The less than 5% of users who download games

Mobile gaming - the troubled teenage years by Stuart Dredge (Receiver #17, end of 2006) offers an interesting perspective on mobile gaming in Europe. First about figures, the authors describes the mobile gaming situations as a teenage troublesome period: "According to industry analyst M:Metrics, 4.2% of UK mobile users downloaded a mobile game in August this year. This figure was 2.6% in Germany, 4.8% in Spain, and just 1.1% in France".

To understand the situation, he looks at "what traits characterised mobile gaming's infancy" and sums it up with the concept of "familiarity": the fact that mobile phone users were provided with retro-games (tetris, pacman...). They proved to be popular because they appeared as safer choices on operator portal and websites (than unknown new games). From the user experience point of view also:

" Creatively speaking, there is another reason why these retro games are so well suited to mobile. They have simple 2D graphics and constrained playing areas, which work well on a small mobile screen, and also four-way digital movement, which suits the mobile keypad. Pac-Man and Tetris are not just familiar to users, their gameplay experience does not disappoint when translated to a phone, in stark contrast to some attempts to port modern-day console games with their 3D graphics and analogue controls."

This is extremely interesting, especially given than lots of energy is devoted to creating 3D stuff on tiny screens.

Then the article deals with the near future and what is needed:

"Developers are focusing on creatively working within the restrictions of mobile phones, taking inspiration from the simple gameplay mechanics of the retro games, while creating new and original IP for mobile. (...) All these games use mobile's constrained screen and less-than-ideal controls as a strength rather than a weakness. (...) there's also a need for mobile to find its wings as a gaming platform, with developers figuring out how to create games that make even more use of the singularities and strengths of mobile handsets. In the developed world, most mobile phones sold today have cameras inside, for example. By definition, they are connected – both through GPRS or 3G connections, through short-range wireless technologies like Bluetooth and in an increasing number of new handsets, Wi-Fi too. Operators can track a handset's location using its Cell ID, and handsets are beginning to appear with GPS chips inside too. All of these features can in theory be used for gaming. In practice, there have been severe technical challenges to developers tapping into them in the past, but these are being solved as users upgrade to newer phones. (...) An extension of this connectivity – and an area that Microsoft is also focusing on – is cross-platform gaming. This could be a mobile phone user playing chess against someone on their PC or interactive TV, for example (...) Finally, there's location."

And he also has a good point saying that "should not take away from the fact that millions of mobile gamers will continue to play Tetris, Monopoly and even Snake, no matter how sophisticated their handset is". There are different users, with different needs and interests. Why do I blog this? some good elements here about the opportunities in mobile gaming, that resonates with the talk I did last week in Barcelona about the very topic.

Rem Koolhas on "junkspace"

Some random excerpts of text by Rem Koolhas on "junkspace" that I liked:

"Junkspace seems an aberration, but it is essence, the main thing... product of the encounter between escalator and air conditioning, conceived in an incubator of sheetrock (all three missing from the history books). Continuity is the essence of Junkspace; it exploits any invention that enables expansion, deploys the infrastructure of seamlessness: escalator, air conditioning, sprinkler, fire shutter, hot-air curtain... (...) 13% of all Junkspace's iconography goes back to the Romans, 8% Bauhaus, 7% Disney - neck and neck - 3% Art Nouveau, followed closely by Mayan... (...) Patterns imply repetition or ultimately decipherable rules; Junkspace is beyond measure, beyond code... Because it cannot be grasped, Junkspace cannot be remembered. It is flamboyant yet unmemorable, like a screensaver; its refusal to freeze insures instant amnesia. (...) Junkspace sheds architectures like a reptile sheds skins, is reborn every Monday morning. (...) Like radioactive waste, Junkspace has an invidious half-life. Aging in Junkspace is nonexistent or catastrophic;"

(Picture taken by myself in Nice, France)

Why do I blog this? beyond my fascination for junkspaces and dirty area, I find Koolhas' description very evocative about the implications of junk. In a sense, it shows how seamlessness is distant.

Dandella and thoughts about awareness+robotics

(via) Dandella by Tan Yong Kai and Priscilla Lui Sik Peng (Singapore). The device is a hand-held GPS tracking system that lights up and physically blends towards the location it is looking for OR another Dandella (synchronized with).

"Lost is a common global issue, especially for socially vulnerable people like young children and elderly in today's growing urban jungles. "Dandella", adopting the metaphorical image of a dandelion in flight, is a GPS device which aims to provide a user-centric geo-tracking solution. Inspired by how young sunflowers always point towards the sun, Dandella simplifies the complex interface of current GPS devices to a notion of "follow where it points". Combining existing GPS and robotic technology, Dandellas can be programmed to track each other and their buds response by pointing towards one another. The intuitive design allows users to find each other by following where the bud points, making it suitable for people of different ages from different walks of life.

“The Dandella simplifies the often complex and confusing GPS interface, with many messy buttons and intimidating numbers,” Tan adds."

Why do I blog this? speaking about location-aware devices and mutual location-awareness in groups, this system is of particular interest because it deploys an innovative output interface: light and physical blending, something we're not often use to encounter. Most of the multi-user location-aware applications either use maps or verbal description of people's whereabouts.

Another aspect that I find interesting is the way this object is called: "robotic GPS companion". The surely shows the convergence between robotics and ubiquitous computing I was mentioning the other day. Why calling this a "robotic companion"? that's intriguing, is it because the system is - a sort-of - personified assistant that helps you find a place or buddies (other location-based services would do but they're not referred to as "robotics"). Is it because it's kawai?

Nabaztag and Furby

Feeling that robots and ubiquitous computing are converging to a new type of artifact, filling the environment with instances of these systems is a very curious experience. This is why I bought a Nabaztag last year and a Furby recently. The former is often put in the ubicomp/commnicated objects category, whereas the latter is seen as a toy or a robot for kids (although its locomotion is pretty limited). IMHO, they belongs to the same phylum.

The common feature I like in both is the ability to express things by talking: the Nabaztag tells the news, (short) weather forecasts, messages by friends, random thoughts (and moves its ears during tai-chi exercises) and the Furby try to interact with my by saying words (in furbish or french): sometimes at random, sometimes because I asked her a question (yes my furby is a "she"). I don't have the latest Nabaztag version that has a microphone but it does not seem to interact like a furby: the mic can only be used by pressing the button on the rabbit's head and asking for specific things (like radio, weather...). Even when the words they say are random, the experience is intriguing (especially when you have people at home that do not know what-the-hell-is-this-crap-that-screams. Generally the Furby is more talkative than the Nabaztag because it's programmed like this and because the microphone allows her to react. Although the interactions are punctual, it's sufficient to spark discussion between people around: there is a sort of sociability generated by the artificial pet utterance.

What is great is when the pet start to order things or complains about the situation. This is often the best case scenario in which attendants "best" react to the machine ("what? why is he asking us to do that?", "hey? shut up") and sometimes talk to the pet (even to the nabaztag who could not react accordingly). However, it's not the persuasive aspect of the artificial pet that is interesting, it's not because the nabaztag or the furby are funny or absurd when they complain that I as a user want it to remind me to water the plant or go eating. It's rather because there utterances generate a discourse around it, often about its behavior, programming or evolution.

[Besides, it's curious to put them close to each other and see the furby answering the nabaztag (unfortunately the rabbit cannot reply). The next step would be to hook a chatbot to an artificial pet...]

Urban "sinkholes" and the habit to fill holes

According to the wikipedia: a sinkhole is:

" a natural depression or hole in the surface topography caused by the removal of soil or bedrock, often both, by water. (...) Mechanisms of formation may include the gradual removal of slightly soluble bedrock (such as limestone) by percolating water, the collapse of a cave roof, or a lowering of the water table. (...) Sinkholes have been used for centuries as disposal sites for various forms of waste. A consequence of this is the pollution of groundwater resources, with serious health implications in such areas."

Now, let's look at this picture I took in Geneva the other day:

It's of course not caused by a natural process (but rather by the constant trend lately around my block to dig holes and changes underground tubes/wiring) but it strictly follows an interesting urban rule: "when there's a hole, it's gonna be filled with junk". Holes really have good affordances.

Why do I blog this? interested by people's practices in space/urban environment, I am often amazed by how people trash stuff. I termed this "interstitial practices" because it's really about filling gaps, using whatever holes or interstices to drop artifacts. And it occurred to me that there is a lot of creativity here: people like to trash stuff in certain ways: either to hide the junk or to make it as small as possible (compressing it into a small pipe as seen below):

Back to my/your interest in the future, user experience or tech foresight, how come this is pertinent?

Jane McGonigal's vision for a new generation of network games

From Information Week about her Etech talk:

"The "ubiquitous games," or "alternate reality games," are part of an overall change in how technology is being evaluated. In the next five years, the criteria used for evaluating personal technology will shift from things like cost and features. Instead, people will evaluate technology based on whether it improves their quality of life and happiness, she said. (...) Ubiquitous games are designed to be integrated with real life, and improve quality of life, McGonigal said. They're designed to "intervene against the widespread public alienation and lack of engagement in the complex world of everyday life.""

Some examples:

"Two years ago, in a game called the Ministry of Reshelving. McGonigal asked people to reshelve copies of 1984 in bookstores and libraries, removing it from the fiction section and putting it into the current affairs, military history, or some other section that was, she said, more appropriate. The call went out on the Web, and the activities were recorded on the Flickr photo-sharing service. (...) Tombstone Holdem Poker. A Web site instructs players how to read tombstones as if they were playing cards. The last year in the date of death is the card value -- for example, 1945 is a 5. The shape of the tombstone determines the suit: A pointy-topped tombstone is a spade, rounded is a heart, flat is a diamond, and cross is clubs. Surprisingly, this turned out to be popular among government agencies charged with maintaining historical cemeteries, which are often unused, and therefore in constant jeopardy of being shut down by cost-cutting governments"

HCI in science-fiction

(via Mr. Hand), this compelling paper about Human Computer Interaction in Science Fiction Movies by Michael Schmitz have made my day. It essentially surveys different kinds of interaction designs in sci-fi movies ("Neuro technology", Identification, Speech recognition, Intelligent assistants / Avatars, Displays / Other I/O technologies) and show how they relate to existing technologies. Go read the paper to look at the examples (with pictures); What I found interesting here boils down to the implications, basically about the "key factors that determine or influence the design of HCI in movies":

"The probably most important aspect is the availability of special effects technologies - including the budget of a production to use those. (...) Current trends in IT research and products have of course as well an impact on the movie, since this will probably be the director’s background where his ideas will evolve from (...) the importance of the interaction technique or the device itself for the movie as a whole. The technology could be totally unimportant or play an important role for the plot (so called “plot device”), but most of the times technology is found inbetween and has to support the overall authenticity of the vision of a future world. (...) only more recent movies show attempts to design their HCI more carefully. (...) Others try to adapt technologies that were already available and improve them, but concepts of HCI research are normally not addressed. (...) The main reason might be that HCI is still a relatively young research area and slowly becoming more popular during the past decade. Another reason could also be that human centred, pervasive or ubiquitous computing could look very inconspicuous, whereas high-tech in movies should preferably appear more spectacular. "

(Picture from "Johnny Mnemonic")

Why do I blog this? because the intertwining relationships between HCI/ubicomp and sci-fi is of tremendous interest. The normative proximal future seems to be "a tendency towards conversational speech as an interface and 3 dimensional displays that work without head-mounted device". In the end, this might account for the fascination from the audience to think that the future really lays in this sort of stuff.

Also fascinating is the bolded quote in the blockquote above: the importance of spectacular interfaces in movies. How does this translate to design? Is is really a important criteria? (think about the discreet sms and the spectacular AIBO arf maybe I am a party pooper).

NYT on 3D printing

The NYT on lower-cost 3D object fabrication. The article shortly introduces some devices and prices but what is interesting are the implications. Some excerpts:

"These tools are not news to the industrial designers of the world (...) But now hobbyists and small businesses are starting to benefit from low-cost versions of the tools. (...) The world is just beginning to grapple with the implications of this relatively low-cost duplicating method, often called rapid prototyping. Hearing aid companies, for instance, are producing some custom-fitted ear pieces from scanned molds of patients. Custom car companies produce new parts for classic cars or modified parts for hot rods. Consumer product makers create fully functional designs before committing themselves to big production runs. (...) Doctors use them to build practice models, and museums build replicas so people can feel the object without damaging the real artifact (...) The legal landscape, though, may not be ready for the Napsterization of three-dimensional things. (...) Zapping up a new version might run afoul of the same laws being used to fight the piracy of songs. (...) “The rules for running it through your 3-D scanner are pretty much the same as running it through your photocopier.”"

There is also a pertinent discussion about the user experience of such a process ("eliminate error", "ask for help"...). Why do I blog this? mostly curiosity towards fabrication systems, which cost becomes lower... and then more and more user-centered.

Living in the future

"my interest is in the future because I'm going to spend the rest of my life there" - Charles Kettering

Why do I blog this? I quite like that quote. And yes, the future is made out of bad wiring and infrastructures like the one represented on the picture.

No better training for the 21st century than being a third-culture kid.

An article in the FT by John Lanchester this week-end dealt with the notion of "third-culture kid": children who accompany their parents when they went to live in countries other than their own and then become hybrid (taking elements of the “home” culture from which their parents came and the culture of the place in which they were being brought up). The authors then use this as a metaphor for other purposes.

"being a European third-culture kid is an excellent training for modern life. As the speed of change increases, it gets harder for people to have a sense of rootedness, even if they are living in the place where they grew up. (...) Can we live like that? Can we live with the degree of change that a fully networked, fully competitive, economically “flat” world demands? I’m not sure. But I am sure that a sense of not quite belonging anywhere is an increasingly pervasive phenomenon (...) At some times and in some places it would have been a life-disadvantage but here, today, I think it’s the reverse. I live in London, a city that is full of people who feel as I once felt: that they never entirely fit in, often aren’t quite sure exactly what people are talking about, have a faint nostalgia for something they know they can never get back, and feel that they live in a place which is deeply familiar and yet slightly estranging. There’s no better training for the 21st century than being a third-culture kid."

Why do I blog this? this is intriguing in terms of describing a feeling people tend to have with social chnanges caused by technology.

"Evaluations" in CHI

From Mice to Men – 24 years of Evaluation in CHI by Louise Barkhuus and Jennifer A. Rode, alt.chi 2007. The paper reports a comprehensive analysis of how practitioners and academics have employed evaluation in CHI through the past 24 years: what are the roles of evaluation? how it evolved? what type of subjects had been used? Concerning the evolution, it's good to read it in conjunction of The Evolution of Evaluation by Joseph Kaye and Phoebe Sengers: both shows how things evolve from experimental psychology then usability to more ethnographic methodologies. Some of the findings/conclusions:

"By taking a closer look at the number of subjects used in quantitative and qualitative evaluation respectively, we find an interesting trend. The median number of subjects in the quantitative empirical studies has decreased over time, and the median number of subjects in qualitative studies seems to have increased (...) Many traditional psychology experiments often use students as their main population. (...) Not surprisingly, HCI research followed suit. (...) Now that computers are more widespread and many applications are targeting a diverse set of people, students have too much computer savvy to be representative of the entire spectrum of novice to expert users. Moreover, them being in an educational setting and used to learning new things makes them unusual in terms of ability to learn. (...) many studies failed to use a gender-balanced sample. (...) The diversity of evaluation methods also comes into play with the decrease in papers presenting evaluation methods themselves. (...) the proportion of CHI work that discusses the role of evaluation is very small, which makes us question whether evaluation is in fact responding dynamically to the radical changes in technological innovation. (...) A positive trend that we observed was a recent increase in qualitative evaluation studies, studies often taking place over longer time and using multiple sets of inquiry methods. This is a trend that illustrates how evaluation is not just a validation tool. It provides us with indications of user appropriation and contextual fitting of the technology in question. (...) Ethnographies, for example, can provide insight into situated technology use and a social setting"

Why do I blog this? I like this kind of articles, they give an interesting overview of the research field, pointing at important elements (student-computer interactions, bad gender balance). Besides, given that I am doing "evaluation" research, it's important to understand the evolutions and how they are tackled or considered.

Starting a new job

New job starting from April 1st, 2007 is researcher at Jef Huang's Media and Design Lab (Swiss Institute of Technology Lausanne / EPFL). What for? as described in the contract: "to explore research & funding opportunities, and conduct interdisciplinary projects at the intersection of gaming platforms and spatial environments (ranging from on-line worlds to tangible interactions/ubiquitous computing)".

In a sense, doing research projects about the user experience of gaming/game interactions and examine the opportunities of a having a research group on these themes. This means setting a strategy, finding academic partners, company sponsorships, build stuff, do projects, etc.

Influences of forecasts

"While think tanks play many roles, an example that brings home their importance now and in the future is the increasing interest in long-range forecasting and thinking about the future. (...) What we must realize now is that as institutions assume the formal role of casting about in the future, they dramatically increase their influence on that future. Simply put, if a think tanks tells its sponsors and others willing to listen that X, Y and Z will occur by the year 2000, then X, Y, and Z are more likely to occur as policy and technological goals adapt to those predictions"

Paul Dickson, Think Tanks, Ballantine Books, 1972.

Orwellian cameras on a plazza called "George Orwell"

Seen in Barcelona two days ago:

Talk at Mobile Monday Barcelona

Here are the annotated slides (pdf, 4.2Mb) of the talk I gave at Mobile Monday Barcelona. Thank you Fabien and Rudy for inviting me there.

The talk was entitled "Sinking one’s teeth into new metaphors for mobile gaming" and was basically a critique of the current state of mobile gaming. Instead of describing 3D on cell phones, location-based gaming or augmented reality, I encouraged mobile game designers to consider 3 other avenues: - rather than mobile gaming, what we have today is "immobile gaming" (as shown on the picture above, that I took last year in Geneva). So an opportunity is to benefit from motion/mobility instead of immobile situations. - remember that a phone is not only a small screen and little buttons: you can use other inputs (blow in the phone) and other outputs (tv-screen) - keep in mind that infrastructures (hardware/software/networks) are not always perfect and reliable so revealing the seams or taking advantage of them is a pertinent agenda (seamful design)

Down the road, all this stuff can be seen as metaphor or opportunities for mobile games of the near future.

Future of books according to the E

An article from last week's edition of The Economist deal with the future of readings and books. Some excerpts I found pertinent:

"So who is going to read the millions of pages that Google and its colleagues are so busy digitising? Some people will read them on-screen, some will use Google as a taster for books they will then buy in paper form or borrow from a library, and still more will use it to look for specific snippets that interest them. (...) So books that people would not traditionally read in their entirety, or that require frequent updating, are likely to migrate online and perhaps to cease being books at all. Telephone directories and dictionaries, and probably cookbooks and textbooks, will all fall into this category.

With non-fiction the situation is more nuanced. (...) What about all the genres of books that fill a different human need? Certainly, some types of fiction—novels as well as novellas—are also likely to migrate online and to cease being books. Many fantasy fans, for example, have already put aside books and logged on to “virtual worlds” such as “World of Warcraft” (...) Most stories, however, will never find a better medium than the paper-bound novel. That is because readers immersed in a storyline want above all not to be interrupted, and all online media teem with distractions (even a hyperlink is an interruption)"

Why do I blog this? some intriguing ideas here, the underlying variable used by the journalists to express what can be technologically mediated and what cannot is relevant. I also found funny the fact that people may think MMORPG can serve as an alternative immersion to novels.

Multitouch live performance

(via) French company JazzMutant, released a multitouch controller for live performance named "Lemur":

"The Lemur’s pioneering concept relies on JazzMutant’s unique patented multitouch technology. While conventional mice, touchscreens and tablets are limited to single contact points, the Lemur’s multi-touch capacity makes it possible to use all of your ten fingertips to accurately control multiple user-interface objects at once. The Lemur appeals to you straight away by its amazing responsiveness.

The continiously growing palette of configurable graphic objects enables you to design made-to-measure interfaces by using the free available JazzEditor."

Some videos here.

Why do I blog this? an interesting example of a concrete project with a well-targeted audience.

A simple agenda

A picture I took from a colleague's office. The guy has a simple todo list: "Fix mem bugs": sometimes, people's agenda are clear enough that it can be written in few words.

The simplicity of his agenda is very evocative.

User dashboard in railway station

In swiss railway stations, some TVs like this allow to check the state of the traffic. The map can indicate the portion of the network that have troubles. An interesting example of giving feedback to users, a bit basic but there might be some interesting information to depict. I haven't seen yet any information on the map itself (on this example, it's only a list of problem on a red background).

(Picture I took last week in Geneva railway station)

RFID gaming: La Fuga

La Fuga (by Négone) is a intriguing pervasive game in which players has to escape from Mazzinia, a futuristic high-security jail.

"Named La Fuga (The Breakout), the game opened this month at a former bank not far from the Real Madrid Stadium in northern Madrid. The facility can host up to 300 players at a time, each of whom tries to solve quizzes and pass through different obstacles in order to escape. Every player receives a console consisting of a specially designed PDA worn on the wrist. Between the PDA and its wrist strap is a passive RFID tag with a unique ID number used to locate and identify each player during the game. (...) "The game system activates the quizzes, the doors and the tricks in response to the detection of the tags. This allows the system to keep track of the gaming information of each player and generate each player's game individually," (...) RFID interrogators (readers) placed in doorways and in other areas of the game rooms enable the application to detect a player's location, and to use that information to drive the gamer's experience. For example, when the interrogator detects a person in a certain location, the system might display questions on the PDA screen that he or she must answer in order to progress. On the other hand, it might signal doors to open. "

(Picture courtesy RFID Journal)

Why do I blog this? yet another one on my list of pervasive game. The use of RFID tag/readers can be interesting to use in a location-based game; what is intriguing is the discovery of location on specific points such as doors and not on the whole field. That may lead to granularities that can be employed in specific gameplays.