publications

2022

1. Journal

   Families_Share: Digital and Social Innovation for Work and Life Balance

   Cortesi, Agostino, Berionni, Carlotta, Veeckman, Carina, Leonardi, Chiara, Schiavo, Gianluca, Zancanaro, Massimo, Cescon, Marzia, Sangiuliano, Maria, Tampakis, Dimitris, and Falelakis, Manolis

   Digital Policy, Regulation and Governance 2022

   Abs

   Purpose The European H2020 Families_Share project aims at offering a grass-root approach and a co-designed platform supporting families for sharing time and tasks related to childcare, parenting, after-school and leisure activities and other household tasks. To achieve this objective, the Families_Share project has been built on current practices which are already leveraging on mutual help and support among families, such as Time Banks, Social Streets and self-organizing networks of parents active at the neighbourhood level and seek to harness the potential of ICT networks and mobile technologies to increase the effectiveness of participatory innovation. The aim of this paper is to present and discuss the Families_Share methodology and platform, as well as the results obtained by several partecipating communities in different European countries. Design/methodology/approach This paper discusses how the Families Share approach (CAPS project, Horizon 2020) is bringing the sharing economy to childcare. Families Share developed a co-caring approach and a co-designed digital welfare platform to support parents with sharing time and tasks related to childcare, after-school and leisure activities. Families Share conducted two iterative pilot experiments and related socio-economic evaluations in six European cities. More than 3,000 citizens were engaged in the co-design process through their local community organizations and more than 1,700 parents and children actively experimented with the approach by organizing collaborative childcare activities. The authors discuss the challenges and solutions of co-designing a socio-technical approach aimed at facilitating socially innovative childcare models, and how the Families Share approach, based on technology-supported co-production of childcare, may provide a new sustainable welfare model for municipalities and companies with respect to life––work balance. Findings The authors discuss the challenges and solutions of co-designing a technological tool aimed at facilitating socially innovative childcare models, and how the Families Share approach may provide a new sustainable welfare model for municipalities and companies with respect to work–life balance. Originality/value As a main difference with state-of-the-art proposals, Families_Share is aimed to provide support to networks of parents in the organization of self-managed activities, this way being orthogonal with respect either to social-network functionalities or to supply and demand services. Furthermore, Families_Share has been based on a participative approach for both the ICT platform and the overall structure.

2021

1. Journal

   “Come and share a story with me”: Promoting engagement between Ethiopian and Non-Ethiopian Israelis via joint digital narratives

   Fachter, S.,  Schiavo, G., Snider, K.L., Cappelletti, A., Stock, O., Weiss, P.L., Zancanaro, M., and Canetti, D.

   Technology in Society 2021

   Abs

   Does building a collaborative digital story lead to reduction of intergroup tension? Studies show that joint storytelling can help reach deeper levels of understanding through exposure to another group’s narrative. We hypothesized that engagement in a collaborative digital storytelling task would lead to reductions of negative emotions and attitudes. In our study, dyads of Ethiopian and non-Ethiopian Israelis interacted via a unique digital platform that supports storytelling in a comics-like format aiming to reduce intergroup tension. Their responses to this task were measured before and after the joint activity. Findings showed a decrease in negative emotional states in intergroup contexts (STAI) between pre-and post-intervention for members of both groups, and a slight decrease in negative attitudes toward the out-group. In other words, joint-digital storytelling sessions lead groups in complex relations to be more likely to support engagement. This study has implications for the effect of contact on intergroup tension. © 2021

2. Conference

   From Sustainable Mobility to Good Deeds: Supporting School Participation during COVID-19 Emergency through a Playful Education Platform

   Marconi, A.,  Schiavo, G., Massa, P., Mencarini, E., and Deppieri, G.

   Proceedings of Interaction Design and Children, IDC 2021 2021

   Abs

   The COVID-19 emergency has posed many challenges to the worldwide school system leading to school closures and massive adoption of distance education. These events affected not only the way education is delivered but also the overall school community’s wellbeing and cohesion. In this paper, we present a playful education platform originally designed to promote sustainable mobility in schools that has been adapted to support distance learning and community engagement during the health emergency. In the original version of the platform, the home-school distances traveled by students with sustainable means contributed to the advancement of the whole class in a collective virtual trip associated with playful learning material. Conversely, in a revised version of the platform adapted to the new context, students could advance in the virtual trip by reporting the good deeds performed at home. Findings from 161 questionnaires completed by teachers, families, and students, as well as results from online workshops with students, and the analysis of log files at the end of the school year revealed the opportunities and limitations of converting a playful activity conceived for being experienced in class into an online activity to be completed at home. The results show that the adapted version contributed to the school community cohesion and provided a positive experience to all its members, even though it was not able to completely overcome the generalized feeling of isolation. This paper contributes to understanding the social value of collaborative and playful digital activities that involve the entire school community, showing how technology can impact education and support communities in times of crisis. © 2021 Owner/Author.

3. Conference

   Remote Collaborative Childcare in the Workplace: Sharing Childcare with Colleagues during COVID-19 Emergency

   Leonardi, C.,  Schiavo, G., Fasoli, A., and Zancanaro, M.

   ACM International Conference Proceeding Series 2021

   Abs

   The COVID-19 emergency and consequent lockdowns left many parents struggling to balance childcare and paid employment, exposing the crucial role of work-life balance policies and practices. As a consequence, co-production initiatives has seen a sharp rise, with the creation of many different grassroots activities, also related to childcare services. Although it is not clear whether these initiatives will continue after the pandemic, they provide an interesting laboratory to investigate digitally mediated co-production of services. This paper presents a case study of a grassroot initiative based on the co-production of childcare services within an organizational context. We report on how this initiative has been adapted during the COVID-19 emergency, discussing how the community of colleagues reacted to the new challenges of the pandemic, and the technological and organizational arrangements that have accompanied such changes. Results from interviews and focus groups revealed the mediating role that digital technology played in the co-production, presenting challenges and opportunities to working parents while dealing with a period of emergency and isolation. These findings suggest implications for organizations to promote remote collaborative childcare practices and support workers wellbeing and work-life balance, considering motivational and social aspects and the role of technology in fostering co-production practices. © 2021 ACM.

4. Journal

   Attention-driven read-aloud technology increases reading comprehension in children with reading disabilities

   Schiavo, G., Mana, N., Mich, O., Zancanaro, M., and Job, R.

   Journal of Computer Assisted Learning 2021

   Abs

   The paper presents the design of an assistive reading tool that integrates read-aloud technology with eye tracking to regulate the speed of reading and support struggling readers in following the text while listening to it. The paper describes the design rationale of this approach, following the theory of auditory–visual integration, in terms of an automatic self-adaptable technique based on the reader’s gaze that provides an individualized interaction experience. This tool has been assessed in a controlled experiment with 20 children (aged 8–10 years) with a diagnosis of dyslexia and a control group of 20 children with typical reading abilities. The results show that children with reading difficulties improved their comprehension scores by 24% measured on a standardized instrument for the assessment of reading comprehension and that children with more inaccurate reading (N = 9) tended to benefit more. The findings are discussed in terms of a better integration between audio and visual text information, paving the way to improve standard read-aloud technology with gaze-contingency and self-adaptable techniques to personalize the reading experience. © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

5. Journal

   Comic-based Digital Storytelling for Content and Language Integrated Learning

   Rutta, C.B.,  Schiavo, G., Zancanaro, M., and Rubegni, E.

   Educational Media International 2021

   Abs

   This work explores how comic-based digital storytelling can support children and teachers in combining foreign language and content teaching in the Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) framework. In particular, we focus on investigating three specific aspects: (1) the use of digital storytelling in terms of collaboration, engagement and ease of use, (2) the adoption of comic-based digital storytelling in the CLIL framework, and (3) the benefits and limitations in using digital storytelling in comparison to a paper-based version. In order to investigate these aspects, we develop a case study in a primary school in Italy. A class of 18 children and 2 teachers used a digital tool, named ComicsCLIL, with the aim of creating digital narratives in the CLIL framework. The results provide some evidences that comicbased digital storytelling can be a beneficial educational tool for approaching CLIL lessons. It emerged, in fact, that digital storytelling, as supported by ComicsCLIL, can facilitate this practice by being engaging, easy to use, fully educational while considering the collaborative aspect. © 2021 International Council for Educational Media.

2020

1. Journal

   Evaluating an automated mediator for joint narratives in a conflict situation

   Zancanaro, M., Stock, O.,  Schiavo, G., Cappelletti, A., Gehrmann, S., Canetti, D., Shaked, O., Fachter, S., Yifat, R., Mimran, R., and Weiss, P.L.

   Behaviour and Information Technology 2020

   Abs

   Joint narratives are often used in the context of reconciliation interventions for people in social conflict situations, which arise, for example, due to ethnic or religious differences. The interventions aim to encourage a change in attitudes of the participants towards each other. Typically, a human mediator is fundamental for achieving a successful intervention. In this work, we present an automated approach to support remote interactions between pairs of participants as they contribute to a shared story in their own language. A key component is an automated cognitive tutor that guides the participants through a controlled escalation/de-escalation process during the development of a joint narrative. We performed a controlled study comparing a trained human mediator to the automated mediator. The results demonstrate that an automated mediator, although simple at this stage, effectively supports interactions and helps to achieve positive outcomes comparable to those attained by the trained human mediator. © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

2. Conference

   Collaborative comic-based digital storytelling with primary school children

   Rutta, C.B.,  Schiavo, G., Zancanaro, M., and Rubegni, E.

   Proceedings of the Interaction Design and Children Conference, IDC 2020 2020

   Abs

   This work explores how comic-based digital storytelling can support primary school children in reflecting on situations involving conflict in the classroom. In particular, we focus on investigating three specific aspects: (1) the potential of digital story composition conducted collaboratively or individually, (2) the children’s perception on the use of digital storytelling for reflecting on conflicts that might arise in class and, (3) the teachers’ experience of introducing a digital tool for collaborative storytelling and comics composition in an educational context. In this paper, we explored these aspects by developing a case study. A class of 12 children and 2 teachers explore the use of a digital tool, named Communics, aimed at creating digital narratives individually and collaboratively. The results show that digital narratives created from collaborative storytelling are longer, more structured, and richer with meaning compared to stories from individual work. Moreover, it emerged that children prefer to work collaboratively, even if it meant compromising, going slower and waiting for their turn. Finally, teachers appreciated the collaborative use of Communics, and in particular, the turn-based feature as children can practice the narrative re-elaboration with a peer while waiting for their turn. © 2020 ACM.

3. Journal

   Values and practices behind collaborative childcare in knowledge-based organizations

   Schiavo, G., Leonardi, C., and Zancanaro, M.

   Technology Innovation Management Review 2020

   Abs

   New forms of socializing care that leverage community networks and are based on alternative social arrangements are being experimented with in different grassroots contexts. They are being framed as innovative practices to facilitate the integration of professional and caring responsibilities. In this changing landscape, the private sector might benefit from new forms of welfare policies and family-friendly practices that are based on the co-participation of employees, and encouraged by public policies targeting workplace solutions for childcare. This paper intends to contribute to the ongoing debate on socio-technical innovation in management by exploring how collaborative childcare services might be deployed in workplace settings. At the same time, it investigates the role of digital technology in facilitating employees’ engagement and participation. © 2020 Technology Innovation Management Review. All rights reserved.

4. Journal

   Trade-offs in the design of multimodal interaction for older adults

   Schiavo, G., Mich, O., Ferron, M., and Mana, N.

   Behaviour and Information Technology 2020

   Abs

   This paper presents key aspects that designers and Human–Computer Interaction practitioners might encounter when designing multimodal interaction for older adults, focusing on the trade-offs that might occur as part of the design process. The paper gathers literature on multimodal interaction and assistive technology, and describes a set of design challenges specific for older users. Building on these main design challenges, four trade-offs in the design of multimodal technology for this target group are presented and discussed. To highlight the relevance of the trade-offs in the design process of multimodal technology for older adults, two of the four reported trade-offs are illustrated with two user studies that investigate mid-air and speech-based interaction with a tablet device. The first study explores the design trade-offs related to redundant multimodal commands in older, middle-aged and younger adults, whereas the second one investigates the design choices related to the definition of a set of mid-air one-hand gestures and voice input commands for older adults. Further reflections highlight the design trade-offs that such considerations bring in the process, providing an overview of the design choices involved and of their potential consequences. © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

5. Journal

   Framing the design space of multimodal mid-air gesture and speech-based interaction with mobile devices for older people

   Mich, O.,  Schiavo, G., Ferron, M., and Mana, N.

   International Journal of Mobile Human Computer Interaction 2020

   Abs

   Multimodal human–computer interaction has been sought to provide not only more compelling interactive experiences, but also more accessible interfaces to mobile devices. With the advance in mobile technology and in affordable sensors, multimodal research that leverages and combines multiple interaction modalities (such as speech, touch, vision, and gesture) has become more and more prominent. This article provides a framework for the key aspects in mid-air gesture and speech-based interaction for older adults. It explores the literature on multimodal interaction and older adults as technology users and summarises the main findings for this type of users. Building on these findings, a number of crucial factors to take into consideration when designing multimodal mobile technology for older adults are described. The aim of this work is to promote the usefulness and potential of multimodal technologies based on mid-air gestures and voice input for making older adults’ interaction with mobile devices more accessible and inclusive. Copyright © 2020, IGI Global.

6. Journal

   CLIMB: A Pervasive Gameful Platform Promoting Child Independent Mobility

   Farella, E.,  Schiavo, G., Ferron, M., Giovanelli, D., Leonardi, C., Marconi, A., Massa, P., Murphy, A.L., Nori, M., and Pistore, M.

   IEEE Pervasive Computing 2020

   Abs

   Child independent mobility (CIM) refers to the freedom and capability of children to move about their local neighborhoods without constant direct adult supervision. Our climb project combats an observed decline in CIM, offering a pervasive gameful platform for home-school mobility composed of three primary components: the first two using technology to support different levels of child independence and the third providing an element of continuous motivation for positive behavior change. This paper describes these three novel technologies: PedibusSmart, SafePath, and KidsGoGreen, and reports on four years of success with more than 1800 elementary age children, their teachers, and families. We further show how (i), disappearing, pervasive technology contributes to successful adoption, (ii), properly balancing trust and tracking leads to useful, noninvasive technological support, and (iii), in-classroom, gameful technology engages and motivates participation, with behavior changes persisting over time. © 2002-2012 IEEE.

2019

1. Conference

   Comic-based digital storytelling with primary school children

   Rutta, C.B.,  Schiavo, G., Zancanaro, M., and Rubegni, E.

   Proceedings of the 18th ACM International Conference on Interaction Design and Children, IDC 2019 2019

   Abs

   In this paper, we describe a pilot study of a digital storytelling project conducted with primary school children. The study investigates how comic-based storytelling supported by a digital tool, named Communics, can facilitate primary school children in creating stories and in reflecting on situations involving discrimination within the classroom context. In a first stage, two teachers have been involved to negotiate the intervention, as well as define graphical and textual content on which to base the narrations in Communics. In a second stage, we piloted an intervention within a class of 12 children to investigate the scaffolding opportunities offered by Communics as well as different aspects of storytelling, as engagement and motivation, and explore the use of the storytelling practice as a reflective process. Finally, we discuss preliminary insights and suggestions for future studies. © 2019 Association for Computing Machinery.

2. Conference

   Sharing the office, sharing the care? Designing for Digitally-mediated Collaborative Childcare in the Workplace

   Leonardi, C.,  Schiavo, G., and Zancanaro, M.

   ACM International Conference Proceeding Series 2019

   Abs

   This paper presents findings from a participatory design process for a collaborative childcare service based on co-worker participation and supported by a digital sharing platform. We conducted semi-structured interviews, focus groups and co-design workshops with 41 employees and HR managers of six knowledge organizations. We investigated their views on participative forms of welfare, the factors that can sustain or hinder collaboration among co-workers and the role technology can play in sustaining these practices. The findings shed light on perceived values and potential barriers of social and organizational arrangements as well as the mediating role of interpersonal trust, social exchange and reciprocity. Furthermore, the results provide insights on how digital platforms can support orchestration and management of collaborative practices grounded on employee participation and on the interplay between work and family life spheres. © 2019 Association for Computing Machinery.

3. Conference

   Comic-based digital storytelling for self-expression: An exploratory case-study with migrants

   Rutta, C.B.,  Schiavo, G., and Zancanaro, M.

   ACM International Conference on Communities and Technologies 2019

   Abs

   In this paper, we report on an exploratory case study investigation of a digital storytelling intervention conducted with young adult male migrants in a reception center in Italy. The investigation explores how comic-based storytelling supported by a digital tool, named Communics, can facilitate migrants in producing narratives for self-expression and support them in reflecting on real-life examples of discrimination. In a first phase, focus groups with NGO operators were organized for negotiating the goals and the boundaries of the intervention. Then, semi-structured interviews with migrants were conducted to define both graphical and textual content on which to base the storytelling activity. In a second phase, we conducted a pilot study with young adult male migrants aimed at investigating the storytelling experience as a reflective process. The empirical findings provide evidence that digital storytelling based on comics can facilitate the narration practice and indications for future development of Communics. We also describe the main challenges experienced in undertaking fieldwork and in involving the migrant community. © 2019 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). Publication rights licensed to ACM.

4. Conference

   A walk on the child side: Investigating parents’ and children’s experience and perspective on mobile technology for outdoor child independent mobility

   Ferron, M., Leonardi, C., Massa, P.,  Schiavo, G., Murphy, A.L., and Farella, E.

   Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings 2019

   Abs

   Technology increasingly offers parents opportunities to monitor children, reshaping the way control and autonomy are negotiated within families. This paper investigates the views of parents and primary school children on mobile technology designed to support child independent mobility in the context of the local walking school buses. Based on a school-year long field study, we report findings on children’s and parents’ experience with proximity detection devices. The results provide insights into how the parents and children accepted and socially appropriated the technology into the walking school bus activity, shedding light on the way they understand and conceptualize a technology that collects data on children’s proximity to the volunteers’ smartphone. We discuss parents’ needs and concerns around monitoring technologies and the related challenges in terms of trust-control balance. These insights are elaborated to inform the future design of technology for child independent mobility. © 2019 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).

5. Journal

   (Non-)Participation in deliberation at work: a case study of online participative decision-making

   Schiavo, G., Villafiorita, A., and Zancanaro, M.

   New Technology, Work and Employment 2019

   Abs

   Social media are implemented by organisations to enhance productivity and knowledge sharing among employees, but they can also support group deliberation and employee voice. This paper presents a case study of an online deliberation initiative involving the discussion of a contentious internal policy within an organisation of around 550 knowledge workers. The deliberation process lasted 5 weeks and actively involved 167 employees. Different sources of information (user interaction logs, activity patterns, questionnaire responses) were analysed to investigate the impact of participation, or non-participation, on the level of satisfaction with the deliberation, and on the understanding of the issue discussed. The findings suggest that (1) interest is a driver for participation, but it does not explain active participation, (2) participation, either active or passive, positively influences the understanding of the issue and (3) satisfaction with the outcome is not related to participation, but it may support participation in future initiatives. © 2019 Brian Towers (BRITOW) and John Wiley & Sons Ltd

2018

1. Conference

   Exploring the world through small green steps: Improving sustainable school transportation with a game-based learning interface

   Marconi, A.,  Schiavo, G., Zancanaro, M., Valetto, G., and Pistore, M.

   Proceedings of the International Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces (AVI) 2018

   Abs

   In this paper, we present a playful digital activity for primary school classrooms that promotes sustainable and active mobility by leveraging the daily journey to school into a collaborative educational experience. In the class game, stretches of distance travelled in a sustainable way by each child contributes to the advancement of the whole school on a collective virtual trip. During the trip, several virtual stops are associated with the discovery of playful learning material. The approach has been evaluated in a primary school with 87 pupils and 6 teachers actively involved in the learning activity for 12 continuous weeks. The findings from the questionnaires with parents and the interviews with teachers show a positive effect in terms of children’s behavioural change as well as educational value. Indications on the use of class and school collaborative gamification activities for supporting sustainable behavioural change are discussed. © 2018 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).

2. Conference

   The effect of emojis when interacting with conversational interface assisted health coaching system

   Fadhil, A.,  Schiavo, G., Wang, Y., and Yilma, B.A.

   ACM International Conference Proceeding Series 2018

   Abs

   The recent rise of conversational interfaces have made it possible to integrate this technology into various domains, among which is health. Dialogue systems and conversational agents can bring a lot into healthcare to reduce cost, increase efficiency and provide continuing care, albeit its infancy and complexity about building natural dialogues. However, the design guidelines to design dialogues for conversational agents are usually based on common knowledge, and less frequently on empirical evidence. For example, the use of emojis in conversational agent dialogues is still a debated issue, and the added value of adding such graphical elements is mainly anecdotal. In this work, we present an empirical study comparing users feedback when interacting with chatbot applications that use different dialogue styles, i.e., plain text or text with emoji, when asking different health related questions. The analysis found that when participants had to score an interaction with a chatbot that asks personal questions on their mental wellbeing, they rated the interaction with higher scores with respect to enjoyment, attitude and confidence. Differently, participants rated with lower scores a chatbot that uses emojis when asking information on their physical wellbeing compared to a dialogue with plain text. We believe this work can contribute to the research on integrating conversational agents in the health and wellbeing context and can serve as a guidance in the design and development of interfaces for text-based dialogue systems. © 2018 Association for Computing Machinery.

3. Conference

   The effect of emojis when interacting with conversationinterface assisted health coaching system

   Fadhil, A.,  Schiavo, G., Wang, Y., and Yilma, B.A.

   PervasiveHealth: Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare 2018

   Abs

   The recent rise of conversational interfaces have made it possible to integrate this technology into various domains, among which is health. Dialogue systems and conversational agents can bring a lot into healthcare to reduce cost, increase efficiency and provide continuing care, albeit its infancy and complexity about building natural dialogues. However, the design guidelines to design dialogues for conversational agents are usually based on common knowledge, and less frequently on empirical evidence. For example, the use of emojis in conversational agent dialogues is still a debated issue, and the added value of adding such graphical elements is mainly anecdotal. In this work, we present an empirical study comparing users feedback when interacting with chatbot applications that use different dialogue styles, i.e., plain text or text with emoji, when asking different health related questions. The analysis found that when participants had to score an interaction with a chatbot that asks personal questions on their mental wellbeing, they rated the interaction with higher scores with respect to enjoyment, attitude and confidence. Differently, participants rated with lower scores a chatbot that uses emojis when asking information on their physical wellbeing compared to a dialogue with plain text. We believe this work can contribute to the research on integrating conversational agents in the health and wellbeing context and can serve as a guidance in the design and development of interfaces for text-based dialogue systems. © 2018 Association for Computing Machinery.

4. Conference

   Interactive digital storytelling and self-expression in the context of young male migrants

   Rutta, C.B.,  Schiavo, G., and Zancanaro, M.

   Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics) 2018

   Abs

   This paper describes Communics, a digital tool aimed at producing interactive digital storytelling in form of comics to facilitate self-expression. In particular, we investigated how Communics can support young male migrants to reflect on situations involving discrimination by elaborating digital narratives in counterstory. In this first stage, we built a set of graphical and textual content to be included in the software involving NGO operators and young migrants providing the users with elements to compose the visual story. Furthermore, we initially assessed the narrative approach. General considerations on this process and implications for the future user study are presented. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018.

5. Conference

   Trade-offs in the design of multimodal interaction for older adults

   Schiavo, G., Ferron, M., Mich, O., and Mana, N.

   CEUR Workshop Proceedings 2018

   Abs

   This position paper presents key aspects and trade-offs that designers, ICT and HCD practitioners might encounter when designing multimodal interaction for a specific target group: older adults. The paper draws together literature on multimodal interaction and assistive technology and presents a set of specific findings for older users. Building on these findings, we describe a number of challenges that should be taken into account when designing multimodal technology for this target group. Further reflections highlight the design trade-offs that such considerations might bring, presenting an overview of the design choices and their potential effects. Copyright © 2018 for the individual papers by the papers’ authors.

2017

1. Conference

   Mobile multimodal interaction for older and younger users: Exploring differences and similarities

   Schiavo, G., Ferron, M., Mich, O., and Mana, N.

   International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia 2017

   Abs

   Since they can integrate a wide range of interactive modalities, multimodal interfaces are considered to improve accessibility for a variety of users, including older adults. However, only few works have actually explored how older adults approach multimodal interaction outside specific contexts and have done so mainly in comparison to much younger users. This study explores how older (65+ years old), middle-aged (55-65 years old) and younger adults (25-35 years old) use mobile multimodal interaction in an everyday activity (i.e. taking photos with a tablet) by using midair gestures and voice commands, and investigates the differences and similarities between the considered age groups. Preliminary findings from a video-analysis show that all groups easily combine the proposed modalities when interacting with a tablet device. Furthermore, compared to younger adults, older and middle-aged adults show similarities in the way they perform gesture and voice commands. © 2017 Copyright is held by the owner/author(s).

2. Conference

   Weigh it and share it! Crowdsourcing for pro-environmental data collection

   Schiavo, G., Leonardi, C., Pasolli, M., Sarti, S., and Zancanaro, M.

   Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services, MobileHCI 2017 2017

   Abs

   Crowdsourcing for addressing environmental challenges is a promising area in HCI research. This work investigates participation in a crowdsourcing initiative that combined a social-purpose activity with the interest of a company to crowdsource a labour-intensive task. The initiative was based on the deployment of a mobile application for pro-environmental data collection, namely collecting data about weight and type of product packaging. We report the results of a 9-month study conducted within a living lab that involved 96 customers of a large retail store. The analysis of usage logs and patterns of behaviour show different user categories: constant, sprinter and casual users. A survey was conducted to compare those categories as far as demographics, personality traits and usability metrics are concerned. Ten follow-up interviews further investigated motivations behind different usage patterns. The results provide insights on different types of contributors, reporting evidence on what motivated committed and less committed participants.

2016

1. Journal

   Influencing Participation in Group Brainstorming Through Ambient Intelligence

   Schiavo, G., Cappelletti, A., Mencarini, E., Stock, O., and Zancanaro, M.

   International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction 2016

   Abs

   Drawing on concepts from theories on persuasion, social psychology, and philosophy of language, this article presents the design of an ambient persuasive system that acts as an automatic facilitator by supporting a balanced flow of communication in group conversational activity. The system includes two main components: (a) a context-awareness system that monitors group member non-verbal behavior, and (b) a visualization component that promotes balanced participation, providing targeted directives to participants through peripheral displays. In two empirical studies, a strategy for influencing participant social dynamics based on subtle directives in the form of aesthetically pleasant visual animations was assessed. The findings provide insight on the effect, the acceptability, and the perceived influence of subtle peripheral persuasive messages for ambient displays. The studies indicate that when the participants understand the message intention, the subtle directives have a positive influence on group behavior, and are considered more appealing and less intrusive than overt, language-based messages. Furthermore, it was found that personality traits influenced attitudes towards the system. Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

2015

1. Conference

   Gary: Combining speech synthesis and eye tracking to support struggling readers

   Schiavo, G., Osler, S., Mana, N., and Mich, O.

   International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia 2015

   Abs

   Children with reading difficulties face several obstacles in learning to fluently read written material. Multimedia applications integrating text-to-speech (TTS) synthesisers are valuable tools for supporting reading activities. The paper presents GARY, an application that combines TTS synthesis with eye tracking. GARY is meant to be used on a tablet device coupled with an eye tracker. Making use of the information from reader’s eye movement, the system allows users to adapt the speed rate of the synthesised voice to their pace of reading. The paper describes the system, its functioning and future steps in designing a tool for supporting readers’ ability in making the connection between the sounds heard and the letters read. © 2015 ACM.

2. Conference

   Assessing a collaborative application for comic strips composition

   Mencarini, E.,  Schiavo, G., Cappelletti, A., Stock, O., and Zancanaro, M.

   Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics) 2015

   Abs

   In this paper we present the evaluation of an application for the collaborative composition of comics using a pre-defined set of images and sentences. This study is an intermediate step to guide the design of a tablet application for supporting collaborative storytelling between two authors from different cultures and speaking different languages. For this purpose, we assessed the effectiveness of a constrained-text approach for comic composition in which sentences are selected from a library rather than written by the authors. Our results show that the constrained-text approach provides a satisfying form of co-narration, stimulating the authors to stay on topic, while using the available narrative material. The findings of this study have implications for the future design of collaborative storytelling applications for multilingual and cross-cultural scenarios. © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2015.