IV. Özel Konular
IV.3. Ticari Mevduatlarının İş Çevrimleri Boyunca Davranışı: Bir
In this case, the picturebook app Wuwu & Co. – a magical picture book (Helle & Slocinska, 2014) – a virtual reality story was selected for addressing the research question. The app was examined through my own explorative touch interaction. The fictional world in the app is beautifully illustrated and completed with an integrated soundscape, a narrator, and a text.
When the device is horizontal, the app resembles a book (third-person perspective). When it is held upright, it becomes a window into the world (first-person perspective); see Figures 8–10 for illustrations from the Wuwu & Co. app. The narrative is played out in five different scenes.
The titles of the scenes are Everett and The Secret Place, Thit Maya and The Pinecone Tree, Wuwu and the Shark, Pruney, The Troll of Little Mountain, and Storm and Snow Lantern Field.
There is one scene for each character in the story, which is integrated with innovative use of
interaction. Especially the innovative technological features of interactivity, such as touch and virtual reality, made the app relevant to our study. In addition to the app’s other qualities are the genuine, beautiful, and playful expressions in the illustrations, which, I think, are important for the children encounter.
The generation of data through explorative inquiry (Dyrrsen, 2010) was planned and conducted by me. Ahead of the exploration of the app, I had to do preparations and make choices. First, I had to choose where to conduct the study. I considered what kind of room I would need and what I would need available in the physical space. I chose a room at the university that was big enough so I could move around easily. I also had to find a room at my university where I could conduct the study in quiet surroundings, without being disturbed. I also had to plan for setting up a video camera and how to document my interaction with the app.
Figure 8. The start-up side. Figure 9. The “book-side”
and written story about Everett.
Figure 10. Everett outside the house in front of The Secret Place. Illustrations from the Wuwu &
Co. app © Step In Books, 2014.
In explorative inquiry (Dyrrsen, 2010), a researcher explores and interacts with the object of study, and targets his/her inquiry through explorative actions. This approach enables the researcher to generate rich and complex data, that otherwise can be difficult to grasp (Dyrssen, 2010 p. 230). As such, this method provides data on different types of expressions in human actions, which can be used to infer knowledge of the sense-making process during the exploration. An integral part of documenting such an explorative inquiry is to capture the ongoing reflection and interpretation as it happens and the reflection afterwards (Schön 1983).
The story line in the app was completed twice by me, from beginning to end. Following the story line means to follow the narrative which, in this app, is played out in five different
scenes, with five different characters (see the descriptions above). I followed the story line in two different rooms. The first time I did this in a classroom with furniture, and the second in an empty exhibition room. The decision of changing rooms was made after the first completion of the story line because found that I needed more space to move while interacting with the app. I had not foreseen how much I was going to move around in the physical room, while interacting with the virtual. Thus, I then understood that I needed more space to move while completing the story line. Marte Sørebø Gulliksen, author two, also completed the story line, but did not participate in the explorative data generation. Immediately after the analysis, the tentative main findings were narrowed down and explored through discussions between us. We then both contributed equally to writing the article.
Four types of data were generated:
1) Pre-exploration diary questions were answered verbally. In this study, I was
especially inspired by Groth’s (2017, p. 45) way of using this method. Diary questions are an established way of collecting autoethnographical data (Bolger et al., 2003). See Table 6 for the diary questions in this study. Answering the diary questions was a way to prepare for the exploration and capture my reflections and emotions before the exploration, a way of collecting autoethnographical reflections. The pre-exploration was also important to understand how the exploration affected me and how I, for example, changed emotionally from before to after the exploration. Video footage also gave me the opportunity to study my facial and bodily expressions while I answered the diary questions.
2) Exploration of the app, while I followed the story line twice. I made verbal think-aloud accounts, also inspired by Groth’s study (2017, p. 44), of my experiences and interactions. No exploration guide was used. I documented this with two video cameras: one headband camera capturing where I looked, how I moved, etc., and one overview camera capturing my expressions and my movements in the room. Both cameras also captured audio.
3) Post-exploration diary questions were answered verbally to capture my immediate experiential reflections (see Table 6). Also, in the post-exploration diary questions, video footage was helpful in studying my own different expressions while answering the diary questions.
4) Data generated after the analysis: Thick descriptions of selected instances (Stake 2010) were developed. Through imaginings, thoughts, movements, and associations from the think-aloud accounts in action and from the verbal responses to the diary questions including facial and bodily expressions, these descriptions were unpacked.
Drawing on ABR methodology (Barone & Eisner, 2012), a poetic language was used to develop these thick descriptions.
Table 6. Diary questions.
Pre-exploration diary questions
What are you going to do and how?
What are the challenges involved with what you are going to do?
What are you thinking right now?
How do you feel right now?
Post-exploration diary questions
Did you manage to do what you intended?
Did your plans change? Why? How did you react?
What were the critical points?
What facilitated or hindered you in your process?
How do you feel now?
The total amount of video/audio footage of exploration and diary questions was four hours. Raw data of thick descriptions was approximately 5,000 words. All audio-visual footage was transcribed, including facial and bodily expressions, gestures, verbal utterances, and movements, in particular, movements that included touch. The focus when transcribing was to capture the rich and complex experience through the bodily and verbal expressions in both the exploration and the diary questions. In exploration, this was done, for example, when the device was lifted over the head in interaction with virtual snow. In the diary questions, for example, interaction with the virtual forest memories of touching snow was significant in the experience;
this was expressed verbally and through facial expressions. The bodily expressions were especially important when I struggled to express myself verbally.
The analysis of the data to the point of achieving tentative main findings had three phases: first overview, detail view, second overview.
1) First overview analysis started during the transcription phase and continued
afterwards, reviewing the video and reviewing the transcriptions, and searching for instances where the interaction between me and the story line were particularly
intense. These instances were found through studying my interactions and expressions, for example, when there was much activity or movement, or when I was surprised over my own reaction. Because I studied my own exploration with the app, I could use insider-knowledge to understand what happened in the audio-visual footage, and this insight was used to identify important instances of interaction. Three scenes: Wuwu
and the Shark, Pruney, The Troll of Little Mountain, and Storm and Snow Lantern Field, stood out, and were selected for closer analysis.
2) Detail view analysis focused on three scenes involving the characters Wuwu, Pruney, and Storm. These scenes were found especially relevant for developing an
understanding of how touch interaction with the picturebook app could facilitate or limiting sense-making. Thick descriptions of all three scenes were developed as written drafts, generated based on reflection-in-action (in-action captured on video footage and in-action when reviewing the video data), and reflection-on-action (Schön 1983). As such, this process was both part of the data generation (see above) and part of the data analysis. Through this drafting process, the one scene with the character Storm, showed most potential for further exploration and analysis, based on how strongly the scene evoked my memory, the scene’s opportunity for touch interaction, and the intensity of my experiences. This scene was developed into a finished thick description. Thick descriptions were used to explore the experience, movements, and associations from the explorative touch interaction.
3) Lastly, the second overview analysis aimed to revisit the entirety of the material, in order to give an overview of instances of interaction and experience. A table was developed to give structure to this analysis in the form of five columns: Scene/name, Character involved, Possible forms of interaction that have been programmed, Effect of interaction for the story line, and Researcher’s experience with interaction.
The analysis concluded with identifying four main themes that each highlighted important aspects of the app’s facilitation or limitation of touch interaction: 1) material and materiality, 2) empathy and imagination, 3) interaction and relationships, and 4) boundaries for interaction.
These themes are discussed in the Analysis and Discussion sections in the article and are further articulated in the discussion of this dissertation.
Early in the process of analyzing the data, I took several walks in the snowy Norwegian forests. During my walks, I paid attention to my own embodied movement in this physical landscape and the properties of snow. I was attentive to the slippery and snowy surface under my feet and the visual impression the snowy landscape gave me. I had my mobile phone with me, and I photographed my surroundings. I processed these experiences, which I think was largely set in motion by my feeling of being immersed in the virtual landscape in the app. I used the app Procreate for artistic processing. I worked with cutting photos, adding colors, etc., and I also made digital collages to express my experience. This processing also became a part of
my understanding of my sense-making during interaction with the app. However, I did not included this as part of my empirical data (see also section 4.1.5).
Explorative inquiry (Dyrrsen, 2010), operationalized in this way, gave me the opportunity to explore the events from an insider perspective and discuss this exploration with author two, Marte S. Gulliksen. This co-authorship approach afforded opportunities to identify and mediate possible bias. My experience of the interaction with the app was close to me and emotionally felt, and this subjective experience was central to deepening the understanding of how sense-making was limited and facilitated by this app. The co-authorship and the gaze from a researcher, who had not been involved in my experience, was helpful in making the empirical material accessible and relevant to others. Additionally, the research design was discussed with experts before and during the data generation.