PRISM :: Browsing by Author "Oehlberg, Lora A."

Browsing by Author "Oehlberg, Lora A."

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Open Access
Altered Perceptions Discerning the Natural from the Virtual in Extended Reality
(2019-12) Christensen, Neil; Jacob, Christian; Hushlak, Gerald; Barton, Bruce; Oehlberg, Lora A.
How we perceive our environment is paramount to our interactions and choices. Our view of reality is shaped by our senses, neural processing and learned meanings. Pondered by many fields of inquiry, the concept of reality is bantered around with careless disregard when applied to virtual, augmented and mixed applications, all under the umbrella of extending reality. The challenge of discerning the natural from simulation requires an understanding of the technology and techniques used to create spatial audiovisual media and its integration into extended reality hardware and software solutions. The implementation of applications using elements of photogrammetry, spatial audio and real-time rendering provides a glimpse into present-day capabilities and limitations. By observing and studying what cues can be ascertained between real and virtual experiences, we can adapt to future changes and share learnings of how perception is affected as these experiences become commonplace.
Open Access
Astral: Prototyping Mobile and IoT Interactive Behaviours via Streaming and Input Remapping
(2018-07) Ledo, David; Vermeulen, Jo; Carpendale, Sheelagh; Greenberg, Saul; Oehlberg, Lora A.; Boring, Sebastian
We present Astral, a prototyping tool for mobile and Internet of Things interactive behaviours that streams selected desktop display contents onto mobile devices (smartphones and smartwatches) and remaps mobile sensor data into desktop input events (i.e., keyboard and mouse events). Interactive devices such as mobile phones, watches, and smart objects, offer new opportunities for interaction design– yet prototyping their interactive behaviour remains an implementation challenge. Additionally, current tools often focus on systems responding after an action takes place as opposed to while the action takes place. With Astral, designers can rapidly author interactive prototypes live on mobile devices through familiar desktop applications. Designers can also customize input mappings using easing functions to author, fine-tune and assess rich outputs. We demonstrate the expressiveness of Astral through a set of prototyping scenarios with novel and replicated examples from past literature which reflect how the system might support and empower designers throughout the design process.
Open Access
Authoring Data Visualizations with Physical Template Tools
(2019-01-14) Wun, Tiffany; Carpendale, Sheelagh; Oehlberg, Lora A.; Wong, Nelson; Reardon, Joel
In our data-rich society, it is increasingly important that all people are able to use and understand data. Large data sets commonly require expert knowledge to design and disseminate accessible and information-rich visualizations, resulting in visualizations that work well for experts but are less accessible for the general public. My research question addresses how we can support the use of visualization to increase data accessibility for the general public. One approach is to encourage people to self-author data representations suited to their own comprehension needs using simple techniques. However, providing data visualization authoring tools for the general public remains an ongoing challenge. My thesis explores the use of physical tools—specifically, rulers and block-printing stamps—as novel methods of authoring data visualizations, leveraging the advantages of ready-made visualization templates while providing freedom to personalize visual elements. To first explore the possibility of designing physical tools for authoring data visualizations, I present prototypes for several modifiable, computationally-fabricated ruler and stamp designs, created with the goal of allowing users to quickly create repeating visual elements when authoring visual elements on paper. From my design efforts, stamps show promise as low-effort, easy-to-create tools; I therefore conducted a workshop study to understand how people approach visualization authoring when given the ability to create their own physical template tools. In this study, participants authored visualizations on paper using hand-carved stamps made from potatoes and sponges. My results show that participants were able to author meaningful data visualizations from their self-created stamps, as well as several unique traits and uses of block-printing stamps. I conclude the thesis by discussing issues around expressivity and effectiveness of personalizing physical authoring tools, identify implications for the design and assembly of primitives in potential visualization authoring kits, and applications for physical authoring tools in the bigger scope of data democratization.
Open Access
Bio-inspired Design and Information Visualization
(2018-04-19) Eggermont, Marjan José; Carpendale, Sheelagh; Hushlak, Gerald; Kolarevic, Branko; Mazalek, Ali; Oehlberg, Lora A.; Hollenberg, Morley Donald
Bio-inspired design in recent years has been used successfully as a methodology in disciplines such as engineering, architecture, product design, and business. While still in an infant stage in terms of adoption in universities, those who have embraced the methodology have experienced promising design outcomes, enthusiasm from students, and an enrichment in research and teaching. One of the issues is that while bio-inspired design has been around for a very long time semantic disconnect between disciplines keeps the methodology undefined and at times, unrecognized. In this dissertation, I explore the potential of bio-inspired design for information visualization and seek to help fulfill information visualization’s goal of ‘amplifying cognition’ using design inspired by nature. I will directly investigate the different kinds of ways bio-inspired design might be useful. Of interest is where along the information visualization pipeline bio-inspiration is considered and in what capacity: is it used as metaphor, analogy, concept, form, function, process, system, or other? There are examples of bio-inspired algorithms in information visualization but are there direct inspirations from nature that could also be useful? How does the bio-inspired design community think about its field? How do they define it? Where do they think biomimics should focus their efforts? How do students work with this methodology? How do instructors best introduce the material in the context of information visualization? What was my own experience trying to implement this approach to my own data set? I present three approaches to explore this potential. I investigate the state of the art in both computational media design and bio-inspired design through a journalistic and design-oriented approach to create an active survey of these fields. I summerize ideas and opinions from a large set of interviews and design tools providing insights into the world of bio-inspiration. Experiential teaching is my second approach to investigate how students processed and worked with the idea of bio-inspiration for design and information visualization. This provided useful concepts for developing teaching and design approaches. Third was a research creation approach where I take a bio-inspired design lens to an online dataset in the hopes of creating a useful tool for the community. Challenges and observations gave new insights into bio-inspiration for information visualization. The dissertation ends with a reflection about the role of bio-inspired design for information visualization. The insights gained from the three approaches suggest further challenges for research and design.
Open Access
Data Embroidery: Exploring Alternative Mediums for Personal Physicalization
(2019-05) Wannamaker, Kendra; Willett, Wesley J.; Oehlberg, Lora A.; Carpendale, Sheelagh
Our work explores the use of embroidery as a medium for personal data representation. Personal physicalization is at the intersection of personal visualization and physicalization. More precisely, personal physicalization uses tangible objects to represent data in a personal context. This unique design space inspired us to explore alternative mediums to integrate data with personal artifacts, as well as facilitate the exploration of a multi-sensory data encoding. We first developed a workflow for authoring embroidered physicalizations. Then, we used this process to create an embroidered blanket based on text message data.
Open Access
Designing Interactive Behaviours for Smart Objects
(2020-09-01) Ledo Maira, David; Oehlberg, Lora A.; Greenberg, Saul; Vermeulen, Jo; Williamson, Carey L.; Wylant, Barry; Hartmann, Björn D.
In this thesis, I propose methods for repurposing existing hardware and software to enable designers to create live interactive prototypes for smart interactive objects without the need to write code or create custom circuitry. The advent of ubiquitous computing brought the promise of interactive artifacts that integrate into our everyday lives. While this has led to a myriad of “smart objects”, the problem is that it is difficult for interaction designers to devise interactive behaviours for such objects. For example, how might an interaction designer prototype behaviours for a smart speaker? How can they go beyond voice responses and, for instance, animate lights to show that the speaker is listening, or searching for an answer on the web? Designers today face three challenges: (1) needing multiple expertise of designing behaviour, form, circuitry, and programming the functionality; (2) lacking software tools to author fine-tuned dynamic behaviours; and (3) needing closer-to-product representations to physically manipulate the prototype. I overcome this gap through a method and two interactive systems. I propose a design metaphor: Soul–Body Prototyping, which suggests leveraging off-the-shelf mobile phones and watches to create smart object prototypes. By enclosing the mobile device (“soul”) into a physical enclosure (“body”), the designer can exploit the mobile device’s rich sensing, outputs, and internet connectivity. I then operationalize Soul–Body Prototyping through two proof-of-concept prototyping tools. Pineal features trigger-action behaviours which automatically generate 3D models for physical forms. These forms fit a mobile device and expose the necessary inputs and outputs. Astral is a tool where designers can mirror a portion of the desktop’s screen onto a mobile device, and create mappings that convert live mobile sensor data into mouse or keyboard events. Thus, the mobile device remote controls (and repurposes) familiar desktop applications for dynamic behaviour prototyping. Overall, my work contributes an alternative way to prototype smart interactive objects, which informs the design of future prototyping tools. Moreover, I investigate fundamental questions such as the meaning of interactive behaviour, as well as evaluation methods for prototyping tools and toolkits in HCI research.
Open Access
Digital Fabrication for Contemporary Material Specificity
(2019-09-12) Pattullo, Hayden; Taron, Joshua M.; Soto-Rubio, Mauricio; Monteyne, David; Oehlberg, Lora A.
The modernist model of “logical positivism” that emerged in the early-20th century Modernist movement placed the onus of design squarely within the material world. This movement attempted to replace the immaterial “metaphysical” approach to design and material with physically-provable absolute concepts of materiality. However, this model failed to recognize that the value and use life of modern material is highly contingent on distributed and imperceptible immaterial systems such as supply chains and reverse logistics that function beyond immediate scales of space and time (scales that are classically the territory single buildings and products). Approaching the design of buildings and objects through this constrained scalar lens has produced a significant amount of waste via inefficient object lives and perpetuated the logical positivist model of design through the wide misuse of current digital design tools. Contemporary notions of material specificity, such as DeLanda’s “possibility space” and McDonough and Braungart’s Circular Economy, attempt to reject logical positivism by identifying the contingent factors, or “events,” across a material’s life that must be designed for, such as its flexibility between uses and adaptability within the supply chain. Through a series of literature reviews, case study analyses, and experiments, this thesis will demonstrate the waste problems associated with logical positivism in modern design, describe the Circular Economy as a new form of event-scale for the design of materials, and posit how contemporary digital tools may be instrumentalized for material design at these new event-scales. Ultimately, this work constructs a new conceptual framework of event-scale thinking for material, which promotes different and less wasteful applications of digital tools in design and production.
Open Access
Exploring Context for Privacy Protection in North American Higher Education and Beyond
(2020-01) Wu, Leanne; Barker, Ken E.; Denzinger, Jörg; Oehlberg, Lora A.; Lock, Jennifer V.; Veletsianos, George
Undergraduate students in North American post-secondary institutions are subject to a wide range of data collection. It includes data generated in the course of teaching and learning, but also can include a wide range of other aspects of modern life, such as closed-circuit security cameras, internet and wireless network use, and what students buy and consume. This makes the post-secondary institution an ideal model for understanding the privacy impact of modern and future technologies, as a single organization which collects and potentially uses wide-ranging amounts and kinds of data about our daily lives. This thesis proposes a framework which separates context into three interrelated layers so that systems can be designed which more fully protect the privacy of individuals, examines the ways in which we collect and use data about undergraduate students, and makes a quantitative study of undergraduate privacy behaviours and attitudes. Thus we present the case that context is a core concept for privacy protections which better protect undergraduate students and their privacy.
Open Access
Exploring Prototyping Tools for Interactive Fashion Design
(2018-09-21) Ta, Kevin; Oehlberg, Lora A.; Sharlin, Ehud; Tony, Anthony; Taron, Joshua M.
Interactive garments enable new forms of communication between our bodies and with other people. In electronic fashion (eFashion) design, interactive garments on high fashion runways envision how people might use interactive technologies to enhance our clothing with new sensing and output capabilities. Researchers and fashion designers have since explored new interactive textiles that enable aesthetics-driven, interactive, and new material properties to explore on clothing. While there exist physical tools to implement interactive garments and software tools to create the visual aesthetic of a garment, these tools cannot yet enable designers to use new eFashion technologies in their garments because they require engineering expertise and specialized laboratory equipment. In this thesis, I explore the use of computer-aided prototyping tools to develop interactive eFashion garments. I present case studies with makers and two experienced eFashion designers about their design practices and formulate design guidelines for prototyping tools. I then present two prototyping tools for implementation and exploration of interactive garments. Finally, I discuss future work for physical and virtual prototyping tools in eFashion.
Open Access
Exploring Tactile Interface Aesthetics through Computational Media Design
(2019-11) Kuzabaviciute, Gabriele; Parlac, Vera; Oehlberg, Lora A.; Hushlak, Gerald; Aycock, John
The tactile qualities of technology are often neglected by interaction designers who favour digital functionality, even though materiality plays a huge role in defining humans’ surroundings. Multiple benefits emerge from tactile interfaces and this thesis concentrates on three of them: 1. tactile interfaces can communicate visual, emotional, or sensorial information when visual and hearing senses are already overloaded with information; 2. they can guide users’ mobility through an environment, such as using hands to assist in walking through a dark room; and, 3. they can benefit computer-based applications for visually-impaired people. I focus on three themes – materiality, physical computing, and human touch behaviour – which I investigate through a collaborative project with four other design students. I conduct experime nts to explore three ways of using different tactile materials to create (computationally) interactive tactile interfaces (for example, Conductive Silicone, Touch-Sound Synthesizers, Reactive Chair). This led to two final installations, the first (“Tactile Room”) focusing on how to create tactile cues to guide the people through a non-visual interactive layer of the space, and the second (“Growth”) oriented to designing tactile cues to invite the people to interact with the interactive system. This Research through Design approach enables me to demonstrate how tactile interactivity enhances engagement with digital information. This research expands designers’ range of materials and fabrication techniques, including the elements of physical computing, to prototype new tactile interfaces.
Open Access
Exploring the Design of Visualizations to Facilitate Patient-Provider Communication
(2018-12-04) Rajabiyazdi, Fatemeh; Carpendale, Sheelagh; Oehlberg, Lora A.; Gromala, Diane; Perin, Charles
Establishing strong patient-provider communication during clinical visits can have positive impacts on patient health outcomes. On the other hand, miscommunication between patients and healthcare providers can cause harm or in extreme cases cause death to patients. Factors such as healthcare providers' limited time, inefficient clinical environments, and patients' difficulties in communicating their concerns can be the causes of this miscommunication. In this thesis, I explore the design of visualizations to facilitate communication between healthcare providers and patients during clinical visits. In the first part (i) of this thesis, I present the results of a literature review I have conducted to expand our understanding of patients' and providers' communication challenges during in-clinic visits. In the second phase (ii) I discuss the results of interviews with healthcare providers and I contrast and compare patients' and providers' perspectives in the context of each other to unveil the roots of their communication challenges. Among the communication challenges we identified, I focus on exploring the challenges and the realities patients and healthcare providers face tracking and sharing patient-generated health data. In the third part of this dissertation (iii), I discuss the results of a series of interviews and focus groups with patients and healthcare providers I have conducted to gain a better understanding of patient-generated data communication challenges. I leverage this understanding to propose potential visualization designs representing patient-generated data collections to improve the process of reviewing and communicating these data between patients and healthcare providers. In the fourth part of this dissertation (iv), I discuss the results of the interviews with healthcare providers seeking their reflection on the proposed visualization designs. Finally, in collaboration with our healthcare provider team in Alberta Healthcare Services, I implement the prototypes of a number of carefully selected visualization designs. In the last part of this dissertation (v), I outline insights, lessons learned, and future research directions that arise from these studies and the design process. I hope this research provides more support for considering patients' and healthcare providers' individualities when designing technologies and visualizations in healthcare settings.
Open Access
Exploring User Experience Guidelines for Designing HMD Extended Reality Applications
(2020-04-24) Vi, Steven; Maurer, Frank; Oehlberg, Lora A.; Wong, Nelson
With the rise of Extended Reality (XR) technologies, such as head mounted displays (HMD) for Virtual Reality (VR), Mixed Reality (MR), and Augmented Reality (AR), designers are presented with many unique challenges and opportunities when creating applications. Publications can be found from research and industry that offer insights and ideas surrounding user experience (UX) for XR applications. However, these publications often vary in format and content. Based on a thorough analysis of 68 different resources from research, industry, and 2D design, we present a set of eleven UX guidelines for designing XR applications. Our work serves as a reference to the literature for understanding what others have tried and discovered and provides an integrated set of guidelines. Furthermore, we explore how our work can be utilized by conducting a case study where we used our guidelines throughout the development of an XR application. More specifically, in collaboration with the Alberta Electric System Operators (AESO), we developed an HMD XR app that explores how information from their current control room can be replicated and reimagined in a virtual environment. Based on our experience, we use the knowledge gained to reflect on the guidelines and suggest areas for future research. We see our work as a starting point to better understand how to create and design usable HMD XR applications.
Open Access
Identifying the Problems of Software Re-architecting and a Knowledge Representation Framework to Address Them
(2018-06-25) Moazzen, Elham; Walker, Robert J.; Denzinger, Jörg; Oehlberg, Lora A.; Anvik, John; Hu, Yaoping
Real-world software undergoes constant change: to fix bugs; to extend functionality; to interact with the changing “ecosystem” around it; and to make internal improvements. Non-trivial software must possess a software architecture: a division into smaller pieces, how those pieces are meant to interact, and how those pieces are deployed physically. As a software architecture can have a significant impact on important properties of the software, the architecture for a software system may need to change as the system itself undergoes change: this is software re-architecting. Unfortunately, software re-architecting is poorly understood: without understanding what is involved in software re-architecting and what problems people encounter in approaching it, we cannot help solve or avoid those problems. I begin this thesis by conducting a case study on a real world example of a software re-architecting, for which documentation and records of discussions were available, to find basic issues that arose during the process. I also conducted a series of interviews with software engineers centred around those issues to deepen our understanding of the process of software re-architecting and discovered the notion of discrete change steps that must be organized and coordinated. I identify a set of critical challenges that must be addressed in any concrete solution. Software engineers lacked a systematic approach to the communication and record management of change steps, suggesting a set of design guidelines for future collaboration tools tailored for re-architecting. They need collaboration tools that facilitate viewing, recording, and retrieving the change steps, and involving the communications within and between the levels of the development team. I then propose a knowledge representation framework for the change process in asynchronous collaboration. This framework is a first step toward a re-architecting collaboration tool that would help to systematize the change process without disrupting it. I developed a paper prototype of the framework and conducted a user evaluation study to determine if the new approach meets the needs of software engineers working on a software re-architecting. My study suggests that the ii approach supported by the prototype allows software engineers to better present changes to their team relative to traditional mechanisms, thereby enabling them to consider more detail. I illustrate the potential value of the framework as a platform for deeper study and further investment in tools, highlighting promising areas for future research.
Open Access
Immersive Analytics Interaction: User Preferences and Agreements by Task Type
(2018-05-10) Chen, Qing; Maurer, Frank; Wang, Xin; Oehlberg, Lora A.
For immersive computing environments, multiple interaction modes (e.g. voice, gestures, handheld controller) have been proposed. In this thesis, I present the results of an elicitation study examining user preferences and measuring interaction agreements, based on two task types from an existing task taxonomy, in the context of data interaction in augmented reality (AR). The results indicate a non-statistically-significant association between a user’s input mode preference and the type of the performed task in most cases. However, agreements on interactions were found to be higher in one type of task. I reflect on the resulting implications and offer one practical guideline for UX designers creating AR-based analytics applications. This thesis also details an alternative way of quantifying user agreements in an elicitation study on interactions.
Open Access
Logical Conclusion
(2018-07-31) Blair, Kathryn Marie; Leblanc, Jean-René; Oehlberg, Lora A.; Forlini, Stefania
My work is focused on finding a way to talk about algorithms in society through art. I aim to create experiences that examine the status quo of our relationship with technology by throwing it into stark relief. My work looks to help visitors move from passive engagement with algorithmic systems, to active questioning of and engagement with them. This paper details the development of Logical Conclusion, a collection of logic puzzles based on algorithms that impact our society — from Trust Scores that the Chinese government is issuing to its citizens, to the Facebook news feed algorithm. The puzzles are presented on blackboards with magnetic tiles that visitors can manipulate to solve the puzzles, and accompanied by illustrations that underscore the absurdity of the puzzles. The blackboards are paired with a workbook of additional puzzles, which visitors can take away to complete. I invite visitors to step into the school for algorithms, where young computer programs come to complete their early logic training. Visitors can apply their logical faculties to the puzzles. Are the premises upon which the logical statements are based valid? Does the combination of premises lead to truly logical conclusions?
Open Access
Making-With-Data: Supporting DIY Data Physicalizations
(ACM, 2018-04-22) Wun, Tiffany; Oehlberg, Lora A.; Carpendale, Sheelagh
We explore how DIY making techniques can support the democratization of data. We present two DIY data physicalizations: a CNC plotter for rapidly prototyping visualizations on paper, and a physical, dynamic bar chart of migrant deaths constructed with origami. We discuss several issues when embodying data through maker techniques: DIY guides, materiality, and the relationship between resources and knowledge. Finally, we propose several questions to discuss in the workshop.
Open Access
Meta-Feature Taxonomy for Supporting Automatic Machine Learning
(2019-12-23) Davies, Cooper; Maurer, Frank; Denzinger, Jörg; Jacob, Christian; Alim, Usman R.; Oehlberg, Lora A.
Many automatic machine learning (AutoML) libraries have been developed recently, meeting public demand for more machine learning tools which can be used without an expert. A common tactic illicited by these frameworks is to initially generate meta-features which are then used as an initial heuristic for further evaluation in recent AutoML frameworks. In this thesis we provide a systematic categorization of meta-features in the AutoML literature. Current implementations of automatic machine learning frameworks fail to provide reasoning for meta-feature selection, and a taxonomic categorization is needed. Our approach reviewed current AutoML frameworks and created a taxonomy of five categories into which any meta-feature can be categorized. We have created a general framework with which any currently used meta-features can be described, as well as demonstrate some scenarios for their applications. Additionally, a runtime analysis of the wall-clock time required for meta-feature generation is provided for 18 data collections found in previous CHALearn AutoML competitions, which took between 0:10:26.9, and 98:43:46.5. Additionally we found that a sample percentage of 0.1 is sufficient for use in Sample Variant Landmark Meta-Feature generation when using the Nearest Neighbour, Elite Nearest Neighbour, Best Decision Node, and Random Decision Node Landmarks which indicates potential use as meta-features in AutoML.
Open Access
Optically Illusive Architecture (OIA): A Design Paradigm Attuned Towards Viewpoints
(2020-12) Hosseini, Seyed Vahab; Alim, Usman R.; Taron, Joshua M.; Oehlberg, Lora A.; Johnson, Jason S.
Human beings have historically recorded events of their surrounding world by means of drawing. Likewise, architects and designers communicate their ideas within a range of representational methods. No single instance of these methods, either in the form of orthographic projections---also known as descriptive geometry---or perspectival representation, can address all questions regarding the design, but as a whole, they demonstrate a comprehensive range of information about the building or object they intend to represent. This explicates an inevitable degree of deficiency in representation, regardless of its type. In addition, perspective-based optical illusions manipulate our spatial perception by deliberately misrepresenting the reality. In this regard, they are not fresh concepts to architectural representation. In this thesis I propose Optically Illusive Architecture (OIA); a viewpoint-sensitive design paradigm whose concept derives from the gap between representational limitations and physical reality. Also, results of this design paradigm deliver specific messages to certain privileged point(s) in the space. OIA casts light to an undeniable role of viewpoints in designing architectural spaces. The idea is to establish a methodology in a way that the deficiency of current representational techniques---manifested as specific thread of optical illusions---flourishes into thoughtful results embodied as actual architectural spaces. Within this design paradigm, I define a framework to be able to effectively analyze its precedents, generate new space and evaluate their efficiencies. Moreover, the framework raises a hierarchical set of questions to differentiate OIA from a visual gimmick. Additional contributions of this thesis are generating two optically illusive architectures, as well as a new method of illusory representation. Furthermore, I analyze the generated OIA environments, by conducting empirical studies using Virtual Reality (VR) technology. These studies demonstrate design performance, and the public’s ability to engage and interact with OIA spaces, prior to the actual fabrication of the structures.
Open Access
Physicalizing Cardiac Blood Flow Data via 3D Printing
(2019-09-23) Ang, Kathleen Danielle; Samavati, Faramarz; Prusinkiewicz, Przemyslaw; Oehlberg, Lora A.
Blood flow data from cardiac 4D Flow MRI holds much potential for research and diagnosis of flow-related diseases. However, understanding this data is quite challenging -- after all, it is a volumetric vector field that changes over time. One helpful way to explore the data is by flow visualization, but most traditional flow visualizations are designed for 2D screens and thus suffer from limited depth perception and restricted screen space. We present a framework for creating physical flow models as a complementary means of visualizing the flow data. The model design respects the conventional method of viewing medical imagery (i.e. in cross sections) but has the advantages of engaging one's sense of touch, and being fabricable by affordable 3D printers. We apply our technique to different representations of blood flow data and demonstrate that the framework is capable of transforming volumetric flow data into tangible, fabricable models.
Open Access
Technology Augmented Props: Tangible User Interfaces for Performer-Controlled Technical Elements in Improvised Theatre
(2019-07-24) Mikalauskas, Claire; Oehlberg, Lora A.; Viczko, April; Sharlin, Ehud; Finn, Patrick
While improvised theatre (improv) is often performed on a bare stage, improvisers sometimes incorporate physical props and technical elements to inspire new directions for a scene and to enrich their performance. For improvising technical elements such as light and sound, a control booth is used in a theatre space. However, coordinating with improvisers’ action on-stage is challenging as there is a disconnect between the technicians and the performers. My goal is to inform the design of a technology augmented prop that brings the capabilities of the control booth directly to the hands of the performers as a tangible user interface. I interviewed five professional improvisers about their use of physical props and technical elements in improv, and their expectations of performer-controlled technology. I propose a set of guidelines for the design of a technology augmented prop that is integrated into the existing world of improvised theatre.