This article explores video-viewing behavior when videos are wrapped in interactive content in the case of iOtok, a 13-episodes web documentary series. The interaction and viewing data were collected over a period of one year, providing a dataset of more than 12,200 total video views by 6000 users. Standard metrics (video views, percentage viewed, number of sessions) show higher active participation for registered users compared to unregistered users. Results also indicate that serialization over multiple weeks is an effective strategy for audience building over a long period of time without negatively affecting video views. In viewing behavior analysis, we focused on three perspectives: (i) regularity (watching on a weekly basis or not), (ii) intensity (number of videos per session), and (iii) order of watching. We performed a perspective based and combined perspectives analysis involving manual coding techniques, rule-based, and k-means clustering algorithms to reveal different user profiles (intermittent, exemplary, detached, enthusiastic users, and nibblers) and highlight further viewing behavior differences (e.g., post-series users binge-watched more than concurrent users during first 13 weeks while the series was weekly released). We discuss how these results can be used to inform the design and promotion of future web documentaries.

Interactive web documentaries have the potential to engage people with important topics through innovative storytelling approaches. Understanding how users interact with web documentaries and to what extent they consume their content can help documentary filmmakers reach a broader or more engaged audience. In this article, we provide an in-depth and quantitative analysis of an interactive web documentary called iOtok. The 13 episodes of iOtok were launched on an online portal showcasing a variety of features (chat, souvenirs, animated 360 panoramas, etc.), on a weekly basis. Through the analysis of more than 20 000 sessions, newsletter statistics and one online questionnaire, we discuss the impact of serialization and interactivity on audience reception and user engagement. Data show that in the case of iOtok, serialization had a positive impact (large number of sessions over time, long time on site). However, and somehow unexpectedly, every click led to a considerable amount of users dropping off and quitting the web portal before reaching the core videos. This article also addresses other aspects of web documentaries, such as the efficiency of various media to reach and engage users over time and differences in behaviors between registered and unregistered users.

Digital-augmentation of print-media can provide contextually relevant audio, visual, or haptic content to supplement the static text and images. The design of such augmentation--its medium, quantity, frequency, content, and access technique--can have a significant impact on the reading experience. In the worst case, such as where children are learning to read, the print medium can become a proxy for accessing digital content only, and the textual content is avoided. In this work, we examine how augmented content can change the reader's behaviour with a comic book. We first report on the usage of a commercially available augmented comic for children, providing evidence that a third of all readers converted to simply viewing the digital media when printed content is duplicated. Second, we explore the design space for digital content augmentation in print media. Third, we report a user study with 136 children that examined the impact of both content length and presentation in a digitally-augmented comic book. From this, we report a series of design guidelines to assist designers and editors in the development of digitally-augmented print media.

The development of novel shape-changing or actuated tabletop tangible interfaces opens new perspectives for the design of physical and dynamic maps, especially for visually impaired (VI) users. Such maps would allow non-visual haptic exploration with advanced functions, such as panning and zooming. In this study, we designed an actuated tangible tabletop interface, called BotMap, allowing the exploration of geographic data through non-visual panning and zooming. In BotMap, small robots represent landmarks and move to their correct position whenever the map is refreshed. Users can interact with the robots to retrieve the names of the landmarks they represent. We designed two interfaces, named Keyboard and Sliders, which enable users to pan and zoom. Two evaluations were conducted with, respectively, ten blindfolded and eight VI participants. Results show that both interfaces were usable, with a slight advantage for the Keyboard interface in terms of navigation performance and map comprehension, and that, even when many panning and zooming operations were required, VI participants were able to understand the maps. Most participants managed to accurately reconstruct maps after exploration. Finally, we observed three VI people using the system and performing a classical task consisting in finding the more appropriate itinerary for a journey.

Maps are essential in everyday life, but inherently inaccessible to visually impaired users. They must be transcribed to non-editable tactile graphics, or rendered on very expensive shape changing displays. To tackle these issues, we developed a tangible tabletop interface that enables visually impaired users to build tangible maps on their own, using a new type of physical icon called Tangible Reels. Tangible Reels are composed of a sucker pad that ensures stability, with a retractable reel that renders digital lines tangible. In order to construct a map, audio instructions guide the user to precisely place Tangible Reels onto the table and create links between them. During subsequent exploration, the device provides the names of the points and lines that the user touches. A pre-study confirmed that Tangible Reels are stable and easy to manipulate, and that visually impaired users can understand maps that are built with them. A follow-up experiment validated that the designed system, including non-visual interactions, enables visually impaired participants to quickly build and explore maps of various complexities.