a cost-effective way?
What can we do to help them get connected?
If we look ahead a few years, how will they be connected with the rest of the world?

Tags: communication experience, sharing, connected, web technology, air mail, blogging, Facebook, HP

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I’m a guitar hero!

Well, okay, maybe I’m not a guitar hero. But I kind of feel like one when I play Guitar Hero II on my Xbox 360.

For those of you who are not familiar, Guitar Hero II is one of the latest crazes in gaming. It’s a game made by Red Octane and it runs on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360. Like the Nintendo Wii, it seems to have achieved the ultimate balance of being loved by hardcore gamers and casual gamers, while also appealing to non-traditional gamers, thus expanding the gaming segment. People say it’s a great party game. And, hardcore gamers are saying that their spouses and significant others who never touch games are actually having a great time with it. I can definitely see why. I love it, and as I play I start to wonder what it takes to design great games…

Guitar Hero basics

You have a plastic guitar with one strummer and 5 color-coded frets. The game has loud music and cheering fans. A stream of notes runs down the screen in the form of 5 color-coded circles that light up according to the song. The goal of the game is to press the appropriate color-coded frets and strum at the same time that the color-coded circles cross a line. Every time you hit a note, you get a guitar sound.

It sounds simple, but it’s not easy. The notes can stream at you pretty quickly, and you can set the difficulty level to make it as challenging as you like. At the more difficult levels, the speed of the notes and the finger combinations can get pretty tricky… and your fingers can quickly end up in knots!

Fun and excitement

Red Octane knows how to make the game fun! When you hit a note, the color-coded circle explodes in a really satisfying way. The little explosion makes you feel good! Also, I said that when you hit a note you get a guitar sound. Well, it’s not just any guitar sound; it’s what I call a Digitally Fortified guitar sound. In other words, when you hit a note, you are rewarded with the digitally fortified guitar sound that the guitarists from Van Halen, Cheap Trick, the Police, and Motley Crue would have made. Yeah! As I play, I get so immersed that I forget I have a plastic guitar with no strings and I actually believe that I’m playing the digitally fortified music!

Guitar Player or Guitar Hero?

Now, it’s one thing to be a guitar player, but it’s another to be a guitar hero! What’s the difference? The fans! As I play a song, my fans move from cheering to booing, depending on how well I’m playing. If I really screw up, then they boo me more and more and eventually they just throw me off stage. If I’m jamming and I’m hitting all the notes, my fans get louder and louder and they really cheer me on. If I get through enough songs, they even ask me for an encore! And, of course, I’m always playing to a standing room only crowd. Hey, when you’re good, you’re good! What can I say?

Simplicity of design

Now to the main point of my post. I played a lot of music when I was a kid, and I even played the guitar for a year. I have to say, though, if you asked me to design “Guitar Hero”, I probably would have ended up with “Learn how to play the guitar with Susie Wee”. Hmmm, not very exciting. So, let’s dig a little deeper.

What are the key characteristics that make the game fun?

1. It’s challenging. You can adjust the difficulty level. You can turn it down if it’s too hard, and you can turn it up if it’s too easy.
2. It’s rewarding. If you play well, you get Digitally Fortified guitar sounds and loud cheering fans!
3. It’s immersive and exciting. You won’t be daydreaming as you play this game. You’ll get booed off stage when you’re not up to par, but you’ll get standing ovations and be asked for encores when you’re at your best!
4. It’s skill-based. As you play, you increase you skill and your abilities. And, you can tell when you’re getting better.
5. It’s simple and intuitive. You can just pick up the guitar and figure out how to play. All you have to do is fret and strum. Yep, that’s all there is to it.

The first four all make sense. I find the last one to be very tricky. How do you design a game that is simple and intuitive enough to play, and yet has all the challenge, reward, and excitement to make it fun?

The thing that I find really fascinating is how they abstracted the guitar. As I said, I grew up playing music and I played the guitar for a year. I probably would have made 4 or 5 or 6 strings, not just one strummer. I probably would have used music notes, not just color-coded circles streaming down the screen. I probably would have started you with baby songs to make it easier, which would have made it less interesting for you. I probably would have taught you how to read music, and you might be pretty good at reading music after getting to the more advanced levels…

But, in all reality, my game wouldn’t have been so fun, so you probably never would have heard of it, and you never would have paid $90 bucks for it, and even if you did somehow get it to it you probably would have gotten bored before getting to the higher levels.

I would have made it too much like the real thing. I wouldn’t have abstracted out enough things to make it broadly accessible to the public. I don’t think I would have come up with the Digitally Fortified guitar sounds! I don’t think I would have gotten so serious about designing in the digital cheering fans! (But I love my digital cheering fans!)

Well, the good thing is that I know that “making fun games” is not my calling. So, I’ll just keep on building the technology enablers… And I’ll let the game developers make the fun games for the masses!

I’ll just be the Guitar Hero! Rock on!!!

p.s. I don’t mean to mislead you. I have somehow become a Guitar Hero, without being a Guitar Player. (They are not the same!) And, I didn’t say I was a good Guitar Hero. But, my digital fans seem to love me none the less.

Questions:

What do you think of Guitar Hero?

Tags: Guitar Hero, next generation gaming experience, designing fun games, HP Labs, HP

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