This paper reports on an experimental production of The Tempest that was developed in collaboration with Miracle Theatre Company realised as a distributed performance from two separate stages through a dynamically configured telepresence system. The production allowed an exploration of the way a range of technologies, including consumer grade broadband, cameras and projection technologies could affect the development and delivery of live theatre by regional touring company. The architecture of the communication platform used to deliver the performance is introduced as are two novel software tools that are used to describe and control the way the play should be captured and represented.

Psychophysiological measurement has the potential to play an important role in audience research. Currently, such research is still in its infancy and it usually involves collecting data in the laboratory, where during each experimental session one individual watches a video recording of a performance. We extend the experimental paradigm by simultaneously measuring Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) of a group of participants during a live performance. GSR data were synchronized with video footage of performers and audience. In conjunction with questionnaire data, this enabled us to identify a strongly correlated main group of participants, describe the nature of their theatre experience and map out a minute-by-minute unfolding of the performance in terms of psycho-physiological engagement. The benefits of our approach are twofold. It provides a robust and accurate mechanism for assessing a performance. Moreover, our infrastructure can enable, in the future, real-time feedback from remote audiences for online performances.

This paper reports the findings from quantitative and qualitative studies of Riot! - a location-sensitive interactive play for voices. The paper begins by introducing Riot!; it then explores the growing literature on theories of experience and goes on to report the findings from three empirical studies of the event: a questionnaire-based survey of 563 participants; 30 semi-structured interviews with groups and individuals; and in-depth ethnographic case studies of four participants. It was clear from the survey that most people had enjoyed Riot! However, the interview data demonstrated that they had also experienced frustration even where overall enjoyment ratings were high. This is explored in relation to perception of the system and goal definition. The ethnographic case studies identify barriers to engagement in terms of individual identity and orientation. A critical theory-based analysis of Riot! further explicates the user experience in terms of literary devices such as characterisation and the development of narrative expectation.The studies identify a number of usability problems such as inconsistency of interaction and non-reversibility that caused frustration. The critical analysis also identifies problems with the script such as the presentation of linear narrative in a non-linear medium. It accounts for widely differing accounts of the experience with reference to the participant's individual orientations or habitus. The paper demonstrates the value of an interdisciplinary approach for exploring the commonality and particularity of user experience.

Families with working parents have busy and mobile lives. This typically causes a lot of friction in their schedules. This paper discusses two conceptual information appliances for scheduling and coordinating based on this friction and designed from user studies in the lives of these families.The interaction principles of the designs are based on a friction metaphor. This metaphor was explored through looking in depth at friction in mechanical constructions. This unconventional design approach led to product and interaction design that is both appropriate and expressive: the long-term planner is a large display that visualizes entangled family schedules and provides shared tangible interaction when scheduling new appointments; the coordination watch is a mobile device that allows distributed haptic interaction when changing appointments.These concept designs and their design process aim to inspire the design of future information appliances.

The utility of a handheld device is often constrained by the battery life, particularly with recent usage patterns where the device is likely to be powered on at all times. The display component in these devices is a major consumer of battery energy and reducing its energy consumption can significantly enhance its utility. This primary research explores the impact of emerging technologies that provide energy-saving display modifications on perceived ease of use, quality, and overall user acceptance, and seeks to understand the tradeoffs between energy reduction and user acceptance for future interfaces. For our study, twelve handheld users reviewed energy-adaptive and standard display interfaces during five scenarios representing frequently performed tasks. The results show good acceptance of energy-aware user interfaces. While displays for tasks involving notifications and menus were deemed acceptable, primarily due to enhanced contrast levels, displays for longer tasks involving greater informational context need additional work.

New computer applications, such as the infamous “Napster” system enable the sharing of music over the Internet, with limited communication around this sharing activity. This paper discusses the use and opportunities for these music sharing technologies using interviews with users of both conventional and new music sharing technologies. The data show that music sharing is a practice that is richly linked with other social activities. New music is often discovered through friends, by listening to music together, or in the form of compilation tapes. In these environments, sharing music is a natural activity. With music sharing over the Internet, however, much of this social context is removed. This suggests opportunities to turn music sharing into a more collaborative and community-related activity. These opportunities are explored with the “Music Buddy”, a system for browsing others’ music collections without infringing the copyright of artists. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Analyses of the costs and benefits of asynchronous communication, and the complementary properties of writing and speech, are used to predict that messages containing both writing and speech will be more communicative than either medium alone. Two experimental studies of asynchronous messaging are presented. Both experiments examine the use of pen-and-voice messages, that is voice messages attached to ‘scribbled’, i.e., uninterpreted text. The control conditions were voice messages alone, equivalent to an answerphone, and scribbled messages alone, equivalent to a fax. In Experiment 1 the visual component of the pen-and-voice messages was static, in Experiment 2 users could record short ‘movies’ including speech and pen movements over a document surface. Users showed a significant preference for the pen-and-voice messages in both experiments. In Experiment 2 half the number of pen-and-voice messages were required to achieve the same task performance as in the control conditions. It is concluded that dynamic pen-and-voice messages have considerable potential advantages over current single medium asynchronous communication facilities such as fax, answerphone, voicemail and e-mail.