Is carousel interaction really usable?

In this paper a novel and significant study into the usability of carousel interaction in the context of desktop interaction is presented. Two equivalent prototypes in an e-commerce context were developed. One version had a carousel and the other version did not have a carousel. These were then compared with each other in an empirical experiment with 40 participants. The data collected were statistically analysed and overall results showed that in terms of performance the Web site version without carousel outperformed the version with carousel. Furthermore, the subjective preferences of the participants were strongly in favour of the without carousel version of the site. The results of this study make an important contribution to knowledge suggesting that in many cases implementing a carousel is not the best design decision. The results of this paper are particularly significant in relation to desktop versioned Web sites and goal-driven tasks. Serendipitous-type tasks and mobile versioned web sites used on mobile devices with touch screens were not part of the scope of this work.

Intimacy collapse: Temporality, pleasure, and embodiment in gay hook-up app use

This article maps key tensions in contemporary, mediatized gay male sexual culture by focusing on hook-up app use. Based on data generated through a situated and visual interview technique, the paper gather experiences from hook-up app users in the U.K. Concerned with how understandings and usage of hook-up apps are bound up with normative evaluations of their ability to produce “good” intimacy, I suggest integrating analysis of practice and infrastructural capacities with critical intimacy theory. This is captured in the concept intimacy collapse of which I examine three types: one between immediacy and foresight, another between organic and representational pleasure objects, and a third between personal and social acts of looking. The analysis demonstrates that intimacy collapses in hook-up apps produce new (in)visibilities, anxieties and opportunities that are distributed unevenly across the disparate online cultures and identities that make up gay culture.

Spinning words as disguise: Shady services for ethical research?

Ethical researchers who want to quote public user-generated content without further exposing these sources have little guidance as to how to disguise quotes. Reagle (2021b) showed that researchers’ attempts to disguise phrases on Reddit are often haphazard and ineffective. Are there tools that can help? Automated word spinners, used to generate reams of ad-laden content, seem suited to the task. We select 10 quotations from fictional posts on r/AmItheButtface and “spin” them using Spin Rewriter and WordAi. We review the usability of the services and then (1) search for their spins on Google; and, (2) ask human subjects (N=19) to judge them for fidelity. Participants also disguise three of those phrases and these are assessed for efficacy and the tactics employed. We recommend that researchers disguise their prose by substituting novel words (i.e., swapping infrequently occurring words, such as “toxic” with “radioactive”) and rearranging elements of sentence structure. The practice of testing spins, however, remains essential even when using good tactics; a Python script is provided to facilitate such testing.

‘Don’t mess with my algorithm’: Exploring the relationship between listeners and automated curation and recommendation on music streaming services

Given access to huge online collections of music on streaming platforms such as Spotify or Apple Music, users have become increasingly reliant on algorithmic recommender systems and automated curation and discovery features to find and curate music. Based on participant observation and semi-structured interviews with 15 active users of music streaming services, this article critically examines the user experience of music recommendation and streaming, seeking to understand how listeners interact with and experience these systems, and asking how recommendation and curation features define their use in a new and changing landscape of music consumption and discovery. This paper argues that through daily interactions with algorithmic features and curation, listeners build complex socio-technical relationships with these algorithmic systems, involving human-like factors such as trust, betrayal and intimacy. This article is significant as it positions music recommender systems as active agents in shaping music listening habits and the individual tastes of users.

Proposing methods to explore the evolution of the term ‘mHealth’ on the Danish Web archive

This article uses Internet archives to explore the emergence and spread of the term ‘mHealth’ (mobile health technologies) in the Danish Web domain from 2006 to 2018, focusing on the actors that contributed to its evolution. We propose three methods for investigating the Web pages and Web sites that employed the term ‘mHealth’. Our findings highlight temporal developments in the use of ‘mHealth’, with diverse actors using it, though none clearly dominated. The article attends to challenges in working with Web archive data, and presents methods that can be used by others wishing to engage empirically with Internet archives, which remain vast, but largely under-exploited resources.

Pilot study suggests online media literacy programming reduces belief in false news in Indonesia

Amidst the threat of digital misinformation, we offer a pilot study regarding the efficacy of an online social media literacy campaign aimed at empowering individuals in Indonesia with skills to help them identify misinformation. We found that users who engaged with our online training materials and educational videos were more likely to identify misinformation than those in our control group (total N=1,000). Given the promising results of our preliminary study, we plan to expand efforts in this area, and build upon lessons learned from this pilot study.

Gamers never play alone: An interface-centred analysis of online video gaming

Online gaming involves a complex and multidimensional set of practices. This article proposes understanding online video gaming based on an interface-centred approach that goes beyond the classic study of the “graphic user interface”. In this theoretical and analytical framework, the interface is considered the place where human, institutional and technological actors relate to each other and different processes are carried out. The article draws the data from empirical research with teens carried out in eight countries. It analyses the teenagers’ online playing experience as an interface, understood as a ‘network of actors’ that goes beyond the single video gaming device (console, PC, etc.). This work also presents a map of actors, relationships and processes of the online video gaming interface, paying particular attention to the tensions and critical issues that arise, from a perspective that, in further studies, could be expanded to other practices.

Unfolding #Anonymous on Twitter

This paper presents a comprehensive empirical investigation of the range of actors, issues and sub-groups related to the hashtag Anonymous on Twitter between 2012 and 2015. Complementing existing studies that have provided in-depth accounts of Anonymous from a specific point of view, this research provides an overview of the network related to the discursive construction of Anonymous on Twitter from a synoptic standpoint. In particular, the analysis covers three dimensions: the structure and dynamics of the #Anonymous interaction network; the range of issues that Anonymous has been associated with; and the relation between Anonymous and its offshoots. This research provides a descriptive characterization of the topological and semantic complexity of Anonymous and invites to reflect on the simplifications that our vocabulary and methods entail vis a vis the complexity of digital entities delimited by and individuated through hashtags.

Tap on our app: Internet motivators in the Generation Z purchasing process

This study explores motivators for mobile app purchase among “Gen Z” consumers. Adjectives that describe the mobile purchase experience were collected from focus group respondents. Factor analysis of the adjectives produced clusters named “Affective,” “Functional” and “Anxiety.” “Anxiety” was the most powerful factor. However, when tested in linear regression “Affective” and “Functional” were unique significant predictors of mobile app purchase intention. Online food delivery brands providing apps, and those that save ordering info, are most highly correlated in the purchase process. Ease of use is associated with a positive online perception. Those ordering personal pan size pizzas were significantly different than those who order small, medium or large pizzas. Diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory suggests complexity is a key indicator in the innovation process. In this study, the diffusion of ordering was heightened by compatibility, those who share common experiences and values in a virtual community. These findings suggest anxiety involved with Internet purchases may be part of the appeal of the application.

From technology speculation to value creation: The changing discourse and actants in the construction of IoT on Twitter

The Internet of Things (IoT) is rapidly becoming an important technology, affecting our everyday lives, and is predicted to do so even more extensively in the coming years. Still, the concept remains somewhat fuzzy. As IoT continues to grow in importance and scope, so does the need to understand how the concept is used and what it represents. This study analyzes over nine million tweets over an extended sample period, applying a mixed methods approach to investigate how IoT is understood on Twitter over time, and importantly, the human and non-human actors that were prolific in shaping the discourse. The findings reveal a changing focus within the IoT discourse over time — from a primary technological, engineering perspective to one which highlighted practical implementations and particularly ways of leveraging IoT solutions to cultivate service innovation and generate novel forms of value creation. The scholarly community is not keeping up with this change. Furthermore, the analysis shows that over time, bots become increasingly prominent in tweeting IoT-related content, at the expense of individual Twitter users. This finding puts into new light the question of who shapes emerging technological concepts and the accountability and agency of bots.