Figure 2
1: The "churn" in concept space (adapted from Velt et al., 2017) 3 Critiques and extensions of the framework As the content analysis of trajectory citations shows, most uses of the framework lead to abstract or theoretical contributions, including commentary on the framework in the form of critiques or extension.
Source publication
One major challenge for the academic Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research community is the adoption of its findings and theoretical output by the interaction design practitioners whose work they are meant to support. To address this “research-practice gap”, this thesis takes the example of trajectories, a HCI conceptual framework derived from...
Citations
... Points where continuity of the experience is at risk in some way, including: beginnings, endings, role transitions, interface transitions, episodes, seams in the technical infrastructure, & real-virtual transitions Within the space identified in Figure 1, trajectories sit towards the top: as discussed by Velt et al. [58], they are either a form of theory or at least a high-level set of strong concepts. Their expression as a conceptual framework is firmly grounded in HCI research and in academic publications [1,3,4], and has been described as an example of contemporary HCI theory by others [49]. ...
... Their expression as a conceptual framework is firmly grounded in HCI research and in academic publications [1,3,4], and has been described as an example of contemporary HCI theory by others [49]. More recently, trajectories has also been the subject of a survey which showed it to be widely known within HCI research and used by researchers for design purposes, but with little evidence of use in non-academic design practice [58]. In line with this set of prior research, we analyse our various translations of trajectories-as documented in the interventions below-in relation to the two-dimensional gap outlined by Höök and Löwgren [28,35]. ...
... This logic of combinations and mappings reflect the uses of trajectories by us as academics to produce new conceptual knowledge. This new conceptual knowledge is defined by combining or contrasting parts or whole of trajectories with other concepts, a phenomenon that has been labelled as a "churn in concept space" [58]. We therefore now suggest that this "churn" also includes translational activity and straddles both sides of the research-practice gap. ...
The gap between research and design practice has long been a concern for the HCI community. In this article, we explore how different translations of HCI knowledge might bridge this gap. A literature review characterizes the gap as having two key dimensions—one between general theory and particular artefacts and a second between academic HCI research and professional UX design practice. We report on a 5-year engagement between HCI researchers and a major media company to explore how a particular piece of HCI research, the trajectories conceptual framework , might be translated for and with UX practitioners. We present various translations of this framework and fit them into the gap we previously identified. This leads us to refine the idea of translations , suggesting that they may be led by researchers, by practitioners or co-produced by both as boundary objects . We consider the benefits of each approach.
... In our work, we join a current trend in activity design that looks at human activity as a design target [3,51] as the ultimate particular [88]. Many creative and design practices take this approach, e.g.: game and play design [4,33], event design [87,86], technology augmented dance [9,40] and bodybased interactive performing arts [6,28,58]. Planning a Yoga class is already an example of activity design: the instructor compiles a set of poses, and particular cues which determine what the trainees do, and how. ...
Designing technology to support instructed physical training is challenging, due to how instructions rely on complex interactional and situational social processes. To support in-the-moment instruction, we engaged in a co-creative Research through Design process with a Yoga instructor. Together, we designed and deployed Enlightened Yoga: a training class featuring wearable projecting lights that augment the instructor's and trainee's movements, and highlight the orientation and positioning of key body parts. We present insights from the design process and a study of the class. We show how the wearable lights enabled a new shared frame of reference between instructor and trainees, that became instructable through the way participants could reference and orient themselves to it. This allowed the instructor to extend his instructional strategies, and enabled trainees to better act upon cues. We discuss how this was made possible by jointly designing the technology, its coupling with the body, instructions and exercises.
... Shneiderman even provides a list of instantiations of knowledge: theories (rules, frameworks, models), descriptions (terminology, taxonomies, ontologies), causal explanations and predictions; and more practical knowledge such as solutions (problem fixes, improved processes) and guidelines (recommendations, patterns, tutorials) [59,64]. On the other end of the translational work is design practice, the process or practice of devising, planning, or constructing something, focusing on the design of effective, user-friendly, interactive computing systems [26,31,70]. The goal of the TS problem in HCI is thus to facilitate the adoption, implementation, and institutionalization of theoretical findings into design practice (much like what is described in [57]). ...
Using scientific discoveries to inform design practice is an important, but difficult, objective in HCI. In this paper, we provide an overview of Translational Science in HCI by triangulating literature related to the research-practice gap with interview data from many parties engaged (or not) in translating HCI knowledge. We propose a model for Translational Science in HCI based on the concept of a continuum to describe how knowledge progresses (or stalls) through multiple steps and translations until it can influence design practice. The model offers a conceptual framework that can be used by researchers and practitioners to visualize and describe the progression of HCI knowledge through a sequence of translations. Additionally, the model may facilitate a precise identification of translational barriers, which allows devising more effective strategies to increase the use of scientific findings in design practice.
We present a case study on the design and development of an IoT application, called Real-time Emergency Communication System for HAZMAT Incidents (REaCH). The REaCH application utilizes the latest IoT technologies to capture and monitor individual health data (heart rate, ECG, heat index) and provides an interactive dashboard to assist incident commanders to evaluate if a firefighter needs to be removed from the scene due to a potential threat to their health and well-being. In our study we examined the design and development of a dashboard utilizing the Trajectories Conceptual Framework (TCF) and Action Research (AR). The aim of this paper is to analyze if TCF can guide the development of a dashboard from research to industry. Our study consists of four cycles that span from the requirement gathering phase to delivering a minimal viable product. We conclude that the integration of TCF and AR provides a solid approach to evaluate the design and develop a real-time health monitoring IoT dashboard. We also propose the addition of a Developer Trajectory to address the technical aspects and help guide both the front-end and back-end developers through the various stages of the applications development using IoT technology.KeywordsTCFIoTHCItrajectories frameworkdashboard designAction Research
