Watch Computing Take Off!
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Smart phones — computer in your pocket.
Open platform — liberates innovation.
New I/O — minimize user interaction.
Bend technology to your will!
Create innovative end-user solutions that:
Fit into the user’s mode of working,
Avoid one-size fits all solutions,
Design context-aware solutions,
Tailor solutions to user’s needs.
Not just for blind users!
Eyes-busy environments —driving.
One-handed use.
Minimize explicit user interaction.
Rethink all assumptions about the user.
Mobile phones make UI design exciting!
Can capture user intent — keyboard, ….
Can see — camera.
Can hear and speak — speech I/O.
Can sense and stimulate touch — touch screen and vibration.
Can sense motion — accelerometer, compass.
Can sense position — GPS, cell towers.
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Our Android has many eyes and ears!
These are atomic tasks:
Identifying the item to touch.
Touching item to activate it.
Eyes-free use requires help with the former.
Activation should produce appropriate feedback.
Eyes-Free use of an on-screen touchpad:
Need to see the buttons to know where to touch.
Because: buttons use absolute positioning.
Conclusion: (wrong) — you need to see to use a touch screen!
Solution: Relax constraint of absolute positioning.
What if we used relative positioning instead?
Eyes-free phone dialer:
Keypad centered where you touch — relative positioning.
Users already know layout of a phone keypad.
Can stroke from the center for a desired digit.
Enables eyes-free one-handed dialing!
Enables one-handed, eyes-free use:
Buttons vibrate when you move over them.
Augmented by auditory feedback.
Pressing buttons produces spoken and tactile feedback.
Shake to erase input.
Synchronized auditory and haptic feedback is key.
No one dials phone numbers any more!
Browsing contacts using touch screen.
Finding contacts.
Managing contacts.
Extending stroke dialer for textual input:
Arrange letters in 4 concentric circles.
Strokes access distinct circles.
Choose desired letter by tracing chosen circle.
Any letter is at most 3 steps away!
Gesture: Pick circle, and trace to desired character.
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Contacts live in the cloud.
Contacts managed over the network.
Updated automatically on the device.
No more editing contacts with two fingers!
Marvin: Shell for launching eyes-free interaction.
Home screen provides one-touch access to oft-used tasks.
Uses stroke dialer for launching tasks.
Code is Open Source.
Compass is one touch away on the home screen.
Speaks current bearing.
Provides succinct or verbose feedback.
Augmented by auditory tones and vibration for cardinal directions.
Android phone knows its location.
Current weather is therefore just one touch away.
Retrieves RSS weather forecast.
Speaks weather headline.
Device status available as single touch gestures.
Airplane mode.
Date and time.
Battery status.
Programmable smart phones are an engineer’s dream!
I/O peripherals open up new UI avenues.
Provide desired information with minimal user interaction.
Profound impact on how we work and play!