FP7 SERENOA Project » UI

Tactile Interaction

vivian.motti — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 08:24:04 +0000

Although the visual channels feature the most prominently in user interfaces, the tactile interaction provides a broad range of potential for applications too.

According to Chalis, the author of a interaction-design chapter dedicated to tactile in

teraction, although there is a broad range of reasons why designers might wish to explore non-visual modes of communication, this interaction type is perhaps being undervalued in terms of the potential source of feedback that it might offer. In his chapter, he discusses key issues for tactile interaction in terms of physical, perceptual and technological aspects.

The psychology of touch involves both physical and perceptual aspects, that are respectively responsible for detecting stimulus and interpreting it. The perception can be: tactile, kinesthetic or haptic. For instance, the vibrotactile feedback that is often employed in gloves, takes advantages of the cutaneous sense, which belongs to the tactile perception.

The general human reliance on vision suggests that if a conflict were to arise between our sense of touch and our sense of sight, it would be the visual aspect that becomes dominant. However, the visual dominance versus tactual dominance should not be thought of as a dichotomy as there is evidence of compromise between the two senses when they are in conflict. In addition, this level of compromise is likely to be highly individual and will also be affected by a bias towards the suitability of one or both senses to the nature of the task.

It is clear that current technologies cannot yet facilitate dynamic tactile displays that offer the same richness of detail and contrast that we experience with the objects around us on a daily basis. However, as much as this would be an obvious ultimate aim within a context of augmented reality or virtual environments, there are perhaps much more attainable targets that will still be of significant use.

Ben Challis researches about alternative modes of interaction. His original article, on which this post in based, can be accessed online at: http://www.interaction-design.org/encyclopedia/tactile_interaction.html

Model-Based User Interfaces (MBUI) Working Group

vivian.motti — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 11:59:30 +0000

W3C has just launched the Model-based User Interfaces Working Group as part of the Ubiquitous Web Activity.

The goal of the Model-Based UI Working Group is to develop standards as a basis for interoperability across authoring tools for context awa

re user interfaces for Web-based interactive applications.

Application developers face increasing difficulties due to wide variations in device capabilities, in the details of the standards they support, the need to support assistive technologies for accessibility, the demand for richer user interfaces, the suites of programming languages and libraries, and the need to contain costs and meet challenging schedules during the development and maintenance of applications.

Model-based design of user interfaces focuses on separating out different levels of design concerns, allowing designers to focus on what they do best without becoming bogged down due to the complexity of particular delivery contexts. This is especially important given the demands to provide services on an ever increasing range of devices, including support for assistive technology for users with disabilities.

The MBUI Working Group’s initial focus is on task models, and UI components and integrity constraints at a level of abstraction independent of the choice of device. Future work is anticipated on taking this to the next level — the concrete UI which involves design choices specific to broad classes of devices. Models at this level can be compiled down for specific delivery channels, guided by author supplied preferences (UI skins). Further out, we hope to address standards for interoperable exchange of rules for dynamic adaptation to the context.

Model-Based UI standards are particularly relevant to creating the user interfaces (service front-ends) for cloud provisioned services, especially custom enterprise services.

The team contact is Dave Raggett and the working group chair is Gerrit Meixner.

This article was originally published at: http://www.w3.org/2011/mbui/

Using the available screen space

vivian.motti — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 12:13:05 +0000

8 years ago, Nielsen analyzed the space allocation across 50 website homepages and found that only 40% of screen space was used on navigation

or content of interest to users. This was in the days of 800×600 monitors when space was particularly precious. Today, many websites are a bit better, and bigger monitors obviously allow for more room to play.

Still, sites frequently open important features in tiny pop-ups, violating two guidelines:

Don’t pollute users’ screens with pop-ups.
Show stuff in a space that’s big enough to let users see everything they need to see without scrolling.

Tablets

The proliferation of small, hard-to-use interaction areas in iPad apps is partly Apple’s fault because of a design mistake in the default email application. The inbox is shown as a skinny menu down the side. This is great in the landscape view, letting users quickly alternate between the inbox and individual messages so they can quickly process their mail.

In the portrait orientation, however, the inbox menu appears as an overlay that partly obscures the message content, making it impossible to work with the two panes simultaneously. Why show two panes, when you can’t use both? It would be better to display the inbox across the entire tablet screen, showing more messages and/or more extensive previews of each message.

Bigger is Better

Mobile devices and tablets are inherently small, so you must optimize the use of their screen space and show things as large as possible. Desktop screens are bigger, so you can often achieve a better user experience by enlarging things even more.

There are very few exceptions to the rule that bigger is better in user interfaces. One example is found on sites that insist on opening new windows and maximizing them — even on the biggest of monitors. Once people get a 30-inch monitor, they don’t want maximized browser windows anymore; it’s highly annoying to find, say, a glossary entry taking up 2560×1600 pixels and obscuring the other windows you’re working with.

Optimizing the UI for the available screen space is a key strategy for improving usability.

This article is based on “Utilize Available Screen Space” originally published at: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/screen-space-use.html