What Contexts make users Click?

Martin Colbert’s Google Research Award

a display ad: what context will make users click the advert below?

Web users soon get used to display adverts, and learn to ignore them, so many sites resort to attention-grabbing advert designs or deceptive page layouts to boost click through rates. This is a problem for us, because the user experience is impaired.  More importantly, it also deters the use of online information.

Is there a way of increasing the persuasivenss of display adverts, without also reducing the usability or credibility of the host site? This project explores this possibility by studying the context in which the advert is displayed, and its effects upon user experience, rather than the design of the advert itself.  Perhaps, we should improve the quality of information on the site, the relevance of the advert to the user’s task, and the credibility of the advert selection process.

More information and how to apply

‘Computing Italianicity; Semantic Software’; a  machine learning system designed by Karen Cham (2006)

“Content Retrieval using Narrative Ontologies (CRuNO)”, PhD

This CISM Faculty Scholarship offers a £16,000 per annum bursary (for a maximum of three years). In addition, Home/EU fees will be covered as well as funding for equipment, conference trips and training.

The proposed PhD, co-supervised by Karen Cham and in collaboration with the British Film Institute (BFi), will develop methods and methodologies to investigate the automatic extraction of semantic concepts out of produced video content. Many categories of video content are produced following the well established codes and conventions of media production in order to convey concepts. These categories include different genres of feature film and drama as well as advertisements. Such conventions in form and content act to engage the viewer by signifying emotional concepts such as ‘freedom’, ‘success’, ‘authority’, ‘danger’ etc. The proposed research project will investigate techniques for automatic analysis of this content, and develop appropriate representations for this task by testing established methodologies from theoretical analysis to allow machine learning of the relationship between the two. The aim is to allow automatic tagging of video content using these high level semantic concepts, which can then be used to effectively search for video content http://cism.kingston.ac.uk/research/vacancies/details.php?VacancyID=115

The Visual Voice is a collaborative research project between Dr John Rubin & Dr Frank Millward that research explores the connections between scientific and artistic visualization processes and their relationships to sound, knowing that each can inform the other and that the blurred divide between technical and artistic is interdisciplinary territory where new knowledge is created.

This research produces interactive multimedia artworks and performances that engage in direct interaction with the senses, beyond verbal language, exploring the perceptive and interpretative areas between reality and representations of reality. Research outcomes seek to facilitate understandings about sonic events represented as moving visual imagery – with a particular focus on visually representing the sound of the human voice.

DMKs Fleeta Seigel is in residence at BodyTech Symposium on Embodied Media & Interactive Performance University of California, Irvine with his collaborative piece Texterritory.

The Performance
Upon entering the venue, the audience members register their mobile number into our database – managed by Textploitation! At set times, our computer will display instructions on the stage on how to answer certain questions via their handsets. The audience members will be given a certain amount of time to read and answer the question, as well as time to read the answers as they are gathered. As the questions are answered, animations on stage will perform certain movements to indicate to Grace which decision has been made. After a set period of time, the winning choice is displayed for all to see and Grace can then continue with the the story. In effect, the audience inadvertantly becomes a performer. The musical elements of the performance will be created by DJ Amplified. Future exploration into the use of still and moving images is also anticipated once the technology becomes robust enough for LIVE events.

Clothes that reflect the wearer’s mood, light-transmitting concrete, how colour contrasts in design can help visually impaired people, and whether children learn better in a yellow classroom were among the subjects discussed at an international conference on the links between design and science.

Around 90 designers, artists, academics and experts from around the world attended the event, called Integration of Design and Science: Light, Materials, Colour and Environment, at the Royal Institute of British Architects.

The event was organised by Kingston University’s Design Research Centre, Design Plus at Kingston University, which encourages businesses and universities to work together, and the Colour Group Great Britain, a charity set up 70 years ago for experts on all aspects of colour.

Professor Hilary Dalke, director of the Design Research Centre, said the event highlighted recent and innovative work in light, materials and colour. “This multidisciplinary event has generated a huge amount of international interest in research and practice on the role of materials, colour and light in enhancing environments for a variety of users,” she said.

Hungarian architect Aron Losonczi talked about his invention, Litracon – a light-transmitting concrete that can be used as a building material, while Jack Mama, Creative Director of the Probes programme at Philips Design, discussed “emotional sensing garments” that can change pattern and colour to reflect the wearer’s mood.

Dr Stephen Pretlove, a Reader in Kingston University’s School of Architecture and Landscape, talked about his work as Director of ArchiLab, a state-of-the-art facility for assessing sustainable and environmental architectural design.

Artist Martin Richman, who will be working on the bridges and underpasses in the London 2012 Olympic Park, talked about colour and material, and Jakki Dehn, a Reader in Product and Furniture Design at Kingston University, discussed the creative potential of materials made from waste.

Interior designer Amanda Russell explained how a blue relaxation room and a yellow creative room designed by her company Soulfood Studio helped pupils at Latchmere Junior School in Kingston.

Professor Dalke, Kingston University’s Professor of Design, talked about recent research on colour contrast and visual impairment and Dr Anke Jakob, a Research Fellow at Kingston University, examined light, surfaces and illusions.

Speakers also included designer Rachel Wingfield of London’s Central St Martins College of Art and Design who founded consultancy Loop.ph, and Dr Vibeke Riisberg, an Associate Professor at Denmark’s Kolding School of Design, who discussed how decorative textiles can adjust daylight and solar heat in offices.

In addition to the presentations, around 20 posters illustrating international research projects on the integration of design and science were displayed.

The event was the second in a series on the integration of design and science. The first one focused on environments and well-being and was held in June 2007.