Assessing the effectiveness of multi-touch interfaces for DP operation

Navigating a vessel using dynamic positioning (DP) systems close to offshore installations is a challenge. The operator's only possibility of manipulating the system is through its interface, which can be categorized as the physical appearance of the equipment and the visualization of the system. Are there possibilities of interaction between the operator and the system that can reduce strain and cognitive load during DP operations? Can parts of the system (e.g. displays) be physically brought closer to the user to enhance the feeling of control when operating the system? Can these changes make DP operations more efficient and safe? These questions inspired this research project, which investigates the use of multi-touch and hand gestures known from consumer products to directly manipulate the visualization of a vessel in the 3D scene of a DP system. Usability methodologies and evaluation techniques that are widely used in consumer market research were used to investigate how these interaction techniques, which are new to the maritime domain, could make interaction with the DP system more efficient and transparent both during standard and safety-critical operations. After investigating which gestures felt natural to use by running user tests with a paper prototype, the gestures were implemented into a Rolls-Royce DP system and tested in a static environment. The results showed that the test participants performed significantly faster using direct gesture manipulation compared to using traditional button/menu interaction. To support the results from these tests, further tests were carried out. The purpose is to investigate how gestures are performed in a moving environment, using a motion platform to simulate rough sea conditions. The key results and lessons learned from a collection of four user experiments, together with a discussion of the choice of evaluation techniques will be discussed in this paper

Assessing the effectiveness of direct gesture interaction for a safety critical maritime application

Multi-touch interaction, in particular multi-touch gesture interaction, is widely believed to give a more natural interaction style. We investigated the utility of multi-touch interaction in the safety critical domain of maritime dynamic positioning (DP) vessels. We conducted initial paper prototyping with domain experts to gain an insight into natural gestures; we then conducted observational studies aboard a DP vessel during operational duties and two rounds of formal evaluation of prototypes - the second on a motion platform ship simulator. Despite following a careful user-centred design process, the final results show that traditional touch-screen button and menu interaction was quicker and less erroneous than gestures. Furthermore, the moving environment accentuated this difference and we observed initial use problems and handedness asymmetries on some multi-touch gestures. On the positive side, our results showed that users were able to suspend gestural interaction more naturally, thus improving situational awareness

Student reaction to parallel hypertext and menu‐based interfaces

It is often necessary to consider the question of what sort of interface is most useful for retrieving information from a particular land of database. A small database of text‐based but multi‐faceted items is used here in order to compare ease and speed of retrieval from two commonly used combinations of interface — HyperCard on an Apple Macintosh and dBase III+ on a PC. For the restricted range of tasks employed here, the latter combination appears to be more acceptable to students with limited computer experience. However, in more general terms, the acceptability of an interface for information retrieval depends on what particular aspect of information retrieval is being emphasized, and what conceptual frameworks students bring to their tasks

Access and usability issues of scholarly electronic publications

This chapter looks at the various access and usability issues related to scholarly information resources. It first looks at the various channels through which a user can get access to scholarly electronic publications. It then discusses the issues and studies surrounding usability. Some important parameters for measuring the usability of information access systems have been identified. Finally the chapter looks at the major problems facing the users in getting access to scholarly information through today's hybrid libraries, and mentions some possible measures to resolve these problems

Multi-touch interaction for interface prototyping

Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Informática e Computação. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 201

Analysis of graphical user interface design in the context of human-computer interaction (with a case study on oven control panel)

Thesis (Master)--Izmir Institute of Technology, Industrial Design, Izmir, 2005Includes bibliographical references (leaves: 95)Text in English; Abstract: Turkish and Englishxi, 98 leavesIn this era that the popularity of digital products has risen, computer and its tools affect every part of our lives. New technologies provide extraordinary powers to those people who master them. Digital products and their graphical user interfaces are still new technologies that are being rapidly disseminated. Human performance in the use of digital product will remain a rapidly expanding research and development topic in the coming decades. For this reason, theimportance of interaction between digital product and user should be considered.The term .Graphical user interface. is the layer where the digital productcommunicated with human and human communicated with digital product. A well-designed product can fail with an unsuccessful interface. Conversely, a product has not good design values can become successful with its well-designed interface. To get best interaction between digital product and user, the graphical interface design itself has some rudimentary design values like user-friendliness, usability, easy to learn, etc.At an individual level, user interfaces change many people.s lives. For instance, At an individual level, user interfaces change many people.s lives. For instance, and technicians can manipulate their job more safely. Some changes, however, are disruptive; too often, users must cope with frustration, fear, and failure when they encounter excessive complexity, incomprehensible terminology, or chaotic layouts.Designers are exploring how best to organize information graphically. They are developing query languages and visually attractive facilities. Techniques such as direct manipulation, telepresence, and virtual realities may change the ways that we interact with and think about digital products. Consequently, the goal of making the user's quality of life better is important to keep in mind.In this research, from the point of an industrial designer.s view, the subject matter .Graphical user interface design., and its all interaction rules with user are evaluated. In terms of design language, which has the ability of understand the user behavior, it puts the subject matter on the agenda to explore recipe of a successful product

Investigating the Impact of Co-located and Distributed Collaboration Using Multi-touch Tables

With the intention to study the role of new interfaces in multi-user applications, multi-touch tabletops are investigated to examine if they effectively aid their users in working together synchronously. Multi-player games are selected as a case of collaborative work. Early studies of distributed multi-touch tabletops did not cover the HCI related aspects associated with multi-player games, especially in distributed configuration. The performance, collaboration, and usability aspects of HCI are studied in this research. A simple multi-player maze game has been designed and implemented over two connected and physically separated multi-touch tabletops. The aim of this work is to investigate the effects of distribution on players performance, collaboration, and usability of multi-player games over multi-touch tabletops, compared to playing in a co-located condition. Groups of participants have been randomly selected and assigned to play the game in pairs under two conditions: co-located where two players are playing the game on the same table, and distributed where they are playing the game but on separate tables. The collected data is statistically analysed to test for differences between the two conditions, as well as the differences of the strength of the correlation between the underlying factors. The results indicate that, in general, the differences are not significant for such type of applications if a simple and efficient communication mechanism is provided for the players in the distributed condition. Players expressed almost the same level of usability engagement and enjoyment for the two conditions. This may have a strong impact on the HCI aspects when designing such type of applications on the future