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ZoomZone

Speciale ved informationsvidenskab, AU


Specialets fulde titel er "ZoomZone: En karakteristik af en præcis, håndethedsneutral interaktionsteknik til mobile, enhåndsbetjente touchscreen-enheder" og er skrevet ved Institut for Informations- og Medievidenskab, AU i efterårssemestret 2009. Specialets hensigt var at dokumentere, analysere og reflektere over udviklings- og aftestningsforløbet for en alternativ interaktionsmetode til mobile, håndholdte enheder med trykfølsom skærm som primær input-kanal. Kerne udgjordes af en udførlig brugeraftestning baseret på en fungerende prototype, der blev udviklet med henblik på at gøre interaktionsteknikken, ZoomZone, forståelig og evaluérbar.

Selve interaktionsteknikken skal ses som et proof-of-concept, der har til formål at illustrere, hvordan man på enhåndsbetjente enheder med trykfølsom skærm kan nedbringe fejlraten på en håndethedsneutral og platformsuafhængig måde. Nedenstående video viser, hvordan en opdeling af skærmen i ni uniforme segmenter muliggør en forstørrelse på knap 1,9 gange via to konsekutive tryk:

I afsnittene herunder har du mulighed for at læse mere om specialet (abstract, udtalelse). Alternativt kan du hente den samlede PDF.

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PDF, 34MB
Titel
ZoomZone: En karakteristik af en præcis, håndethedsneutral interaktionsteknik til mobile, enhåndsbetjente touchscreen-enheder
Afleveringsdato
5. februar 2010
Anslag
156.381 (65,2 normalsider)
Filstørrelse
34MB (34.964KB)

Abstract in English

Title: ZoomZone: A characterization of a precise, handedness-neutral interaction technique aimed at mobile, one-hand operated touchscreen devices

Modern smartphones, e.g. Apple's iPhone, are rapidly becoming ubiquitous, versatile, and powerful platforms for various types of communication and interaction. By providing diverse channels for in- and output, as well as massive extensibility through a variety of applications, the modern mobile device has evolved into much more than just a portable telephone—it is a small, personal, multi-purpose device which is always on, always connected, and always with its user. The constant miniaturization and ever increasing processing power does not, however, make the modern smartphone equivalent to even the smallest of netbook computers. The essential difference is to be found in the mobile property itself, since this gives raise to influences from a physical dimension not known from the conventional desktop setting. This physical dimension is highly mutable in use. In other words, the user of a mobile device may primarily be interacting with the world, not the device. This poses a challenge for usability research in that the foundation for common heuristics have now changed.

By observing and conforming to results from prior research on people's preferences in relation to interaction with one-hand operated touchscreen devices, I present the design and evaluation of ZoomZone. ZoomZone is an alternative interaction technique developed to comply with the results from aforementioned research in order to raise subjective satisfaction and to respect the characteristics of mobile interaction:

In short, ZoomZone replaces the procedure for normal "tap" selections on the touchscreen by requiring two consecutive taps: the first tap selects one of nine segments (all of which are reachable near the center of the screen), entering the selection mode. This segment is then uniformly magnified 1.9 times in a superimposed frame in the middle of the screen where the final selection is done, thus leaving the selection mode. Optimally (i.e., after a certain amount of acquisition), this process can be viewed by the user as a double click with a fast spatial adjustment in between taps. The nine segments are statically made by splitting the normal perspective into three equal parts in both directions. Included in the zoomed view is a minor part of the surrounding, unselected segments, thereby not imposing a penalty on targets overlapping multiple segments.

The technique has been implemented as a functional prototype for the iPhone, thus making possible a controlled user evaluation measuring error rate and selection time compared to direct touch. The technique, although demonstrated for a specific set of tasks in a custom-made[1] iPhone application, is very general by design. ZoomZone requires no knowledge of the currently running application or the available "hot spots" (possible target areas in the current interface). Therefore, it can be layered "on top" of any application on any (touchscreen) device, not just iPhones. The quantitative evaluation addressed two within-subject variables: technique (direct touch vs. ZoomZone) and hand (dominant vs. recessive). For each of the four possible combinations, users were asked to select 18 targets distributed across the entire screen area. A total of eight users were recruited.

Key Findings

  • An interaction technique like ZoomZone can drastically decrease the error rate (the number of selections not hitting the intended target), regardless of the hand in use. That is, error rates are lowered for interaction using either the dominant or the recessive hand.
  • This reduction is constant across the user's choice of hand—i.e., both handedness-neutral and usable when switching hands.
  • The interaction technique, however—in spite of being deliberately generalized to be independent from application-, platform-, and implementation details—is not universally applicable. The technique was found too laborious to replace direct touch.
  • Therefore, ZoomZone should be considered a generalized augmentative technology to be applied by the user based on a subjective assessment of the user interface and the concrete situation.

The findings above indicate a direction for future work: ZoomZone must be refined into a genuine augmentative technology. That is, the technique should be easy to enable, use, and disable again based on the user's valuation of the trade-off between increased interaction complexity[2] and decreased error rate.


1 For the purpose of demonstration and benchmarking.
2 Approximately a doubling in selection time for the specific setting of the user evaluation.

Udtalelse

Jens Gram behandler i sit speciale med udgangspunukt i traditionel empirisk, eksperimentel Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) et nyt og fremherskende interaktionsparadigme, nemlig mobile trykskærmsenheder. I særdeleshed designer, beskriver, implementerer og evaluerer han en konkret teknik, ZoomZone.

Specialets hovedbidrag er:

Jens Grams speciale bærer præg af at være et meget selvstændigt, grundigt og velargumenteret arbejde. Han har på baggrund af den samlede internationale forskningslitteratur på området udvalgt og inddraget relevante værker, ligesom han har tilpasset sin egen undersøgelse til den tid og de ressourcer, han haft til rådighed. Resultatet er et præcist, veldisponeret og velskrevet bidrag, som kun kan betegnes som meget tilfredsstillende.

Desuden viser Jens Gram med sit specialearbejde gode analytiske såvel som konstruerende evner. Han kan kombinere kompleks teori, inklusiv matematisk modellering (specifikt arbejder relateret til Fitts's lov), med praktiske kompetencer. Han er en selvstændig, habil og nysgerrig programmør, hvilket han har demonstreret i udviklingen af ZoomZone, der involverede såvel webteknologier som native applikationsudvikling (iOS). Desuden var han del af det distribuerede, team-baserede udviklerhold i det nationale forskningscenter Digital Urban Living (se www.digitalurbanliving.dk), hvor han var med til at udvikle Klimatrends, et eksperimentelt system, der var et alternativt digitalt univers baseret på iPhone og Twitter, hvor man kunne følge og engagere sig i klimadebatten under FNs klimatopmøde COP15 i København i efteråret/vinteren 2009 (se www.digitalurbanliving.dk/klimatrends). I dette samarbejde var Jens pålidelig, selvstændig, produktiv, kreativ — og vellidt.

Sammenfattende kan det konkluderes, at specialearbejdet, inkl. såvel det bagvedliggende arbejde som selve rapporten, demonstrerer en omfattende opfyldelse af specialets mål.

Martin Brynskov
Vejleder

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