Archive for April, 2010


Context research and progress

Filed Under: Graduation Project
Apr.26, 2010

The past one and a half week I worked mostly on my context research. I also continued reading some books instead of the pile of papers on my desk. The most notable book is Designing Natural Interfaces from Dan Saffer. The book itself keeps it to basics of gestural Interfaces, and its easy to read. It’s funny actually, a lot of sources mentioned in the book I’ve already found by myself. It gave me the feeling that on the I’m on the right way.

In my previous post I’ve said I’ve been doing two things; experience things myself and making a questionnaire.
I’ve been visiting people at home with my big friend the photo camera. I went searching in my near environment for contacts. I have a visited a diverse group of users, so I’m really happy with that. I can visit some of them in the future for user testing.
What I did is making taking pictures of the television area, I especially made pictures of the environment and relevant objects within it. Next to that I tried to document physical interactions with the systems. Interactions with the graphical interface was secondary, but still interesting, relevant to current systems like digital television and advanced media centers. Taking pictures of interactions was a bit harder, because you have to do it on the right time and it’s hard not to be intrusive. Next to this I asked a lot of questions how and why they use the systems. I’ve wrote a lot of stuff down to support the photos with a story. I only have to sort the photos and findings in a nice overview for future reference.

Secondly, I developed a questionnaire. It took me more time than expected to develop this. The most time went in testing, and formulating the questions in the right way. I also have send my questionnaire for proof reading to Lies Van Roesel, a research teacher at our school. She gave me some useful feedback, which I applied in the questionnaires.

At the moment I’ve have given the questionnaire to around 15 people now, some of the questionnaires I already got back. Its gonna take some time to document the results.

I have to rush a bit, because I’m a bit behind schedule. According my planning, for the next week I have to make some rough concepts. I have some small ideas in my head at the moment. I want to brainstorm with Post Its this week, to mindmap and organize all of my wicked ideas. My research I did should be a good base for this.

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Progress presentation Tuesday 13th of April

Filed Under: Graduation Project
Apr.14, 2010

Yesterday we all gave a small presentation of the progress of our projects. The supportive narrative (other word for the paper we have to write) was the core of the presentation. We started with showing the table of contents and a chapter where we had the most information of. At the end of the presentation we had to ask a question to the rest of the class. This question was about our stance within the supportive narrative, which subject was in our mind at the moment.

My paper is about embodied interaction; how human-computer interaction can be made more natural by using the body (working title!).

My question at the time was how far I should go with embodied interaction versus Graphical User Interfaces (GUI’s). The fact is that GUI’s use symbolics, metaphors and interactions based on our real life experiences, to make the interface intuitive and easier to understand (think about drag & drop, the recycle bin, the desktop, etc.). With this I want to say is that there is an extra barrier for the user; the user has to make a translation from real life to a graphical interface. A good interface does this translation well, but there are a lot of interfaces that don’t.

The first reaction on my question was that using the ‘versus’ stance is the wrong stating point. It is better to look at how GUI’s use real life metaphors and how they are applied in a system. With this, I can figure out which metaphors are the most widely used and understandable for users. I can use this as a way to reverse-engineer this back in the natural interface.

Another point of feedback was that I figure out how I can make a GUI easier to use by translocating functions to the input device (the natural interface) instead of showing it all on the GUI. Think about using a ‘pinch’ gesture to zoom in on a map or picture, instead of pressing a graphical ‘+’ or ‘-’ button on the interface.

Besides giving feedback on our papers, Irene also asked what our short-term plan was for the coming weeks. My plan is finishing my context research and document this in clear way.

  • Firstly, I’m visiting people at home, how they are watching television and what their relation is with the associated devices. I’m documenting this with photo’s. The core of it is that I experience the situation by myself.
  • Secondly, I’m working on a questionnaire how users themselves view their position of watching television. How they feel, physical position is, which functions they mainly use, their annoyances, and so on. I try to make this questionnaire a bit playful and visual. My interest is not cold hard data, but their user experiences. Feedback from Irene was to send this questionnaire to her and a teacher for feedback. I want to finish this questionnaire today.

Work work!

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Feedback from Irene

Filed Under: Graduation Project
Apr.05, 2010

Last week Irene van Peer gave the assignment to look at what I have, and figure out which medium I can focus on. I did gave a lot of feedback on my blog on the material I had, but I didn’t have an ‘eureka’ moment. I also made a list of subjects I could apply my theories in, but didn’t make a final choice yet.

This week I had a very useful meeting with Irene. She gave me some additional feedback on my process and tried to push me in the right direction. We went through the materials I gathered, and it became more clear to me indeed.

The conclusion was that I’m interested in making control over a system more physical, intuitive and natural by using haptic and gestural interaction. I decided that the system where I can apply this in would be the control over a multimedia system. I want to use the remote as a starting point, because it is a good example of a bad controller. It has been tried may times to improve this device, but old fashioned remotes are still common and the same problems subsist. I think this point of view will be ideal to experiment with. If I really can improve the remote on a practical level is still the question, but the goal is to broaden myself in gestural interaction with objects. I want to see what is possible and applicable in this area.

I will start with observing the environment, and look how I (and hopefully other people too) handle everyday things. Which actions are we used to? I also want to look at extremes. For example, situations that are not common; what people do when there is no better alternative available. I want to compare this with complex everyday systems, like computers and phones, that use Graphical User Interfaces (GUI).

I’ve read a lot about different user interfaces that define physical interfaces. Examples are Natural User Interfaces (NUI), Tangible User Interfaces (TUI) and a less common one, Sensor Network User Interface (SNUI) used in the siftables. These definitions have a lot in common, but are all interesting to look at. However, I have to make a selection in materials, so I won’t go to broad. I also have to apply this in the literature I’ve got. I also have to look back at the theory of embodied cognition (what was my starting point) and select which subjects are useful for this project.

Also, Irene had some personal feedback, which is good to keep in mind.

  • I have try not to have an early judgment. This is because sometimes I see the negative of something before analyzing it thoroughly.
  • I have to walk around with antenna’s during this period. Observe, write down, evaluate.
  • visit locations and observe people, instead of desktop research.
  • Keep the 5 main senses in mind. The user experience overall. What do people feel / associate with actions?

For a start, I will define my research questions for the coming time.

  • How can the functions in this system be easily represented through real life interactions?
  • How are multimedia systems used by common people at the moment?
  • How can be this interface be more natural, graspable and real?
  • How do we make decisions through tangible feedback?
  • Remote control of multimedia system; television stations, sound and movies. how can you control this easily, intuitive?
  • I want to look at everyday household devices;
  • What are we used to in the real world?
  • Look at recognizable needs in this area;
  • What could be an addition to the usual visual feedback, to relieve visual overload?

I have to refer my findings continually to the control of a multimedia device.

My next step in the process will be to write down keywords that define my area.  After that gather some additional information. I have to analyze the data thoroughly.

Some additional literature would be:

Dan Saffer - Gestural Interfaces
Dan Saffer - Silent Language Edward T.Hall - The Silent Language
Bill Gaver

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