Other Projects in Interface Design, Collaboration and Visualizations

AIDL's research in interface design, collaboration and visualizations is diverse in nature. 

Last Updated: June, 2024

Use of Technological Tools for Supporting Interpersonal Trust: From Modelling to Fostering Trust Through Design

Duration: September 2009 - Present 

Interpersonal trust is an important part of teamwork and collaboration. Without proper trust, teams struggle to achieve effectiveness and performing stages. As teams move towards virtuality, developing trust between the team members becomes challenging. Therefore, in this research project, we explored the possibility of fostering interpersonal trust through the design of communication systems.

We initially focused on the development of a trust model that could explain the situational variability of trust and consequently, inform design (Morita and Burns, 2014a). With this knowledge in hand, we pursued an ethnographic study in which we identified effective mechanisms to convey trust-supporting information through design (Morita and Burns, 2014b). We followed by developing a trust metric that accounted for the situational variability of trust, allowing the evaluation of underlying components of trust (Morita and Burns, in revision).

Having the knowledge of how cues are perceived and integrated into a trust state, we developed interface design objects in the form of badges (called trust tokens) that carry the necessary trust-supporting information in information-deprived virtual teams (Morita and Burns, submitted). In this study, we validated the trust tokens, as well as investigated the effect of risk as a situational variable. The last study consisted of a cross-cultural study in the perceptions of trust factors (Morita, Horiguchi, Sawaragi, Burns, submitted). In partnership with Kyoto University we evaluated the usage of trust-supporting information in culturally distinct populations (Japan and Canada).

Through this series of studies, our objective was to investigate the possibility of influencing interpersonal trust through design; and to better explain and validate the situational dependency of trust. The ultimate goal of this research program is to raise awareness to the importance of interpersonal trust as a key requirement when designing for teams and collaboration.

Project funded by NSERC in the form of a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship and a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Post-Doctoral Fellowship.

Related Publications: 

  1. Morita, P.P., and Burns, C.M. (submitted). Designing for cross-cultural trust: What are the real differences when trusting? Computers in Human Behaviour.
  2. Morita, P.P., and Burns, C.M. (submitted). Trust Tokens – Insights for fostering trust through interface design. IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine Systems.
  3. Morita, P.P., and Burns, C.M. (submitted, in revision). Towards a Quick Trust Assessment Scale (QTAS) – Measuring Trust in Collaborative Environments. Ergonomics.
  4. Morita, P.P., and Burns, C.M. (2014). Trust Tokens in Team Development. Team Performance Management, 20(1/2), 39-64.
  5.  Morita, P.P., and Burns, C.M. (2014). Understanding “Interpersonal Trust” from a Human Factors perspective: Insights from Situation Awareness and the Lens Model. Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science, 15(1), 88-110.
  6. Morita, P.P., Burns, C.M. (2013). Designing for Interpersonal Trust - The Power of Trust Tokens. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 339-343.
  7. Morita, P.P., and Burns. C.M. (2012). Development of Technologies for Supporting ‘Trust’ in an ICU Environment. Canadian Student Health Research Forum, Winnipeg, Canada.
  8. Morita, P.P., and Burns, C.M. (2010). Institutional and Personnel Situation Awareness – Two Sides of the Same Coin. Halifax 10: The Canadian Healthcare Safety Symposium, Halifax, Canada.

Sponsors and Partners

  1. NSERC Canada 
  2. JSPS - Japan Society for the Promotion of Science 

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Design Guidance for Novice Designers (MITACS-Accelerate)

Duration: January 2012 - April 2012

Providing guidance that is relevant and timely can result in better business outcomes. In this project we will focus on how to provide human computer interaction guidance in a timely, low effort way to novice software designers. The Mitacs intern will be embedded at the Apps Factory where he will provide guidance to a team of four interns working on four apps projects. Using cognitive work analysis techniques he will uncover leverage points for guiding novice designers. This project is unique in several ways in that it extends a research technique, Cognitive Work Analysis to the modeling of a team in an agile programming environment. This project also provides key design guidance and recommendations that will remain with the Apps Factory for future projects and, on publication, contribute to other design project with novice design teams.

Sponsors and Partners: 

  1. MITACS
  2. Communitech, Inc.

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Biosensor Project 

Duration: 2011 - 2013

With the rise of mobile computing and an ever-growing variety of ubiquitous sensors, computers are becoming increasingly context-aware. A revolutionary step in this process that has seen much progress will be user-awareness: the ability of a computing device to infer its user's emotions. This research project attempts to study the effectiveness of enabling a computer to adapt its visual interface to counter user frustration. The study produced findings and guidelines that will be crucial in the future design of adaptive affective user interfaces. 

Sponsors and Partners:

  1. NSERC
  2. BlackBerry (Formerly known as Research In Motion)

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Auditory-Echolocation Interface Project 

Duration: 2006 - 2008 

Individuals with visual impairments have difficulty localising in unknown environments. Localisation can be attained through downconverted ultrasound echoes in the auditory domain, thus echolocation by ultrasound. The largest hurdle to overcome when developing devices for visually impaired individuals is the inability to provide sufficient information in a meaningful manner.

This study showed that ultrasound doppler signals that are down converted in the normal range of human hearing can provide an acoustic array with sufficient information for visually impaired humans to navigate their environment. Three studies showed that people could effectively localize objects, determine distances to obstacles, and navigate through apertures. More information on this research is available in publications.

Sponsors and Partners: 

  1. Acoustics Research Center (University of Auckland) 

Related Publications:

  1. Davies*, T.C., Pinder, S.D., Dodd, G. and Burns, C.M. (2012). Where did that sound come from? Comparing the ability to localise using audification and audition.  Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology 7 (2), 130–138.
  2. Davies*, T.C., Pinder, S., and Burns, C.M. (2011).  What’s that sound? Distance determination and aperture passage from ultrasound devices.  Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology 6(6), 500-510.
  3. Davies*, T.C., and Burns, C.M. (2008). Advances in cognitive work analysis and the design of ecological visual and auditory displays.  Cognitive Technology 13 (2), 17-23.
  4. Davies*, T.C., Pinder, S.D., Burns, C.M. (2008). Did you hear that? Ultrasound Doppler allows human echolocation by all.  New Zealand Acoustics, the Journal of the New Zealand Acoustical Society.
  5.  Davies*, T. C., and Burns, C.M. (2006). Do you hear what I hear? Reflecting on auditory display in medicine.  Health Care and Informatics Review Online. September 2006.
  6. Davies*, T.C., Pinder, S. and Burns, C.M. (2009). How far is that wall?  Judging distance with audification. Proceedings of the 53rd Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 1091-1095.
  7. Davies*, T.C., Burns, C.M., and Pinder, S. (2007). Mobility interfaces for the visually impaired: What’s missing?.  CHINZ, Proceedings of the 8th Annual SIGCHI-NZ Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, p. 41-47.
  8. Davies*, T.C., Burns, C.M., and Pinder, S. (2007). Testing a novel auditory interface display to enable visually impaired travelers to use sonar mobility devices effectively. Proceedings of the 51st Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 278-282.
  9. Davies*, T.C., Burns, C.M. and Pinder, S.D. (2006).  Designing an auditory interface display for visually impaired travelers.  Ozchi 2006.  Sydney, Australia.  November, 20-24.
  10. Davies*, T.C., and Burns, C.M. (2006). Complementing medical systems using auditory display.  Health Informatics New Zealand.  Auckland, NZ, August 9-11.
  11. Davies*, T.C., Covvey, D., and Burns, C. M. (2005).  Effective use of ecological interface design in the design of e-Health systems. e-Health 2005, Toronto, ON.
  12. Davies*, T.C., Pinder, S.D., Burns, C.M. (2008). Comparison of audible echoes to audible ultrasound echoes for aperture passability. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Low Visio, Vision 2008.  Montreal, Canada. July 7-11, 2008.
  13. Davies*, T.C., Pinder, S.D., Burns, C.M. (2008). Comparison of audible echoes to audible ultrasound echoes for distance determination by moving participants. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Low Vision, Vision 2008.  Montreal, Canada. July 7-11, 2008.
  14. Davies*, T.C., Pinder, S.D., Burns, C.M. (2008). Comparison of audible echoes to audible ultrasound echoes for localization. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Low Vision, Vision 2008.  Montreal, Canada. July 7-11, 2008

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Display Concepts for Network Management 

Duration: 2002 - 2003 

This project developed a three dimensional world for managing complex computer networks. The project focused on visualizations of network health, device health, real and virtual network structures.

Related Publications: 

  1. Kuo*, J., and Burns, C. M. (2000). A work domain analysis for VPN management. Proceedings of the 2000 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, pp. 1972-1977, 2000.
  2. Burns, C. M., Barsalou*, E., Handler*, C., Kuo*, J., and Harrigan, K. (2000). A work domain analysis for network management. Proceedings of the IEA 2000/HFES 2000 Congress, vol. 1, pp. 469-471.
  3. Burns, C. M., Kuo*, J., & Ng*, S. (2003). Ecological interface design: A new approach for visualizing network management. Computer Networks, 43, 369-388.

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