Analysis of physicality aspects in physical user interfaces of embedded systems

Embedded systems are becoming more significant in our daily lives with the advent of ubiquitous computing. The increasing demands of multifarious functionalities and other factors lead to an increased focus of development on internal software issues. Negligence towards the interaction aspects of physical interface is resulting in the generation of interaction complexities for the user. This work evaluates, compares, and highlights the significance of physicality aspects of embedded system interfaces using five subjects including; washing machine; camera; oven; sound system; and MP3 player. The quantitative evaluation approach helps in a simple investigation by applying the numeric values for each aspect. The result analysis highlights the significance of exposed state, tangible transition, and inverse action over other physicality aspects. This study is especially valuable for the embedded system developers who may not have exposure or expertise to Human–Computer Interaction or its sub–field, Physicality. Managing and incorporating physicality aspects in embedded systems is a key factor for producing natural interaction product

Authentication Schemes\u27 Impact on Working Memory

Authentication is the process by which a computing system validates a user’s identity. Although this process is necessary for system security, users view authentication as a frequent disruption to their primary tasks. During this disruption, primary task information must be actively maintained in working memory. As a result, primary task information stored in working memory is at risk of being lost or corrupted while users authenticate. For over two decades, researchers have focused on developing more memorable passwords by replacing alphanumeric text with visual graphics (Biddle et al., 2012). However, very little attention has been given to the impact authentication has on working memory. A recent exploratory study suggests that working memory can be disrupted during graphical authentication (Still & Cain, 2019). In this study, we take the next step by controlling for task difficulty and contrasting performance with conventional password-based authentication. Baddeley’s model was employed to examine the impact of authentication on verbal, visuospatial, and central executive working memory (Baddeley & Hitch, 1974). Our findings may help designers select authentication systems that minimize adverse effects on users’ critical primary task performance. For instance, we revealed that conventional passwords do not have a greater negative impact on verbal primary task information compared to graphical passcodes. We also replicated findings reported by Still and Cain (2019), where visuospatial was least impaired by authentication. These findings are not intuitive, highlighting the need for further investigation of how authentication impacts primary task information in working memory

Attitudes towards Attention and Ageing: What Differences between Younger and Older Adults Tell Us about Mobile Technology Design

Errors in interaction with digital devices are typically blamed on human factors such as poor attention. However, the influence of attention upon the quality of human-device interaction is commonly overlooked in product design. Developers rely on feedback through user centred design, but do developers, typically younger adults, understand what an older user means, or experiences, in terms of “attention” and appreciate that fundamental conceptual and experiential differences may exist? The authors examine differences between older and younger adults' concepts of attention in relation to mobile-device use to inform future development. Two participant groups consisted of 11 younger adults (18-30 years) and 12 older adults (65+ years). Qualitative analyses revealed three themes ‘personal understanding of attention', ‘attention is dependent on...', and ‘impact of ageing

Design revolutions: IASDR 2019 Conference Proceedings. Volume 3: People

In September 2019 Manchester School of Art at Manchester Metropolitan University was honoured to host the bi-annual conference of the International Association of Societies of Design Research (IASDR) under the unifying theme of DESIGN REVOLUTIONS. This was the first time the conference had been held in the UK. Through key research themes across nine conference tracks – Change, Learning, Living, Making, People, Technology, Thinking, Value and Voices – the conference opened up compelling, meaningful and radical dialogue of the role of design in addressing societal and organisational challenges. This Volume 3 includes papers from People track of the conference

Older adults, interface experience and cognitive decline

This paper describes an experiment undertaken to investigate intuitive interaction, particularly in older adults. Previous work has shown that intuitive interaction relies on past experience, and has also suggested that older people demonstrate less intuitive uses and slower times when completing set tasks with various devices. Similarly, this experiment showed that past experience with relevant products allowed people to use the interfaces of two different microwaves more quickly and intuitively. It also revealed that certain aspects of cognitive decline related to aging, such as central executive function, have more impact on time, correct uses and intuitive uses than chronological age. Implications of these results are discussed

Investigación+creación a través del territorio

La Investigación+Creación es un nuevo enfoque de investigación que nace de las necesidades particulares para comprender la investigación desde las disciplinas artísticas, y cuya principal característica consiste en validar una hipótesis de investigación por medio de una experiencia creativa, la cual puede materializarse a través de un prototipo plástico-sensorial, como puede ser una pieza musical, una instalación artística, una cartografía social, un performance o una construcción arquitectónica, entre otros muchos ejemplos. Este libro cuenta con 19 capítulos, donde los autores que participan en este compendio exploran la Investigación-Creación desde sus experiencias particulares en diferentes partes del territorio colombiano. Se espera que este primer volumen de la colección I+C, sirva de referente para comprender y construir de manera colaborativa este enfoque alternativo de generación de nuevo conocimiento