Exercise A on prospects and barriers of future ICT tools

List and comment some prospects and barriers regarding use of future ICT tools for collaboration and knowledge transfer.

Vision yourselves as the company group to formulate the ICT supported company communication and collaboration strategy. [To trigger discussion ask - what, who, why, when, where, how].

[You can be helped by for proposed activities/tasks ask questions like; will the proposed system fulfil the intended aims, does it increase the efficiency, will the 'system' increase user friendliness, accessibility, and learnability].

Exercise B on collaboration tools functionality

Imaging yourself as responsible for setting up a virtual collaboration environment for your company involving 3 offices at different places. Specify the needs that the new collaboration environment shall support (e.g. team work in project, social interaction, learning, customer support,...).

Search the WWW for synchronous collaboration tools such as Microsoft Messenger, Groove, Yahoo Messenger, and Skype. Also comment on asynchronous tools like BCSW. (Install and use one synchronous collaboration system.).
Try to put up a matrix describing the tools and how they support different functionality in a collaboration environment.

Start to formulate requirements on the ICT based collaboration tools in terms of functionality, system requirements and possible use.

[exercise work results]

Exercise C on interactive web-based 3D-models

The aim with this exercise is to produce an interactive 3D model accessible from the web. Choose one or several of the alternatives.

• Use the course site to download the Cult3D drawer. Program the left door to open and close as you click on it.
• VRML exercise. Put a fourth leg on the three leg chair. See also the source code.
  (See also the 4 leg chair from lecture slides).

Exercise D on future User Environments, UE

As mentioned in the course material, knowledge is one of the important strategic resources of an organisation. Knowledge, in many cases tacit, has been identified as intellectual asset that may improve competencies of organisations.

You are in the course now well prepared to formulate a vision for the future improved knowledge management, KM, within the company, with special focus on the user environment, UE. You have in the semester 7 course had focus on the underlying information containers, containing models of the applications such as different models of the building and it's systems. In this course we focus on the UE and you have up to now gained insight into collaboration tools, human computer interaction, HCI, and user models.

Your task is to describe for the company management how the future company KM routines can be improved with focus on the daily working situation of the employees. We call the new ICT supported UE, Improved User Environment for Knowledge Sharing - USE.

Describe shortly your company and in a few words the 2 or more initial focus areas USE will support. E.g. craftsman support at the building site, training of new employees, project management, capture and transfer of new working routines, and customer relations and needs.

What company, team and personal needs will USE satisfy? How can current practice be improved? Use your own fantasy to illustrate the current mode of practice of your company.

What persons/roles/actors are active in the USE focus areas? What information/knowledge do they exchange? Where, in what physical and virtual rooms do the exchange take place and when?

Which communication artifacts may be used? Describe the human computer interaction in terms of information formats, control and communication channels of USE. Give one example (short story) to exemplify your vision.

Shortly describe the organizational context in which USE is implemented.

As usual document and present your results of discussions. Time for exercise including presentations: 2 hours.

[exercise work results]

Exercise E on interactive story telling

Plan one or two story telling cases (you are advised to use the results from the previous exercise in this course or from your ongoing semester project).

Formulate a condensed aim with respective story in a 'premise' sentence.

Make a synopsis - a written overview of content and composition of your proposed production (interactive story). (You can also choose to present a more detialed story board). Use it to sell your idea to the client. Start with a short description of your ideas - what you intend to tell and story telling elements/technique. (E.g. explain that you can use interactive web-based 3D models and short video clips as two types of interactive story telling elements). You can also choose to focus on the next step of the company change process, namely the start of introducing the new company systems/processes for the employees. (This stage is really the beginning of a system design getting the user motivated to contribute in the design .e.g with needs specification).

Suggest scenarios (<= four), that forms the rooms for stories about - how to use, understand, discover, appreciate also called themes - the proposed system and changes you want to introduce to the company. The room may e.g. be a building site, the company virtual learning room, a shop where the company presents its products for the potential cusomers, a theatre (with show cases), a roadmap to inform the customer about how to integrate your products into the customers projects.

Try to keep the scenarios together with the theme like 'experience capture for a better work environment', 'discover a new world of collaboration', 'provide extended forms for knowledge communication ', 'be convinced that our company provides you/customer ultimate service in your project' etc. (The premise should be reflected in the theme).

Decide what resources (data sources, competences and tools) you need and practically can utilize to implement the story. (See also the 'MM project' slide and if appropriate user needs captured).

Sketch a web-based user interface for accessing your story. Explain your choice of different information media

(In case you will make digital video recordings. Plan your video recordings carefully on a story board to minimise recording time. Capture and edit the digital video in your group room using a digital video camera provided by the lecturer or later in the Media Lab where you also have access to Adobe Premier.)

[exercise work results]

Exercise F on Contextual Design and user needs capture

Envision yourself as advisor for a company who is going to re-engineer its knwoledge management system and user environment, USE. (You may well use the example you derived in exercise C, the company you are working with in your project or even the project work itself).

1. Write a few lines describing the Goals with USE
2. Describe the focus system user groups
3. Draw rich pictures of USE. Formulate a Vision.
4. Compose the work modelling team.
5. Capture and list user needs (contextual inquiry).
6. Draw simplified work flow models showing users/roles and in the proposed environment. Describe formal and informal communication, as well information containers (existing and new)
7. Draw sequence models (corrsponding to the work flows) showing the works steps to achieve desired goals/intents.
8. Describe in the cultural model the constraints on the system caused by organsational culture.
9. Describe some of the artifacts/tools that will support the use of USE.
10. Update the vision.
11. Make a storyboard for the studied use case.
12. Outline the functional structure of the User Environment ('the floor plan') to decribe the User Environment (inspiration on page 307,308 in Beyer Holtzblatt [education/reports/cd_1.pdf]). Each storyboard contains implications for place, functions, and links in the User Environment.
13. Outline physical (distributed) environment where USE will be used.
14. Sketch on a possible user environment system interface
15. goto 5 (or goto next point if you have enough user-needs/system-requirements formulated)

[exercise work results]

Exercise G on evaluation of usability

Plan the evaluation procedure of 'USE'
Use the DECIDE framwork.
DECIDE: framework to guide evaluation (Preece, 2002. page 348)

• Determine the overall goals that the evaluation addresses
• Explore the specific questions to be answered
• Choose the evaluation paradigm and techniques to answer the questions
• Identify the practical issues that must be addressed, such as selecting participants
• Decide how to deal with the ethical issues
• Evaluate, interpret, and present the data

[exercise work results]

Questions. Examples from lecture notes

Collaboration Tools

• Give examples on some IT based collaboration tools. Comment on their properties and when they can be used.
• Sketch on a mixed reality distributed environment for design review of an alternative building solutions. Which are the pros and cons?

Human Computer Interaction

• What is Multimedia?
• Sometimes people have talked about hypermedia. What do you believe that could be?
• Describe the function and content of a user model stored in a computer.
• Comment on some milestones in the multimedia development.
• How can we deliver intertactive 3D models over the www?
• What is VRML and what can it be used to?
• Describe the basics of Virtual Reality Markup Language.
• How is VRML models produced?
• What is Cult3D?
  
  
• Give some examples on tools and their properties for development of multimedia applications
• Describe how you could organize incremental development of a multimedia application (a demonstrator).
• Which competences do you need during multimedia production?
• What type of information contents can you house in a multimedia production?
  
  
• Which are the cons and pros when using bitmapped respectively vector graphics?
• What do we mean by 2 raised to 8 color depth?
• Explain some of the graphics and multimedia file formats and when they may be used.
• How can an intercative image be made and for what can it be used?
• Explain how you could control image display in a web-based interactive story.

Knowledge Management

• How would describe a Knowledge Management System?
• How do ICT change management of knowledge within and between companies?
• Are there dedicated systems for knowledge Managenemt?
• Sketch a scenario where computerised knowledge management would be beneficial.

Interactive Story Telling & Digital Video

• When is it advantageous to use video in story telling?
• vWhat additional qualitites/drawbacks do 'interactive stories' have compared to 'linear stories'?
• How can you lead a 'reader' through an interactive story?
• Elaborate on the relation between form and fact in video presentations.
• What do synopsis and scripts for video production contain?
• How can sound support the story?
• How can you use video clips and different image sizes in the story?
• What are the main differences between linear and interactive story telling techniques?
• Which data and material can you use in an interactiv web-based story?
• What practical limits are there to use digital video in WWW based presentations?
• Give examples on formats that can be used for digital video.
• What software and hardware tools do you need to produce digital video for presentation on WWW?

Contextual Design

• Why do system developments often fail?
• Describe the basic elements in the Contextual Design method.
• In what forms may the User Environment be presented and evaluated to the user?
• Describe how Contextual Design may relate to the Rational Unified Process using UML (Unified Modelling Language)?

Usability Engineering

• What do usability engineering stand for?
• Elaborate on the '8 Golden Rules in HCI Design'
• Discuss different evaluation paradigms.
• How do the end user profile influence the HCI design?
• How can expert HCI review be performed?
• How do believe the HCI will change in the future?