by nagyija.bogas -

Technology for Refugees

To understand more about the possibilities that refugees can get that could make their new life feel easier and in control, I decided to research what is more “out there”.

  • Where 2 Help 

This is an online platform that lets people volunteer, which was created by Vienna-based developers. There are two ways of using the platform: a person can register either as a refugee or someone who wants to help [1]. This software also won at the “Refugee Hack Vienna”[2] event.

  • The Welcome Card

A lot of refugees face problems while trying to establish a legal identity in a new country. The Welcome Card [3] is a biometric identity management system, which uses Radio-frequency identification technology [4]. It is active in 25 countries, collects fingerprints, iris scans, and photographs, and can link them to citizenship records and dates of birth. 


This can also help refugees to check their application status, details about language courses, transport, etc.

  • Annie Moore

Annie Moore (named after the first immigrant registered at New York’s Ellis Island in 1892) is the AI-powered software [5]. It helps in placing refugees in locations where they are most likely to be successful in gaining employment. 

Sources:


[1] https://where2help.wien/?locale=de

[2] https://www.hackathon.com/event/refugee-hack-vienna-18902448733

[3] https://www.whatdesigncando.com/project/the-welcome-card/

[4] https://www.dhs.gov/radio-frequency-identification-rfid-what-it

[5] https://hias.org/news/new-software-does-the-hard-work-in-placing-refugees/

by helena.opower -

“To infinity and beyond!” 

– Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story

While movies used to captivate us for hours as kids of the generation Z, today we give our undivided attention to social media. And we do not always do this consciously. The days when linear television made decisions for us are over. Instead, we are almost helplessly exposed to a flood of information. A glance at our phone is enough and we find ourselves in more than just one world.

But how do social platforms like Instagram manage to keep us on them for hours at a time and even make us dependent on them? – One answer to this are DARK PATTERNS. Dark patterns are manipulative design techniques used in user interfaces to lead people towards certain actions, such as making a purchase or sharing personal information. These techniques can be found on various platforms, including Instagram.

One example of a dark pattern on Instagram is the use of “endless scrolling.” This is when the platform uses an algorithm to continuously show users more content, even after they have viewed all of the posts in their feed. This can lead to a never-ending cycle of browsing and can cause users to spend more time on the platform than they intended. The endless scrolling can also lead to feelings of FOMO (fear of missing out) as users are constantly exposed to new content. It can also be used to keep users engaged with the platform by displaying interesting content they might have missed before. But this endless scrolling has also been known to affect users’ mental well-being, creating the feeling of not being able to disconnect or feeling overwhelmed.

Overall, dark patterns on Instagram can be used to manipulate users into taking actions that they may not have intended to take. It is important for users to be aware of these techniques and to exercise caution when using the platform.

by edwin.lang -

Exploring local networks

In this blog post, I want to discuss an interview I conducted with Richard Dank, the lecturer of Design with Code for CMS. I will briefly summarize our conversation regarding local hands-on exhibits and the role of programming.

It is important to separate actuators and visualization as they do not occur in the same program. Every program has its own advantages and disadvantages, and it is crucial to understand the boundaries of the project and use cases in order to carefully choose the appropriate tools for building hands-on exhibits.

Projects often aim to provide unexpected outcomes, which can create additional curiosity. For example, Richard Dank shared a project in which pedestrians could trigger the projection of “Kunsthaus” by pressing the button of the traffic light in front of the building. Most pedestrians did not realize what they were doing, but their actions unintentionally changed the mapping. Only a few noticed this.

Programming, specifically using Processing, allows for the integration of microcontrollers on a larger scale while ensuring a clean visual mapping of the setup. Data from microcontrollers can be further processed using other tools such as PureDate, but the spatial arrangement and data flow can be controlled using Processing itself. Although this process is not visible to viewers, it greatly assists the artist in setting up and testing exhibits.

In the second part of this blog post, I will focus on artists based in Graz. I will stay in touch with Richard Dank as our brief discussion about interactive experiences and programming marked the beginning of a local network of freelancers who share a passion for art, technology, and society. I would like to mention a few inspiring people and places that Richard Dank referred to – I am excited to meet some of them during the next semester.

Richard Dank

The following link leads to some projects related to “interaction”.
http://richdank.com/4a/projects/index2_de.php

in|filtration

This project is well documented and gives insight into the process of developing an interactive installation.
https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/711664/711665

Reni Hofmüller

She concentrates on art in technological contexts and explores the relationship between art, technology, and society.
https://esc.mur.at/en/bio/reni-hofm%C3%BCller

Reagenz

In this place not only projects are being developed and realized but also publications in contemporary art, focusing on sound and installation art as well as intermedia experimentation.
https://reagenz.at/

Note: Especially the work from Hanns Holger Rutz and his “transmedia” approach got my attention. https://www.sciss.de/

Paul Frick – “bildermehr”

The homepage is currently under construction but might show some interesting works with focus on haptics.
http://bildermehr.at/

by anine.hallen -

Little progress among the giants largely because of lack of accountability and poor-quality data

This and the previous blog post are looking into two major reports about the state of sustainability in the fashion world. “The Business of Fashion Index 2022” is looking at the 30 largest companies in fashion and how they are doing over a variety of fields of sustainability.

“The Business of Fashion Index 2022” by The Business of Fashion

The Business of Fashion Index 2022 “examine the performance of the industry’s 30 largest publicly traded companies by revenue across three market segments: luxury, sportswear and high street (ed. ordinary clothes).” Although the original 15 companies from the last years report had some progress, this was “eclipsed” by the new additions’ inaction.

Business of Fashion (BoF) points at “limited accountability within the sector, poor-quality data and a lack of investment“ as some of the biggest obstacles. This is very clear when BoF writes that “some of the industry’s biggest players — including URBN, Skechers, Fila Holdings, Anta and HLA Group — provided little or no public detail about plans to tackle their environmental and social impact.”

Although this is quite dark, there are also positive news. Fast retailing had the biggest improvement (of 11 points) from last years report, showing some of the “technological innovation, policy cues and standardised reporting frameworks” in action. If the fashion industry can do more of this, if can lead to real change.

”The Index assesses companies’ progress towards ambitious 2030 goals across six impact categories: Transparency, Emissions, Water & Chemicals, Waste, Materials and Workers’ Rights.”

As we see in the figure, waste is one of the areas that has the lowest score overall. This is something “very easy” to work on by not overproducing (resulting in landfill material before it has even been in the store) and to use scrap products and cuttings in a mindful way. Transparency is also something that is also obvious to focus on as a smaller company as this is one of the advantages of being smaller.

For me it would be interesting to read the full report (behind a paywall) as a designer to make sure that I follow the parameters given by BoF. To take part in the politics of fashion would also be an impactful way of taking part of this world.

Source:

https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/sustainability/widespread-inaction-on-sustainability-eclipses-progress-at-fashions-biggest-companies/

by carolin.dasilvanasseri -

Nature Detectives Mania: An Approach to Gamification of Nature for Children

Nature Detectives Mania is an app for iOS and Android and was developed as part of a big national campaign for Migros, Switzerland’s largest retail company. The Nature Detectives app is designed to educate children between the ages of 8 and 11 about Swiss nature in a playful way. The kids learn interactively, by solving fun puzzles and small tasks which habitats exist in Switzerland, which plants and animals inhabit them and how to recognize them. The children can roam through 8 Swiss ultra realistic 3D environments filled with true to life details. Each habitat can be discovered in at least seven different camera perspectives. With the help of an animated character called Minspector and the two protagonists Mia and Leon, users solve tasks and questions about Swiss nature and its flora and fauna to collect badges.

What I like

I think having the two protagonists and the Minspector makes the game more appealing to kids and they can get attached to them so children want to use the app more. I also believe that the quick mini games are a great idea to keep the children’s attention and in addition to that each win causes a dopamine release. Lastly, I like the reward system and it is a clever idea to combine it with the parents spending at the Migros stores.

What I don’t like

It may be a clever idea to incorporate the parents purchases at the Migros stores, but whether that’s ethical or not is debatable. It casts a bad light on the app and the intention behind it. Additionally, I don’t like that the entire game is happening in the app. Not only is the environment completely digital, but the interactions with nature are also close to none. Making the digital environment look realistic and modeling it after an actual place cannot replace the real thing. This app is essentially a game about nature, rather than a game with nature.

Sources:

https://demodern.com/projects/migros-nature-detectives-mania-app

by anine.hallen -

The richest are both the problem and the solution

As I have gotten more into the topic of the sustainability of fashion, I have found some interesting reports with different takes. This and the next blogpost will summarize and highlight some of the most important finds of two reports. I will also mention how I can use these finds further on.

“Unfit, Unfair, Unfashionable” by Hot or Cool

Hot or Cool’s report “Unfit, Unfair, Unfashionable” showes the divide in consumption between high and low income countries and people. They found that “the richest 20% in the UK emit 83% above the 1.5-target.” At the same time, “74% of people in Indonesia live below sufficiency consumption levels of fashion.” On average the fashion footprint need to be reduced by 2030 by 60% among the high income countries of G20, 40% by the upper-middle income countries while the low income countries are already below the 1.5-degree limit. This divide between high and low income is both clear between countries and within countries.

Within a representative sampling of G20 countries they found that the lowest and second to lowest income quintile is responsible for respectively 6-11% and 10-13%. The second to highest and highest on the other hand is responsible for respectively 24-26% and 36-42%. In simpler words: “On average, the fashion consumption of the richest 20% causes 20 times higher emissions than that of the poorest 20%. This ratio varies substantially across countries, following levels of income inequality.” This debunks the idea that the poor is responsible for the emission because they by “cheap” clothes. They often get blamed in discussion about the emissions of fashion, but it is time that the rich scale down on their consumption.

As reducing the number of purchases of new clothes much (respectively 4 and 3 times) more effective than increasing the use time or (what is considered achievable through) decarbonization of the fashion industry, this should be the focus. (https://hotorcool.org/unfit-unfair-unfashionable/)

Consumtion/emission with no action taken and a sufficient scenario
Consumption within countries differs very much relating to income level

In a way this is positive news. Reducing the amount of garments of high income people is a task possible to asses for small companies. This can be done by producing high quality, interesting and lovable pieces that can play many parts in a person’s wardrobe. If we can produce such pieces they can replace the feeling if need of new pieces. The other end, producing lower-emission garments for persons with low income, is a much more complex task. This needs to be assessed by the fast fashion companies and the fashion culture itself. This also needs to be done, but it won’t be as effective as changing the behavior of high income persons.

Another interesting find to consider is that in the UK, Italy and Germany the richest 20% need to reduce their footprint of fashion consumption by respectively 83%, 75% and 75%. However, in the fashion nation France this number is substantially lower, “only” 50% (https://hotorcool.org/unfit-unfair-unfashionable/). This point to the issue that fashion consumption is highly dependent on culture. “French women” is a trademark in fashion, known and praised for using fewer, versatile and timeless pieces instead of indulging in micro and fast trends.

Source:
https://hotorcool.org/unfit-unfair-unfashionable/

Full report:
https://hotorcool.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Hot_or_Cool_1_5_fashion_report_.pdf

by carolin.dasilvanasseri -

NatureCollections: an Approach to Gamification of Nature

NatureCollections is an app I found at the beginning of my research which really got me thinking about the concept of gamification of nature for children. Its approach to gamification is very different from the initial ideas I had and gave me a lot of food for thought.

NatureCollections was developed by a team of researchers at the University of Washington and even received the school’s 2017 Innovation Award. It is aimed towards elementary school children and tried to appeal to kids’ love for collecting things such as stickers, sports cards and shells. The goal is to encourage kids to spend time outdoors and discover their natural surroundings. The app lets children take pictures of nature, and curate their photos in categories such as birds, plants and landscapes. They can share folders with theirs friends and compare their findings. The developers also see this working in a school setting. Teachers can give the children the task of photographing certain things during an excursion to make sure they actually engage with what they are seeing there.

what I like

Sharing the collections with their friends is a good incentive for children to keep engaging with the app and brings out a competitive streak in them. I also like the idea of using the app for school excursions. That way, the children have a task to fulfill and stay focused.

what I don’t like

I don’t believe that simply taking pictures and putting them into a folder is stimulating enough for children to keep using the app. Especially if the app is aimed towards 6-10 year old kids. They will be bored after a very short period of time. They depend on the fact that the motivation comes entirely from the children and that is a big flaw. With a simple app like that, there needs to be another level of motivation and a sense of urgency coming from the app.
Lastly, I think that the entire concept of the app is built on the wrong foundation. Kids love to collect things because they can hold it physically and see them all at the same time. Their findings are prized possessions and a picture on a screen just can’t compare with that.

Sources:

Home

by lea.zucker -

The Psychological Gender-Gap

How often people develop psychological disorders is related to their sociodemographic and socioeconomic groups.

There is a particularly large difference between the sexes. One in three women and almost one in four to five men are affected. Because of this difference, psychological diseases are often referred to as “women’s diseases”. It is also striking how the disorders differ between the sexes. Women suffer about twice as often as men from anxiety disorders and affective disorders. Men, on the other hand, suffer significantly more often from substance abuse disorders. Furthermore, it should be noted that young adults are most often affected by mental illness. Older people are the least likely to fall ill. Furthermore, the frequency of mental illness follows a social gradient. The people who get sick most often are people with low socioeconomic status. Next follow people with medium status. People with high status have the lowest number of mental disorders.
In Germany, mental illnesses are evenly distributed regardless of region. However, there is an increase in the number of illnesses in metropolitan areas.

Gender differences
Epidemiological data show that women suffer from mental disorders more often than men. This difference can be explained by role stereotypes and different utilization of the health care system. Women seek treatment more often than men and are better able to remember symptoms than men, which means that mental illnesses are more likely to be recognized and diagnosed in women. The genders also deal with stressors in different ways. Women are more likely to be anxious and depressed, while men are more likely to be aggressive and prone to addictive behaviors. In addition, women are on average socioeconomically disadvantaged and thus the risk of falling ill is generally increased.

Based on the above findings, three interesting possible target groups emerge for my research question. First, people with low socioeconomic status and young adults, as these groups are the most likely to be affected. Furthermore, due to their social upbringing, men are diagnosed less often than women and are less likely to get the help they need.

by theresa.dietinger -

Types of games

In my previous post I described the different kinds of players and elaborate their behaviour in games. In this blog entry I want to dig deeper into what game types there are and which player types work best within those games.

Before going into detail it is important to know the difference between different kinds of interactions within games:

  • PvE: player versus environment defines the fighting interactions with the non-playable objects (NPCs) in a game. They are not other players but are objects within the game.
  • PvP: player versus player defines the combat of one individual player fighting another or a group of players fighting another.

First person shooter:
First person shooter, also called FPS games, are mainly played by the killer and the achiever type as the whole purpose is to compete against other players or NPCs and win through the highest score, eliminating the threat or opposing team, or surviving for a certain time span.

Real time strategy:
Real time strategy games, also called RTS games, focus on complex sequences or extensive planning in order to succeed. Games like Age of Empires or Warhammer are popular examples of online RTS games. Usually, competitive and persistent players such as achievers or killers are found within these types of games.

Massively multiplayer online games:
Games that constantly grow in popularity due to better internet access and technology are MMO games of all sorts. While explorers and socializers are usually found among MMORPGS (role playing games), killers and achievers will prefer MMORTS (real time strategy) and MMOFPS (first person shooter)

Battle royale:
battle royale games can be connected to FPS games but they do not need to. They focus on a special kind of competitive style of deathmatch where many players will be sent to an arena and need to fight to be the last man standing. Common examples of this popular genre are Apex Legends, Fortnite, Call of Duty: Warzone and Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds (PUPG). Just like among other killing focused games the killer and achiever player type value these games, however as some of them are played in teams the socializer plays an important role to keeping the team together.

Sandbox:
Sandbox games are one of the few games that do not have a focus on competitive aspects. The majority of the players will be explorers as the goal of these games is to be creative and spend a lot of time exploring possibilities and opportunities within the games. Some of the games can be played online as well as offline such as Minecraft and Grand Theft Auto. Another important aspect of sandbox games is the social activities. For this reason socializers feel comfortable within these games as well.

References:

by madeleine.hurst -

Types of User Interfaces

Command line interfaces

From the early 1960s until the early 1980s computers were primarily used in large organizations by typing commands with parameters on mechanical or teletype/display devices. A command-line interpreter or command-line processor uses a console interface to accept commands from a user in the form of text lines. [1]

Graphical user interfaces

Jakob Nielsen wrote in 1993 about purpose-driven UI. By specifying functions first and subsequently their arguments, the user had access to the system. Deleting a file on a system that is line-oriented, the user had to write the delete command first into the command-line, then add the name of the file. Graphical-User Interfaces in comparison are object-oriented. The user accesses the object first and then deletes it. He also remarkes that User had to focus on using the computer to do what they want first rather than concentrating on the task at hand. The user was constantly aware of the tool he uses, because they need to know the commands in the correct syntax before they could achieve the things they want.

Non-graphical user interfaces

As early as 1993, Jakob Nilsen wrote about non-graphical interfaces. He wrote about virtual reality as the ultimate example fornoncommand-based interfaces. The user immerses into a simulated environment which is very similar to the real world and therefore it is very intuitive to use. He invisioned playing a hockey game where the user acts like in reality by using his hands to ward off the pucks when being the goalie. The computer is controlled via gestures. [2]

WIMP Interfaces

WIMP Interfaces are the dawn of a new era, because it made the use of the computer possible to everyone. The WIMP GUI is the first raster graphics-based user interface. Consisting of windows, icons, menus and a pointing device, it works on a point- and-click concept instead of command line. The first PC where this was used was Xerox PARC. From there they got populare with the Macintosh in 1984 and was later copied by Windows. [3]

Attentive User Interface

In the beginning a few people were working on on PC, then one person was woring on one PC and today we use we use multiple ubiquitous devices every day. Every device still works isolated from the other devices, channeling and draining our attention. And because human attention is limited it is a valuable resource which should be valued and considered from user interface designers and product engineers. Attentive user Interfaces (AUI) are sensitive to user’s attention. To provide this the AUI needs additional user input such as presence of the user, proximity, orientation, is the user speaking to someone or what does he gazes at. They can present the information according to the user attention and therefore optimize the communication with the device. The interface senses were the user focus his attention and present information there. [4]

Tangible User Interface

A tangible user interface is a touchable user interface that allows a computer user to interact with the machine through physical objects. [5] In 2003 a research team in Barcelona created the Reactable. It is an electronic musical instrument.It is a table on which the user places and moves objects to create sound, inspired by modular analogue synthesizers. [6]

Voice User interfaces

In Voice user interfaces (VUIs) the user interacts with the system through his voice. IInstead of making the input via a screen, the user speaks to the system, which uses speech recognition to perform the task. According to stanford researchers Clifford Nass and Scott Brave are more natural and intuitiv for communicating with the computer, because a lot of human communication takes place via linguistic expressions. Therefore it seems more natural to apply the same concept on computer-interactions. [7]

The advantages and areas of use of vui are mainly where users cannot use their hands, such as when driving a car. Furthermore, they can be a great help in everyday life for blind people.

EGG Brain Computer Interfaces

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S246845111730082X

  • [1] Post-WIMP User Interfaces, AndriesvanDam, 1997
  • [2] Non-graphical User Interfaces, Jakob Nielsen, in Communication of THE ACM/April 1993/Vol.36, No. 4, P. 83-99
  • [3] Post-WIMP User Interfaces, AndriesvanDam, 1997
  • [4] Attentive user interfaces, Roel Vertegaal, Article in Communications of the ACM, March 2003
  • [5] The tangible user interface and its evolution, Hiroshi Ishii, Commun. ACM 51, 6 (June 2008), 32–36. https://doi-1org-17054c7ie002d.perm.fh-joanneum.at/10.1145/1349026.1349034
  • [6] http://reactable.com/ (accessed on 12.01.2023)
  • [7] Wired for Speech: How Voice Activates and Advances the Human–Computer Relationship, Clifford Nass and Scott Brave, Cambridge, 2005