Posts tagged ‘interaction’
Aug
19
2010
The Strategic Arc of Interaction Design: Moving Towards Holistic System Design
I came across a great article talking about interaction design as a high-level problem solving process that can take on a strategic role in organizations and society. Designing interactions has gone beyond simple input/output interfaces; it engages in holistic system design in which the individuals, organizations and technology involved are understood and considered.
Designing the interactions people have with other people, with organizations, and with systems is both a simple and a complex undertaking. Simple in that the mechanics of an individual interaction can be well-defined and articulated. The problem, and the solution, can be narrowed down significantly. Indeed, so simple can interaction design seem at times that the discipline is often collapsed to a plane of request-response interfaces that sit between the participants—the design of a web form; the layout of an ATM machine; or a ticketing booth for a public bicycle share scheme [...]
This simplistic view of interactions and their design, is not the only view, nor the most appropriate. When designers apply their more holistic lens to the design of interactions it becomes clear that the practice is a much more complex and deeper undertaking [...]
As designers of interactions broaden their perspective and take a higher level view of the problem, they simultaneously make another transition: they stop solving interaction design problems and begin solving problems with design. And it is in taking this step that designers—of all types—begin to play a more strategic role in the organisations and societies for which they work.
Source: Core 77
Apr
29
2010
UX Book Club: Thoughtful Interaction Design
This month’s Toronto edition of the UX Book Club focused on Thoughtful Interaction by Jonas Löwgren and Erik Stolterman, who take an academic and theoretical approach to discussing the field and practice of interaction design. Most of us at the meeting found the writing to be a bit dry and that it jumped from one thought to the next without diving deeper to expand into details of the topic.
We had the pleasure of having one of the authors Erik Stolterman join us via video conference for an engaging Q&A and discussion session. The discussion covered topics such as: how thoughtfulness and reflective thinking makes one a better design practitioner, reflection in action versus reflection on action (the words of David Schön), explaining a rational design process to a junior designer is not what you actually DO, good design versus efficient design, and the importance of making a good case for the design process.
Related to the field of interaction design specifically, Stolterman brought up these interesting comments and ideas for further thinking and reflection:
- interaction design does not have a long tradition as other design fields such as architecture or industrial design so it ends up borrowing a lot of theory, language, and studio/critique techniques from other design areas, yet because interaction design is more future thinking and is constantly changing, is has become more open/collaborative, theoretical, and intellectual-based than its other design counterparts
- future work will shift from software to the physical world of products and spaces – what kind of material will we be working with in 10 years?
- ethical considerations come into play in how will we influence public and society as a whole; in designing the future world and its behaviours, norms and activities we must consider a social- and cultural-specific context
- “deception of the small steps” refers to continually adding more interactivity slowly into our daily lives. So where will these small steps eventually take us? And what are “natural” and acceptable changes?
Nov
10
2009
CASCON 2009 Wrap-Up
The CASCON conference wrapped up last week so here’s a bit of a summary of a few more interesting talks and workshops I attended.
Technology of Google Wave
Alex Nicolaou, Mobile Engineering Manager at Google, presented an interesting keynote about Google Wave. He introduced the concept and the idea behind Wave for those who were not familiar with it. He talked about some cool product features I didn’t know about such as grammar-based spell check that can be implemented for various other languages (and perhaps even for programming languages?), uploading photos to create a shared album and access control to different parts of the Wave and private annotations. In terms of platform, robots and gadgets can be added to and embedded in Waves for added interactivity and extended functionality.
As someone who has previewed Google Wave and had been initially confused with the entire application, I posed the question: The current email platform is very simple and easy to use, but using this new paradigm of combining chat, email and Google docs all into one, there seems to be mixed reactions so far. How does Google envision the widespread adoption of the application when the user experience is complex and confusing?
Alex explained that Google didn’t predefine specifics on how one can or should use Wave. Since it does so many things, there are many possibilities in the patterns of usage and behaviours that will emerge. The most interesting uses would be the unexpected activities that were not initially designed for that can arise. I later found a site that lists a wide variety of possible use cases in different contexts, so it will be exciting to see what can come out of Google Wave.
Sensor-Based Support of Clinical Contexts in Hospitals
This engaging workshop was conducted by Mark Chignell, director of the Interactive Media Lab at the University of Toronto. He introducted the use of sensors as a tool in facilitating smart interactions to understand context and situations of our environment so that humans can work smarter, not harder. Smart interactions for health care is significant because of the criticality, complexity and richness of data within the sector. For example, using sensors to identify problematic clinical contexts can provide decision support, simplify tasks, and improve doctor/patient interactions. We had a guest scientist/physician, Dr. Jacques Lee, from Sunnybrook Hospital participate in the discussion, which was quite valuable in understanding the current processes and problems and gaining feedback about idealized scenarios and user study evalutions presented by IML researchers.
Dr. Lee presented an interesting topic that he specializes in: sensing and preventing delirium in the emergency department (ED). Delirium is an acute brain failure that is preventable, common, and is yet easy to miss and lethal. Approximately 30-35% of patients develop delirium as they remain immobile in the ED, but many of these patients are sent home because the condition was never detected by the doctor. Delirium can usually be detected by sensing abnormal extremes (hyperactivity or inactivity) and by testing direct cognitive tasks. Accelerometers attatched to the thigh or behind the ears to sense hyperactive motion are possible solutions for indicators. Questions of practicality and acceptance then must be considered including the visual appearance and obtrusiveness.
Overall the workshop delved into some interesting discussions between designers, researchers, healthcare specialists and technologists regarding the future of sensor-based technologies that can be used to improve current healthcare processes and human-computer/human-human interactions.
Nov
04
2009
L’introduction de Google Wave
La semaine passé, j’ai reçu une invitation pour essayer Google Wave que Google a récemment introduit. On dirait que c’est le nouveau mode de communication et collaboration en ligne, avec l’objectif de révolutionner la façon dont on envoie des courriels. À présent, les courriels restent simples et utiles dans nos vies quotidiennes, mais il y a quelques problèmes : il y a beaucoup de copies et versions du même courriel qui sont créés et envoyés pour chaque destinataire, on ne peut pas intégrer des contenus de richesses comme des vidéos, des diaporamas, ou des cartes, on doit faire des citations manuelles pour répondre à une partie d’un message et finalement, il n’est pas facile à envoyer une réponse privée à seulement quelques personnes dans un groupe message. Par suite, Google Wave traite une conversation comme un document en direct où toutes les participants partagent une seule copie de ce document. Ce concept permet tous les participants de se collaborer dans le courriel en temps réel.
Après avoir essayé Google Wave, j’étais tellement confus avec l’interface utilisateur. À mon avis, je trouve ce nouveau paradigme de combiner Gmail, Google Docs et Google Talk ensemble un peu déroutant parce qu’au départ, on dirait qu’il est comme une messagerie instantanée glorifiée et les chaînes de conversations sont désordonnées et ne sont pas linéaires. Cet outil est encore en avant-première et n’est pas très pratique, mais afin qu’il soit adopté si répandu comme les courriels on doit chercher des situations intéressantes dans laquelle on peut l’employer.
Nov
03
2009
CASCON 2009: Day 1
Today was my first day at IBM’s CASCON conference featuring talks and workshops from industry leaders and academic researchers.
Computing for a Smarter Planet
The conference was kick-started with a keynote session by Martin Wildberger from IBM Canada speaking about Computing for a Smarter Planet. As the world becomes smaller, flatter and globally integrated, companies are adjusting their business processes to fit into this transforming ecosystem. As a result, technological solutions are providing businesses innovative and strategic ways for social change.
Wildberger describes our world as becoming instrumented through RFID and ubiquitous technologies, interconnected by networks, process chains and horizontal integration, and intelligent as we collect more data and information. The more data available can provide new insights and thus new intelligence to spur a process of innovation for smarter work, smarter food, or smarter telecom to name a few.
An interesting example discussed was the idea of smarter cities, in which we can incorporate sensor technologies through the infrastructure to make cities cleaner, safer and more efficient. The use of ubiquitous technology can effectively change social behaviours: traffic congestion and pollution in Stockholm was greatly reduced by automatic charges based on flow and time of day, acoustic sensors and recorders in Chicago allow police to triangulate the source of a gunshot, and drivers looking for parking in New York City can be immediately notified of the location of a free parking spot.
Notification Design in Collaborative and Social Networking Environments
This workshop looked at technology as interruption in our daily lives. Joanna McGrenere from UBC presented her research on notification design in the Jazz collaborative development environment before we broke into small groups to examine and discuss instances of notifications in technology, systems and devices. Phone rings, emails, and calendar reminders are obvious examples of notifications as are less noticeable forms such as seat belt signs, PA systems, traffic lights, microwave beeps and elevator floor signs to annoying examples like fire alarms and alarm clocks.
So when does notification become interruption and when are interruptions considered disruptive? We determined that notifications interrupt when they make us stop one activity to attend to the notification. Phone calls and alarm clocks are interrupters while seat belt signs and traffic lights are not.
In terms of the level of disruption that these interruptions cause, it depends on the context of the situation in which we find ourselves, the content of the interruption and how valuable it is to us, how much control we have over the situation, and the frequency and duration of the signal. A false fire alarm is then considered a huge disruptor as it has no value to us, forces us to evacuate a building, and continually signals off loudly for an extended period of time. Another big disruptor occurs when software/OS updates take full control of our system and we are left twiddling our thumbs in front of the screen until it has completed.
The subject of the new Google Wave came up in regards to its playback concept, in which the non-linear collaborative discussion can be played back see how the conversation unfolded in context.This could be an interesting platform in which notifications can be eliminated; rather than receive notifications every time an update has been made and by whom, users can now simply access the conversation whenever they want and still remain in the know.
Aug
13
2009
Humanthesizer
Electro-pop artist, Calvin Harris, uses bodies as a human synthesizers to create music using Bare Conductive, a skin-safe conductive ink. By applying ink onto the skin, a closed circuit can be created via touch, gesture and movement to allow electrical currents to flow through. Watch the making of video below.
Here is a video explaining more about Bare and the exploration of the technology through dance and movement.
Jul
17
2009
Masters Thesis Exhibited: Memorables
After 2 intense months, my Masters class finally presented and exhibited our thesis projects. It was wonderful to see everyone’s hard work come to fruition. I was delighted to receive such positive feedback from viewers and to watch them physically interact and play with the real models I had created. More details of the project is available here.
Jun
24
2009
Inspiration: Bubblegum Sequencer
Bubblegum Sequencer is another inspirational tangible device allowing one to create drumloops by physically organizing gumballs a grid of holes.
Jun
22
2009
Interaction Model & Rapid Prototyping
I conducted further interviews focused on memory recording, organizing, and sharing. In one instance, my interviewee showed me all her memory devices – PDA, cellphone calendar, appointment book – but her problem was that she always forgot to consult them to check for important dates/appointments. Thus, I realized that a reminder system is another important feature for these Baby Boomers.
An interaction model of the Memory Marbles system.
I did some rapid prototyping to communicate my interaction concept and to give a better idea of the forms and scale of the model/system. Marbles can be carried and transported around in a pouch. On the memory player, once the marbles are enclosed inside the dome, the information can be read from the marbles and transmitted from the dome.
Likewise, to record memories from the PC to marbles, placing a dome over top the marbles will activate a wireless communication between the computer and marbles.
Jun
18
2009
Marble Interactions
Exploring marble games and contraptions and different forms for my Memory Marbles.
Sketching out possible interactions with Memory Marbles.
Apr
09
2009
Traveller Safety Net
Focusing our concept direction on the idea of the “safety net”, we provide the traveller a sense of security that they are connected back home and have medical records tracked and stored with him or her. This idea stems from insights acquired from interviews detailing situations where even the most adventurous traveller wanting to explore on his own can feel terrified in medical emergencies, particularly, when he has trouble communicating his situation or understanding his medical condition. I have personally found myself in this situation too in a foreign country and have felt the panic of not only trying to communicate with the local hospital staff, but also trying to connect with family back home.
Our direction will be exploring the idea of tracking the history of travel locations and medical/physiological data in order to address the health concerns of travellers while maintaining a connection with people back home.
Apr
08
2009
Web Wednesday with Matt Mullenweg
Last night I attended Web Wednesday’s social mixer featuring Matt Mullenweg, the 25-year old founder of Wordpress. Blogging is a very social method of communication. One interesting phenomenon that has emerged within the Wordpress blogging sphere is a side community Club Penguin members, for exchanging cheats, items and trades. Matt’s team has a project extending from simple blogging called BuddyPress thats builds a social networking platform on top of Wordpress installations. Matt also discussed the direction of moving Wordpress from allowing the user to simply be a content producer (writer) to content consumer (reader) by perhaps aggregating feeds onto the WP dashboard.
And what about the microblogging trend popularized by Twitter and Facebook? Does this mean a fundamental shift for the way we produce and consume content? In a way, yes, since many people who have never devoted the time to maintaining a blog can now easily blog short, random thoughts (quite perfect for celebrities, many of whom have jumped on the bandwagon!) News feeds can be updated by the minute, which have some Twitterers replacing their RSS with reading news tweets. That is not to say that blogs are being pushed by the wayside. They are much more rich in content and character still, and embodies the personality of the writer.
Other interesting ideas Matt discussed was the future of centralizing means of distribution of content over the web. Now with a slew of social networking applications like Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, Tumblr, Delicious, Twitter, just to name a few, in addition to personal blogs, it is quite a hassle to update the same information or post the same content over multiple platforms to reach your different networks. The concept of a “hub press” will enable users to post and share content across multiple platforms from a central hub. Ping.fm is one online service that makes it easier to update your social networks from one location. Online articles provide the ability for readers to share them with people in their networks, to the extent that we have so many outlets through which to re-post.
In addition to managing one’s various social networks, it’s also another task to manage one’s identities that vary across networks, not unlike the roles we take on in real life under different social settings. This concept of separating and aggregating profiles is an interesting area of discussion. Ben Metcalfe sums up his article about this topic by stating that although the most logical thing to do would be to centralize all our information and accounts, our social behaviours and they way we interact in social groups is very organic and dynamic -they way we present ourselves changes according to the social context.
Apr
05
2009
iSerendipity Interactive Lounge
During my Embedded Interaction workshop with Michael Fox, we were immersed in a group project to design an interactive environment demonstrated with a kinetic model. My group came up with the concept of an ambient space called iSerendipity:
iSerendipity is an ambient lounge that enhances mood, sociability and interactivity among people. Organic-shaped pods float amongst each other through space and light up once a person steps on. These pods detect the activity levels of people on each pod and drift through space, either isolating people for contemplative reflection or clustering active groups to enable chance encounters – serendipity. Pod lights are time- and context- sensitive: initial activation of a pod stimulates a glow that intensifies over time and colour hues change according to activity levels. The exterior façade displays the harmonious movement and colour intensity of each pod as aesthetic visual information to passersby.
Videos of iSerendipity’s interaction points in motion
See the process blog here.
Mar
04
2009
Brainstorming a New Vending Machine
After our analysis of our campus vending machines we came up with some design design requirements to consider for a new concept:
- natural and intuitive gestures and process
- selection, payment and receive drink
- does not require any learning
- contextualized interaction based on learning and social awareness
- easy-to-use interface to reduce errors
- more accessible to everyone
- encourage exploration and and browsing
- enjoyable, delightful, and sociable user experience
We first conceptualized the idea of having a window through which a user can physically pick out a drink but the logistics of controlling when and how many drinks can be grabbed was a bit of an issue.
We then decided on incorporating a contextualized touch screen interface to give users a (virtual) tangible interaction while providing visual information and creating an enjoyable experience.
Attraction and Engagement
When not in use, the vending machine’s screen displays featured and most popular drinks to draw attraction from passersby. Sensors can detect when a person is standing in front of the machine, which will then display the drink menu.
Drink Selection: Menu Display
The menu displays large icons detailing the images of available drinks and associated prices. As opposed to the current design, the menu does not show any repetition of drinks, nor does it show drinks that are sold out. Users simply need to touch the icon of a drink to view drink details (nutritional value, volume, etc.) rather than map their drink decision to a button they need to press, reducing selection errors. After viewing details, users can decide to pay for their selected drink or go back and view other choices.
Payment
As opposed to paying first before selecting a drink, our concept accepts payment after the user has already selected a drink. A bucket container for coins allows just one gesture of dropping coins instead of inserting coins individually into a slot.
Drink Collection
Users can easily grab their drink at arm level with little effort.
Mar
03
2009
Analyzing Vending Machine Interaction
We focused our analysis on the drink machines we found on the HK PolyU campus and examined the current task scenario of buying a drink. James documents his experience as follows:
After walking through the scenario we documented the problems we encountered:
Transaction
- requires preselecting monetary amount for desired drink
- narrow coin slot is quite cumbersome and time-consuming
- requires adequate control of manual dexterity
- using the Octopus card
- close proximity to the card reader will inadvertently process the transaction automatically when selecting a deduction amount
- confusion between product interface and associated transaction interface
Information and Selection
- pressing wrong button accidentally
- not realizing desired drink is sold out
Accessibility
- physically bend down, flip up flap, reach into machine to pick up drink
- problematic for those with physical limitations
- not enjoyable or hygenic to stick hand in the dark, unclean slot
User Experience
Source: http://www.uselog.com/2007/11/please-do-not-hump-vending-machine.html
We encountered a lot of interaction points that provide an experience that is not enjoyable nor delightful. If we look at the vending machine with goals of convenience offering quick, self-service for purchasing small snacks and refreshments, we can liken them to convenience stores like 7-11. Let us consider the advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages Customers have visual information of the actual drinks and availability. They can use the physical action of picking up a drink, read the information, re-select, etc. before making a decision. Payment is easy and natural via cash (bills and coins) or Octopus. Additionally, going to a store is a sociable activity; people tend to go as a group eat together afterward.
Disadvantages Stores are located in certain locations and only open only during particular hours, so people are limited to location and time. Another problem customers encounter are long lineups during busy hours.
Social and Cultural Dimensions
An interesting side observation we noted was the role of communication and cultural dimensions that played into people’s decisions and behaviours in relation to the use of the vending machine. In a collectivist society such as Hong Kong, people tend to look to others for decision-making cues; that is, people are influenced by what they see others doing. In our studio, there have been “trends” of popular drinks that everyone will start drinking. Once somebody has started to drink melon soy milk and continue that pattern, others will notice and subsequently try out the drink as well. And now, the melon soy milk will often be sold out!
Feb
24
2009
Biomimetics
I just started a new course this week called Embedded Interaction with Michael Fox, who specializes in interactive architecture. For our first exercise we’ve been asked to build a kinetic structure inspired by nature or biological systems (also known as biomimetics). We can draw examples from plant tropism, bird wings, spiderweb structure, etc. For example, Velcro was invented after the engineer, George de Mestral, realized the hooking mechanism of burr to his dog’s fur.
Interesting examples for consideration:
jellyfish
weeping willow
pinecones will close when warm and dry but close in cold and damp conditions
Although this project won’t involve motors or gears our later projects will. Flying Pig is a basic useful resource for future reference.
Feb
20
2009
Vending Machines as Tangible Interaction
In my Tangible Interaction workshop lead by Philip’s creative director Paul Neervoort, we’re examining existing examples of physical interaction and finding solutions to improve the interaction.
I considered the example of the vending machine, in which the physical action sequence of inserting coins, pressing a button to select a drink and bending down to collect the drink completes the interaction process. In Hong Kong, rather than inserting coins however, one may simply swipe the Octopus to deduct the stored-value on the card rather than using coins.
The swooping action of inserting coins/swiping card and collecting the drink is quite simple and universal among vending machines, but let’s examine the problems one may encounter with this existing model.
Firstly, the insertion of coins one by one into a narrow slot is quite cumbersome and time-consuming, requiring adequate control of manual dexterity. In the case of using the Octopus card, when approaching the machine with card in hand to select the money value to deduct from the card, close proximity of the hand to the card reader will inadvertantly process the transaction automatically. So, if one was in the process of reaching (and holding the card) to toggle the charge value from HKD$5.50 to $4.50, the proximity of the card would “doot” and deduct $5.50, effectively charging $1 extra for the user’s preferred drink or forcing the user to select a more expensive drink he did not want. A frustrating experience indeed, but perhaps not as much as Japan’s confusing vending machine payment method using mobile phones.
The next consideration is the way a user can select a drink. The traditional machine displays all the products at once, allowing the user to quickly scan the available choices. Buttons act as the input selection, but sometimes the user may accidentally press the wrong button and get stuck with something that she didn’t want.
Source: http://springwise.com/marketing_advertising/samsung_and_coke_launch_touch-/
Samsung has actually developed a uVending touch-screen technology for vending machines to add some more interactivity.
From this demo, I actually don’t see much value in being able to “interact” virtually with the product, and I would much rather get a quick overview of all the available product options with one glance rather than scroll through individual products.
Finally, there’s the final action of receiving the drink. Most vending machines I have encountered requires the user to bend down and reach through a flap to collect the item. Is it necessary to make the user expend extra energy to buy a drink, especially for those that have physical limitations?
These are general issues to think about when we further explore ideas and solutions to create an easier and more appropriate vending machine interaction.
Below I found a fun video of a student project of a redesigned vending machine experience. Some of its design elements addresses the issues I have just discussed.
Feb
19
2009
Sociable Robot Toys
My Introduction to Sociable Robots course is taught by Cory Kidd, an energetic lecturer from MIT’s Media Lab. It’s quite an enjoyable and interesting course so far, covering topics of psychology, sociology and HCI in the context of Human-Robot Interaction. During one class, we had fun watching a few videos of robot toys and discussed whether they were 1) sociable, 2) robots, and 3) fun. A quick survey from the class showed that everyone had different opinions about these factors, especially when evaluating the fun factor of the toy.
A sociable robot then is a robot that can communicate and engage with humans in a sociable way to fulfill a certain goal.
Although technology has come a long way to create impressive robots, some toys are too focused on technological features thus compromising the ease of interaction and play value. One example is the FemiSapien, which has many features such as learning dance moves, striking fashion poses, and delivering business cards, but to memorize the gesture sequences to activate a function (hand swipe, tilt head up/down, multiple hand presses, etc.) is cumbersome and not intuitive. RobotPanda, on the other hand, is a playful and enjoyable companion that can engage kids over a long period: with different modes available, the panda’s body parts light up to the touch, laughs when it’s flying, and can become a storyteller. It is easy to interact with this toy because it talks you through what parts of the body to touch to perform the various functions and access different modes.
