Stuttgart Media University:
User Experience Research Group
The User Experience Research Group at Stuttgart Media University aims to make experiences with interactive systems more enjoyable and motivating. Its research activities focus on understanding the needs and behavior of users, on developing evaluation methodology, and on improving the user-centered design of interactive systems. The group is research partner in publically funded and industrial projects.
Team
User Experience Research Lab
The UX Research Group runs a state-of-the-art laboratory for carrying out experiments and evaluations. It includes a study room and an observation room and is equipped with an HD video recording system, remotely controlled cameras, eye tracking systems, and specialized software for data analysis.
[more]
Active Research Projects
SRS: Shadow Robotic System for Independent Living
The SRS project develops a semi-autonomous robot for assisting elderly people in their home. The robot can manipulate and carry objects and provide assistance in cases of emergency. When the robot encounters a problem it cannot solve independently, operators at a distant location (e.g. family members or a professional service staff) can assist task execution or take complete control of the robot. Stuttgart Media University's responsibilities are to determine user needs, to design the human-robot interaction, and to evaluate it in an iterative process.
[project website] [interview 1, German] [interview 2, German]
IC-IC: Enhancing Interconnectivity Through Infoconnectivity
The IC-IC project aims to enhance interconnectivity of short and long distance transport networks through passenger-focused interlinked information connectivity.
[project website]
Formative UX Evaluation Methodology
The project develops evaluation methods for assessing the effects of the design of interactive products on users' feelings. The goal of such evaluations is to provide designers with the necessary information to improve their products to offer a better user experience. This project is self-funded.
Completed Research Projects
Improving the User Experience of Mobile Phone Photography (until 9/2011)
Taking photos and shooting videos with mobile phones is an increasingly popular activity. The project aims to improve the user experience of this activity, i.e. to increase the joy of use and perceived pleasure while using the camera function of a mobile phone. In order to achieve this, several experimental product concepts are developed and evaluated.
Visual Rhetorics 2: Rules, Scope, and Rhetoric Zero (until 7/2011)
The Visual Rhetorics project is lead by Bern University of the Arts and funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. The project investigates the effects of intentions of designers (expressed through stylistic devices) on users' responses and emotions. Stuttgart Media University's UX Research Group develops and applies interview techniques and eye movement analysis to elucidate these connections.
[project website]
Emotional and Aesthetic Effects of Medical Equipment's User Interface Design (until 7/2011)
The project studies the effects of design aspects and stylistic devices on the emotions and aesthetic perceptions of professional users in the medical domain. The goal is to be able to make design decisions based on a deeper understanding of these mechanisms. The project is carried out in co-operation with the User Interface Design department of the Corporate Technology devision of Siemens AG in Munich.
User Habits in Visual Scanning of Web Pages (until 7/2011)
This was a self-funded project.
[more on Tobii.com]
Theoretical Foundations, Reception, and Design of Interactive Information Graphics (until 2010)
This project was funded by the federal state's Ministry of Science, Research, and the Arts (Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst Baden-Württemberg).
User Experience Quantification (until 2010)
We developed methods for measuring and evaluating user experience in this project with partner Deutsche Telekom.
Industry Cooperations
