The last participant's final questionnaire was submitted today, which means we'll be in the thick of evaluation over the next few weeks. Of the 24 participants signed up to the trial we've actually got rich and usable data sets for 11 – not quite as many as we'd hoped for, but more than enough to occupy us in analysing and evaluating the implications.
In addition to 6 experience-related questionnaires submitted by each of the participants, we're also analysing the system logs to draw out patterns of usage: over time, acitvity (whether browsing or authoring etc), and possibly even location.
We'll correlate this with the participants experiences, as well as the actual content they created on the system to build up a picture of how they used UT. An interesting suggestion from Nicholas Nova has prompted us to plan a series of short interviews with the participants presenting them with what they said about the experience, as well as what they did and when they did it, to see what additional observations or insights into their use and behaviour this might trigger.
From our point of view its been a great success – generating a wealth of data about how people can actually use mobile spatial annotation/public authoring platforms with current technologies, and points to some of the key issues that manufacturers and telcos are going to have to address in the near future. We'll be posting snippets from the evaluation as we proceed and make sense of it all, with a final report planned for September.
I'm surprised at how quickly the UT system has become not just useful and fun wrt to authoring, but how well it adapts to being used as a diary. It's very easy to use the system like a confessional. Unexpectedly pleasing.
Another fifteen people are set to play with the system today.
In order to better understand the experience of using Urban Tapestries we are interested in finding out more about some of the areas listed below and ask users when they finish a two hour session to add their thoughts on them.
What was difficult or easy about making a thread or pocket?
Did you find it easy to access the pockets that you created?
Did you follow a thread? What was the experience like?
What did you think of the map? Could you find your way around?
How did you feel using this technology on the street?
What kind of threads did you create?
What type of threads would you have liked to create that you didn’t do today and why?
What was your experience of reading pockets/content created by other people?
Did any of these influence your own ideas for public authoring?
Fifteen people are set to play with the system today.
When participants return their devices we ask them to tell us what their experience was like. This is part of our particpatory evaluation process which is designed to be open and transparent and allow people who are interested in the project to get an immediate sense of how people are responding to the aims of the trial. The participants' feedback and response to our questions (noted above) are attached as comments to this post...
Each two hour trial session features a 30-45minute intro to the project and training on the device. Then depending on the weather participants either wander around the streets authoring their own threads or stay and play in the UT HQ on the system. Then at the end of the session we ask what the experience was like.
Here are some pictures of people training and contributing to the blog. As we have so much technology that needs charging we have to prioritise it over the heaters - which explains why everyone looks so rugged up indoors.
And on the seventh day.... we are running the trial again. We have twelve sessions booked in for today.
When participants return their devices we ask them to tell us what their experience was like. This is part of our particpatory evaluation process which is designed to be open and transparent and allow people who are interested in the project to get an immediate sense of how people are responding to the aims of the trial. The participants' feedback and response to our questions (noted above) are attached as comments to this post...
It's the sixth day of the trial and (though we are not obsessed by it) the weather seems worse for outside activities, given it is raining today. We have 15 sessions booked in for today.
When participants return their devices we ask them to tell us what their experience was like. This is part of our particpatory evaluation process which is designed to be open and transparent and allow people who are interested in the project to get an immediate sense of how people are responding to the aims of the trial. The participants' feedback and response to our questions (noted above) are attached as comments to this post...
Today was the fifth day of the trial and the weather was slightly better for outdoor activites. Eleven participants took part and when they returned their devices we asked them to tell us what their experience was like.
This is part of our particpatory evaluation process which is designed to be open and transparent and allow people who are interested in the project to get an immediate sense of how people are responding to the aims of the trial. The participants' feedback and response to our questions (noted above) are attached as comments to this post...
Today was the fourth day of the trial and ten participants took part in the trial. When people return their devices we ask them to tell us what their experience was like.
This is part of our particpatory evaluation process which is designed to be open and transparent and allow people who are interested in the project to get an immediate sense of how people are responding to the aims of the trial. The participants' feedback and response to our questions (noted above) are attached as comments to this post...
15 sessions are booked in today.
This blog is part of our particpatory evaluation process which is designed to be open and transparent and allow people who are interested in the project to get an immediate sense of how people are responding to the aims of the trial. The participants' feedback and response to our questions (noted above) are attached as comments to this post...
Today is the second day of the trial, with 12 sessions booked in. When people return their devices we ask them to tell us what their experience was like.
This is part of our particpatory evaluation process which is designed to be open and transparent and allow people who are interested in the project to get an immediate sense of how people are responding to the aims of the trial. The participants' feedback and response to our questions (noted above) are attached as comments to this post...
All the setup is done and the trial of the Urban Tapestries prototype starts today and we have seven sessions booked in. When people return their devices we ask them to tell us what their experience was like.
This is part of our particpatory evaluation process which is designed to be open and transparent – allowing people who are interested in the project to get an immediate sense of how people are responding to the aims of the trial.