Amberlight's Hierarchy HCI Briefings Library Amberlight Whitepapers

As a company, Amberlight values being on the cutting edge of research in our field. To this end, our consultants regularly conduct research, publish papers and present at conferences.

We have made a selection of our published research available from this site. All our papers are free to download below in Adobe PDF format.

Additionally, we have also run a number of workshops aimed at increasing knowledge within our profession. Each workshop has a website containing resources, including participant papers.

Whitepapers

‘How Can I Help You?’ - The User Experience of Calls to Directory Assistance Services
Call centres can often provide the most frustrating of user experiences: Nikos Karaoulanis describes a project analysing the service provided by several UK directory assistance services.

WAP Age Verification: Adult Content on Your Phone
In this paper, published in partnership with mobile service provider O2, Udy Ravid examines the usability of age verification services for mobile adult content.

Diary Studies as a Tool for Efficient Cross-Cultural Design
Doing field research in other countries is time-consuming and expensive. In this paper Rober Gillham introduces diary studies as a cost effective means of conducting user-centred research. It was published in the proceedings of the 2005 International Workshop for the Internationalisation of Products and Systems.

Towards a Strategic Model of Localisation
Designing interfaces for different cultures often requires more than mere Usability Testing. Robert Gillham introduces a number of research methods, discusses their advantages and drawbacks and introduces a framework for their application in design projects. It was presented at the 2004 International Workshop for the Internationalisation of Products and Systems (IWIPS) in Vancouver.

Developing Mental Models for 3-D Interaction in a 2-D Gaming Environment
Amberlight have conducted a great deal of research into novel gaming enviroments. This paper was published in the proceedings of the Asia-Pacific CHI 2004 conference. In it, Gigi Demming explains the implications of allowing gamers to manipulate characters on a 2-D screen via their own body movements .

Optimising Uptake of Usability Recommendations
In this paper, we analyse the barriers to adoption of HCI inputs by large, distributed development teams. It reveals how to increase the chances of getting the solutions to usability problems into the final design of your product. This paper was presented at the 2002 European Usability Professionals Association conference at South Bank University, London.

Gambling Online: a Psychological Approach to Engineering Interactive Gaming Systems
In this exhaustively researched paper, Filip Healy lays out a psychological model of gambling and shows how this can be used to create more engaging systems that meet the psychological and social needs of gamblers online.

Research and Design for Older Populations
Older people represent an increasingly significant user group for many technologies. This paper discusses the challenges of designing for an ageing population.

Designing Effective Fan Services
Filip Healy introduces models of sports fan behaviour and applies these to online services for fans. The paper outlines methods for meeting the social needs of fans online, and how to use fansites to increase loyalty and transform fairweather fans into diehard supporters.

Workshops

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Amberlight ran a series of workshops on the commercial uses of eyetracking were held at leading conferences between 2005-06. The aim was to establish best practice for the use of eyetracking in commercial research and answer many of the outstanding questions in this new and developing field.

Adding Value with Eyetracking - 12th June 2006, Usability Professionals Association Conference 2006, Colorado, USA.
Getting a Measure of Satisfaction from Eyetracking in Practice - 23rd April, CHI2006, Montreal, Canada.
Commercial Uses of Eyetracking - 5th September 2005, HCI 2005, Napier University, Edinburgh.

Other workshops:

Games Testing Methodologies and Their Impact on Actionable User Requirements - 5th Septermber 2005, HCI 2005, Napier University, Edinburgh.

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