Wii - A Paper Topic

I’m still working out a lot of the details and have a lot more pre-writing to do, but I’m intending to write my paper on Wii Sports. I started out by bulleting a list of every interaction, element, feature, and occurance of Wii Sports that I could think of to see if any insights came out of it. One thing I realized was that many of the items on my list related to creating positive and happy interactions. I struggled a bit to really narrow my paper down and create a focus, but I came up with a starting point.

For a thesis, I’m intending to write my paper about how Wii Sports makes us feel like real athletes and that in turn, our self-esteem is raised by merely swinging the Wii remote.

I attempted a diagram which summarizes the argument, though I don’t think it came out very clear. But basically, I’m saying that through the use of customizable Mii’s, the Wii helps us identify with the characters in the game by having them look like us. And then, the Wii helps us identify with the objects/tools in the game through the use of the Wii remote, aka, swinging the remote like a baseball bat. Through this, the Wii creates an alternative reality that makes us feel like we are in the game.

Once this reality has been set, the Wii sets us up to succeed. Unlike an X-Box where when if you hit a home run in a baseball game, its attributed to pushing a button well, with the Wii, when you hit a home run, you feel like it was your swing that did it. Additionally, the Wii sets up users to feel good about their athletic abilities through the fitness test, the increase in skill level of your mii by playing, and other ways.

To further investigate this, I am considering gathering a group of individuals, giving them a survey which asks basically about their mood, confidence, and other related issues, have them do certain Wii Sports tasks, and then give them the same survey to see if the results change. Am I on the right track so far?

Template for final paper

I’m pre-writing my final paper today and after reading the assignment I wondered if perhaps Jeff couldn’t post a link to the template you would like us to use. I’m kind of assuming that the CHI format you are talking about is the landscape one with two columns and the third row for callouts and figures, but it would be helpful to have this made explicit.

I wouldn’t mind a little more guidance on if you want a lit review section on the paper, and if so how complete.  We’ve all read a basic set of literature (or at least we should have right) how must more do we need to say about that?

Paper Topic

So…here’s the short version:

A structuralist/semiotic analysis of diegetic and non-diegetic sound in the game BioShock and how signifiers are decoded by users and how user experience is affected by whether or not they pick up on dated references.

Part of what makes BioShock such an incredible game is the setting/environment and sound is a huge part of this. BioShock takes place in 1960 in the underwater city of Rapture, a failed attempt at utopia by a strange and psychotic Nazi scientist. The soundtrack includes music fromt the 1950s and there are many other dated references that the user may or may not pick up on. If the user does pick up on these references, he/she has a particular experience. If the user doesn’t pick up on these references, he/she has a different experience. Neither experience is less significant or enjoyable than the other, just different.

If ’sound’ is not a large enough area to get a paper out of, I will consider looking at the setting/environment of the game as a whole as there are many dated references in other areas.

My Paper: Goffman’s Presentation of Self and YouTube

Goffman’s Presentation of Self in Everyday Life was published in 1959 with the intent of establishing a description of meaning in social interaction.  Goffman said that people present an “idealized” version of themselves in public (front stage).  People present more consistent versions of themselves to coincide with norms and societal laws.  When not in public (behind stage), these social rules do not need to be followed.

However, I believe that technologies such as YouTube has blurred the personal and private rules to the point that there is no back stage. Technology is shifting the concept of privacy.

I want to know if Goffman’s idea still holds true.  I am going to search YouTube for “Drinking and Puking” and hypothesize that Goffman’s idea does not fit.  Seeing YouTube presentation of self, I do not believe that the distinction between front stage and back stage still holds true.  There is a reconstruction of public and private space and there is a mutual shaping of technology and behavior.

For design idea, I am going to suggest an instant removal option on YouTube because as these people go out and search for jobs, there is a need for them to reestablish their boundaries between personal and private.

What do you think?  I know there are some books out there already that look at presentation of self and technology, but I’m going to focus on the YouTube idea.

Paper idea: make a better recommendation

For the final paper I would like to write something about the design of my team for the CHI student competition problem. It’s about helping the homeless people. We’re aiming at helping the 211 service specialist to make better recommendations on the social services to the homeless people, through a better designed computer recommendation application. (211 service is a nation-wide call-for-help service. People can call for help on: food, housing, transportation, financial assistance, etc. The specialist will recommend corresponding social service agencies to the clients.)

I am thinking of using structuralism approaches to analyze some existing recommendation systems (music recommendation, book recommendation, movie recommendation, etc), and maybe also some phenomenological concepts which can be applied here. Hopefully I can get some useful ideas about designing the recommendation system for the 211 service from this analysis.

My concern is, is it too broad to study recommendation systems in different areas? Would it be better to study only the existing book recommendation systems (or music,or movie)?

Paper Idea: Avatar Creation and Online Identity

There is a reasonable amount of existing work in the area of avatars and online identity. Many researchers have commented on why people style avatars like themselves (or not like), identified the avatar as an extension of the self, etc … However, I do not know if I’ve ever seen a formal structural analysis of an avatar creation system which was then tied back into some critical identity theory.

It should come as no surprise, then, that I am entertaining the idea of performing such an analysis and relating the results (somehow) back to identity theory/politics. I’m leaning towards a structural analysis of the World of Warcraft avatar system for the following reasons.

1. I am very familiar with World of Warcraft lore, players, interactions, etc. I’ll be able to focus my efforts on the analysis and creation system without spending lots of additional time just learning about the space.
2. The avatar creation system is fairly simple compared to other MMOGs. There’s definitely enough content for a full length paper but I might be able to avoid getting lost in the minutiae of avatar systems like those in Second Life.
3. I “get” phenomenology but feel like my understanding of structural theory/analysis needs more practical reinforcing.

What I worry about is confusing the “phenomenological” questions with the “structural” questions. I believe players choose certain avatars to represent identities they want to explore in the game, but that seems to deal with an individual’s intention which is more of a phenomenological inquiry. Structuralist inquiry would center more on how the structures/interactions/limitations/options/etc of the interface shape the avatar and identity choices available to the user?

Perhaps the paper needs a bit of both approaches to have some real explanatory power, but I definitely want to focus on structuralism. I think.

Thoughts?

Kayce’s Paper, Rough Idea

So for my final paper, I have decided to use the work I have been doing for my capstone project in politics, more specifically by looking at political blogs (still in the process of choosing one or two specific blogs to focus on which are representative of political blogs in general)… how do conversations unfold, how does the interface assist in the forming of conversations or hinder the progress of political discourse, as well as taking specific theories (structuralism, primarily) to assist in the development of an argument for redesigning political blog interfaces. I have a rough idea for a concept (working title, the “Sweet Spot”) which is a type of blogging environment meets game where individuals participating in political discourse work to move their conversations into a place of understanding or consensus. The inspiration comes from some general charactersitics of political blogs that I have noticed:

* either everyone participating has similiar or the exact same viewpoints

* or the conversations progress into flame wars and arguments because the people participating have very different viewpoints on the political issue being discussed

After meeting with Tyler and Aaron, I have a bit more direction for this paper… I will look at two political blogs and do a structuralism analysis of them.  Within this structuralism analysis, I will talk about Manovich’s 5 principles of new media and how they relate to blogging interfaces.  From there, I hope to do a comparison of the two structural analyses. Finally, through the structural analysis and comparison/critique of my two chosen blogs, I hope that I can generate design insights, possibly for my sweetspot concept.  I welcome any comments/critiques/concerns from any of you!

Paper idea: patterned mobile phone

This is one of the three mobile phones HTC just released. The company plans to have more patterned mobile phones become available in the market in the near future.

I have not seen mobile phone like this in America. In Asia, where lots of people are crazy about knowing and buying mobiles that just enter the market, mobile companies keep updating the design of mobile phones. I notice that there are more companies who focus on not only the various function, but also the appearance of the phone recently. In this year, Motorola held a mobile patterning competition in Taiwan, in order to inspire creative ideas for mobile design. This is work of the first prize.

I would like to analyze if the phenomenon contributes to the sustainable use of mobile phone by applying some concepts we learn in class. Do these products tell us who are the targeting user groups? Are these products a kid of experience design? What experience they would like to communicate? Is the experience durable? I am trying to figure out several specific concepts I would like to use to analyze patterned mobile phone. I will do some prewritting to clarify it. Is the topic ambiguous? I have no idea if it is narrowed down and could be further developed. And is “patterned” the right word to describe these mobiles? (forgive my poor English.:P)

Portfolio site interpretation –final paper idea

I know my portfolio site is so terrible, but I just get a headache when I think about to make a new one, because that two words–portforlio site means maybe more than ten hour work! But finally,  I could not tolerate anymore!  I felt shame when I look at it and call myself a designer. Yesterday, I finally decided to make some change on it. When I looked around on others’ portfolio site, and lots of free templates, I got an idea about my final paper.

The idea is I’d like to analysis some portfolio sites by using structuralism and phenomenology theories from designer’s perspective.

Just like Lacy’s paper, I want to analysis portfolio sites by discussing the relationship between style, color with the professional field the owner in. And also how and why sounds becomes popular in a website. Is there different visual angles (virtual camera?) ? Or let’s say, where is the focus suppose to be? How big our screen the designers think we are using? Do you have some other ideas about this?—PLEASE tell me!

How do you think this idea? I have no idea about what kind of conclusion will I get, but is it necessary? Could I just analysis they way portfolio sites were created, the strategies and theories people are using to create portfolio sites and get a brief conclusion? Should I really come out a guild line of how to create portfolio site at the end?

Paper Ideas

I am working on coming up with some ideas for the final paper, but am having trouble.  I have three overall objectives for this paper:

1. Use concepts we have learned in this class
2. Write a publishable paper
3. Write a paper that is useful to designers (as opposed to just academics)

I have done some pre-writing and am planning to do more.  This is what I have so far and would love to hear your opinions on these possible topics.  Both of these ideas are in a very rough state, so feel free to be very critical.

(1)Structuralist Analysis of Designs That Promote User Reflection
Don Norman and others talk about how designs that encourage reflection provide an aesthetic experience.  Reflective design papers also talk about the importance of reflection and often give examples of designs that embody reflective design.  I could examine these, and other designs (from various mediums), that promote reflection.  I could look for oppositions that are present in these designs and ultimately try to develop a language of reflective design.   This is assuming there are certain structures that make a design reflective, just as their are certain structures that make a movie a romantic comedy (I am not sure if this is the case).  These structures of reflective design could be useful to designers in general and they can also be transformed in to actionable design insights.

(2) Structuralist/ Phenomenological Analysis of Construction of Self
McCarthy & Write talk about how construction of self is an important aesthetic experience.  I personally find the construction of self very interesting and I think I could take on this issue both phenomenologically and structurally.  I could use the Goffman stuff and from a structuralist side I could try to identify oppositions in interfaces that promote a construction of self.  I could then use these approaches to gain actionable design insights and possibly to evaluate designs.

Those are 2 that I have right now, but am not attached to either (though I do like 1 a bit). What do you think?  Any other ideas?

Also, I was thinking if people wanted to meet outside of class sometime to throw around ideas, I would be interested.  I need as much help as i can get