6 INTERFACES

6 INTERFACES

1. Introduction

   • how to design interfaces for different environments, people, places, and activities

2. Interface Types

   • 1. Command-based
     • interfaces required the user to type in commands that were typically abbreviations
   • 2. WIMP and GUI
     • The basic building blocks of the WIMP are still part of the modern GUI used as part of a computer display , but have evolved into a number of different forms and types
     • Window design
     • Menu design
     • Icon design
   • 3. Multimedia
     • combines different media within a single interface, namely , graphics, text, video, sound, and animations, and links them with various forms of interactivity . It differs from previous forms of combined media, e.g. TV , in that the different media are interactive
   • 4. Virtual reality
     • uses computer-generated graphical simulations to create “the illusion of participation in a synthetic environment rather than external observation of such an environment”
   • 6. Web
     • hyperlinks to different places or pages of text
       • user-centered editing tools and programming languages emerged, providing opportunities for both designers and the general public to create websites to look and behave more like multimedia environments
   • 8. Mobile
     • Mobile devices have become pervasive, with people increasingly using them in all aspects of their everyday and working lives. They have become business tools to clinch important deals; a remote control for the real world, helping people cope with daily travel delay frustrations; and a relationship appliance to say goodnight to loved ones when away from home
   • 7. Consumer electronics and appliances
     • What they have in common is that most people using them will be trying to get something specific done in a short period of time, such as putting the washing on, watching a program, buying a ticket, changing the time, or taking a snapshot
   • 5. Information visualization and dashboards
     • are computer-generated graphics of complex data that are typically interactive and dynamic. The goal is to amplify human cognition, enabling users to see patterns, trends, and anomalies in the visualization and from this to gain insight
   • 9. Speech
     • routing, where companies use an automated speech system to enable users to reach one of their services. Many companies are replacing the frustrating and unwieldy touchtone technology for navigating their services (which was restricted to 10 numbers and the # and * symbols) with the use of caller-led speech
   • 10. Pen
     • devices enable people to write, draw, select, and move objects at an interface using lightpens or styluses that capitalize on the well-honed drawing and writing skills that are developed from childhood
   • 11. Touch
     • They work by detecting the presence and location of a person's touch on the display; options are selected by tapping on the screen.
   • 12. Air-based gesture
     • Camera capture, sensor, and computer vision techniques have advanced such that it is now possible to fairly accurately recognize people's body , arm, and hand gestures in a room. An early commercial application that used gesture interaction was Sony's EyeToy , which used a motion-sensitive camera that sat on top of a TV monitor and plugged into the back of a Sony PlayStation
   • 14. Multimodal
     • intended to provide enriched and complex user experiences by multiplying the way information is experienced and controlled at the interface through using different modalities, i.e. touch, sight, sound, speech
   • 13. Haptic
     • Haptic interfaces provide tactile feedback, by applying vibration and forces to the person, using actuators that are embedded in their clothing or a device they are carrying, such as a smartphone or smartwatch. We have already mentioned above how the Wiimote provides rumbles as a form of haptic feedback.
   • 15. Shareable
     • designed for more than one person to use. Unlike PCs, laptops, and mobile devices – that are aimed at single users – they typically provide multiple inputs and sometimes allow simultaneous input by collocated groups
   • 17. Augmented and mixed reality
     • Physical office tools, like books, documents, and paper, were integrated with virtual representations, using projectors and video cameras. Both virtual and real documents were combined.
   • 16. Tangible
     • When a person manipulates the physical object(s), it is detected by a computer system via the sensing mechanism embedded in the physical object, causing a digital effect to occur, such as a sound, animation, or vibration
   • 18. Wearable
     • The possibility of having instant information before one's very own eyes that is contextually relevant to an ongoing activity and that can be viewed surreptitiously (i.e. without having to physically pull out a smartphone) is very appealing. Since the early experimental days of wearable computing, where Steve Mann (1997) donned head and eye cameras to enable him to record what he saw while also accessing digital information on the move, there have been many innovations and inventions including the latest Google Glass.
   • 19. Robots and drones
     • The focus has been on designing interfaces that enable users to effectively steer and move a remote robot with the aid of live video and dynamic maps
   • 20. Brain–computer interaction (BCI)
     • The way BCIs work is through detecting changes in the neural functioning in the brain. Our brains are filled with neurons that comprise individual nerve cells connected to one another by dendrites and axons

3. Natural User Interfaces and Beyond

   • A NUI is one that enables people to interact with a computer in the same ways they interact with the physical world, through using their voice, hands, and bodies. Instead of using a keyboard and a mouse a natural user interface allows users to speak to machines, stroke their surfaces, gesture at them in the air, dance on mats that detect feet movements, smile at them to get a reaction, and so on.
     • we will look back on 2010 as the year we expanded beyond the mouse and keyboard and started incorporating more natural forms
   • The naturalness refers to the way they exploit the everyday skills we have learned, such as talking, writing, gesturing, walking, and picking up objects. In theory , they should be easier to learn and map more readily onto how people interact with the world than compared with learning to use a GUI. - .

4. Which Interface?

   • In practice, which interface is most appropriate, most useful, most efficient, most engaging, most supportive, etc., will depend on the interplay of a number of factors, including reliability , social acceptability , privacy , ethical, and location concerns.