The Field Trial

"Locating Family Values: A Field Trial of the Whereabouts Clock” was the next Microsoft paper I read, it was nominated for the best paper award so I was expecting good things! The clock was mentioned as “privacy preserving” given the fact that the locations are so vague and “coarse-grained”. They went on the basis that “less is more”, you only need to know who the person is and where they are. There are only limited applications in this field possibly because it is not yet delivering “compelling value for [the] user”. The Whereabouts Clock was tested on 5 families consisting in total of 26 people over a period of 6 months. It seemed that the clock provided more reassurance than anything, it was used for telling them what “families already know”. The location awareness also meant that people knew if someone wasn't where they were supposed to be.

The clock brings location based services which is so preoccupied with privacy issues involving tracking and situated displays which do not usually have “real-time data”. The clock becomes “part of the routine of life”, the same as a regular clock and it is not “stirring for accuracy or completeness” it is just giving a broad location.

The look of the clock is generally appealing perhaps a bit bland, it would be interesting to give the choice of different background colours to match people's décor or their personalities, I think it would make the clock even more integrated in the home. The casing for the clock could also be changeable this would be a big seller I think especially for younger family members. One feature I liked a lot was the “pendulum” that was animated to show the signal strength, it is a good thought. The clock also chimes whenever someone in the clock moves I also liked this idea.

There was only the need to register a location such as “school” once although the option to re-register is available, this means that some cheating could go on, if someone skipped school that day but didn't want anyone to find out, all they have to do is re-register the location to wherever they want. A child lock or something similar could be implemented to stop this but then that brings up trust issues!

I liked that there were icons for family members even if they were too young or just didn't have a mobile phone, the icon would animate or make noises when touched, this is good so that a young child could feel included, it is something I'd never considered but I would like to possibly include.

From the field trials, members said that they had more of a sense of togetherness, much like the trial done by Microsoft in the office. People adapted to the clock and used it in different ways, if no one in the family went to school, that location came to mean something different and all the family knew what it meant, there should be an option to change the labels which was addressed in this paper later on.

Overall the clock showed more than “just co-ordination and awareness” but also “reassurance, connectedness, expression of identity and social touch.” the clock was not seen as an invasion of privacy it was just showing and confirming what people already knew. People adapted and did more than was expected by the researchers. This paper has given a good indication of what the clock tests should be like and I found it very informative.