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This workshop explores socially expressive technology design using collaborative principles of theater, dance and music. Building on shared roots of making something together, technologies (including virtual agents, physical devices, storytelling multimedia) and artistic provocation can create playful, productive and healthy experiences for communities. How do we: Improve collaboration between performance art and creative technology? Design apps and artistic collaboration/learning for mental health? Use theater performativity and technology to enhance our lives? As smart devices become ubiquitous, yet solidarity and cooperation remain elusive in competitive/hierarchical societies, understanding how performance art and technology collaborate can improve how we work, play and care for our and each other's health. This workshop is a forum and creative space to discuss and play with the future of performative expression and collaborative computing. We welcome researchers and practitioners from varied disciplines including technical implementation, design, theater, dance, improv, physiology and psychology. The program features collaborative creation modules across the expressive human spectrum (movement, sound, text) using digital dramaturgy (Budde, 2017) and pleasure of learning (Brecht, 2001). It also includes participants’ presentations, expert talks and videos exploring the expressive side of computing technology. Accepted applicants are invited to share perspectives and collaborate on creative exercises on art/artefacts/artificiality.

Gamification and serious games are becoming increasingly important for training, wellness, and other applications. How can games be developed for non-traditional gaming populations such as the elderly, and how can gaming be applied in non-traditional areas such as cognitive assessment? The application that we were interested in is detection of cognitive impairment in the elderly. Example use cases where gamified cognitive assessment might be useful are: prediction of delirium onset risk in emergency departments and postoperative hospital wards; evaluation of recovery from stroke in neuro-rehabilitation; monitoring of transitions from mild cognitive impairment to dementia in long-term care. With the rapid increase in cognitive disorders in many countries, inexpensive methods of measuring cognitive status on an ongoing basis, and to large numbers of people, are needed. In order to address this challenge we have developed a novel game-based method of cognitive assessment. In this paper, we present findings from a usability study conducted on the game that we developed for measuring changes in cognitive status. We report on the game's ability to predict cognitive status under varying game parameters, and we introduce a method to calibrate the game that takes into account differences in speed and accuracy, and in motor coordination. Recommendations concerning the development of serious games for cognitive assessment are made, and detailed recommendations concerning future development of the whack-a-mole game are also provided.

Gamification is the use of game-like properties in non-game scenarios, and is applied in the design of our application to stimulate cognition, and enjoyment, which often decreases due to age-related changes. The goal of the research reported here is to develop a game, targeted for elderly citizens, that has a user-friendly interface and the ability to predict cognitive ability. This paper will introduce and evaluate a game designed based on the classic carnival game called whack-a-mole, which has the objective of a user 'hitting' a 'mole'. Our version of the game underwent a usability study where we evaluated the game in an experiment, and investigated its cognitive predictive ability. This paper will discuss the results from the experiment, detail the limitations, and propose future research.

We measured multitasking performance across a range of device interfaces and investigated the relationship between task performance and three measures of cognitive capacity (assessing the executive processes of shifting, inhibition, and updating, respectively). In the first experiment, higher levels of ability on the three executive processes of shifting, updating and inhibition were associated with improved multitasking performance. However, the impact of cognitive demands was reduced when touch input and combined visual and audio output was used in the device interaction task. When a simulated driving task was added in the second experiment, the impact of cognitive demands increased, and the use of combined audio and video output no longer reduced the impact of Central Executive (CE) function ability on performance.While inhibition, updating, and shifting all seemed to be involved when carrying out the device operation during simulated driving, the effects of shifting and updating ability were greater than the effect of inhibition. Detailed analysis of the data indicated that the impact of cognitive demand when using a device in a dual task setting was restricted to people with low levels of shifting, updating, and inhibition ability. It is suggested that future research on the impact of in-vehicle technology focus on drivers with low levels of ability on or more of a range of cognitive factors, including the CE functions of shifting, updating, and inhibition. Based on the present results it seems likely that less cognitively able drivers will be put at most risk by inappropriate or poorly designed device tasks and interfaces.

This panel will examine issues regarding the evaluation of hypertext research. The panelists will begin by contrasting four different viewpoints on the role of evaluation in hypertext research. The discussion will then consider questions relating the what evaluation methods should be used and when.

In this research, the authors discuss the evolution of video games from the viewpoint of interaction design. It is argued that recent video games are qualitatively different from earlier video games in their use of multiple user layers and novel domains. These qualitatively different newer games are referred to as Game 2.0, with older games being referred to as Game1.0. Appropriate design of interactions is presented as a key issue in Game 2.0 development. The relationship between game interfaces and computer interfaces is also considered.

Web pages can be modeled as nodes in a social network, and hyperlinks between pages form links (relationships) between the nodes. Links may take the form of comments, for example on blogs, creating explicit connections between authors and readers. In this paper, we describe a novel methodology and framework for identifying subcommunities as cohesive subgroups of n-cliques and k-plexes within social hypertext. We apply our methodology to a group of computer technologists in Toronto called TorCamp who communicate using a Google group. K-plex analysis is then used to identify a group of people that forms a subcommunity within the larger community. The results are then validated against the experienced sense of community of people inside and outside the subcommunity. Statistically significant differences in experienced sense of community are found, with people within the subcommunity showing higher levels of perceived influence and emotional connection.

We present the design and evaluation of earPod: an eyes-free menu technique using touch input and reactive auditory feedback. Studies comparing earPod with an iPod-like visual menu technique on reasonably-sized static menus indicate that they are comparable in accuracy. In terms of efficiency (speed), earPod is initially slower, but outperforms the visual technique within 30 minutes of practice. Our results indicate that earPod is potentially a reasonable eyes-free menu technique for general use, and is a particularly exciting technique for use in mobile device interfaces.

Blogging has become the newest communication medium for creating a virtual community, a set of blogs linking back and forth to one another's postings, while discussing common topics. In this paper, we examine how communities can be discovered through interconnected blogs as a form of social hypertext [14]. We propose a method and model that detects structures of community in the social network of blogs by integrating McMillan and Chavis' sense of community [26] along with network analysis [8, 11]. From the model, we measure community in the blogs by aligning centrality measures from social network analysis [17] with measures of sense of community obtained using behavioural surveys. We then illustrate the use of this approach with a case study built around an independent music blog. The strength of community measures were found to be well aligned with the network structure, based on centrality measures. Even though the sample size from the case study was small, once the structure and measure of communities are calibrated according to our social hypertext model, communities can be automatically found and measured for other blogs without the need for behavioural surveys.

Recent interest in the use of software character agents raises the issue of how many agents should be used in online learning. In this paper we review evidence concerning the relative effectiveness of multi-agent systems and introduce a multiple agent system that we have developed for online instruction. A user test is carried out that compares one and two agent versions of the learning system. The results are interpreted in terms of their implications for selecting when and how more than one agent should be used in online learning. We conclude with some recommendations on when multiple agents may help online learners to interact with the learning environment more easily and efficiently.

Medical doctors require high quality clinical evidence at the point of care in order to support their decision-making. Presentation of clinical evidence on handheld devices, and in a timely fashion, requires an integrated approach to documentation and ergonomic design. This paper reports on results from The Bringing Evidence to the Point of Care Project at the University of Toronto, concerning the display of quantitative data as part of clinical evidence. After introducing the problem and some of the relevant background literature, we indicate some prototype designs for presenting quantitative information on a handheld device, as graphs or tables. We then report on an initial usability study that compares the different prototypes. The results indicate that the doctors preferred statistical information to be presented as tables on the handheld device used in this study (in preference to lists or graphs).