Places for NewsAn exploration of context and situated methods

Yuval CohenHCI-E MSc 2014/15

University College London

@cyuvalc hello@yuval.io www.yuval.io

PremiseWhat is context?

Location

Identifiable Objects

Connectivity

What is it used for?

Customised content: topic, location

Offline reading

Sharing: direct, social networksDey (2001), Understanding and Using Context

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PremiseWhat’s missing?

Qualitative and experiential factors

Interface and format adaptability

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Goals & Research QuestionsResearch Question 1:

What are the experiential factors that affect news consumption? (individual, social, cultural)

Research Question 2:

What is the effect of such factors on user behaviour and consumption habits?

Exploratory research

Identify factors

Explore methods

Propose future directions

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Related WorkSituated Studies News Consumption

Context: informational vs. experiential

Dourish (2001, 2004)

Situated action: behaviour in changing circumstances

Suchman (1987)

Participant-reported data: diaries, experience sampling, interviews

Hektner (2007), Carter & Mankoff (2005)

Mobility: isolation in public, space appropriation

Augé (1995), Harrison & Dourish (1996)

Industry research: tech. platforms, devices, brands

Reuters (2014, 2015), Ofcom (2015)

User needs: information needs, mobile vs. desktop

Church (2011, 2014), Dimmick (2011)

Profiling: frequency, amount, speed

Carreira (2004), Constantinides (2015)

Adaptivity: content that matches use habits

Carreira (2004), Billsus & Pazzani (1999, 2007)

?

MethodsAutoethnography Bg. Interviews+

Initial taxonomy of factors, data collection tool

Tools

Note-taking

Notifications (researcher-initiated)

Offline editing Offline editing

Task-oriented view Task-oriented view

Notifications (researcher-initiated)

Note-taking

✗

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✗

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MethodsAutoethnography Bg. Interviews+

Initial taxonomy of factors, data collection tool

Participants

17Participants

Recruitment:Facebook/Twitter Notice boards Word of mouth

Remuneration£10/participant £50 Amazon voucher draw

All participants UK residents:18% London 82% elsewhere

Ages 22-47 (M=30, SD=8)

Student vs. Professional35% professionals (6 Ps) 65% students (11 Ps)

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Methods

Diary Questions (targeted)

Morning

Night

Notification 1

Notification 2

Situated Study

Contextual factors, behaviour patterns, habits

Post-study

Semi-structured Interviews

Demographic data

Targeted context-related Qs (situated data as cue)

Methodology evaluation

Snippets

Event-based ESMBrandt et al. (2007)

(two weeks)

Question DeliveryResearcher

Participant

ResultsTriggers Pos. / Conducive Neg. / Distracting

Barriers Classifications are arbitrary and can overlap:Affective state - news consumption spectrum

Interest/engrossment tradeoff

“I'll be listening for keywords, cues […] scan back and forth intermittently, based on how engrossed I am”

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Break from study or work

Notifications and widgets

Media multitasking

Morning habit

‘Me time’

News overload

Kinetosis (motion sickness)

Alertness and mood

Background activity

Connectivity

Small display

Multitasking

ResultsSituated Methods Wunderlist

✓ ✓14 of 17Participated for the entire length of the studyOne participant completed less then 50% of the study

Task-oriented interface (‘checking-off’ questions)

Low participation burden: consensus among participants

Notifications and Android widget = reminders

Offline editing and sync (not used by all participants)

Few technical issues with installation, routine use

Event-based snippet completion – as designed

ResultsSituated Methods

✗ Response aggregation:

Completing snippets and diaries at the same time

Completing snippets and/or diaries the following day(s)

ResultsWunderlist

✗ Participants:

Multiple fields for data entry

Researcher:

Scalability: large number of participants requires manual entry

Qs and As were not always simultaneously visible

Conclusions

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Context is more than location and connectivity

Experiential factors affect the way in which users consume news. They trigger, prevent and alter consumption habits.

News consumption serves momentary needs

Contextual factors constantly change, even within a given situation, often as a result of other contextual factors.

News consumption is opportunistic

Participants created their own consumption opportunities. Physical location matters, but it is not a determinant – users appropriate spaces for news consumption.

“It doesn’t matter where you are, it matters what the situation is”

“Reading is the distraction”

“My mood, […] stress in my life, how tired I am […] all play a part”

Conclusions

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Choice of methodology and tools = effectiveness

Each method provided a unique view of participants’ worlds. Triangulating the data painted a broad picture of context, habits and preferences.

Method implementation – key to low burden

Using 4 methods created potential for participation burden. Implementation was key for lowering it.

Event-based response, availability on a mobile device, phrasing of questions, providing support to participants – all contributed to perception of low burden

“Wunderlist was actually one of the easier ones I've done”

“I think it helped focus on short concise answers”

“Just the general format – ease of getting on, ease of updating, ease of just checking off that I've done it – all that was better”

Future ResearchMeasurability and Profiling

Add an experiential layer to current classification models of news consumption habits

Context

Further exploration of experiential factors in news consumption – contrast, add to or expand upon current findings

Appropriating for Data CollectionAdaptive Interfaces

Further implement and test appropriated data collection tools (additional populations?)

Create adaptive news (and media) consumption interfaces that adapt to changing use contexts

Focus: customisability and scalability (e.g. use of APIs)

Challenge: determine which factors are appropriate for use

Thank YouThis presentation is available at:

bit.ly/newsplaces

Special thanks to: Paul Marshall, Marios Constantinides, Joanne Moore, Jiri Jerabek

@cyuvalc hello@yuval.io www.yuval.io