Designer Nicolas Büchi has designed an interactive display which is controlled by manipulating three cups of water. By entering your finger and moving around in the cup you control the size and frequency of the bubbles on the display.
In his bachelor project Nicolas shows how a physical interaction can operate a display. In his project it are the bubbles but this physical interaction can be brought back in many products. This could reduce the number of buttons while the interaction is playful and explorative. Does it have a good usability? Probably not, but it might be more joyful as we wrote earlier about the media cubes. [Continue reading...]
You might have read the email that Bill Gates send to his employees. It shows that Bill Gates finally understands why people are not particulary fond about the usability of windows. Everyone knows the dialogboxes that continuously ask if you really want to do this or that. “Didn’t I just told so by clicking on it, do you think I am stupid?”
In the email Bill put his experience in trying to download and install Windows movie maker on paper. He describes how the search engine on the website cannot find the query moviemaker, it has to be movie maker an engineer explains! Also he describes how he has to fill in a form that clears all the contents when there was an error. This goes on and on and we never get to know if he managed to install the program. Guess what that means for all users who are not into computers? Honestly, you could write such experiences for most of the windows applications / services. [Continue reading...]
What is actually the difference between interface and interaction design?
The term ‘interface design’ suggests that in web design the coding, users and how a message is relayed (interface) can be regarded separately. One major problem of isolating design at the interface level is that it allows programmers, or product designers to reason that an interface will be glued on it afterwards. It postpones design after programming or sketching. If you want to offer a carefully designed user experience all three components support the user experience.
‘Behavioural design’ tells how the product (website or consumer product) should respond and communicate to users. Like behavioural designers interaction designers also work from the inside out. Interaction designers start with the goals user want to achieve and distillate that into broader goals.
‘Conceptual design’ takes it even one level deeper; instead of looking at the goals it looks at the what is valuable for the users. The way to fulfil this is still open, it could be a new product, but suits better to the needs of users.
Where does the interaction designer belong? In all of them! The interaction designer first investigates what is most valuable for users by thinking conceptually, after that the behaviour gets detailed; how should the user fulfil his goals and finally at an interface level. How should the interface look like to get this particular user experience? [Continue reading...]
What if you could operate your light by your hands but not actually touching it? Only pointing at it would be enough, or what about blowing the light out like a candle? In the following video you can see that someone is operating the light switch. But this is technically possible, as we wrote earlier about controlling games with your body.
Costs and the relatively low advantages are the problem for bringing such products to market. It would probably require twice as much energy, but for disabled people this is certainly a solution. Imagine someone without hands having to turn off and on his lights with has feet all the time, while he can just blow out the light! For the smarter guys among us, turning the light on could be achieved by whistling? [Continue reading...]
Designer Mike Burton has developed a wall of water, called ‘the Waterboard’. Is is in interactive whiteboard that allows users to manipulate the flow of water. The fun part is that the water can be manipulated by drawing lines that form objects or by use of actual physical objects such as…..humans!
Mike Burton somehow achieved to define what the water does in reality into formulas. When a bowl is drawn the water will keep flowing in the bowl and the water level rises. When the bowl is full the water will flow over the edge and continue its new course. In that way all different paths can be made as long as it goes downward.
Another interesting detail is that the water responds to the time it is not flowing. After a certain period the water will develop into a greenish goo with little flies circling above the water. [Continue reading...]
Somehow all those applications that can spin around are fun to use. More and more applications are being made that allow users direct manipulation. Why do we like these spinning applications so much?
First of all we can directly manipulate it and we are in control. We not only can control the speed, but sometimes also the angle. And as long as the user is in control and the application functions as intended it is fun as well!
Secondly these applications present the material in a much more readable way. Although one could argue from an usability stand a clear hierarchy structure is better, this normally takes up quite some space. The spinning applications represent lots of information in a compact way. In that way these applications helps us to get an overview of all the contents quickly.
So have some fun! [Continue reading...]
There has been done research about the effects of robots, in this case Aibo, on elderly in elderly homes. Many elderly get isolated and feel unhappy after a few years in such homes. They loose contact with other people and loose their appetite. As a result they will be more vulnerable to diseases and often depressive as well. Now would this change with a 400 dollar robot? See for yourself! [Continue reading...]
Although the Wii controls games pretty intuitive and uses actual physical movements something new is under developent; controlling games with your body! It is not new, it has been tried before but it was never really successful.
The engineers at Softkinetic are perfecting the technology and it uses only one depth sensing camera. A major advantage is that you don’t need any glove or stick to control the game, the camera can distinguish the human body, and even all body parts. This opens up many doors for interactive gaming, but also beyond that. Imagine yourself operating electronic programming guide on your television. Or browsing through your photo collection without touching anything, just point. Let’s put it this way; it opens up a whole new world for designers to create interactive products. [Continue reading...]
The mapping of controls refers to how the controls are ‘mapped’ to the device or product that it controls. For example a light switch or a stove. How do you know which control operates the left light? The principle of ‘natural mapping’ refers to designing the controls in such a way that it is obvious and logical which application it operates. Good natural mapping is characterized by not having to learn anything, you automatically got it right! Now let’s have a look at the often used stove controls.
When you are forced to learn
In the following three examples you are forced to learn which controls operate the burners. The spatial arrangement of the controls in relation to the burners is ambiguous. Often producers try to reduce this problems by placing icons next to the controls to indicate which burner it operates. But it still requires you to look at the icon every time. After many repetitions you might have learned which burners the controls operate but what happens if you are going to cook at another stove? Exactly, you have to learn it again, another long painstaking process. [Continue reading...]
Philip has been working for some time on the Icat, a robot that mimics facial expressions and talks to its users. It is an indication of how future products will look like and what their capabilities are. At this moment the Icat is still under development and can only do simple tasks such as setting your alarm clock or give information about television programs.
Why a cat?
So why did Philips choose for a cat and not a human face? Most of use know the theory of the uncanny valley. It proposes that people feel uncomfortable or even afraid if robots look to similar to humans, both visually but also in the way they behave. So they chose an animal that is fairly innocent, but it could have been a dog as well, but then the Aibo was already on the market.
Limitations
Existing limitations of the cat as with many other products is the speech recognition. To convert everything from speech correctly is still not possible, although improvements are continuously made. People differ a lot in the way the pronounce words, pitch, volume and speed. This can be clearly seen in the videos of the Icat with user tests. The Icat and subject seem to communicate well, but this is only because the subject is using short answers like ‘yes’ and her ‘name’. [Continue reading...]
