Dissertation project completed for MSc Human-Computer Interaction at UCL Interaction Centre (UCLIC). Explores contextual factors that affect news consumption, and technologies that can be used to research them. Supervised in part by the BBC.

1. Places for News
An exploration of context and situated methods
Yuval Cohen
HCI-E MSc 2014/15
University College London
@cyuvalc hello@yuval.io www.yuval.io

2. Premise
What is context?
Location
Identifiable Objects
Connectivity
What is it used for?
Customised content:
topic, location
Offline reading
Sharing: direct, social
networksDey (2001), Understanding and Using Context
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3. Premise
What’s missing?
Qualitative and experiential factors
Interface and format adaptability
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4. Goals & Research Questions
Research Question 1:
What are the experiential
factors that affect news
consumption?
(individual, social, cultural)
Research Question 2:
What is the effect of such
factors on user behaviour
and consumption habits?
Exploratory research
Identify factors
Explore methods
Propose future directions
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5. Related Work
Situated Studies News Consumption
Context:
informational vs. experiential
Dourish (2001, 2004)
Situated action:
behaviour in changing circumstances
Suchman (1987)
Participant-reported data:
diaries, experience sampling, interviews
Hektner (2007), Carter & Mankoff (2005)
Mobility:
isolation in public, space appropriation
Augé (1995), Harrison & Dourish (1996)
Industry research:
tech. platforms, devices, brands
Reuters (2014, 2015), Ofcom (2015)
User needs:
information needs, mobile vs. desktop
Church (2011, 2014), Dimmick (2011)
Profiling:
frequency, amount, speed
Carreira (2004), Constantinides (2015)
Adaptivity:
content that matches use habits
Carreira (2004), Billsus & Pazzani (1999, 2007)
?

6. Methods
Autoethnography Bg. Interviews+
Initial taxonomy of factors, data collection tool

7. Tools
Note-taking
Notifications
(researcher-initiated)
Offline editing Offline editing
Task-oriented view Task-oriented view
Notifications
(researcher-initiated)
Note-taking
✗
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✗
Logos are copyrights of their respective owners: 6 Wunderkinder GmbH and Evernote, LLC

8. Methods
Autoethnography Bg. Interviews+
Initial taxonomy of factors, data collection tool
Participants
17Participants
Recruitment:
Facebook/Twitter
Notice boards
Word of mouth
Remuneration
£10/participant
£50 Amazon voucher draw
All participants
UK residents:
18% London
82% elsewhere
Ages 22-47
(M=30, SD=8)
Student vs. Professional
35% professionals (6 Ps)
65% students (11 Ps)
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9. Methods
Diary Questions (targeted)
Morning
Night
Notification 1
Notification 2
Situated Study
Contextual factors, behaviour patterns, habits
Post-study
Semi-structured Interviews
Demographic data
Targeted context-related Qs
(situated data as cue)
Methodology evaluation
Snippets
Event-based ESM
Brandt et al. (2007)
(two weeks)

10. Question Delivery
Researcher
Participant

11. Results
Triggers Pos. / Conducive Neg. / Distracting
Barriers Classifications are arbitrary and can overlap:
Affective state -
news consumption
spectrum
Interest/
engrossment
tradeoff
“I'll be listening for keywords,
cues […] scan back and forth
intermittently, based on how
engrossed I am”
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Break from study or work
Notifications and widgets
Media multitasking
Morning habit
‘Me time’
News overload
Kinetosis
(motion sickness)
Alertness and mood
Background activity
Connectivity
Small display
Multitasking

12. Results
Situated Methods Wunderlist
✓ ✓14 of 17
Participated for the entire
length of the study
One participant completed
less then 50% of the study
Task-oriented interface
(‘checking-off’ questions)
Low participation burden:
consensus among
participants
Notifications and Android
widget = reminders
Offline editing and sync
(not used by all participants)
Few technical issues with
installation, routine use
Event-based snippet
completion – as designed

13. Results
Situated Methods
✗ Response aggregation:
Completing snippets and
diaries at the same time
Completing snippets and/or
diaries the following day(s)

14. Results
Wunderlist
✗ Participants:
Multiple fields for data entry
Researcher:
Scalability: large number of
participants requires manual
entry
Qs and As were not always
simultaneously visible

15. Conclusions
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Context is more than location and connectivity
Experiential factors affect the way in which users
consume news. They trigger, prevent and alter
consumption habits.
News consumption serves momentary needs
Contextual factors constantly change, even within a given
situation, often as a result of other contextual factors.
News consumption is opportunistic
Participants created their own consumption opportunities.
Physical location matters, but it is not a determinant –
users appropriate spaces for news consumption.
“It doesn’t matter
where you are, it
matters what the
situation is”
“Reading is the
distraction”
“My mood, […]
stress in my life,
how tired I am […]
all play a part”

16. Conclusions
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Choice of methodology and tools = effectiveness
Each method provided a unique view of participants’
worlds. Triangulating the data painted a broad picture
of context, habits and preferences.
Method implementation – key to low burden
Using 4 methods created potential for participation
burden. Implementation was key for lowering it.
Event-based response, availability on a mobile device,
phrasing of questions, providing support to participants –
all contributed to perception of low burden
“Wunderlist was
actually one of the
easier ones I've
done”
“I think it helped
focus on short
concise answers”
“Just the general
format – ease of
getting on, ease of
updating, ease of
just checking off
that I've done it –
all that was better”

17. Future Research
Measurability and Profiling
Add an experiential layer to
current classification models of
news consumption habits
Context
Further exploration of experiential
factors in news consumption –
contrast, add to or expand upon
current findings
Appropriating for Data CollectionAdaptive Interfaces
Further implement and test
appropriated data collection tools
(additional populations?)
Create adaptive news (and media)
consumption interfaces that adapt
to changing use contexts
Focus: customisability and
scalability (e.g. use of APIs)
Challenge: determine which
factors are appropriate for use

18. Thank You
This presentation is available at:
bit.ly/newsplaces
Special thanks to:
Paul Marshall, Marios Constantinides, Joanne Moore, Jiri Jerabek
@cyuvalc hello@yuval.io www.yuval.io