Informing design decisions for advice mediating handheld devices by studying coffee cup reading

Abstract

Several studies have been made on advice encounters supported by tabletop displays, yet the potential of handheld devices in enhancing advice interaction still remains open to research. As an attempt to fill this gap in the literature, we chose Turkish coffee fortune-telling, as it is a centuries-old practice of giving advice that is based on the use of a cup and saucer. We organized sessions with 34 fortune-tellers and analyzed their verbal and non-verbal interaction during advice instances. Our analysis resulted in 7 preliminary design considerations: single-hand interaction, beat gestures to augment advice messages, body as a reference point, different ways of sharing information, manipulating objects to soften advice messages, multiple advisor profiles and regulating gaze interaction. To see how these considerations would be employed in practice, we organized a participatory design workshop which yielded 6 handheld device concepts that proposed stimulating mechanisms for advice interaction.