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!