Design of a Study-Tool to Collect Context-Based Probes

Background

Probes are a powerful and widely used method in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and related disciplines such as social sciences. They enable researchers to gather rich, contextual insights into participants’ lived experiences, uncovering underlying needs, emotions, intentions, and desires. By prompting participants to repeatedly reflect on and document specific aspects of their daily lives — often in the form of diary entries — researchers can gain a nuanced, reliable understanding of what truly matters to participants. This depth of insight is essential for the design of applications that are not only user-centered but also contextually relevant and personally meaningful.

It is inherent that probes are easy and engaging for the participants, while at the same time they are supposed to include multiple data types, such as written text, photos, log data, drawings, audio or video recordings and individual designs. With the growing importance of context-adaptive applications, there is an increasing need to investigate well-defined situations based on human and environmental context factors (e.g., location, activity, intentions, cognitive states, and emotions). Existing tools often lack the ability to effectively prompt participants to respond within these specific contexts.

Thesis Goal

The objective of this thesis is to design and develop a mobile application that functions as an innovative and engaging probe tool. It should support the collection of diverse data formats, including photos, videos, audio, and creative user inputs such as sketches or prototypes. Additionally, the application should utilize contextual triggers (e.g., location data, physiological data from smartwatches) to send timely notifications prompting users to provide input.

You will

• Conduct a literature review on the implementation of mobile probe tools
• Design and develop an innovative Android/iOS application for collecting context-based probes
• Implement a secure backend for storing research data, including features for export and analysis
• Conduct a short pre-test study involving real participants
• Document your findings in a written thesis and present them in a final presentation
• (Optional) Co-author a research paper based on the application artifact and results

Recommended Background

• Strong interest in mobile app development, including the use of APIs to access contextual data
• Creativity in exploring new and untested methods for probe design
• Solid programming skills in iOS and/or Android development

Readings | Literature

• Eghtebas, C., Klinker, G., Boll, S., & Koelle, M. (2023, July). Co-speculating on dark scenarios and unintended consequences of a ubiquitous (ly) augmented reality. In Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (pp. 2392-2407).
• Gaver, B., Dunne, T., & Pacenti, E. (1999). Design: cultural probes. interactions, 6(1), 21-29.
• Graham, C., Rouncefield, M., Gibbs, M., Vetere, F., & Cheverst, K. (2007, November). How probes work. In Proceedings of the 19th Australasian conference on Computer-Human Interaction: Entertaining User Interfaces (pp. 29-37).
• Boehner, K., Vertesi, J., Sengers, P., & Dourish, P. (2007, April). How HCI interprets the probes. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems (pp. 1077-1086).
• Ibrahim, S. B., Antle, A. N., Kientz, J. A., Pullin, G., & Slovák, P. (2024, June). A Systematic Review of the Probes Method in Research with Children and Families. In Proceedings of the 23rd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference (pp. 157-172).

Note

Please note that the scope and complexity of this project are more appropriate for a Master’s thesis. However, exceptionally qualified Bachelor’s students—based on academic transcript, motivation, or relevant experience—are also welcome to apply.

Contact

Interested students are invited to submit their CV, academic transcript, and intended start date to dominik.hirschberg ät unibw.de.