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Morgan Ames

University of California, Berkeley, Center for Science, Technology, Medicine and Society (CSTMS), Post-Doc

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See http://morganya.org for more about what I've been working on.
Supervisors: Fred Turner and Paul Dourish

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Gregory T. Donovan

Fordham University

Graduate Center of the City University of New York

Richard Bamattre

University of Minnesota

Shelia R Cotten

Michigan State University

University Of Winchester

Bellarmine Ezumah, PhD

Murray State University

Maurice van den Dobbelsteen

Virginia Tech

Antje Breitkopf

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Papers by Morgan Ames

Why we tag: motivations for annotation in mobile and online media

Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on …, Jan 1, 2007

Why do people tag? Users have mostly avoided annotating media such as photos -both in desktop and... more Why do people tag? Users have mostly avoided annotating media such as photos -both in desktop and mobile environments -despite the many potential uses for annotations, including recall and retrieval. We investigate the incentives for annotation in Flickr, a popular web-based photo-sharing system, and ZoneTag, a cameraphone photo capture and annotation tool that uploads images to Flickr. In Flickr, annotation (as textual tags) serves both personal and social purposes, increasing incentives for tagging and resulting in a relatively high number of annotations. ZoneTag, in turn, makes it easier to tag cameraphone photos that are uploaded to Flickr by allowing annotation and suggesting relevant tags immediately after capture.

Heuristic evaluation of ambient displays

Proceedings of the …, Jan 1, 2003

We present a technique for evaluating the usability and effectiveness of ambient displays. Ambien... more We present a technique for evaluating the usability and effectiveness of ambient displays. Ambient displays are abstract and aesthetic peripheral displays portraying non-critical information on the periphery of a user's attention. Although many innovative displays have been published, little existing work has focused on their evaluation, in part because evaluation of ambient displays is difficult and costly. We adapted a low-cost evaluation technique, heuristic evaluation, for use with ambient displays. With the help of ambient display designers, we defined a modified set of heuristics. We compared the performance of Nielsen's heuristics and our heuristics on two ambient displays. Evaluators using our heuristics found more, severe problems than evaluators using Nielsen's heuristics. Additionally, when using our heuristics, 3-5 evaluators were able to identify 40-60% of known usability issues. This implies that heuristic evaluation is an effective technique for identifying usability issues with ambient displays.

The uses of personal networked digital imaging: an empirical study of cameraphone photos and sharing

CHI'05 extended …, Jan 1, 2005

Developments in networked digital imaging promise to substantially affect the near-universal expe... more Developments in networked digital imaging promise to substantially affect the near-universal experience of personal photography. Designing technology for image capture and sharing requires an understanding of how people use photos as well as how they adapt emerging technology to their photographic practices, and vice versa. In this paper, we report on an empirical study of the uses made of a prototype context -aware cameraphone application for mobile media sharing, and relate them to prior work on photographic practices. By reducing many of the barriers to cameraphone use and image sharing (including increasing image quality, easing the sharing process, and removing cost barriers), we find that users quickly develop new uses for imaging. Their innovative communicative uses of imaging are understandable in terms of the social uses identified from prior photographic activity; new functional uses are developing as well.

Making love in the network closet: the benefits and work of family videochat

Proceedings of the 2010 …, Jan 1, 2010

In this paper, we explore the benefits of videochat for families and the corresponding work that ... more In this paper, we explore the benefits of videochat for families and the corresponding work that home users engage in to make a video call run smoothly. We explore the varieties of social work required, including coordination work, presentation work, behavioral work, and scaffolding work, as well as the technical work necessary. We outline the benefits families enjoy for doing this work and discuss the ways in which families use videochat to reinforce their identity as a family and reinforce their family values, in effect making -as in creating -love. We conclude with recommendations for improving videochat and for designing with family values in mind more generally.

A comparison of synchronous remote and local usability studies for an expert interface

CHI'04 extended abstracts on Human …, Jan 1, 2004

Synchronous remote usability studies can be a convenient and cost-effective alternative to conven... more Synchronous remote usability studies can be a convenient and cost-effective alternative to conventional local usability studies. Although they are common in the field, there has been little research comparing synchronous remote usability studies with local studies. In our comparison of remote and local studies of an expert interface, the primary differences were in the participant's and facilitator's qualitative experience. The remote and local studies agreed closely (with no significant differences) in terms of the number of usability issues found, their type, and their severity. While our comparison focuses on an expert interface and more work is needed to understand remote studies in general, our experience suggests that evaluators of expert interfaces will have comparable success identifying usability issues with either remote or local studies.

Requirements for mobile photoware

Personal and …, Jan 1, 2010

PhotoArcs: a tool for creating and sharing photo-narratives

CHI'06 extended abstracts on Human factors in …, Jan 1, 2006

The PhotoArcs interface aims to enable easy and fun creation and manipulation of photo-narratives... more The PhotoArcs interface aims to enable easy and fun creation and manipulation of photo-narratives to encourage sharing and interaction. PhotoArcs leverages the benefits of existing sharing habits both online and face-to-face. We describe our design of the PhotoArcs interface, report on the results of an exploratory lowfidelity usability study with five participants, and outline future directions.

The social uses of personal photography: Methods for projecting future imaging applications

University of California, …, Jan 1, 2004

An important problem for technology design is predicting users and uses for emerging technologies... more An important problem for technology design is predicting users and uses for emerging technologies-doing usercentered design for users and uses that don't yet exist. The primary contribution of this paper is in presenting a method for anticipating future uses of new technology by looking at users' higher-order motives or activities for current and emerging technology. We identify three high-order motives or "social uses" for personal photos: constructing personal and group memory; creating and maintaining social relationships; and self-expression and self-presentation. We then articulate design implications for digital imaging technology with an emphasis on networked programmable mobile imaging devices, especially cameraphones.

Family communication: phone conversations with children

Proceedings of the 8th …, Jan 1, 2009

We interviewed and observed families in their homes to understand how they communicate across gen... more We interviewed and observed families in their homes to understand how they communicate across generations and across distances. The phone is still the most common way for keeping children in touch with distant relatives. However, many children can't talk on the phone by themselves until 7 or 8 years old. This paper examines the challenges children have with phone conversations, and looks at how families are currently working around these issues. These findings can help inform the design of future family communications technologies.

Healthy Cities ambient displays

Extended Abstracts of …, Jan 1, 2003

The Healthy Cities project addresses the lack of publiclyavailable information about city health.... more The Healthy Cities project addresses the lack of publiclyavailable information about city health. Through interviews and surveys of Berkeley residents, we have found that city health includes a wide variety of economic, environmental, and social indicators. We are building public ambient displays that make city health more visible and encourage change by highlighting the value of individual contributions.

Story time for the 21st century

IEEE Pervasive …, Jan 1, 2010

Description of design dimensions and evaluation for Ambient Displays

We first present a set of potential design dimensions for ambient displays, which are ubiquitous ... more We first present a set of potential design dimensions for ambient displays, which are ubiquitous computing devices which monitor and display information in a peripheral, nonobtrusive way, and are meant to reduce demand on one's memory and overloaded senses (such as vision). We developed these design dimensions based on our experience in building them and expectations for their future use. Second, we apply the design dimensions to a set of ambient displays that have been built by other groups. Last, we survey existing evaluation techniques in light of our design dimensions, evaluating their efficacy for ambient displays and making suggestions for modifications.

PhotoArcs: ludic tools for sharing photographs

Proceedings of the 14th annual ACM …, Jan 1, 2006

PhotoArcs is a framework for flexible creation of timeline displays of photographs, photo-narrati... more PhotoArcs is a framework for flexible creation of timeline displays of photographs, photo-narratives, and consistent, collaboratively-created metadata. The interface aims to enable easy and fun manipulation and sharing of digital photographs and stories, organized around chronological &amp;quot;arcs&amp;quot; of photographs, to encourage remote sharing and interaction. We describe the design of the interface and how the design has changed across three

Hacker Learning: The Social Meanings of One Laptop Per Child

Exploring Family Communication and Technology Use with an Eye to Design

CSCW 2008 …, Jan 1, 2008

We are conducting open-ended interviews and field observations with 20 families from different et... more We are conducting open-ended interviews and field observations with 20 families from different ethnic groups and living in different locations to explore how technology is implicated in family communication and feelings of family "togetherness" for families with children in early elementary school. We intersperse these interviews with design exercises focused around play and around communication with remote family members, first with the members of Nokia Research's IDEA team and later with families in participatory design exercises.

Understanding technology choices and values through social class

Proceedings of the ACM …, Jan 1, 2011

Page 1. Understanding Technology Choices and Values through Social Class Morgan G. Ames 1,2 , Jan... more

Global Discourses of Information: Questioning the Free Information Regime

triciawang.com

In three transnational case studies of ICT use, we unpack common social constructions of free inf... more In three transnational case studies of ICT use, we unpack common social constructions of free information in the West: the market commoditization of information, the socially viral nature of information, the ethical role of information, and the physical (dis)embodiment of information. We connect these constructions under the ideology of "neo-informationalism" and explore sites of tension that this paradigm creates in global technosocial contexts. Finally, we discuss implications of this stance for ubiquitous computing and call for a reorientation on the contextualized, local, and sometimes messy present instead of an idealized global future.

Why we tag: motivations for annotation in mobile and online media

Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on …, Jan 1, 2007

Why do people tag? Users have mostly avoided annotating media such as photos -both in desktop and... more Why do people tag? Users have mostly avoided annotating media such as photos -both in desktop and mobile environments -despite the many potential uses for annotations, including recall and retrieval. We investigate the incentives for annotation in Flickr, a popular web-based photo-sharing system, and ZoneTag, a cameraphone photo capture and annotation tool that uploads images to Flickr. In Flickr, annotation (as textual tags) serves both personal and social purposes, increasing incentives for tagging and resulting in a relatively high number of annotations. ZoneTag, in turn, makes it easier to tag cameraphone photos that are uploaded to Flickr by allowing annotation and suggesting relevant tags immediately after capture.

Heuristic evaluation of ambient displays

Proceedings of the …, Jan 1, 2003

We present a technique for evaluating the usability and effectiveness of ambient displays. Ambien... more We present a technique for evaluating the usability and effectiveness of ambient displays. Ambient displays are abstract and aesthetic peripheral displays portraying non-critical information on the periphery of a user's attention. Although many innovative displays have been published, little existing work has focused on their evaluation, in part because evaluation of ambient displays is difficult and costly. We adapted a low-cost evaluation technique, heuristic evaluation, for use with ambient displays. With the help of ambient display designers, we defined a modified set of heuristics. We compared the performance of Nielsen's heuristics and our heuristics on two ambient displays. Evaluators using our heuristics found more, severe problems than evaluators using Nielsen's heuristics. Additionally, when using our heuristics, 3-5 evaluators were able to identify 40-60% of known usability issues. This implies that heuristic evaluation is an effective technique for identifying usability issues with ambient displays.

The uses of personal networked digital imaging: an empirical study of cameraphone photos and sharing

CHI'05 extended …, Jan 1, 2005

Developments in networked digital imaging promise to substantially affect the near-universal expe... more Developments in networked digital imaging promise to substantially affect the near-universal experience of personal photography. Designing technology for image capture and sharing requires an understanding of how people use photos as well as how they adapt emerging technology to their photographic practices, and vice versa. In this paper, we report on an empirical study of the uses made of a prototype context -aware cameraphone application for mobile media sharing, and relate them to prior work on photographic practices. By reducing many of the barriers to cameraphone use and image sharing (including increasing image quality, easing the sharing process, and removing cost barriers), we find that users quickly develop new uses for imaging. Their innovative communicative uses of imaging are understandable in terms of the social uses identified from prior photographic activity; new functional uses are developing as well.

Making love in the network closet: the benefits and work of family videochat

Proceedings of the 2010 …, Jan 1, 2010

In this paper, we explore the benefits of videochat for families and the corresponding work that ... more In this paper, we explore the benefits of videochat for families and the corresponding work that home users engage in to make a video call run smoothly. We explore the varieties of social work required, including coordination work, presentation work, behavioral work, and scaffolding work, as well as the technical work necessary. We outline the benefits families enjoy for doing this work and discuss the ways in which families use videochat to reinforce their identity as a family and reinforce their family values, in effect making -as in creating -love. We conclude with recommendations for improving videochat and for designing with family values in mind more generally.

A comparison of synchronous remote and local usability studies for an expert interface

CHI'04 extended abstracts on Human …, Jan 1, 2004

Synchronous remote usability studies can be a convenient and cost-effective alternative to conven... more Synchronous remote usability studies can be a convenient and cost-effective alternative to conventional local usability studies. Although they are common in the field, there has been little research comparing synchronous remote usability studies with local studies. In our comparison of remote and local studies of an expert interface, the primary differences were in the participant's and facilitator's qualitative experience. The remote and local studies agreed closely (with no significant differences) in terms of the number of usability issues found, their type, and their severity. While our comparison focuses on an expert interface and more work is needed to understand remote studies in general, our experience suggests that evaluators of expert interfaces will have comparable success identifying usability issues with either remote or local studies.

Requirements for mobile photoware

Personal and …, Jan 1, 2010

PhotoArcs: a tool for creating and sharing photo-narratives

CHI'06 extended abstracts on Human factors in …, Jan 1, 2006

The PhotoArcs interface aims to enable easy and fun creation and manipulation of photo-narratives... more The PhotoArcs interface aims to enable easy and fun creation and manipulation of photo-narratives to encourage sharing and interaction. PhotoArcs leverages the benefits of existing sharing habits both online and face-to-face. We describe our design of the PhotoArcs interface, report on the results of an exploratory lowfidelity usability study with five participants, and outline future directions.

The social uses of personal photography: Methods for projecting future imaging applications

University of California, …, Jan 1, 2004

An important problem for technology design is predicting users and uses for emerging technologies... more An important problem for technology design is predicting users and uses for emerging technologies-doing usercentered design for users and uses that don't yet exist. The primary contribution of this paper is in presenting a method for anticipating future uses of new technology by looking at users' higher-order motives or activities for current and emerging technology. We identify three high-order motives or "social uses" for personal photos: constructing personal and group memory; creating and maintaining social relationships; and self-expression and self-presentation. We then articulate design implications for digital imaging technology with an emphasis on networked programmable mobile imaging devices, especially cameraphones.

Family communication: phone conversations with children

Proceedings of the 8th …, Jan 1, 2009

We interviewed and observed families in their homes to understand how they communicate across gen... more We interviewed and observed families in their homes to understand how they communicate across generations and across distances. The phone is still the most common way for keeping children in touch with distant relatives. However, many children can't talk on the phone by themselves until 7 or 8 years old. This paper examines the challenges children have with phone conversations, and looks at how families are currently working around these issues. These findings can help inform the design of future family communications technologies.

Healthy Cities ambient displays

Extended Abstracts of …, Jan 1, 2003

The Healthy Cities project addresses the lack of publiclyavailable information about city health.... more The Healthy Cities project addresses the lack of publiclyavailable information about city health. Through interviews and surveys of Berkeley residents, we have found that city health includes a wide variety of economic, environmental, and social indicators. We are building public ambient displays that make city health more visible and encourage change by highlighting the value of individual contributions.

Story time for the 21st century

IEEE Pervasive …, Jan 1, 2010

Description of design dimensions and evaluation for Ambient Displays

We first present a set of potential design dimensions for ambient displays, which are ubiquitous ... more We first present a set of potential design dimensions for ambient displays, which are ubiquitous computing devices which monitor and display information in a peripheral, nonobtrusive way, and are meant to reduce demand on one's memory and overloaded senses (such as vision). We developed these design dimensions based on our experience in building them and expectations for their future use. Second, we apply the design dimensions to a set of ambient displays that have been built by other groups. Last, we survey existing evaluation techniques in light of our design dimensions, evaluating their efficacy for ambient displays and making suggestions for modifications.

PhotoArcs: ludic tools for sharing photographs

Proceedings of the 14th annual ACM …, Jan 1, 2006

PhotoArcs is a framework for flexible creation of timeline displays of photographs, photo-narrati... more PhotoArcs is a framework for flexible creation of timeline displays of photographs, photo-narratives, and consistent, collaboratively-created metadata. The interface aims to enable easy and fun manipulation and sharing of digital photographs and stories, organized around chronological &amp;quot;arcs&amp;quot; of photographs, to encourage remote sharing and interaction. We describe the design of the interface and how the design has changed across three

Hacker Learning: The Social Meanings of One Laptop Per Child

Exploring Family Communication and Technology Use with an Eye to Design

CSCW 2008 …, Jan 1, 2008

We are conducting open-ended interviews and field observations with 20 families from different et... more We are conducting open-ended interviews and field observations with 20 families from different ethnic groups and living in different locations to explore how technology is implicated in family communication and feelings of family "togetherness" for families with children in early elementary school. We intersperse these interviews with design exercises focused around play and around communication with remote family members, first with the members of Nokia Research's IDEA team and later with families in participatory design exercises.

Understanding technology choices and values through social class

Proceedings of the ACM …, Jan 1, 2011

Page 1. Understanding Technology Choices and Values through Social Class Morgan G. Ames 1,2 , Jan... more

Global Discourses of Information: Questioning the Free Information Regime

triciawang.com

In three transnational case studies of ICT use, we unpack common social constructions of free inf... more In three transnational case studies of ICT use, we unpack common social constructions of free information in the West: the market commoditization of information, the socially viral nature of information, the ethical role of information, and the physical (dis)embodiment of information. We connect these constructions under the ideology of "neo-informationalism" and explore sites of tension that this paradigm creates in global technosocial contexts. Finally, we discuss implications of this stance for ubiquitous computing and call for a reorientation on the contextualized, local, and sometimes messy present instead of an idealized global future.