Events Archive

GRAND is proud to sponsor the 17th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW 2014) to be held February 15-19 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA.. CSCW is the premier venue for presenting research in the design and use of technologies that affect groups, organizations, communities, and networks. Bringing together top researchers and practitioners from academia and industry in the area of social computing, CSCW encompasses both the technical and social challenges encountered when supporting collaboration.

GRAND Highlights at CSCW 2014

Craving, Creating, and Constructing Comfort: Insights and Opportunities for Technology in Hospice

CSCW 2014 Best Paper, Awarded by SIGCHI
Robert Douglas Ferguson, McGill University
Michael Massimi, Microsoft Research, UK
Emily Anne Crist, McGill University
Karyn Anne Moffatt, McGill University

Opportunities and recommendations for technologies in hospice, including the need for varying degrees of richness and symmetry, and for support for life-affirming acts. This is the first study, in the CSCW and HCI literatures, of communication technology use during the final days of a person’s life, with implications both for hospice and for the end of life more broadly.

Collaboration Surrounding Beacon Use During Companion Avalanche Rescue

CSCW 2014 Best Paper Nomination
Audrey Desjardins, Simon Fraser University
Carman Neustaedter, Simon Fraser University
Saul Greenberg, University of Calgary
Ron Wakkary, Simon Fraser University

This study focuses on the collaborative practices of avalanche rescue and the interactions with beacons while backcountry skiing. We conducted interviews with backcountry recreationists and experts, and we observed avalanche rescue practice scenarios. The work highlights the aspects and challenges of mental representation, trust, distributed cognition, and practice. Implications include three considerations for the redesign of beacons: simplicity, visibility and practice.

GEMS: The Design and Evaluation of a Location-Based Storytelling Game

Jason Procyk, Simon Fraser University
Carman Neustaedter, Simon Fraser University

The team has created a location-based game called GEMS to support storytelling amongst family members and close friends. The game narrative and mechanics prompt players to reflect on meaningful places from their past and create geolocated digital memory. Other players can then visit the locations to collect and view the records. A user study revealed that location can provide a rich foundation for storytelling activities.

How Players Value their Characters in World of Warcraft

Ian J Livingston, University of Saskatchewan
Carl Gutwin, University of Saskatchewan
Regan L Mandryk, University of Saskatchewan
Max Birk, University of Saskatchewan

This study has identified ten kinds of value that video game characters can provide - including utility, investment, communication, memory, enjoyment, and representations of relationships, as well as value as an opportunity for experience, creativity, sociability, and self-expression. The analytical lens of value provides a new understanding of the ways that players appreciate characters in online multi-user worlds. Our results can help developers understand and enhance an element of multi-player games that contributes greatly to player experience and satisfaction.

The Effects of Consistency Maintenance Methods on Player Experience and Performance in Networked Games

Cheryl Savery, Queen’s University
Nicholas Graham, Queen’s University
Carl Gutwin, University of Saskatchewan
Michelle Brown, York University

This study confirms that decision-making and error repair can have significant effects on player experience and performance, and shows that that simple consistency is often not as important as these other factors.

Support for Deictic Pointing in CVEs: Still Fragmented after All These Years?

Nelson Wong, University of Saskatchewan
Carl Gutwin, University of Saskatchewan

Pointing gestures - particularly deictic references - are ubiquitous in face-to-face communication. This observational study of deictic pointing explores techniques that may reduce fragmentation: extra-wide and third-person views, precise control over an avatar’s pointing arm, and visual enhancements such as object highlighting and laser pointing.

Doctoral Colloquium

Rethinking the Peer Review Process

Syavash Nobarany, University of British Columbia