lars bo larsen, aau

Usability  og  Interak1onsdesign  SUMMIT  -­‐  konferencen  København  22  maj  2013    Lars  Bo  Larsen  Lektor,  ph.d.  Ins1tut  f.  Elektroniske  Systemer  Aalborg  Universitet  

Overview!

1.  Introduction!2.  Displayless Interaction (D-I)!–  Example of Infinit project!–  AAU, B&O and Radiometer!

3.  Interessegruppen U&ID!

Motivation:!Common wish to investigate the potential of interaction with high-end IT devices without displays:!•  ”Putting displays on devices is so nineties”!•  ”Smart devices don’t need displays”!•  ”Women hate LEDs and flashing displays in the home”!•  “Displayless is the new high end, displays are

mainstream”!•  “Displays are anti-social, require visual attention”  !!

B&O’s  BeoPlay  A9          Radiometer’s  ABL90  

Iden1fied  both  research  and  commercial  goals  •  Mul1tasking:  Visual  aUen1on  demands  more  cogni1on  than  for  

example  tac1le    •  Removes  visual  aUen1on  from  interac1on  •  Research  can  be  used  on  future  products  •  Displays  add  complexity  (designer  are  tempted  to  add)  •  Displays  are  lazy  UX  design  •  Cultural  differences  are  minimized  without  visual  indica1ons  -­‐  no  

language  •  Cheaper  produc1on  and  products  •  Displays  are  fragile  and  requires  cleaning  –  beUer  hygiene  without  •  Simple  and  clean  look  

Experiment with perceived sound location!Main Problem:!–  Displays can use e.g. flashing LEDs to steer the users

attention!–  Can sounds give the user a particular directional

attention (cues) about where to interact on the user interface, without actually playing the sounds from the locational area?!

–  Use generic sound patterns, not metaphorical sounds (e.g. birds twitter) to indicate direction!

–  A generic pattern could be high or low tones, rising or falling and similar!

Psycho-acoustics and Human Perception!

•  Humans can most accurately determine the origin of sound sources in azimuth (left-right), and less in the median-plane (up-down) !

•  High frequency sounds are perceived to have its source placed higher than a low frequency sound, given that both sounds are transmitted from the same loudspeaker/source!

•  Ecological psychoacoustics; humans perceive sounds as a part of context/product/sources, not in terms of frequencies. !

Experiment!•  It is the information in the sounds

themselves, that guide the users to the correct location on the device!

Experimental design!

Results  (are  not  yet  available)  Experiment  is  s1ll  underway:  – 50-­‐70  test  users,  about  300  sounds  per  user/  15.000  samples  

•  University  goal:  Iden1fy  generic  paUerns  to  form  design  guidelines  – Publish  results,  generate  new  knowledge  

•  Companies  goal:  Design  their  own  sounds  – Use  in  products  

In  addi1on….  

B&O  and  Radiometer  work  on  own  products  and  support  research  and  students  •  5  thesis  students  working  on  the  project  –  Develop  framework  for  UX  work  in  Danish  companies  –  Inves1gates  efficient  methods  for  early  conceptual  design  –  Inves1gates  the  poten1al  of  designing  “mechanical  sounds”  to  support  users’  mental  models  

Infinit  Temadag  20  juni  •  Vil  du  vide  hvad  vi  finder  ud  af?  –  Infinits  interessegruppe  for  Usability  og  Interak1onsdesign  holder  temadag  I  Aalborg  den  20  juni  

–  Præsenta1on  af  resultater  fra  experimentet  –  B&O  og  Radiometer  fortæller  om  deres  designfilosofi  –  Stephen  Brewster  fra  Glasgow,  Skotland  

Se  infinit.dk  -­‐>  interessegrupper