Content Creation via AI

Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems have the potential to significantly change content creation by providing new ways to create, optimize, and distribute content.

One of the most significant impacts of AI on content creation is the ability to automate certain tasks, such as generating headlines, captions, and summaries. This can save content creators a significant amount of time and allow them to focus on other tasks that require human creativity and judgment. AI can also be used to analyze data on audience preferences and behavior to help content creators tailor their content to their audience, improving engagement and driving traffic.

In addition to automating tasks and improving content targeting, AI can also be used to generate content, including text, images, and video. For example, AI-powered tools can generate product descriptions, news articles, or even entire novels. These tools use machine learning algorithms to analyze existing content and generate new content that mimics the style, tone, and structure of the original.

AI can also improve the distribution of content by optimizing its placement and timing across various platforms. By analyzing audience behavior and engagement, AI tools can help content creators determine the best times to post content and the most effective channels to distribute it on.

Overall, AI systems have the potential to streamline content creation, improve its targeting, and create new types of content. While there may be concerns about the impact of AI on human creativity, it is clear that these tools have the potential to be a powerful asset for content creators in a wide range of industries.

Especially with new viewing behaviors, such as on TikTok, where the average video length is 10 to 15 seconds, video production needs to be faster. Generally speaking, the tendency on this platform is to prioritize quantity over quality. Various blogs recommend posting several videos per day to gain a following, particularly if your goal is to make a sustainable living through short-format content.

Voice AI – A deeper look

Voice change by AI tools refers to the ability of software systems to modify the sound of a user’s voice in various ways using artificial intelligence techniques. These tools use machine learning algorithms and real-time audio processing to apply filters and modifications to a user’s voice, altering its pitch, timbre, tone, and other characteristics. The modifications can range from subtle changes, such as adjusting the tone of a voice to sound more professional or friendly, to more dramatic transformations, such as turning a male voice into a female voice or vice versa. Voice change by AI tools has numerous applications, including entertainment, gaming, and communication, where it can add a fun and engaging aspect to interactions or help users maintain anonymity. However, there are also concerns about the potential misuse of these tools for malicious purposes, such as impersonation or fraud.

In this article, we will take a deeper look at the system and what is currently possible with it. Generally speaking, the tool allows us to use our voice and change it to a different person’s voice. For example, in this case, I used the well-known podcaster Joe Rogan’s voice. The original sound bite from the Joe Rogan podcast is available, and my voice has been altered in real-time using the voice.ai tool. The changed voice is also available in recording mode.

The original soundbit from the Joe Rogan Podcast
My voice altered by voice.ai in real-time
altered with max. recording settings

Voice AI altering is a rapidly advancing technology that enables users to modify their voices in various ways. Although the technology is not yet perfect, it is still impressive to see how far it has come. One of the most fascinating aspects of voice AI altering is that it can be used to train any voice, including your own. This means that users can create personalized voice filters and even deepfake their own voice, making it sound like they are saying things they never actually said. However, there are limitations to the technology, and it is not yet capable of producing completely realistic and convincing voice alterations. Despite these limitations, voice AI altering technology is still incredibly exciting but also a bit frightening.

One of the concerns is that the AI that learns from voice recordings can be used for free, with payment for more voice, etc., and is open to everyone. This means that in the future, deepfakes will become an omnipresent topic, and the source will become even more critical than they already are.

For a detailed look into the app I recommend following video:

Making AI generated Content

This video is made with ChatGPT and Capcut.

It took only about an hour to finish this video and upload it to the online video platform TikTok. Could this be the new way of publishing video content online?

Which types of AI-generated content already exist?

  1. Natural Language Generation (NLG): NLG algorithms are used to create human-like text content by using structured data as input. NLG systems analyze the input data and generate sentences or paragraphs that convey information in a natural way.
  2. Content Recommendation: AI algorithms are used to recommend personalized content to users based on their interests, browsing history, and other data points. These algorithms analyze user behavior and suggest content that the user is likely to find interesting or engaging.
  3. Chatbots: AI-powered chatbots interact with customers on websites or social media platforms. Chatbots can answer questions, provide recommendations, and offer customer service support.
  4. Content Curation: AI algorithms are used to curate content by analyzing user behavior and selecting articles, videos, and other content that is likely to be of interest to the user.
  5. Image and Video Generation: AI algorithms are used to generate images and videos. For example, GANs (Generative Adversarial Networks) are used to generate realistic images, and algorithms like Deep Dream are used to create abstract art.

Overall, AI is used to automate content creation and curation, which can save time and resources while also providing a better user experience. However, it’s important to note that while AI-generated content can be useful, it can also lack the nuance and creativity of human-generated content.

That being said, it is possible to create content within seconds using AI systems, but in the long run, it remains to be seen if the creativity and inspiration of these pieces of content can keep up with human-generated texts, videos, and images.

Bing vs Google | Makes AI the difference?

Microsoft is taking Bing to the next level by including the popular AI ChatGPT. Could this mean a new era for the search engine, overtaking the giant Google, or is it just a new niche?

According to Statista (2022), as of December 2022, Google held the largest global desktop market share of search engines at 86.02%, while Bing held a market share of 2.55%.

What does ChatGPT say about this affair?

It is unlikely that “Bing with ChatGPT function” will overtake Google as the dominant search engine anytime soon. While ChatGPT is a powerful language model that can provide answers and information to users, it is not a search engine itself, but rather a tool that can be used to build applications and services that interact with users through natural language.

Google’s search engine has been the dominant player in the search market for many years, and it has a vast infrastructure and resources dedicated to providing fast and accurate search results to users. In addition, Google has a wide range of products and services beyond search, such as email, productivity tools, and cloud computing, which provide a strong network effect that further entrenches its dominance.

That being said, there is always the possibility of new technologies and innovations disrupting the market, and it is possible that ChatGPT or other natural language processing tools could play a role in that. However, it is difficult to predict the future of the search market, and it is likely to remain highly competitive for the foreseeable future.

The answer from the offline trained ChatGPT is very diplomatic. With the new GPT 3.5 that is working in Bing (now in alpha state), it is possible to ask questions instead of searching. The first tests are not too promising, but since this is a relatively new technology, Microsoft is still positive about its outcomes.

Reference:

Gutsch, Felix. “Microsoft zieht ein Zwischenfazit für ChatGPT in Bing.” golem.de, 23 Feb. 2023, https://www.golem.de/news/suchmaschine-microsoft-zieht-ein-zwischenfazit-fuer-chatgpt-in-bing-2302-171967.html.

Statista. (2022). Worldwide desktop market share of search engines from January 2015 to December 2022. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/216573/worldwide-market-share-of-search-engines/#:~:text=Global%20desktop%20market%20share%20of%20search%20engines%202015%2D2022&text=As%20of%20December%202022%2C%20online,market%20share%20was%202.55%20percent.

Emotional design

My research was dedicated to emotional design and how to create delightful experience. The article is based on Don Norman book “Emotional Design” and “Seductive Interaction Design” by Stephen Anderson. 

1. Levels of design

In “Seductive Interaction Design” by Stephen Anderson the process of product maturity forms the basis for the User Experience Hierarchy of Needs model (Figure 1). Moving from bottom to the top, you have a basic product maturity continuum: 

  • Functional. Typically something useful
  • Reliable. Users need to trust the service, if they buy tickets online, they need to be sure that nothing happens with their money and they will get a ticket in return.
  • Usable and Convenient. Usable means being easy to use and possible to use. Convenient means to be convenient for users in their surroundings and be better than okay.
  • Pleasurable. These aspects focus on affect and emotions. How can we make something emotionally engaging? This can be implemented by aesthetic, language, humor and doing things like arousing curiosity. 
  • Meaningful. Meaning is something personal and subjective. You can design for meaning by focusing on the preceding levels as well as shepherding beliefs and the communities surrounding the product or service experience (Anderson, 2011).

Figure 1. User Experience Hierarchy of Needs model (Anderson, 2011)

Designers built different theories around aesthetics. I will marshal some of them.

Designer Cennydd Bowles has identified three types of beauty on his blog: universal, sociocultural, and subjective.

  1. Universal beauty relates to the basic aesthetic concepts of design, such as symmetry, harmony, the rules of thirds, and the golden ratio.
  2. Sociocultural beauty is determined by what is considered attractive within a particular culture at a certain time. This can be seen through the changing standards of beauty throughout history, from the Middle Ages to the 20th century and from the 1950s to the 1990s.
  3. Subjective beauty is what a person finds appealing based on their personal preferences.

In 1951, Raymond Loewy proposed another theory of beauty, which states that people are drawn to aesthetics that are both advanced and familiar. This balance of new and familiar stimuli creates a sense of enjoyment and security.

Don Norman divides design on 3 levels: instinctive, behavioral, reflexional

  • Instinctive level subordinated to our nature. Due to the evolutionary process humans developed the ability to get emotional signals from the environment which we interpret on an instinctive level. We instinctively find flowers and fruits appealing, we like symmetrical bodies and faces, humans don’t like the smell of poops or spoiled products because it is interpreted by our biological system as dangerous. The meaning of instinctive level is the same for different cultures and nations. The design that follows this level will always be attractive. On this level what is important is how the object looks, sounds and what you feel touching it. This design will be appealing and understandable to all. 
  • Behavioural level is focused on usage. Appearance doesn’t matter much, only functionality. Here usability specialists come for work. Main components of the product on a functional level are functionality, clear purpose of the product and easy usage.
  • Reflexive level is about the meaning of the product, the interpretation in a culture. Sometimes it is personal memories with the product, sometimes it is about the message to others. It is when you think if the socks are matching your trousers or if your look is suitable for an event. It can be beauty standards in different cultures or how you express yourself with your possessions. Quite often people buy products on a reflexive level to show their relation to a particular social group. The design on a reflexive level is under risk of being outdated quickly since this level is sensitive to cultural differences, fashion trends and continuous changes. 

2. Aesthetic, Beauty and Behaviour

Anderson (2011) speculates about how visual aspects help users to understand the interface, give hints about usage, and make the interface predictable for a human being. 

The author breaks the popular opinion about enjoyable products. It is believed that something that is easy to use and efficient is enjoyable. However, the way emotions influence interactions, it’s closer to trust to say things that are enjoyable are perceived as easy to use and efficient (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Myth and reality of experience perception.

2.1. Attractive things work better

A well-known study is discussed in Donald Norman’s 2003 book “Emotional Design”. In this study, researchers in Japan set up two ATMs that were identical in function and button arrangement, but one machine was aesthetically more pleasing. The research was conducted in both Israel and Japan to account for cultural differences. Participants perceived the more attractive ATM to work better. One explanation is that when the brain is relaxed, it is more open and better able to find solutions to problems. On the other hand, frustration can cause tunnel vision and a focus on only the problem at hand. Norman offers an alternate interpretation, suggesting that people are more tolerant towards problems with things they find pleasing and want them to succeed.

A number of other researchers have explored connections between visual aesthetics and usability. Many of these studies have demonstrated a correlation between attractiveness and perceived ease of use. More recent studies in the field of emotions suggest that cognition and affect cannot be separated. Both economics and neuroscience have established that our thoughts and emotions are intertwined and constantly shape our evaluations and interpretations of the world around us (Frank Spillers, “Emotion as a Cognitive Artifact and the Design Implications for Products Perceived as Pleasurable,” Design and Emotion, 2004).

2.2. Perceived personality

While mature industries use for decades emotional factors to appeal to customers (think about car industries with distinctive personalities in design of cards, brands of watches, apparel), user interface development adopted this approach recently (Anderson, 2011).  The personality can be referred to as a reflexive level in the model of Norman (2003).
The personality of a product affects our perception of it, just like in the social world where we form opinions of people based on their appearance and presentation. In the automobile industry, companies invest significant resources in creating vehicles with specific personalities that their target customers can relate to. For instance, the Dodge Ram exudes strength and ruggedness, while the Mini Cooper is perceived as lively and playful (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Personality of cars.

Anderson (2011) marshal examples of self expression with different products and give examples of how personalisation is important for people:

  • Sites where you can replace actors from the music video with yourself or your friends are super sharable.
  • Tattoos and stickers on your laptop are variations of self expression
  • Online identity – groups on facebook, games, insta profile.
  • Online identities tend to be idealized versions of a person in reality.
  • Players in Farmville can be very expressive when planting their crops.
  • Self expression can be encourage by reactions of users (thumb, great picture, love it).
  • Any kind of customization, especially visible for other people enhance self expression (that could be aesthetic of the page, selected widgets).

The visual design enhances the performance features, resulting in the expression of these attributes in each vehicle’s form. To sum up, the personality of the product is important because:

  • Individuals associate with or steer clear of certain personalities;
  • trust is linked to personality;
  • perception and expectations are tied to personality;
  • consumers select products that reflect their own personalities;
  • advanced technology is often treated as though it were human.

2.3 Time perception

Anderson (2011) speculates about the time perception and mentioned how in Disneyland the lines are handled. Through distractions and illusions, the experience of waiting seems to be not so bad.

Figure 4. Character greeting line that tends to be long.

New Scientist magazine conducted an experiment in which they tested nine different variations of web download progress bars. They found that:

  1. Making the pulses more frequent as the bar progressed created the illusion of faster movement.
  2. Bars filled with ripples moving towards the left made the progress bar appear to be moving faster.

The magazine discovered that using these illusions could make a file seem to be downloading 11% quicker, as the brain tends to count cycles instead of seconds (Anderson,  2011).

“… something that takes longer but that is perceived to be efficient is superior to something that is shorter but perceived differently” 
Donald Norman

    3. Some tricks that leads to seduction

    3.1 Pattern seeking behaviour

    We delight in bringing order to chaos. Author mentions that our brains get “high” from solving difficult problems. We like to solve the puzzle so including patterns and puzzles into the interface can enhance positive stimulation and overall experience of usage.

    3.2 Mystery

    In a pattern seeking behavior the base is curiosity. The author mentions the carton box for toy cars that makes it very mysterious what is inside for buyers and a coupon from a restaurant that does not reveal what a gift a visitor will have next time, until the guest will come. To be really curious about something unknown we should like it and expect to get some pleasure. It can be your favorite restaurant or a toy, maybe the service that you already like.

    3.3 Curiosity.

    There are some examples mentioned in the book “Seductive Interaction Design” by Stephen Anderson that use curiosity in their interfaces.

    • LinkedIn subscription business model. Pay to get more information. LinkedIn gives a personalized glimpse of what could be known.
    • Quantcast shows metrics related to the website. In order to show data related to your business they show a sticker that hides some information. And you can even see that something is behind the sticker. It used to be their strategy in 2011, now they are expanding and do not show data for free any more.
    • Netflix used to have a strategy that shows you two hidden movies that you probably will like, if you rate the movie you are watching.
    Figure 4. The matrix of different dimensions of curiosity originally by D.E. Berlyne in 1950s. (Anderson, 2011).

    Next, Stephen Anderson information you can use to tease people:

    • make your tease interesting, or at least proportionate in appeal to the cost.
    • make info relevant to the user
    • establish trust through previous experiences and context clues
    • use visuals to suggest or create the immediate perception of mystery
    • don’t lure users with something that is given away freely elsewhere

    3.4 Removing the pain

    n an interview conducted by the book author with Giles Colbone it was discussed how the delightful experience works on opinion of Colbone:
    … I think that anxiety, present or vividly remembered, is an important part of experiencing delight. The contrast makes the delight intense and memorable”.
    Giles Colbone suggests to see pain points of customers in their journey and give them delights. For “super pro” level he suggests even creating them artificially to give people delight.

    Sometimes delightful experiences do not mean play or humour. We should ask users: tell me about the times you felt anxious. Fix the problems the users remember and fear the most.

    3.5 Small first steps

    • Shaping the path. Help people to do action – give a map, maybe ask them when they will do it to make them think about the plan, suggest a particular call to action.
    • Make a small trigger that will remind people about the action
    • Commitment and consistency. We tend to be consistent with the commitment even if we give it to ourselves.
    • Once one startup were gathering photos of favourite places of people. It simply ask take a photo of your favourite place whatever it was. It was a big behavioural change, since people didn’t use to share their pictures (before instagram). So they just structured a big with some questions : what are three of your favourite places to eat. Your ideal evening would include a trip to.., what is the most interesting place to shop in your city? When you want to feel culturate, you go to..
    • A shop chain had an online catalog, where people placed items on hold but never picked them from stores. The solution was to add a form field that asked people “what time do you think you’ll pick this up?” The shop run AB test to check if it would work according to expectations. The outcome is unknown.
    • Empowered progress effect. Car washing service gave people cards with stamps. Every time you wash your car with their service you’ve got a stamp. There were two kinds of cards with stumps – one with 8 stamps. Second was with 10 stumps, where 2 stumps were already pre filled for them. The experiment showed, that in the month that followed 19% of the customers with the 8 stump card earned their free car wash. 34% with 10 stumps cards get their cars washed in the end. Someone already started the process for them. How you can create the perception of progress in your application?
    • Sequencing. Motivate people to do something by breaking down on small steps.
    • Shaping. Shaping is used to reinforce desired habit. To teach something new, you start with the simplest form of behaviour, and build on that, to reinforce increasingly accurate approximations of desired behaviour.

    3.6 Fewer options

    Numerous researchers have found that the more options we have, the less chances we will take any actions at all. The most famous research is about jam flavours in supermarket, that showed that people with more choices tend not to choose at all. So if you want your users to act, reduce the options. Sometimes it can be tricky in hotel booking services for instance, since the user wants to see all options with all possible times. In this cases, the recommendation is to reduce the cognitive load by making less text, illusion of less by hiding information, simplify design, and nudge a person where it is possible to make less things to think about during the journey.

    References

    Norman, D.A. (2004). Emotional design : why we love (or hate) everyday things. New York, Ny: Basic Books.

    Anderson, S.P. (2011). Seductive Interaction Design. Pearson Education.

    Pictures and illustrations are taken from:

    Anderson, S.P. (2011). Seductive Interaction Design. Pearson Education.

    Unsplash (n.d.). Photo by Taha on Unsplash. [online] unsplash.com. Available at: https://unsplash.com/photos/eqD3yWOuHWM [Accessed 6 Feb. 2023].

    Unsplash (n.d.). Photo by Brock Wegner on Unsplash. [online] unsplash.com. Available at: https://unsplash.com/photos/5k_YVwgMi_U [Accessed 6 Feb. 2023].

    Unsplash (n.d.). Photo by Lance Anderson on Unsplash. [online] unsplash.com. Available at: https://unsplash.com/photos/ixBBY-WuFRU [Accessed 6 Feb. 2023].

    Designing calorie tracking app for healthy habits building


    Key Words
    Design; Motivation; User Experience; Calorie Tracking; Habit builder.

    Obesity and being overweight have become major public health concerns in the United Kingdom, with a staggering two-thirds of adults falling into this category. This puts them at an increased risk for a wide range of chronic health conditions, including heart disease, diabetes, and certain types of cancer. These conditions not only affect the individual’s quality of life but also put a strain on the healthcare system.
    Traditionally, public health support for weight loss has focused on providing information about healthy eating and lifestyle. However, the advancements in technology, specifically the internet and mobile applications (apps), it has opened up new possibilities for providing long-term motivational support to individuals looking to lose weight. These apps can provide personalized feedback, set achievable goals, and offer a wide range of features such as tracking progress, connecting with others, and having access to a wealth of information.
    In addition, with the increasing use of smartphones and the internet, these apps are accessible and convenient, making it easier for individuals to access the support they need to make positive changes to their lifestyles. Moreover, the apps can be used to provide continuous support and encouragement, even when the individual is away from a healthcare provider. This type of support is crucial in promoting long-term weight loss and improving overall health outcomes.
    In conclusion, weight-related issues are becoming a major public health concern in the UK, and the advancements in technology, specifically the internet and mobile applications (apps) open up new opportunities for providing long-term motivational support to individuals looking to lose weight. Thus, health professionals and researchers should consider developing and promoting the use of these apps to support weight loss and improve overall health outcomes. The use of technology to track and manage one’s health has become increasingly popular in recent years, with many individuals turning to mobile apps as a convenient and accessible tool for achieving their health and wellness goals. One specific area where mobile apps have seen widespread use is in the realm of dietary tracking and management. The Apple App Store, for example, features hundreds of apps in the Health & Fitness category that allow users to track their calorie intake and monitor their diet.
    According to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, 31% of health app users reported using these types of apps to track their diet. However, while the popularity of these apps is clear, research suggests that many of these apps may be limited in their effectiveness in promoting long-term changes in dietary behavior. One key area where these apps are lacking is in their integration of health behavior theory. Health behavior theory provides a framework for understanding how individuals make decisions related to their health and how to design interventions that are most likely to be successful in promoting positive behavior change.
    Despite the potential benefits of incorporating health behavior theory into dietary tracking apps, previous research has found that many of these apps are void of such integration. To date, there has not been a comprehensive examination of how popular calorie-counting apps include health behavior theory. This is a significant limitation as methodologies used in previous studies are useful for providing a general overview of the content, but their limited scope makes it challenging to identify all of the instances of health behavior theory integration.
    In order to address this gap in the literature, the purpose of this study is to conduct an extensive content analysis of the 10 most popular calorie-counting apps from the Health & Fitness category of the App Store. Specifically, the purpose of this analysis is to evaluate the presence of health behavior theory in the selected calorie-counting apps when used extensively over the course of one week. The findings of this study will provide insight into the current state of dietary tracking apps and inform future development of these types of apps to better promote long-term changes in dietary behavior.


    The main question of this paper is to understand how user behavior and motivation will change once
    we simplify a user path.
    The task is to develop an interface that will help users to manage their daily diet easily and, in this
    way, to promote a healthy lifestyle.
    I am planning to take references from Pei-Yu C.Jen-Hao C. Hao-Hua C. Jin-Ling L. “Enabling
    Calorie-Aware Cooking in a Smart Kitchen” in the book Persuasive Technologies, pp 116–127 (Oulu,
    Finland, June 2008); Neeraj K. Consuelo L. Clara M. Swanand P. Bixia S., Alfred K. CalNag:
    Effortless Multiuser Calorie Tracking (University of California, Irvine, CA, USA; 2016)
    The purpose of this thesis is to create a user-centric calorie-tracking app with an external scale. From
    From the technical point of view, the external scale will be connected to the app wirelessly, once a user will
    place a product on the scale and take a photo of it the system will suggest products with
    information on a screen, so that way, users can easily add products and count calories.
    The Structure of the thesis is a classic one, I will start with the theory, finding literature, good practice
    examples, and user research, and then will dedicate the majority of the time to building the working
    prototype.
    I am dedicating two months to research and data collection. Another two months for the first draft and
    editing and the rest of the time are for creating a layout and final corrections.

    Die Beziehung von Mensch und Technologie

    Wir leben in einer Zeit, in welcher Technologie eine zentrale Rolle für unsere Gesellschaft spielt, gleichzeitig werden Menschen mit immer unsichereren Lebensumständen und Rahmenbedingungen konfrontiert. Gefühlt wird die Welt schneller, komplexer und damit zunehmend undurchschaubarer.1

    „It appears we are in the midst of a revolution driven by technology, and it is reshaping our society, the way we work, the way we conduct our private lives, and possibly even the face of humanity.“2

    (Roman Krzanowski 2019, S.1352)

    Technische Geräte sind keine neutralen Produkte, in ihnen stecken jahrelange Forschung und Entwicklung, damit sie auf unsere Gewohnheiten, Wünsche und Ziele angepasst werden und wir enge Bindungen aufbauen, die uns wiederum zu zahlenden Kundinnen machen. Die erfolgreichsten Unternehmen sind nicht die, die immer neue oder bessere Produkte auf den Markt bringen, sondern jene, die es schaffen eine Beziehung zu ihren Nutzerinnen aufzubauen.3

    „This engagement is achieved by designing products that seem as though they have a personality or even a soul. these products feel less like manufactured artifacts and more like good friends.“4

    (Kolko 2014)

    Künstliche Intelligenz geht sogar noch einen Schritt weiter, lernt diese immerhin noch im Zuge der Interaktion weiter, um so immer passgenauer für ihren Menschen zu werden. Sie hat die Möglichkeit uns im Alltag zu begleiten und diesen durch das Übernehmen simpler Aufgaben angenehmer zu machen. Sprachassistent*innen, wie Amazon Alexa oder Siri von Apple, sind hier besonders interessant, da sie durch ihre Stimme noch menschlicher wahrgenommen werden können und sich damit auch klar von anderen text-to-speach Softwares abgrenzen. Die Stimmen wurden hier bewusst weiblich konnotiert generiert, da Frauenstimmen als vertrauenswürdiger, angenehmer und hilfreicher empfunden werden.5

    Leben und Sterben gemeinsam mit künstlicher Intelligenz

    Amazon arbeitet außerdem an einer kontroversen Erweiterung, welche Alexa die Möglichkeit gibt, bestimmte menschliche Stimmen nachzuahmen. Mit weniger als einer Minute aufgenommener Audiodateien sollen so geliebte, aber bereits verstorbene Menschen wieder ins Leben zurückkehren.6 Die Idee ist nicht komplett neu, stellt aber einige ethische Fragestellungen auf den Kopf. Zuvor gab es auch schon eine KI, die Portraits „zum leben erwecken konnte“ oder einen Chatbot, der mit Gesprächen des verstorbenen besten Freundes trainiert wurde, um auch so nach dem Tod weiter mit Rat zur Seite stehen konnte.7

    In einem Interview mit der Washington Post erklärt Tama Leaver, Professorin für „Internet Studies“, dass solche Technologien neben der Nutzung für kriminelle Absichten, auch ehtische Fragen über die der Nutzung der eigenen Stimme über den Tod hinaus aufwirft. Wenn die Stimme einer verstorbenen Person von Alexa genutzt wird, wem gehören dann diese Daten? Zuletzt wirft sie auch die Frage auf: Werden Sprachnachrichten und Aktivitäten auf Social Media Teil von unseren Nachlässen und finden sich im Testament wieder?8
    Nicht umsonst bringt er technische Fortschritt auch neue Berufe mit sich wie digitale Bestatter*innen. Trotzdem stellt sich auch die Frage, ob diese Hilfsmittel auch unseren Zugang und Einstellung zu jenen Themenstellungen, wie eben zum Beispiel dem Tod, verändern.

    • 1 Vgl. Krzanowski 2019, S. 1352
      2 Krzanowski 2019, S. 1352
      3 Vgl. Kolko 2014, S.3
      4 Kolko 2014, S.3
      5 Vgl. Krasniansky 2020
      6 Vgl. Paúl 2022
      7 Vgl. Bridge 2016
      8 Vgl. Paúl 2022
    • Bridge, Mark (2016): Good grief: chatbots will let you talk to dead relatives In: The Times, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bots-that-let-you-speak-with-the-dead-vg8x7dc86 (zuletzt aufgerufen am 16.12.2022)
    • Kolko, Jon: Well-designed : how to use empathy to create products people love. Boston: Harvard Business Review 2014
    • Krasniansky, Adriana (2020): Who Is the Voice of Alexa?. In: Makeuseof, https://www.makeuseof.com/who-is-the-voice-of-alexa/(zuletzt aufgerufen am 07.12.2022)
    • Krzanowski, Roman: New dark age: technology and the end of future. In: Information,
      Communication & Society 22 (2019), S. 1352-1359, DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2019.1610026
    • Paúl, María Luisa (2022): Alexa has a new voice — your dead relative’s. In: The Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/23/alexa-amazon-voice-dead-people/ (zuletzt aufgerufen am 07.12.2022)

    Critical Evaluation Of a Master Thesis

    TANGIBLE AND GESTURE INTERACTION FOR ENHANCING VISITOR EXPERIENCE IN MUSEUMS

    by RATTANACHAROENPORN KANOKPORN

    Faculty of Cultural and Social Sciences Paris Lodron University of Salzburg Technical Faculty of IT and Design Aalborg University in Copenhagen

    ——————————————————————-

    Level of Design

    The author didn’t deliver any artefact within the master thesis but analysed the existing objects, such as tangible interfaces in museum context. Since no tangible artefact was provided the paper design can be analysed for the given task.  The paper has basic «Microsoft Documents»  design, without any artistic approaches. For pictures and chars, as well as demonstration of results basic charts from Microsoft or GoogleDoc suit were used. The author refers to some existing concepts from literature inserting the screenshots from existing books with a proper reffering.

    Degree of Innovation

    Personally, I found the master thesis not innovative. Yes, it answered the research question that the author mentioned, however, the question itself is not innovative. 

    Independence

    The author had some biases towards the expected result. This conclusion was made from the introduction and first part of the paper. The vague phrases about digitalisation that plays important role in organisations were used. In addition, in the beginning the statement about usefulness tangible interfaces were mentioned with some subjective adjectives that were not supplemented with the data from researches or any other grounded work to prove this statements.  

    Outline and structure

    Visual hierarchy is not respected in the paper. As a result, the structure is not clearly underline the taxonomy of the subsection and the relation of subsection to a section. The usage of different type sizes and styles could be useful in this case to visualise the relation of paragraph to a parent part. Unfortunately, sometimes it is hard to follow the narrative and make conclusions and relations in the text.

    Degree of communication

    The author uses simple language, that is easy to follow. However, sometimes the field and academic terms are used in inaccurate way. For instance, the author mentioned that they «conducted qualitative method to answer the question», that might be rephrased as «user interview, that were conducted as a part of qualitative approach». However, this statement might seems as sucked from a finger, some other terms in academic environments were messed up and communicated in not a proper and clear way. 

    Scope of the work

    The paper contain 106 pages with title page and appendix. Without appendix, bibliography, list of tables and title page it is 76 pages that can be consider as a standard scope for a MA thesis.

    Orthography and accuracy

    I didn’t find any type mistakes or issues with grammar. However, as it was mentioned in section «Degree of communication» some phrases could be used in more accurate way.

    Literature

    I found the literature comprehensive and I learned about interesting papers that could be useful for my further thesis. Also, I found it interesting, that the bibliography overall is interdisciplinary. We can clearly see marketing, interaction and user experience design and museum studies. 

    Critical Evaluation of a master’s thesis

    Critical Evaluation of a master’s thesis

    Unterschiede zwischen traditionellem Sport und E-Sport
    Inszenierung und Content-Marketing im Vergleich

    By Philipp Landgraf

    University: Paris Lodron-Universität Salzburg

    Level of Design

    The Design of the Thesis is quite simple. Easy to read but not a lot of design elements, it is rather straight forward. At some points there are words marked bold.

    Degree of Innovation

    Since the work is comparing sports to e-sports the innovation factor is high. There is not a lot of works around this topic yet.

    Independence

    The piece is written by a professional – different types of literature was used while also combining different views from different topics. It looks like an independent work.

    Outline and structure

    Overall, the work is structured into two different pieces, showing the e-sports and the sports media differences. There are all parts necessary for a scientific work furthermore the writher shows insights in camera shots, positioning and surroundings.

    Degree of communication

    The text is straight forward, easy to read. It has some technical aspects but explains it in detail. Everyone can read this article.

    Scope of the work

    This thesis shows on 117 pages with pictures the differences between sports events and e-sport events. There is also discussion focusing on detailed areas of the two events.


    Orthography and accuracy

    No Spelling mistakes were found in my read through.

    Literature

    The Literature ranges from book to e-books and online articles mostly from 2018

    > Landgraf, P.: Unterschiede zwischen traditionellem Sport und E-Sport : Inszenierung und Content-Marketing im Vergleich. Salzburg, 2021.

    Kritische Bewertung einer Masterarbeit


    CG Pflaumbaum – 2013 – espace.curtin.edu.au
    Shock Advertising – A sensationalised media construct?
    School of Design and Art
    Christine G Pflaumbaum
    This Thesis is presented for the Degree of
    Doctor of Philosophy
    of Curtin University
    February 2013

    Gestaltungshöhe:
    Zumindest nach dem, was online gefunden wurde, ist diese Arbeit eine rein
    wissenschaftliche, die keinerlei Ambition in eine Design Richtung zeigt. In dieser Arbeit geht es um die wissenschaftlich erlangten Kenntnisse, und nicht um die physische Gestaltung der Arbeit selbst oder eines Produktes daraus.

    Innovationsgrad
    Die Arbeit basiert stark auf Literatur, Erkenntnissen, Terminologien und Schlüssen, die bereits von Autorinnen getroffen wurden. In der Arbeit sind sehr viele Kapitel enthalten, die dem Leser/ der Leserin helfen sollen, die Thematik zu verstehen bzw nötig sind, um die richtigen Schlüsse zu ziehen. Auch Fallstudien wurden in der Arbeit inkludiert. Nichtsdestotrotz hat die Arbeit einen hohen Innovationsgrad. Eine qualitative Studie wurde anhand von Experteninterviews durchgeführt. Laut der Autorin diene die Literatur dazu, die Aussagen der Fachpersonen in Relation zu setzen. Durch Experteninterviews kann man außerdem einzigartige Denkprozesse und Aussagen wiedergeben und analysieren.

    Das Ziel dieser Studie ist es, die Lücken und Diskrepanzen zwischen der Theorie und der Praxis von Schockwerbung zu untersuchen. Die Leitfrage dieser Untersuchung lautet: Wie funktioniert die Praxis der Schockwerbung im Vergleich zur Theorie? Da diese Frage anhand einzigartiger Experteninterviews beantwortet wird, die so in keinem Lehrbuch zu finden sind, sehe ich einen hohen Innovationsgrad in dieser Arbeit.

    Selbstständigkeit

    Zur Selbstständigkeit kann ich leider keine Angaben geben, da ich nicht weiß, wie die Autorin gearbeitet hat, aber jedenfalls haben keine anderen Menschen bei dieser Arbeit als Autorinnen mitgewirkt.

    Gliederung und Struktur
    Die Arbeit ist sehr gut und umfangreich strukturiert. Das erste Kapitel wird als Einführung bezeichnet. Dort findet man Ziel und Signifikanz der Arbeit sowie eine Anzahl an Begriffserklärungen. Dann geht es über in Kapitel 2, in dem der Leser/die Leserin die notwendige Hintergrundinformation bekommt. Die Hauptthemen der Arbeit werden erklärt und beleuchtet – jedoch immer mit der notwendigen Relevanz zum Thema. Das dritte Kapitel enthält die Forschung und die Methodik, das vierte Kapitel beinhaltet die Fallstudien und Experteninterviews. Im fünften Kapitel werden alle zu erforschenden
    Themen nochmals zusammengetragen (Analyse und Diskussion) und im sechsten Kapitel erfolgt die Schlussfolgerung.

    Kommunikationsgrad
    Der Kommunikationsgrad der Arbeit kann ebenfalls nicht von mir bewertet werden, da ich nicht weiß, wie die Kommunikation der Autorin mit ihrem Betreuer/ihrer Betreuerin war.

    Umfang der Arbeit
    Die Arbeit umfasst meiner Meinung nach alle relevanten Kapitel, die für die
    Beantwortung der Forschungsfrage und dem Grundverständnis der Arbeit wichtig sind. Außerdem wurden diese Kapitel sehr sorgfältig und umfangreich gestaltet. Die Arbeit enthält sehr viele Experteninterviews und Fallstudien, sodass diese einen sehr wichtigen Beitrag zur Relevant der Arbeit und Beantwortung der Forschungsfrage beitragen.

    Orthografie sowie Sorgfalt und Genauigkeit
    Zumindest in den Teilen, die ich mir durchgelesen habe, sind mir keinerlei
    Rechtschreibfehler oder Fehler im Layout aufgefallen. Die Arbeit scheint sehr sorgfältig geschrieben und gestaltet worden sein.
    Jedoch: Am Schluss ist mir aufgefallen, dass auf der Titelseite im Datum ein
    Rechtschreibfehler zu finden ist. Das sollte auf keinen Fall passieren.

    Literatur
    Die Arbeit enthält ein sehr umfangreiches Literaturverzeichnis ergo, die Arbeit stützt sich auf ein sehr gutes Fundament an seriösem Quellen. Es wurde ältere sowie (damals) sehr aktuelle Literatur hinzugezogen.