Preparation for theme 5

Comics, Robots, Fashion and Programming: outlining the concept of actDresses 
Fernaeus, Y. & Jacobsson, M. delves in a very unique subject: physical programming. They take an initial look at existing technologies (e.g. LEGO Mindstorm) and point to the fact that the user is forced to move to a setting outside the previous use of the artifact in question, e.g. programming at a PC when actually constructing a physical Mindstorm robot.

The authors point to the fact that clothing today acts as a communicative medium where people's different clothing tell us if they are e.g. going outside, sitting indoors, training, etc. They paint similarities between programming languages and clothing as a physical language.

"actDresses" is formed as a framework for physical programming by using clothes as signifiers, rather than actual code in a PC environment. To illustrate the concept, different cases are presented. However, proof of concept prototypes are not evaluated using user studies, meaning this research paper acts more as a large hypothesis rather than new theory.

Question: How would you evaluate or design a potential user study of a "actDresses" prototype? What would be the main questions you wanted answered?

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1. How can media technologies be evaluated?

Since media technology is a very broad subject, I think it could be evaluated with a wide array of tools, although of course depending somewhat on the technology in question. Overall however, media technology is used by people and so benefits greatly from both qualitative and quantitative methods concretized through interviews, questionnaires etc. about how the technology is used and/or seen by the person. 

A very good way to evaluate technology overall is of course to let users test them, and by doing that you need prototypes. A simple prototype could let people imagine how they would use it and give a first impression. A proof of concept prototype could let the users actually test the idea practically, rather than imaginatively. 

2. What role will prototypes play in research?

As an idea - hypothesis - or theory is formed, it is at first very abstract and often difficult to grasp. A prototype is a way of visualizing and 'humanizing' an idea, so that more people can understand it. Evaluating and developing this prototype might change the theory behind it, or reinforce it. 

3. Why could it be necessary to develop a proof of concept prototype?

Since a prototype is more of a visualization of a concept, rather than a full implementation, people (researchers) are often left wondering if the wonderful visualization could also work. Developing and implementing a proof of concept is therefore a way to further evaluate - prove - that the initial theory works. In difference to only visualizing an idea (simple prototype), a proof of concept's keyword is all about credibility rather than understandability. 

4. What are characteristics and limitations of prototypes?

A prototype is often characterized by being a very simple draft and not necessarily very aesthetically pleasing. It's a first hands-on visualization of an abstract idea, and so needs a few evaluations and tests before it can be considered for more advanced proof of concept tests or even commercial use. Therefore, since they are not fully developed, they can be confusing to the user. In some cases (such as the research paper "Turn Your Mobile Into the Ball: Rendering Live Football Game Using Vibration") users would benefit from training, which in turn potentially skewed questionnaire results as not everyone may have access to training in a more general outlook.