Last week I was on a panel on "HCI for Multimedia Communications" at the ICME 2007 conference in Beijing. The organizers and panelists were as follows:

Title

• HCI for Multimedia Communications

Organizers

• Qiong Liu, FX Palo Alto Laboratory, USA
• Zhengyou Zhang, Microsoft Research, USA

Panelists

• Zhengyou Zhang, Microsoft Research, USA
• Tom Huang, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
• John Weng, Michigan State University, USA
• Susie Wee, Mobile & Media Systems Lab, HP Labs
• Arnold Smeulders, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands
• John Smith, Watson Research Center, USA

We kicked off with each panelist stating their position on the topic, and then went into Q&A with the audience. The panelists contributed a variety of perspectives and the audience raised many interesting questions. Below are a few of my thoughts that I shared in the discussion.

Coupling experience with technology: When we think about multimedia communication, we should start from the user experience, and then think about the technology to enable it. There should be a close coupling between experience design and the enabling technologies.

Existing communication experiences: Technology can recreate existing communication experiences in situations where it is not possible. For example, technology can recreate effective face-to-face conversations for people who are geographically distant, as in HP's Halo virtual collaboration system.

New communication experiences: Technology can also be used to enable new comunication experiences for people. For example, instant messaging, blogging, photo sharing, and social networking are examples of new types of communication experiences that did not exist without the enabling technology.

Experience- Many simultaneous communication threads: HCI for multimedia communications should consider the new ways that people communicate, and specifically account for today's multitasking world where many communication threads are used simultaneously. For example, it is common for people to be reading email, browsing the web for research, getting instant messages, and getting phone calls simultaneously.

Experience- Share experiences instantly: As I was in Beijing, I constantly took photos and uploaded them to Facebook for my friends and family to see. They were able to share my Beijing experience while I was still there. We take this capability for granted today, but note that this was not so easy to do a few years ago.

Experience- Anyone can publish instantly: On top of sharing photos instantly, I can also publish instantly with my blog. In other words, I can create a publication at the click of button for the world to see without asking anyone for help or permission. This has a few implications:

1. I can publish on a wide variety of topics. At one time, I imagined all my publications would be technical. Now I have publications called "Blogging on the Beach", "Team sports and work", and "Top 10 Tips for How to Talk in Groups".
2. Since so many people like me can publish instantly, there is information overload and a lot of irrelevant information out there.
3. On the other hand, the fact that there are so many publishers greatly increases the chance that there is something out there that is useful to you and perhaps written by someone who shares your perspective or background.

People tag and vote: We are in a world of too much information and a scarcity of attention, so the question is how do you find what you want. Search and analysis are important. Tagging and voting can help. So, the advice for multimedia communications HCI is to use the proper balance of analysis and user feedback. Don't spend too much time analyzing if you have a situation where you can just go out and ask for user feedback. Since we are now in a world where people can tag and vote, use it when appropriate!

Measure quality of multimedia communications HCI by usage: Since there is a scarcity of attention, I think the best way to measure quality in multimedia communications HCI is by measuring usage. My advice is to build prototypes, attract users, and study their usage. You will learn a lot by doing this, including what is important, what are you missing, and what are users interested in.

How do we measure quality in multimedia communications HCI? Quality metrics should consider the multi-session nature of the communication experience that exists today.

How do we measure quality in multimedia communications HCI? Build prototypes. Attract users. Track usage (e.g., google analytics), user feedback (e.g., diggs), and quantitative metrics (analysis).

What will be an ideal interface for multimedia communication? An ideal interface will be simple, intuitive, and easy to use. You shouldn't need to read a manual to figure out how to use it.

Should the ideal interface have intelligence behind it? Only if it has predictable behavior. The interface must be predictable so users can learn to use it.

Should the interface have a human form? Not always. An HCI system for medical surgery should not have a false human interface.

What are your thoughts on the topic of HCI for multimedia communications?
Did you attend the panel discussion? If so, what did you think of it?
What advice do you have for the panel organizers and panelists?

Tags: HCI for multimedia communications, communication experience, human computer interaction, interface, IEEE ICME, Qiong Liu, Zhengyou Zhang, Tom Huang, John Weng, Susie Wee, Arnold Smeulders, John Smith, HP

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