Uses of Media & Creation of Web Experiences

Paper

May 7, 2012 @ 16:30, Room: 17AB

Chair: Jan Gulliksen, Uppsala University, Sweden
Too Close for Comfort: A Study of the Effectiveness and Acceptability of Rich-Media Personalized Advertising - Paper
Community: user experience
Contribution & Benefit: Describes first study investigating how personalized rich media ads are perceived by users. Findings can help design noticeable, interesting ads that are also comfortable for the user.
Abstract » Online display advertising is predicted to make $29.53 billion this year. Advertisers believe targeted and personalized ads to be more effective, but many users are concerned about their privacy. We conducted a study where 30 participants completed a simulated holiday booking task; each page showing ads with different degrees of personalization. Participants fixated twice as long when ads contained their photo. Participants reported being more likely to notice ads with their photo, holiday destination, and name, but also increasing levels of discomfort with increasing personalization. We conclude that greater personalization in ad content may achieve higher levels of attention, but that the most personalized ads are also the least acceptable. The noticeability benefit in using someone's photo to make them look at an ad may be offset by the privacy cost. As more personal data becomes available to advertisers, it becomes important that these trade-offs are considered.
ACM
Why Johnny Can't Opt Out: A Usability Evaluation of Tools to Limit Online Behavioral Advertising - Paper
Contribution & Benefit: Describes usability problems identified through a laboratory study to evaluate tools to limit OBA. Designers will be aware of these problems and could use our methodology to evaluate their tools.
Abstract » We present results of a 45-participant laboratory study investigating the usability of nine tools to limit online behavioral advertising (OBA). We interviewed participants about OBA and recorded their behavior and attitudes as they configured and used a privacy tool, such as a browser plugin that blocks requests to specific URLs, a tool that sets browser cookies indicating a user's preference to opt out of OBA, or the privacy settings built into a web browser.

We found serious usability flaws in all tools we tested. Participants found many tools difficult to configure, and tools' default settings were often minimally protective. Ineffective communication, confusing interfaces, and a lack of feedback led many participants to conclude that a tool was blocking OBA when they had not properly configured it to do so. Without being familiar with many advertising companies and tracking technologies, it was difficult for participants to use the tools effectively.
ACM
<Insert Image>: Helping the Legal Use of Creative Commons Images - Paper
Community: design
Contribution & Benefit: We present an Open Media Retrieval model for searching and using Creative Commons content. The design will reduce accidental copyright infringements and the time needed for searching open content.
Abstract » Media creation applications cater poorly to one very common usage: Situations in which the users need media that they do not own and for which they are unwilling to pay. Finding and using externally produced media is currently a cumbersome process. Often, users locate the content using a search engine, copy it into their work, cross their fingers, and hope they do not infringe on any copyrights. While the authors have shared hundreds of millions of images with permissive licenses, the license terms are too complicated for other users to follow. In our studies, we found that even the well-intentioned users still fail to respect copyrights in simple image reuse situations. We therefore introduce an Open Media Retrieval (OMR) model to remedy this problem and supplement it with prototypes that access various legal image sources directly within the creative work flow and provide automatic credits to the original authors.
ACM
Fighting for My Space: Coping Mechanisms for SNS Boundary Regulation - Paper
Contribution & Benefit: This paper presents results from a qualitative interview-based study to identify "coping mechanisms" that Social Networking Site users devise outside explicit boundary-regulation interface features in order to manage interpersonal boundaries.
Abstract » Sharing information online via social network sites (SNSs) is at an all-time high, yet research shows that users often exhibit a marked dissatisfaction in using such sites. A compelling explanation for this dichotomy is that users are struggling against their SNS environment in an effort to achieve their preferred levels of privacy for regulating social interactions. Our research investigates users' SNS boundary regulation behavior. This paper presents results from a qualitative interview-based study to identify "coping mechanisms" that users devise outside explicit boundary-regulation interface features in order to manage interpersonal boundaries. Our categorization of such mechanisms provides insight into interaction design issues and opportunities for new SNS features.
ACM