UIx news

UIx publishes blueprint of their mobile usability lab in the most recent issue of Journal of Usability Studies. The editor writes "Antti Oulasvirta and Tuomo Nyyssönen address the specific challenge of having the appropriate setup for capturing the mobile interaction context. They describe a system developed to capture user's interaction with mobile devices in field studies. While the article is a bit on the technical side, it can be a great reference for all those aspiring to develop and/or use tools for mobile usability testing 'in the wild'."

REFERENCE
Raento, M., Oulasvirta, A., & Eagle, N. (2009). Smartphones: An emerging tool for social scientists. Sociological Methods and Research, 37 (2), 426-454.

TITLE
Smartphones: An Emerging Tool for Social Scientists

Two full papers by UIx members were accepted to CHI2009. Morrison et al. received a Best paper award nomination.

• Morrison et al., ”Like Bees Around the Hive”: Interaction In the Wild with a Mobile AR Map
• Näsänen et al. Mobile media in the social fabric of a kindergarten.

Sakari Tamminen is a doctoral candidate at the department of Social Psychology at the University of Helsinki, Finland. He did his M.A. and Lic.Soc.Sci studies at Helsinki, where he graduated in social psychology and social anthropology. He has also studied usability and user-centred design at the Helsinki University of Technology TKK, Department of Computer Science, where he also held a teaching post on the subject for some years. Previously, he has worked on the topics of gender and information technology, on which he also wrote both his M.A. and Lic. Thesis’.

Two research projects coordinated by Martti Mäntylä got funded from the MOTIVE program of Academy of Finland for the period of 1 Jan 2009- 31 Dec 2012.
Musiquitous - mobile ubiquitous music, designed by Lassi Liikkanen in cooperation with University of Tampere will start in middle 2009.
Economy and technology of a global peer produced 3D geographical information system in built environment (3DGIS), will continue the successful work of Antti Nurminen among mobile 3D map environments as a part of a consortium project involving University of Helsinki.