INTERFACES AND INTERACTIONS

1. Chapter 6 INTERFACES ANDINTERACTIONS Patrick Hutto Dongjin Kim John Difante Lee Hailey

2. Introduction • Pre-1990s – efficient and effective interfaces was main goal • GUI advances, Internet, cell phones, new technology etc. • Now there is a bigger opportunity to design for user experience • Gesture-based, tactile based, emotion based interaction • Novel ideas – ie. Tangible interfaces, mixed realities, wearable interfaces

3. Introduction • While exciting, all these options can make picking a design daunting • We will consider designing interfaces for different environments, people places and things • Cannot cover all the different types of interfaces • Look at key research and design concerns for a few select interfaces

4. Paradigms • Definition – “Particular approach that has been adopted by the community of researchers and designers for carrying out their work, in terms of shared assumptions, concepts and values. • Questions to be asked and how they should be framed • The phenomena to be observed • The way findings from experiments are to be analyzed and interpreted

5. 1980s • Focus was to design user-centered applications for the desktop computer • Single “user” working with a screen “interface” • Beginning of WIMP (windows, icons, menus, pointers)

6. 1990s • WIMP seemed limiting • Non-WIMP interfaces were being experimented with • These factors plus the innovations in technology created a revolution in the industry

7. 1990s • Interaction design was moving “beyond the desktop” • New design, model and analysis methods • New theories, concepts and ideas • Turning to ‘social’, ‘emotional’ and ‘environmental’ the • Single user was replaced by a bigger set including people places and context

8. Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp) • This would radically change the way people think and interact with computers • Now computers would be part of their environment • Embedded in objects, devices and displays • Enable user to switch calmly and effortlessly between tasks, without a computer background • New vocabulary – ie. Pervasive computing, ambient intelligence, the disappearing computer

9. New Challenges and Questions • How to enable people to access and interact with information in their work, social and everyday lives, using an assortment of technologies • How to design user experiences for people using interfaces that are part of the environment but where there are no obvious controlling devices • How and in what form to provide contextually relevant information to people at appropriate times and places to support them while on the move • How to ensure that information that is passed around via interconnected displays, devices, and objects, is secure and trustworthy

10. Command Interface • Type in abbreviated commands at a prompt …. System responds • Ex. AutoCAD – still can be powerful interface

11. WIMP/GUI • Xerox Star interface – led to birth • Color, typography imagery • Windows – scrolling, stretching, opening etc. • Icons – representation of commands, applications etc. • Menus – list of options to scroll or select • Pointers – mouse cursor as interface • Evolution – 3d icons, audio icons, toolbars etc.

12. Windows • Window design – solution to physical constraints of screen • Multiple windows, scrolling down and across • Swapping between windows – Mac function • Dialog boxes – confirmations, errors, guiding user input

13. Menus • Menu design – like restaurant menus • Headings – easier to organize information • Menu contents are hidden until needed • Styles – flat lists, drop-down, pop-up • Nesting menus – tedious, iPod scrollwheel • Expanding menus – cascading menus, mouse frustration • Contextual menus – ie. Right clicking

14. Icons • Represent objects – ie. Folders, trashcan • In applications depict tools – ie. Paintbrush • GUIs are now appealing • Mapping – ie. Trashcan • Recognizable icons • PDAs, cellphones, etc.

15. 1990s interfaces • Advanced graphical interfaces • Multimedia • Virtual Environments • Visualization • Web-based interfaces • Speech interfaces • Pen / gesture / touch screen interface • Appliance interface

16. Multi-Media • combines different media within one interface • can be with by the user • assumption • better way of presenting information • easy to learn, understand, more engagement, pleasure • facilitates to multi representation • “heart” in in Multimedia-based encyclopedia • image/diagrams, video clips, audio recordings, text interacted rapid access

17. “Heart” • The heart is a muscularorgan found in all vertebrates that is responsible for pumping blood throughout the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions.

18. Hands-on interactive simulation • Cardiac Tutor • teachingcardiac resuscitation. • BioBLAST • designing a life support system

19. Multimedia CD-ROM • assumption • learning and playing can be • however…. • more choice, more • need efforts for encouraging interactions enhanced selective

20. Virtual Reality & Virtual Environment • computer-generated graphical simulations • create “the illusion of participation” (Gignatte) • example: CAVE

21. Advantages of VRs / VEs • new kind of experience • Virtual Zoo Project

22. Advantages of VRs / VEs • higher level of with the objects • sense of makes setting convincing • different viewpoints • first-person perspective : DOOM • third-person perspective : Tomb Raider, Second Life fidelity “presence”

23. Information Visualization • goal • amplifying human cognition • enabling users to see patterns, trends to gain insight • example • 3D interactive map • Tree map

24. Information Visualization

25. Web-based Interface • text-based (“vanilla” approach) • Nielsen : simplicity, feedback, speed… • download time • very few graphics but offer users chances • useit.com • graphic-based • distinctive, striking, pleasurable • readily recognizable on their return

26. Web-based Interface • usability vs attractiveness (Steve Krug) • Much of the content on a web page is not read User will pore over each page…. Click, click, click…

27. Web-based Interface • how to catch and keep “eyeball” of user • Aftonbladet • flashing ads, banners

28. Speech interface • speak and listen to an interface • can be used by people with disabilities • call routing • example

29. Pen, gesture, and touch-screen (p. 260) • Stylus, camera, and touch sensitive screens • Familiar gestures, more degrees of freedom • Sony's EyeToy; interactive games via camera • Pen interfaces for PDAs and whiteboards • Problems reaching buttons on the side or far away • Handwriting recognition; not always correct • Gesture based systems; Ubi-Finger and sign language

30. Appliance (p. 264) • Washer and dryer, MP3 players, ovens, printers • Short interactions with specific goal • Users don't want a complex, time consuming interface • Key principals: Simplicity and Visibility • For example: Toaster

31. 2000s Interfaces (p. 265) • Mobile interfaces: • Handheld, portable devices such as PDAs and cell phones; smart phones • Roller wheels on the side • Spin dials on face, ala iPod • Directional keypads, two and four way • Touch screen buttons • Preferences vary on each input type

32. 2000s Interfaces (p. 267) • Mobile interfaces • Keypad to text; can be frustrating • Predictive text, or built in keyboard on phone or on screen • Cell phones have a small screen and slow input • Slimmed down websites • Smaller menus • Windows CE • Mobile app design guidelines

33. 2000s Interfaces (p. 269) • Multimodal Interfaces • Speech and gesture, eye-gaze and gesture, pen input and speech • 'More is more' – people don't use only one interface at once in the real world • But these don't exist yet! • Speech Work's Ford SUV interface • Attentive environments • Require extensive calibration

34. 2000s Interfaces (p. 271) • Shareable Interfaces • Large wall displays, interactive tabletops • Creates a central space with shared info and control • Built into the furniture • Room ware furniture: Seeks to augment natural grouping patterns • Many screens interacting v. one central screen • Horizontal v. vertical

35. Tangible Interfaces • A type of interface where you interact using physical objects with which the computer can sense that allows the computer to read its position or configuration interpret it accordingly. • A person manipulates a physical object and that action is mimicked in a digital environment. • The interface can give feed back to the user in multiple ways. Urp: an application that uses miniature building models to facilitate urban planning. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RAbd_i67oc

36. Augmented and Mixed Reality Interfaces Views of the real world are combined with views of a virtual world. Mixed Reality interfaces has attributes of both the real and virtual environments. Done typically by projecting a image on to a physical canvas and fitting it to matching virtual elements to their physical counterparts. Applications: - HUD - Augmented maps - X-rays

37. Wearable Interfaces • Simply a computer interface that you wear • The interface is typically manipulated or operates passively as the user moves in their environment. Ergonomic Concerns - Comfort - Restriction of movement or other senses - Weight - Noticability of the apparatus

38. Wearable Interface

39. Augmented Reality Interface

40. Robotic Interfaces • Interaction with robots • Useful in that they can do many things that we cannot. • The opposite is also obviously true • The amount of utility we can get from robots is still limited.

41. Robotic Interfaces

42. Which Interface • What interface should we use for each application. • We covered many interfaces. • What about the widely used interfaces we have today makes us prefer them over others. • What is keeping some innovative interfaces from entering markets. Interfaces: Multimedia, multimodal, mobile interface, virtual 3D environments, augmented reality, tangible interfaces, robotic interfaces. Applications: Learning, game playing, navigation, purchasing, surfing the internet, connecting with friends, editing a data.

43. Which Interface • Many variations of interfaces. • Each with their own unique attributes, challenges, limitations. • There are lots of interfaces that get us excited about HCI but we have to remember for who and for what we are designing. • Must remember to design for the user and not for the technology.