Liam J. Bannon

• Ph.D. Western Ontario, Canada
• Professor Emeritus at University of Limerick

Discussions about the nature of the human-computer interface, and how it can be improved, play a leading role in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). Despite, or perhaps because of this role, there appears to be some confusion over exactly what is meant by the term, and the implications of these different views for the very nature of the...

This essay briefly outlines the historical and intellectual development of the HCI field. It notes the shift from the early study of machine operators in industrial human factors to the study of blue and white-collar workers using computer-based systems to accomplish their work tasks. As computer-based systems became ubiquitous in the workplace, th...

This volume presents the proceedings of the 12th International Conference on the Design of Cooperative Systems (COOP 2016). The conference is a venue for multidisciplinary research contributing to the design, assessment and analysis of cooperative systems and their integration in organizations, public venues, and everyday life. COOP emerged from th...

This workshop is about computer mediation in human communication and action. The proponents all look at mediation from different angles, but share the view that meaning is what mediation is about. We aim to dig beneath the surface and touch on the conception, construction, negotiation and evolution of meaning in and of technology, for producers and...

This paper argues that a new paradigm for HCI research, which we label the 'practice' perspective, has been emerging in recent years. This stands in contrast to the prevailing mainstream HCI paradigm, which we term the 'interaction' perspective. The 'practice turn', as it has been dubbed in the social sciences, provides a conceptual frame to organi...

Global software development (GSD) has been an im-portant research topic in the CSCW community for more than two decades. CSCW has helped identify a significant number of challenges and solutions for han-dling distances in time, space and culture in distributed software engineering environments. However, no com-prehensive collected body of knowledge...

As an established field of research, Computer Supported Cooperative Work or CSCW is now well beyond its first quarter century of existence. It is an appropriate time to take stock: What has been achieved, and what issues remain as challenges for the field? — This introductory article will assess what has become of the field, its position as a resea...

The impact of culture on knowledge management in international teams is an important topic which is still not well understood. We contribute to the discussion by presenting two case studies of small software teams involved in distributed software development. In doing so, we illustrate how cultural and social issues influence the way knowledge exch...

HCI has expanded enormously since the emergence of the field in the early 1980s. Computing has changed significantly; mobile and ubiquitous communication networks span the globe, and technology has been integrated into all aspects of our daily lives. Computing is not simply for calculating, but rather is a medium through which we collaborate and in...

The paper intends to direct attention to the rich and variegated European field study tradition. Focusing on the Francophone ergonomic tradition and especially the German studies of work and working conditions, both based on in-depth field studies in ordinary work settings, the paper attempts to situate these traditions vis-a-vis the research progr...

Dana Lewis is a leading voice and an active participant in the use of social media in healthcare. As the founder and moderator of #hcsm, the fast-growing and fast-paced Sunday-night healthcare chat on Twitter, she has regular interactions with a diverse ...

Almost two decades ago, I published an article entitled “From Human Factors to Human Actors” (Bannon, 1991) in the book “Design at Work: Cooperative Design of Computer Systems” (Greenbaum and Kyng 1991). This short polemical essay on the need to re-formulate our goals in the fields of information systems design and human-computer interaction to tak...

The field of interaction design has to-date been predominantly concerned with designing products, that is, devices, systems, and more recently, services. A growing body of theoretical and empirical analyses suggests that the scope of interaction design needs to be expanded: an explicit concern of the field should include not only helping designers...

Who is responsible for accidents in highly automated systems? How do we apportion liability among the various participants in complex socio-technical organisations? How can different liability regulations at different levels (supranational, national, local) be harmonized? How do we provide for accountability, while promoting safety? These and other...

The field of software engineering has been evolving since its inception in 1968. Arguments as to the exact nature of the field, whether it should be conceived as a real engineering profession, the role of formal methods, whether it is as much an art as a science, etc., continue to divide both practitioners and academics. My purpose here is not to d...

Through our research and collaborations with usability practitioners and HCI researchers funded by European Union projects in India and China, together with other interactions, we have previously proposed a model for the global institutionalisation and localisation of HCI and usability practice. The model envisages three elements: the redefinition...

This paper reports on results from a long-term field study of globally distributed software development projects within a multinational organization. The research explores the issues involved in performing global software development, utilizing a perspective informed by CSCW research concerning the local organization of work practices and the key r...

Software development requires complex context specific knowledge regarding the particularities of different technologies, the potential of existing software and the needs and expectations of the users. Hence, efficient knowledge management counts amongst the most important challenges for software teams. In international teams, one of the most impor...

This paper provides a nuanced perspective on the topic of user-centred design (UCD) in the human–computer interaction (HCI) field. After a brief outline of its emergence, we describe some of the central tenets of the approach, using the process model of Gulliksen et al. (Behav Inf Technol 22(6):397–409, 2003) as a well-documented exemplar. We then...

The field of HCI has evolved and expanded dramatically since its origin in the early 1980's. The HCI community embraces a large community of researchers and practitioners around the world, from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds in the human and social sciences, engineering and informatics, and more recently, the arts and design disciplines. Thi...

Over two decades of research in the field of Interaction Design and Computer Supported Cooperative Work convinced us that the current design of workstations no longer fits users’ needs. It is time to design new personal computers based on metaphors alternative to the desktop one. With this SIG, we are seeking to involve international HCI profession...

In this chapter we examine the role of computer science (CS) in the field of technology-enhanced learning (TEL). CS encompasses a number of distinct intellectual traditions, generating debates about the nature of the CS field. Given the diversity of views within CS and within TEL, our aim in this chapter is to highlight a number of important CS-rel...

We argue that in order for the field of interaction design research to respond to the challenges associated with ubiquitous computing environments and other recent developments in interactive technologies, two distinct orientations, predominantly concerned with, respectively, technological innovation and practice development, need to be clearly art...

In this paper we discuss how an interaction design perspective on the design of interactive artefacts in public spaces can encourage us to explore certain issues concerning the inclusion of visitor input into our installations. We see the role of technology as supporting people's experiences of heritage–moving away from simple delivery of informati...

In this paper, we present the work of a research team at the University of Limerick, Ireland, focusing on work practices in a distributed software development environment. Adopting ethnographically-informed methods, the researchers have observed the activity of a software development team from an Irish subsidiary of a multinational company over a p...

Various research papers have studied and explored the digital media applications supporting new forms of human and social activities. The research studies have indicated geographic places impacting the people's need for and use of information and that interpersonal patterns of communication affected through mobile location-aware systems. Inhabitant...

In this paper we investigate the problems and potential solutions to the effective establishment of HCI and usability in India and China. Our discussion is motivated by five years of collaboration with relevant bodies in both countries through EU-funded projects encouraging the development of a usability culture in academic and industrial sectors....

This SIG will facilitate a debate concerning how best to support the development of indigenous HCI in developing countries, both as part of education and training systems and within industrial practice.

In this paper we discuss how geographical notions of space and place can aid designers in creating meaningful interactions between end users and technologically augmented physical spaces—specifically museums. We review the literature that discusses the use of spatial concepts and metaphors within the interaction design field and discuss several exa...

The Shared Worlds research project, funded by Science Foundation Ireland, investigates the design and deployment of interactive artifacts in public spaces. The authors' approach views technology as a tool or mediator in human activities, thus requiring careful observation and analysis of user activities as a prelude to concept design. A case study...

This paper reports on the outcomes of the December 2006 CONVIVIO Faculty Forum and the proposed framework and guidelines for design exercises to stimulate creativity, developed at the Forum.

While considerable technical ingenuity is being devoted to making the computer “disappear”, comparatively few research endeavours have concertedly explored the issues which arise when innovative artefacts are deployed in public settings. Innovations in “mixed reality”, “augmented reality” and “ubiquitous computing” tend to be confined to demonstrat...

In this paper, we describe the key lessons from a an earlier HCI Educators' conference, held in Limerick in 2006, on 'inventivity' - a term coined to highlight the confluence of inventiveness and creativity. There is a distinction between being creative and being artistic. Hence, HCI education in creative inventiveness is not just about artisticall...

In this paper, we discuss our emerging approach to museum learning involving the use of new technologies in museums. Our approach is shaped by the experiences of the multidisciplinary EU Kaleidoscope MUSTEL team (Museums and Technology Enhanced Learning), which includes researchers with experience in art history, cultural studies, IT development, i...

In this paper we discuss our approach to designing two public exhibitions, where our goal has been that of facilitating and supporting visitors' own contributions to the exhibits. The approach behind our work sees the role of technology that is supporting people's experiences of heritage as moving away from delivery of information, and towards enab...

This volume presents the proceedings of the tenth European conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). This is a multidisciplinary area that embraces the development of new technologies grounded in actual cooperative practices. These proceedings contain a collection of papers that reflects the breadth and depth of research activities...

Abstract In recent years, novel paradigms of computing have emerged, which enable computational power to be embedded in artefacts and in environments in novel ways. These developments may create new possibilities for using computing to enhance learning. This paper presents the results of a design process that set out to explore interactive techniqu...

This paper provides an overview of a project-based graduate course on the Design of Interactive Media for Public Spaces, which is part of a Masters programme of study in Interactive Media. Project teams make use of a variety of design methods over the 14-week course: students work through a complete design life-cycle using a combination of methods...

BACKGROUND: UBIQUITOUS AND “DISAPPEARING” COMPUTING The perspective of "Ubiquitous Computing", proposed in the early 1990's by Mark Weiser (Weiser, 1991), is based on technological developments that make it possible to embed powerful computational elements and digital components into everyday objects, portable devices and the built environment. Thi...

From earliest times, humans have developed strategies for increasing their ability to remember and commemorate significant events in the history of their communities. Epics have been created, memorized, and passed on through generations even before the development of written records. Monuments have also been built to commemorate important events. S...

In many types of activities, communicative and material activities are so intertwined that the one cannot be understood without taking the other into account. This is true of maritime and hospital work that are used as examples in the paper. The spatial ...

In this paper, we address the big picture of developing HCI in a global context. We focus on India and reflect on the activities of the Indo-European Systems Usability Partnership, an EU funded project linking the British HCI Group with the Computer Society of India and supported by three European universities. We focus on the themes of interaction...

This paper reports research, conducted in collaboration with the Hunt Museum, Limerick, Ireland, which explored the design and deployment of novel ubiquitous computing to augment children's learning in museums. The paper summarises a Design- Based Research process. The poster will display the final results of the research. The authors have presente...

This paper reports research conducted in collaboration with the Hunt Museum, Limerick, Ireland, which examined how children's interaction in museums could be augmented through co-operative design. The paper describes the participatory design process that was undertaken over a two-year period, involving key informants and stakeholders, including tea...

The research reported in this paper set out to explore novel, interactive techniques to stimulate active participation, involvement and learning by children visiting a museum, through ubiquitous computer technology. To achieve this, a systematic design process was undertaken, which involved exploring Scenario-Based Design, Design-Based Research and...

We examine the use of auditory display for ubiquitous computing to extend the boundaries of human-computer interaction (HCI). Our design process is based on listening tests, gathering free-text identification responses from participants. The responses and their classifications indicate how accurately sounds are identified and help us identify possi...

Museums which rely on simple text panels for providing information to visitors about museum artifacts are discussed. The study involved extensive fieldwork, audio-visual recording, interviews and discussion with curators, museum, educators and exhibit designers. The radio frequency identification (RFID)-tagged paper enabled visitors to assemble a c...

In this paper we will outline our approach to studying and understanding place as a notion to guide the design of novel interactive installations in public spaces, in order to augment and enhance, as well as support, peoples' experience. Our current research project "Shared Worlds" is focusing on two case studies within two different public spaces,...

This workshop aims at discussing conceptual and methodological tools for studying and understanding aesthetic experience of technology. Within the HCI and interaction design community there is an increasing interest for the role that aesthetics and, more broadly, user experience plays in the design of interactive artefacts, environments and interfa...

This chapter outlines a “human-centred” perspective on the design of novel interactive artefacts and environments. The approach builds on a variety of human and social science traditions that focus on understanding human activity, all of which seek to provide useful and pertinent observations on human action in the world. While technology may play...

Re-Tracing the Past: exploring objects, stories, mysteries, was an exhibition held at the Hunt Museum, in Limerick, Ireland from 9th--19th June 2003. We attempted to create an exhibition that would be an engaging experience for visitors, that would open avenues for exploration, allow for the collection of visitor opinions,and that would add to the...

The research which we report in this paper was undertaken within a project of the European Union's Disappearing Computer (DC) initiative. The DC comprised sixteen cognate projects, each concerned with different aspects of people's lives and their enhancement through new non-desktop computational artefacts. Our project, SHAPE, (Situating Hybrid Asse...

This paper provides an outline conceptual framework that may be helpful for those involved in the emerging area of ‘affective design’. Historically, the shift from cognitive approaches that eschewed emotions towards a more encompassing conceptual approach that includes affective or emotive processes is understandable. A basic understanding of conce...

This paper documents the design process for an augmented children's play environment centred on that most ubiquitous and simple of objects, the cardboard box. The purpose of the exercise is to show how computer technology can be used in innovative ways to stimulate discovery, play and adventure among children. Our starting point was a dissatisfacti...

The Cardboard Box Garden (CBG) originated from a dissatisfaction with current computer technology as it is presented to children. This paper shall briefly review the process involved in the creation of this installation, from motivation through to design and subsequent implementation and user experience with the CBG. Through the augmentation of an...

In this paper, we attempt to draw comparisons between our research experiences of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning in the workplace, in schools and in universities. We present an outline description of our activities in each setting. As a possible contribution to foundational theory in CSCL, we focus on the crucial but complex issue of lea...

This paper describes an observational study of visitors interacting with artefacts in a museum, and attempts to draw from these studies a number of design considerations. Gaining a thorough understanding of the context, and the way visitors move through the exhibitions and interact around the objects on display, is crucial in designing effective mu...

In this paper, we attempt to draw comparisons between our research experiences of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning in the workplace, in schools and in universities. We present an outline description of our activities in each setting. As a possible contribution to foundational theory in CSCL, we focus on the crucial but complex issue of lea...

SHAPE, "Situating Hybrid Assemblies in Public Environments", is an EU Future and Emerging Technologies project of the Disappearing Computer initiative, concerned with designing and developing novel technology to enhance interpersonal interaction in public locales: exploratoria, galleries, and museums, for example. This paper outlines a use of hybri...

This paper discusses the concept of community networking using new technologies. It specifically focuses on relatively large-scale town networks, where the network has outside sponsorship, and provides some examples of these networks. After examining the motivation for community networks, we attempt to see to what extent local concerns are being me...

SHAPE, "Situating Hybrid Assemblies in Public Environments", is an EU Future and Emerging Technologies project of the Disappearing Computer initiative, concerned with designing and developing novel technology to enhance interpersonal interaction in public locales: exploratoria, galleries, and museums, for example. This paper outlines a use of hybri...

The successful introduction of technology into museums and exhibitions is a complex and difficult process. It requires detailed study of both visitor expectations and experiences and a sensitivity to curator and exhibition designer concerns, together with the concerns of architects and interior designers, in the case of newly built spaces. It also...

Irish poet Seamus Heaney, reflecting on the co-existence of industry and agriculture, the acorn and the rusted bolt, the engine shunting and the trotting horse in Derry when he was growing up, asks:Is it any wonder when I thought I would have second thoughts?His dialogical sensibility to “both-and”, Derry as both industrial and agricultural, modern...

DRAFT Position paper for Workshop on Common Information Spaces, Copenhagen, August 23-25, 2000. (In my talk, I plan to go beyond the notes below and provide a rather personal perspective on the topic of what is now commonly called "common information spaces", and my current stance towards this concept. I now believe that there are a number of serio...

In this Chapter the authors outline how activity theory - an approach originating from Russian cultural-historical psychology - might be used in the understanding and development of technological artefacts that meet the needs of various categories of users. A brief introduction to some of the key ideas of activity theory and their historical develo...

this paper is orient you to some relevant work that has been circulating within the CSCW community concerning the nature of work, recount some stories, and allude to possible implications. In a word, the intent is not to have you embrace CSCW as the answer to all the problems concerning IT and organisational change, but to offer some of the work an...

knowledge Relevant (2) structures on users' present work Visions (5) and design proposals Overview of (4) technological options Concrete experience Concrete (1) experience with users' present work Concrete (6) experience with the new system Concrete (3) experience with technological options 19 Interventionists deliberately set up activities designe...

This paper investigates an important, yet under-researched topic in CSCW, namely shared, or common, information spaces. We provide some background to work in the area, and then proceed to examine features of such spaces. The work involved in both putting information in common, and in interpreting it, has often not been sufficiently recognized. Thro...

An abstract is not available.

This paper describes a novel browser prototype that has been designed and implemented on PC’s and soundcards. Our focus has been on the development of a usable and engaging interface which exploits both visual and aural features of the data space. The project involves state-of-the-art work in human-computer interaction and multimedia development. W...

This paper investigates an important, yet under-researched topic in CSCW, namely shared, or common, information spaces. Precisely what is meant by this term, however, is not always obvious. We provide some background to work in the area, and then proceed to examine features of such spaces through examples. The work involved in both putting informat...

The growth of science and technology parks worldwide has been stimulated by the perception of their role as foci for regional development. Studies of these parks often show discrepancies between the media hype associated with these developments and the reality on the ground. This paper provides an overview of a study commissioned by the National Te...

The concept of "the information society" as an important new phenomenon has recently received much attention at a European and national level. Exhortations on the need for advance preparation for this society by all the social partners are commonplace. This paper problematises the notion of "the information society", the position of technological d...

This chapter provides a perspective on design that emphasizes the iterative nature of design and discusses the role that evaluation through use can play in this iteration. The alternative conception of the design process allows seeing the way design can emerge from an understanding of the current use of systems as a spur to re-design. The iterative...

This chapter presents an introduction on ethnography and design. It also analyzes the nature of ethnography, with specific reference to the studies of the workplace. The reason for the recent growth in the systemic paradigm is because a number of questions concerning the design of usable computer systems that designers need answers to have not been...

The need for some form of "organizational memory" (OM) has become increasingly recognized by many organizations in the current complex and turbulent business environment. This renewed interest in a topic that has had a chequered career is not due solely to the attentions of the CSCW community, but can be found throughout organisations and in the wr...