May, 2012

It’s hard to believe that mobile apps have only been around for the last four years. Apple has sold more than 315million iOS devices since the launch of the first iPhone in 2007 and recently celebrated reaching 25billion iPhone and iPad app downloads. And of course now that Google Android has risen to become the best-selling smartphone platform worldwide it is time to work out what your strategy is for addressing this user base and for developing your own mobile apps.

In this white paper we provide a wealth of information to help you develop a strategy. In the first half of the paper we describe the reasons for developing apps and in the second section of the paper we outline the decisions you need to make to move your agency into app development.

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March, 2011

Research field trials of fully functional prototypes of location based games are an effective way to test game designs and develop an understanding of what makes games compelling. We describe an emergence driven research methodology which formalises this process of using emergent phenomena from research field trials to drive experiments. We also describe a range of techniques which can be used to evaluate location aware experiences.

Josephine Reid, Richard Hull, Ben Clayton, Tom Melamed, Phil Stenton
Personal Ubiquitous Computing (2011)

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March, 2010

Understanding how people behave in prototypical forms of ubiquitous computing systems can help determine future designs and technical requirements. In a theatrical puzzle game called “Last Will” we were able to observe two hundred participants over the course of a week immerse themselves in an instrumented environment and use a tangible interface to complete a series of tasks. Based on an analysis from interviews, questionnaires and observation we highlight priming, sense-making and context sensitive help as three perspectives that we think are highly relevant to pervasive computing.

Josephine Reid, Richard Hull, Ben Clayton, Gary Porter.
in Pervasive and Mobile Computing, v. 6 n. 5 October 2010

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March, 2009

Alternative Reality Games (ARGs) provide an interesting platform to explore the nature of game play as they combine fictional and real world elements to create a unique gaming experience. A typical ARG plays over a set time span and players collaborate via an ongoing narrative orchestrated by ‘puppet masters’. This paper presents a six week study based around an ARG which was designed to be repeatable, allowing players to enter the game at anytime. Through the use of temporal trajectories we analyse player’s interactions and unveil a number of problems that hindered game play. The players lifestyle, pace and gameplay traits all impacted on the game and raises the question of whether a repeatable ARG can really work. We close with some design pointers that might make it feasible.

Jennefer Hart, Josephine Reid
in CHI EA’09

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March, 2008

In this paper we describe an experiment to investigate and ascertain the feasibility of utilizing GPS tracking as a control mechanism in a mobile game. The interaction mechanism tested was that of walking shapes and we examine the user response to this novel form of game mechanic. We discuss the difficulty in developing a good cognitive model of how GPS works and problems with orientation and feedback. We reflect on the skills needed to map virtual shapes into physical spaces and to cope with the facets of GPS. We highlight the importance of the use of physical landmarks and we discuss whether future designs might be able to teach these skills and to incorporate the indeterminate nature of GPS into the game play itself.

Josephine Reid & Chris Bevan
Accepted by DIME’08 But unpublished as neither author could attend conference

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March, 2008

As location based games move players out of the house and onto the streets the experience of game play radically changes. Game designers have the opportunity to incorporate artifacts, elements and events that might naturally occur in the real world into the game play so that a particular place becomes more meaningful. This paper explores the relevance of place and the idea of “design for coincidence”. Design for coincidence is illustrated through case studies and a number of example games that show how this approach has been effective in location based games.

Josephine Reid
in DIMEA’08 2008

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March, 2007

In this paper we present our work in the design of ubiquitous social experiences, aiming to foster group participation and spontaneous playful behaviours in a city environment. We outline our approach of design for emergence: to provide just enough of a game context and challenge for people to be creative, to extend and enrich the experience of play through their interaction in the real world. CitiTag is our mixed reality testbed, a wireless location-based multiplayer game based on the concept of playground ‘tag’. We describe the design and implementation of CitiTag and discuss results from two user studies.

Yanna Vogiazou, Bas Raijmakers, Erik Geelhoed, Josephine Reid & Marc Eisenstadt
Personal & Ubiquitous Computing (2007)

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March, 2006

This paper investigates a research process focusing on the unpredictable collective and individual user behaviours which can emerge in ubiquitous social games. The fundamental premise of our research is that emergent interactions can both enrich the user experience and inform the design process of ubiquitous social applications, revealing creative opportunities. Rather than a side effect from the deployment of an innovative technology, emergence becomes the focal point of investigation of the paper. In light of the proposed design research process, we present the emergent phenomena observed in three mixed reality game applications and reflect on what we learned.

Yanna Vogiazou, Josephine Reid, Bas Raijmakers, Marc Eisenstadt
NordCHI 2006

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March, 2006

This paper describes the design process and evaluation of a located mediascape called “Scape the Hood”. It is written as a design case study and describes in detail the process by which artists gathered content, created regions and rapidly iterated through several designs using a location based software platform. The paper highlights the nuances of designing for GPS and the lessons learned. It includes an evaluation of the experience with feedback gathered from questionnaire and interviews.

Josephine Reid, Richard Hull, Ben Clayton, Tom Melamed
Proceedings of DIME’06, 2006

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March, 2006

This paper reports the findings from quantitative and qualitative studies of Riot! a location sensitive interactive play for voices. The paper begins by introducing Riot!,0it then explores the growing literature on theories of experience and goes on to report the findings from three empirical studies of the event: a questionnaire-based survey of 563 participants, a series of semi-structured interviews with 30 participants and in- depth ethnographic case studies of four participants.

Mark Blythe, Josephine Reid, Peter Wright, Erik Geelhoed
in Journal of Behaviour and Information Technology 2006

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March, 2005

We study a collaborative location-based game in which groups of ‘lions’ hunt together on a virtual savannah that is overlaid on an open playing field. The game implements a straight-forward approach to location-based triggering in which players must be in the same spatial locale in order to share information and act together. Comparison of video recordings of physical play with system recordings of game events reveals subtle and complex interactions between highly dynamic player behavior and the underlying technology.

Steve Benford, Duncan Rowland, Martin Flintham, Adam Drozd, Richard Hull, Josephine Reid, Jo Morrison, Keri Facer
CHI 2005

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March, 2005

Mediascapes are a new medium. We use the term mediascape to describe the user experience of walking through the physical world and triggering digital media which has been situated in that place for a particular reason by the mediascape designer. Forms of mediascape include tours, situated plays, games, augmented attractions and wearable applications. What the different forms of mediascape hold in common is that the user is always mobile, rather than at a desk and the interaction mechanisms are often through movement or gesture rather than using a mouse or keyboard.

Josephine Reid, Kirsten Cater, Constance Fleuriot, Richard Hull
October, 2005

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March, 2005

In this paper, we describe the situation and factors that lead to Magic Moments in mediascape experiences and discuss the implications for how to design these magic moments without them appearing contrived. The distinctive feature of mediascapes is their link to the physical environment and we introduce a framework for Experience Design and describe a set of design heuristics which should extend the field of HCI to encompass aspects of user experience, mobility, the outside environment and facets of the new medium. The findings are primarily based on analysis of public reaction to Riot! 1831, a mediascape in the form of an interactive drama which is based on the actual riots that took place in a public square in Bristol, England in 1831.

Josephine Reid, Richard Hull, Kirsten Cater & Constance Fleuriot
ACM SIGCHI International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology ACE 2005. June 2005

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March, 2005

This paper analyses the stages and circumstances for immersion based on quantitative and qualitative feedback from 700 people who took part in a three week long public trial of a location-based audio drama. Ratings of enjoyment, immersion and how much history came alive all scored highly and people often spent up to an hour in the experience. A model of immersion as a cycle of transient states triggered by events in the overall experience is defined. This model can be used to design for immersion in future experiences.

Josephine Reid, Erik Geelhoed, Richard Hull, Kirsten Cater, Ben Clayton
Published at CHI’ 2005

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March, 2004

This paper describes the process and lessons learned from the design of a location based audio drama.

Josephine Reid, Richard Hull, Kirsten Cater, Ben Clayton
Proceedings of UK-UbiNet, 2004

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March, 2003

This paper describes the design process and lessons learned from creating Schminky, a café based digital experience. Schminky was developed as an experimental field trial to explore the role of pervasive computing. The game will be played by the general public for one week in the Watersehd café in Bristol. The Schminky system and the experience design process is described and three key findings, creative tension, context and content are discussed.

Josephine Reid, Richard Hull, Tom Melamed, Duncan Speakman
Personal and Ubiquitous Computing 2003

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