Jo Herstad

University of Oslo · Department of Informatics

The button is a familiar technology that is used to control and regulate things and machines in our everyday lives. With the digitalization of the button, many possibilities for novel and innovative functions have been invented and implemented. The use of digital buttons comes with some challenges that are explored in this paper. We describe the tr...

This article discusses the use of different representations of technology to expose, inform and engage participants taking part in co-creation activities. In our project, the participants co-create an activity to support the learning of cultural heritage. We build our research on the "design choices framework", which provides a convenient structure...

In Participatory Design (PD), the design of a cooperative digital solution should involve all stakeholders in the co-design. When one stakeholder’s position is weaker due to socio-cultural structures or differences in knowledge or abilities, PD methods should help designers balance the power in the design process at both the macro and micro levels....

This paper investigates the philosophical and designerly questions of how the concepts of familiarity, orientation, and habituation can be used to understand a self-moving (semi-autonomous robot) table at home. Tables are familiar habituated objects in domestic settings for people with various abilities. We explore the idea of a self-moving table t...

This paper analyzes work activity in the home, e.g., cleaning, performed by two actors, a human and a robot. Nowadays, there are attempts to automate this activity through the use of robots. However, the activity of cleaning, in and of itself, is not important; it is used instrumentally to understand if and how robots can be integrated within curre...

The study focuses on fragmented information awareness as a result of the cross-use of Digital Learning Environments (DLEs), rather than focusing on the use of individual Learning Management Systems (LMSs). This study goes beyond adopting an educational perspective as the classical studies on LMSs do. DLEs are defined as a plethora of digital system...

We investigated how a robot moving with different velocity profiles affects a person's perception of it when working together on a task. The two profiles are the common linear profile and a profile based on the animation principles of slow in, slow out. The investigation was accomplished by running an experiment in a home context where people and t...

The elderly in the future will use smart house technology, sensors, and robots to stay at home longer. Privacy at home for these elderly is important. In this exploratory paper, we examine different understandings of privacy and use Palen and Dourish's framework to look at the negotiation of privacy along boundaries between a human at home, the rob...

Patient empowerment is a concept that has found an extensive discussion in health care. It is of significant interest, especially now when the number of people living with chronic diseases has increased. However, there is a stigma associated with being a patient, and contributing to empowerment becomes more challenging. In this paper, we present an...

There are many different ways a robot can move in Human-Robot Interaction. One way is to use techniques from film animation to instruct the robot to move. This article is a systematic literature review of human-robot trials, pilots, and evaluations that have applied techniques from animation to move a robot. Through 27 articles, we find that animat...

Monoplant is a prototype of an educational construction kit that provides teachers and secondary school students with hands-on experience on plant biology. We present the design rationale of Monoplant and report on its 3-week deployment in a high school classroom. The students (N = 14) used Monoplant to solve a photosynthesis assignment requiring t...

We examine how robot movement can help human-robot interaction in the context of a robot helping people over 60-years old at home. Many people are not familiar with a robot moving in their home. We present four movement conditions to classify movement between a human and robot at home. Using phenomenology and familiarity, we recognize some of these...

There are many different ways a robot can move in Human-Robot Interaction. One way is to use techniques from film animation to instruct the robot to move. This article is a systematic literature review of human-robot trials, pilots, and evaluations that have applied techniques from animation to move a robot. Through 27 articles, we find that animat...

Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) from United Nations refers to the inclusion and quality of education. This implies providing equal access to all levels of education. While a lot of focus has been on inclusion and accessibility through universal design with a focus on disabilities, the aim of this workshop was to explore the role of inclusion...

The elderly in the future will use smart house technology, sensors, and robots to stay at home longer. Privacy at home for these elderly is important. In this exploratory paper, we examine different understandings of privacy and use Palen and Dourish’s framework to look at the negotiation of privacy along boundaries between a human at home, the rob...

We illustrate in this paper some of the negative emotions experienced by students when interacting with digital systems in learning situations, where there is a lack of feedback, or the interaction with digital systems is faulty. The emotions are classified here as feelings of: neglection, frustration, uncertainty, need for confirmation, and discom...

This paper examines privacy as something people do, seeing privacy as a constant negotiation of technical and social aspects of technology use. To be able to examine privacy aspects of live video sharing on social media, we have designed and deployed a technology probe in amateur running events. The findings suggest that audio wouldn’t be shared a...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss implications of human-technology interaction in organizational change, especially where mobile phones are introduced to replace paper-based reporting. Design/methodology/approach – The paper employs a case study approach, focusing on implementation of mobile technology for health (mHealth) solution...

Implementing ICTs in healthcare settings has proved to be very challenging such that progress towards widespread adoption and use of Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems has been slow. The challenges of implementing these technologies have been described as complex, diverse, and locally situated. One of the challenging aspects of designing EMR s...

One ideal of Participatory Design (PD) is active involvement by all stakeholders as co-designers. However, when PD is applied to real projects, certain compromises are unavoidable, no matter what stakeholders are involved. With this paper we want to shed light on some of the challenges in implementing "true" PD in the case of designing with childre...

This paper address Universal Design and Tangible Interaction through the concept of familiarity. Co-creative tangibles are designed and evaluated in the RHYME project, where the goal is to improve health and well being for children with severe disabilities through music and physical interaction. The main contribution of this paper is to make sense...

We investigate ways in which emergent digital technologies embedded into "soft things" offer new possibilities for communication, collaboration and co-creation between people with and without disabilities. Specifically, we look at ways in which tangible, net based, multi-modal artifacts can be used for creating and sharing music and visuals. In thi...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to bring together the fields of participatory design, design for all, accessible music, tangible interaction and musicking to propose musicking for all, where participants can take part on their own terms, with their own intentions, initiatives and interpretations. The goal is to promote well‐being and health am...

The inherent bottom-up nature of social software diffusion differs markedly from the adoption trajectories to which most organisational IT strategies are accustomed. Through case studies in two organisations, this paper presents insights into how adoption of emergent social software platforms may take form, and discusses the implications of two rad...

This paper presents current practices used by village health workers, traditional birth attendants, health facility workers and district health managers in collection, recording, storing and transferring birth information in the health information system. Envisioned potentials of using mobile application as a tool for data recording, transferring a...

In this paper we discuss a pilot study involving the use of iPad for active reading in academic setting. This is part of the broader study of how introducing this new platform may transform the work and learning practices of students. The pilot was conducted in the context of master's course in Geology at the University of Oslo, involving 40 studen...

Privacy is often used as an abstract concept, and negotiating what information to disclose to whom, where, at what times, and in what situations is a challenging one. In this paper we apply a previously proposed framework from Palen and Dourish for understanding and discussing privacy to a setting of sharing and acting on information about physical...

Collecting, disseminating and maintaining accessibility information about the physical world is a daunting task. Through the OurWay concept, end users are involved to provide feedback on suggested routes in a route planning system, thereby solving both their own navigational tasks at hand, and helping other users by leaving behind traces of their a...

This paper presents results from a study on mobile phone use to connect two rural hospitals in Malawi with community health workers (CHWs), the hospitals work with. Mobile phone use at the hospitals has helped reduce the need for face-to-face communication to permit patient information exchange, meetings and appointments scheduling, as well as work...

In this paper we argue for the need to expand from a perspective on a single user-developer relation in designing usability to a perspective on usability as dependent on a multi-layered and distributed network of relations between multiple and diverse actors. Based on an empirical study of the successful premium SMS services for mobile phones in th...

In this paper we argue for the need to expand from a perspective on a single user - developer relation in designing usability to a perspective on usability as dependent on a multi-layered and distributed network of relations between multiple and diverse actors. Based on an empirical study of the successful premium SMS services for mobile phones in...

The ongoing convergence between the telecommunications industry and the information technology industry leads to new products and services for the enduser. Products based on Wireless Application Protocol (WAP 1 ) technology bring the world of Internet into our pockets, where the services provided may be wireless and accessed from anywhere. There ar...

: Wearables are often described with a focus on providing the user with wearable information access and communication means. The contextual information retrieval aspect is, however, an essential feature of such systems, as in, for example, the Remembrance Agent [1] where manually entered search-terms are used for presenting relevant situational inf...

In this paper we are focusing on designing for a multidevice environment. The paper presents preliminary results and describes topics from the Knowmobile project. The Knowmobile project is concerned with mobile opportunities for medical students at the University of Oslo. The multidevice paradigm in Knowmobile is enlighted, and the paper reports th...

During design and development of personal mobile communication technologies, various user centered design approaches are frequently used. Based on results from three ethnographic studies of bike messenger operations, bike police operation and field engineering operations, we argue that the view of the non-user should be included during design. Conc...

Information systems research has taken many different directions and a host of different approaches have been used. Different researchers within the multidisciplinary field of IS seem to prefer some approaches to others based on both epistemological and more practical grounds. In this paper we look at the case study approach in IS research and focu...

This paper is a result of research activities within wearable communications carried out at the Ericsson Norway Applied research center in collaboration with the University of Oslo. The research activities are based on the conviction that the user and usability should be in focus. The research is grounded on a field study conducted to investigate a...

This paper is a result of research activities within wearable communications carried out at the Ericsson Norway Applied research center in collaboration with the University of Oslo. The research activities are based on the conviction that the user and usability should be in focus. The research is grounded on a field study conducted to investigate a...

With the introduction of mobile communication technology, users of telecommunication services are able to move freely around while engaged in communication over distance. This is introducing the users of mobile telecommunication services to varying contexts. Based on findings from field studies of highly mobile, and highly communication intensive a...

The paper addresses the requirement to support component mobility. Field studies of bike messenger operations in Oslo and New York City has been conducted to inform design. We have investigated how component mobility is critical for enabling tailoring of personal mobility in general, and on-body off-body mobility specifically. We suggest that takin...

Wearable computers are worn on the body and mostly hands-free computer systems. These new devices will facilitate new ways of supporting collaboration and social navigation in what we call wearable-supported collaborative work (WSCW). WSCW systems make it possible to remain closely in touch with the work while still accessing shared information res...

A comparison of natural communication, fixed telecommunication and mobile telecommunication is outlined in this report. The comparison is informed from field studies, where natural, fixed and mobile communication is studied in context. Our believe is that by investigating and understanding the use of different types of traditional and new communica...

This paper describes preliminary results and topics from the Knowmobile project. The Knowmobile project is concerned with mobile opportunities for medical stu-dents at the University of Oslo. The focus is on the students learning context at a local hos-pital and at a number of general practitioners offices. The paper reports theoretical data on the...

This paper presents a scenario-based approach to designing mobile applications. Based on empirical studies of consultants in a maritime classification company, a set of scenarios was developed. The scenarios are used for assessing current mobile platforms, as well as pointing to new design possibilities for the organisation concerned. Appraising so...

Wearables are often described with a focus on providing the user with wearable information a ccess and communication means. The contextual information retrieval aspect is however an essential feature of such systems, as in e.g. the Remembrance Agent (1) where manually entered search-terms are used for presenting relevant situational information, or...

An iterative design approach based on contextual feedback from users of a mobile communication and information system is described. The resources allotted to providing mechanisms for early feedback from users turned out to be well spent. Some positive and unforeseen effects were found in this study of how the feedback system was actually used - and...