Managing contacts and communications through social network visualisations

The InTouch project’s ‘new forms of connectivity’ strand followed a user-needs driven approach to identify the need for and then specify a novel contact and communication management system. Our system is novel in that it takes a visual, person centric approach to the way contact details and messages are stored. It is particularly aimed at sociable and fun communication with friends and family, as compared with message lists and linear layouts of current communication applications e.g. email. It provides a one-stop-shop for integrating all your different message types (SMS, email, video messaging) and organising tools (address books, calendar, alerts) into one application. Initially the demonstrator was developed and trialled on a laptop computer but we envisage it would be particularly effective on portable platforms such as PDAs, and other platforms in the home e.g. digital T.v.

The information below is organised by the major stages of the project. Click to access information on:

- Project background
- InTouch research aims
- Pilot and main user needs studies
- User needs and scenario based design
- Evaluation of early prototype
- Current status and next steps

Project Background

Research into supporting domestic communication to date has focussed more on designing innovative prototypes and services which can provide new forms of awareness (e.g. Browne et al., 2001; Hindus et al., 2001; Mynatt et al., 2001; Schiano et al., 2002). Within work settings, a number of visualizations have been designed to show the nature of the relationships within social networks, e.g. KrackPlot (Krackhardt et al., 1995), Personal Map (Farnham et al., 2002) and ContactMap (Whittaker et al., 2002).

KrackPlot utilises graph theory to automatically plot social networks as a collection of nodes that represent network members and links to represent the relationships between them. Similarly, Personal Map is automatically generated but based on a user's past email behaviour to determine whom the user is closest to. A web-like representation of people's names is displayed; the people most frequently emailed are placed towards the centre. In contrast we aim to provide social network representations that are individually created and customisable for viewing current social networks. Various views are provided to inspect sub-categories of members and their contact details.

A main benefit of a customisable, spatially organized visualization is that it enables users to rapidly scan and be reminded of whom they have to contact and what for. As well as designing for efficiency, other usability factors, like enjoyment and ease of use, seem critical for personal contact management. However, little is known as to how people manage their personal contacts and what aspects they consider to be tedious or pleasurable.

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InTouch research aims

Our research aims are to:

1) uncover the existing communicative processes that occur in different social networks;
2) use these findings to develop new online services that will enable those social groups to interact, communicate and socialise in richer and more effective ways;
3) provide new forms of social awareness visualisations to represent the current state of the social group;
4) evaluate these services with members from our target user group.

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Pilot and main user needs study

Early in 2001, we conducted a series of one-to-one interview sessions with a cross section of social groups to understand how people represent their social networks, and their existing communication processes with social network members. The groups were:

- Teenagers
- Visually impaired people living in the community
- People over the age of 50 and working
- People over the age of 50 and retired
- Early adopters of technology (ADSL subscribers)

We asked them to draw out their social networks and label how they communicate with members of their social network currently (see social network diagrams below). We also asked them about how they find the various communication media they use.

We asked questions such as:

Do they easily remember whom they want (or need) to contact?
Do they share communications in the home with family or friends?
What do they find pleasurable and enjoyable when communicating?

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Social network diagrams

The following diagrams illustrate typical social network structures used by our participants, and show the communication modes used with various contacts.

Figure 1: ADSL user's social network diagram showing self in centre. Few groups have been used. Each member of the network is labelled for the communication modes used (P='phone, L=letter, F=face-to-face, T=SMS text, IM=instant message, E=email).

Figure 2: ADSL user's social network map. Colour indicates country where people were met, proximity of people to each other indicates groups of friends and colleagues.

Figure 3: Teenager's social network diagram showing groups of members, iconic labelling and colour coding.

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User needs and scenario based design

Using the interview data from these studies, we determined commonalities and differences across social network representations and communication behaviours. We then generated requirements for a novel communication and content management system, and these requirements were translated into design suggestions as one input to the design process. It became clear during this phase that our target group should be narrowed down to young people between 16 and 24 years, since they were the most in need of extra organisation for managing multiple contacts and message formats. They needed to manage a larger social network during times of changing colleges, work, and homes and were particularly in need of support through these changes to maintain their social network contacts and communication channels.

The data on typical communication patterns throughout teenagers’ days helped to generate the scenarios of use for the service. BTexact used their own SUNA (Scenario-based User Needs Analysis) process to envision, clarify and refine scenarios of use. These would give a ‘snapshot’ of potential users, and remind the design team what activities were in need of support by the new service. Use cases were generated from the scenarios to feed in to the design process.

The design process was led by our partners, Victoria Real. In tandem with the use case development, the team brainstormed key themes that were meaningful to the target users to enable a more complete understanding of who they were designing for. They also investigated some cultural aspects of this age group, looking at what they spend time doing, and at what advertising and activities are aimed at this group by creating mood boards. These were collages of relevant material that produced snapshots of aspects of young peoples’ lives, such as technology and gadgets, communication, file sharing, cool etc.

Following on from collaborative early-design activities involving all project-partners, Victoria Real produced an appealing, interactive user interface for the prototype service in the spring of 2003.

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Evaluation of demonstrator service

Evaluation of the prototype, which was initially based on a laptop computer, then began in earnest. Researchers at BT / Chimera and the Interact lab spent time with potential users in their homes over the summer months. Over a series of interview sessions they invited comments on how the prototype worked, ideas on how the service could work for them when communicating and what improvements they would like to see.

The evaluation was an in-context, qualitative study looking at a wide variety of aspects of the service, from whether participants thought they or their friends would use it, through to ideas about screen layout and widget behaviours. Ten participants within the target age group were recruited for the four-session evaluation. After a set-up and familiarisation session, the service’s functionality was shown over three sessions to ensure that participants fully understood new concepts that were presented in the design. We wanted them to think about the service over time to allow them to engage in deeper discussions on how they would use the service (if at all) in their social communication, and how it could be changed and improved. Their major concerns were also slow to emerge and the week between each session allowed participants time to raise these concerns.

A preliminary analysis of the results indicates that participants were generally very positive about the services offered and the findings are being collated into design recommendations for a revised prototype. Major findings showed that participants were concerned about the deployment and adoption model, how much the service would cost them, security of the service (for transferring contact details across a network and security within a household), integration with applications and technologies they are currently familiar with, and whether they would be able to access the service from a variety of locations such as college, work, when on the move, as well as from home.

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Current status and next steps

The project is in its last few months of work, with further analysis of results planned. The findings from the InTouch research will continue to be communicated to both academic and industrial communities over forthcoming months. Our commercial partners currently are investigating the potential for bringing the service to fruition.

For more information on the InTouch please contact Hilary Smith (Hilarys[at]susx.ac.uk)

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Publications:

Smith, H., Fitzpatrick, G. and Rogers, Y. (in press) 'Eliciting reactive and reflective feedback for a social communication tool: a multi-session approach'. Accepted for Designing Interactive Systems (DIS 2004), Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1-4 August 2004.

Smith, H., Rogers, Y. & Brady, M. (2003) 'Managing one's social network: Does age make a difference?'. Proceedings of INTERACT'03, Zurich, 1-5 September 2003, 551-558.

Brady, M., DiDuca, D. and Smith, H.(2003) 'A Novel LifeCycle of Collaborative Methods for the Design of Social Software'. Proceedings of The Good, The Bad and The Irrelevant conference, 3-5 September 2003, Helsinki, 336-340.

Smith, H., Rogers, Y. & Underwood, M. (2003) 'Managing personal and work email in the same box: Overcoming the tensions through new metaphors'. HOIT 2003 conference paper, Irvine, California, 6-8 April 2003.

Presentations:

Fitzpatrick, G. (2004) 'InTouch: New forms of connectivity for extended social networks'. PACCIT, London.

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