Prototyping Mobile Storytelling Applications for People with Aphasia

Aphasia is a partial or total loss of the ability to articulate ideas or comprehend spoken language, resulting from brain damage, in a person whose language skills were previously normal. Our goal was to find out how a storytelling app can help people with aphasia to communicate and share daily experiences. For this purpose, the Aphasia Create app was created for tablets, along with Aphastory for the Google Glass device. These applications facilitate social participation and enhance quality of life by using visual storytelling forms composed of photos, drawings, icons, etc., that can be saved and shared. We performed usability tests (supervised by a neuropsychologist) on six participants with aphasia who were able to communicate. Our work contributes (1) evidence that the functions implemented in the Aphasia Create tablet app suit the needs of target users, but older people are often not familiar with tactile devices, (2) reports that the Google Glass device may be problematic for persons with right-hand paresis, and (3) a characterization of the design guidelines for apps for aphasics. Both applications can be used to work with people with aphasia, and can be further developed. Aphasic centers, in which the apps were presented, expressed interest in using them to work with patients. The Aphasia Create app won the Enactus Poland National Competition in 2015.

Visual Storytelling for Knowledge Translation: A Study on BRAC’s Novel Health Loans in Protecting the Poor Against Health and Asset Vulnerability In Bangladesh

Knowledge Translation (KT) is a dynamic and iterative process that includes synthesizing, disseminating, exchanging, and ethically sound application of knowledge to improve health and strengthen the health care system. It facilitates sharing the information generated through research outcomes with the public, the policymakers, or others for further scaling up or continuation of the interventions. Literature suggests a substantial gap exists in communicating with the decision-makers. BRAC JPGSPH produced a documentary/video that iterates how BRAC’s revised medical treatment loan program (MTL+) works with its microcredit clients and modalities. After reviewing all possible options for communication, the video was chosen as the best knowledge translation tool. The video creation and dissemination process are comprised of four phases: pre-production, production, post-production, and exhibition. The video production team reviewed documents and articles and conducted multiple interviews before developing the script. Later, a series of interviews were taken with the beneficiaries who receive medical treatment loans, mid-level, senior managers at BRAC, and researchers. After the production, the director, with a professional editor, edited the video. Over three hours of footage was viewed and ultimately compiled into a six-minute-long video documentary. The audience for the video was more expansive than narrow; from potential beneficiaries to policymakers and every group of stakeholders in between, the video was well-understood. The new MTL+ was integrated into the main program and would be scaled up soon.

Stage-directing the Virtual Reality Experience: Developing a Theoretical Framework for Immersive Literacy

Despite the incremental improvement and inclusion of immersive technologies in entertainment, training simulation, fine art, inclusive design, academia, and education; Virtual Reality (VR) still faces issues regarding its ability to compete with films and animation in visual storytelling without merging into the realm of video games. In 2015, Pixar’s Ed Catmull warned moviemakers that Virtual Reality is “not storytelling” and argued that the linear aspect of narratives poses an obstacle that cannot be overcome with VR. In contrast, Catmull argued that VR has immense application in games. However, VR creators have been pushing the boundaries and possibilities of delivering narratives in virtual spaces. In 2019, the VR experience “Gloomy Eyes” was presented at the Sundance festivals featuring a 30-minute story split between 3 episodes. The simulation is structured to provide its audience with some degrees of freedom while guiding them intuitively through the virtual space. In 2021, Blue Zoo also released a VR project titled “The Beast” featuring a cyclist powering up a snow-covered mountain. The short film was entirely created in Quill VR with the intention of being treated like a theatrical play rather than a film. While the creators of “The Beast” have explicitly mentioned the influence of theatre, “Gloomy Eyes” draws its visual language from similar theatrical roots. This paper argues that VR has been mistakenly compared to film and animation when it should be associated with theatre. The audience of both are not passive as they are during the screening of a film or animation. The space and the medium demands participation through their presence in the same space with the actors/characters. Theatre presents a promising candidate for extracting criteria that could be used to develop a visual language for VR. This research aims to formulate a framework for developing a VR visual language through comparison between character-driven narratives in VR such as “Gloomy Eyes” and “The Beast”. The comparative study establishes overlapping criteria and characteristics found in the structure, literacy, sound, and delivery format of narratives in a theatrical performance. These criteria are then outlined and discussed, drawing from affordance theory and discussions on aural and visual attention in theatre, to form a holistic view in approaching VR literacy.

“Is it all just lip service?”: on Instagram and the normalisation of the cosmetic servicescape

Purpose To better understand the uptake of cosmetic procedures in the wake of Instagram, this study aims to unravel how the aesthetic labour of influencers acts as the packaging of the cosmetic servicescape. In doing so, the authors contribute to theorising of aesthetic and emotional labour within the services marketing literature, fleshing out the bodywork of influential others not as employees but endorsers, who act like the “walking billboards” (Zeithaml and Bitner, 2003) for the cosmetic service industry. Design/methodology/approach This study adopts a dual qualitative approach to data collection, coupling netnographic material from Instagram posts with 16 in-depth interviews with female Instagram users who have undergone or hope to undergo cosmetic surgery. Using mediated discourse analysis, the authors weave their visual and discursive data together for a richer account of the commoditisation of cosmetic surgery. Findings Adopting a postfeminist neoliberal lens, where women are viewed as aesthetic entrepreneurs who are constantly working on the body and the self, the findings of the study reveal how influencers’ aesthetic and emotional labour help package, propagate and demystify the cosmetic servicescape. Through their visual storytelling, we see how influencers help endorse (local) cosmetic services; commoditise cosmetic procedures through the conspicuous display of their ongoing body projects whilst masking the labour and pain involved; and how face-filters that use augmented reality (AR) technology foster new forms of (digitised) body dysmorphia. Originality/value The authors shed light on the darker side of social media and body-enhancing technologies, where tales of body transformation trivialise cosmetic intervention and AR technology induces a digitised body dysmorphia.

DataStory™: an interactive sequential art approach for data science and artificial intelligence learning experiences

Technical training in the fields of data science and artificial intelligence has recently become a highly desirable skill for industry positions as well as a focus of STEM education programs in higher education. However, most of the educational training and courses in data science and artificial intelligence are abstract and highly technical which is not appropriate for all audiences. In this paper, we propose a sequential art approach that uses visual storytelling with integrated coding learning experiences to teach data science concepts. A scoping literature review was conducted to answer the following question: does sufficient evidence exist in the literature to support a sequential art approach to data science and A.I. education? The learning science, sequential art, and dual coding literature bases were then interrogated to answer that question. With knowledge gained from this review, an initial DataStory™ prototype was constructed, using a technical platform capable of delivering an engaging and interactive sequential art learning experience. And finally, findings from a focus group study using the DataStory™ prototype are discussed in which participant feedback to this new learning experience is reported.