Human-Computer Interaction Analysis- Topic: Mobile Phones
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Human-Computer Interaction Analysis- Mobile Phones
Introduction
The concept of human and computer interaction is concerned with the various ways a user communicates or interacts with a computer system. The common type’s human and computer interactions are use of command language, menu selection, direct manipulation, and filling in form. These styles of interactions can be described as the medium of communication between the machine and the human being, in this case the user.
The way people interact with devices defines their success, with many up coming technologies, with increased processing power, the way the technology interacts with the user is very vital. There is a general perception that most users are not that technologically savvy to understand the complexities associated with computers. People depending on the demographic variables, culture, situational context, and the expected goal use many computing devices. These computing devices include mobile phones, PDAs, and other hand held devices (Benyon, 2001).
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Mobile phones
There are many types of hand held mobile phones available in the market possessing different applications ranging from multimedia, texting, voice calls, gaming, and many other types of applications. The way the user will interact with this form of technology will definitely affect whether the user will like it or not. Apparently, interaction techniques are limited with the available technology. Users will always choose a use a device with a user friendly interface.
Command Language
Command language or command entry was the first method of computer human interaction style to be used, and is still being used in certain situations. The main operating systems that applied this style Linux and UNIX. In this particular style the user have to type in the commands and parameters at the command line for that particular command to be executed. In this style the user had to know all the required commands and parameters by heart, therefore it placed a lot of cognitive burden on the user to remember all the needed commands. This style thus relied a lot on the users’ memory to be able to recall the commands by their names. It is not very easy to learn all the commands
Form Filling
This style involves the fill-in in of forms, and is not targeted to expert users as in command style. The user interface is form based, in which all the data can be entered in the predefined form fields. Validation of the data input was enabled by a separation mode. This style is still in use today, mainly combined by other styles, especially for those tasks that need a lot of data entry. For example pay roll systems, financial systems software, video rental software, and many other types of systems and software that is data entry oriented.
Menu selection
Menu selection gives the user a set of options which are displayed on the screen, where the user can select the desired menu to execute a command. Once the selection has been done and the command executed, the cascade changes the state of the interface. Here, the user selects a command from the predefined command options available on the menu list. In most cases a group of related commands are put near each other for ease of selection, identification, and use. Users do not have to learn or memorize the commands to be able to execute them, provided the commands are arranged in an orderly manner. These menus are generally arranged or clustered in a pop up or pull down menus (Bøgh, 2001)
Direct Manipulation
Direct manipulation is the latest form of computer interaction with humans. In this style the of directly manipulating an object of interest is entailed, this implies that the object of interest is represented as a unique object in the user interface, and then manipulated directly. This interaction style posses the following characteristics: visibility of the object of interest; rapid, reversible, and incremental actions; replacement of complex commands language syntax by direct manipulation of objects of interest. For example dragging and dropping files in say windows explorer (de Haan, 2000).
Analysis of Interaction Styles
These different interaction styles have their advantages and disadvantages. A user will prefer a particular method depending on its usability, benefits, implementation, and the implications of the tool being represented. Adaptability of a particular style is exemplified by the use cases of the navigation systems available in the mobile phone, and the differences in the interaction behaviors depends on the users attitude, preference, skill, and cultural values.
Command Language
The reasons why a user would prefer the command language interaction style on his or her mobile phone are; the style is flexible as only the require command is inputted. The style appeals to expert users, it supports the use of macros that supports the creation of user defied commands or scripts, in cases where there is low bandwidth it is very useful for interacting with computers that are networked.
The style does not appeal to most users since retention of commands in the human memory is always very poor. It takes a long time and effort to learn all the required commands, and a high rate of making errors is always registered. It is definitely not suitable for users who are not experts; error messages and assistance are very hard to be provided in this interaction style. This is because of the diversities and complexities of relating the various tasks to the interface concepts and syntaxes.
Form Fill-in
This interaction style simplifies data entry to a great deal, and shortens the learning time of commands found in the command style. The fields are always predefined and the user only needs to recognize it and not to memorize it. The system also guides the user through the data entry exercise. This style does not lack disadvantages such as consuming screen space, and it is very rigid as it is set for a much formalized business process ( HYPERLINK “http://www.interaction-design.org/references/authors/scott_sherwood.html” o “Scott Sherwood: Publications, homepage, mini-biography etc;” Sherwood, et al, 2009).
Menu selection
This style is very suitable for novice users, intermittent users, or those people who are very new to the technology. It also appeals to expert users if selection mechanisms and display are fast with appropriate shortcuts. The user do not have to remember the name of a command, he or she just needs to explore around the menus for the appropriate command. It supports decision making, easy error handling since users inputs do not have to be parsed. The limitations include the fact that it is not suitable for small user graphic displays, and may be slow for frequent users. So many menus may give rise to complexity of discouraging proportions, and may lead to information overload (Roto, 2009).
Direct Manipulation
The advantages of direct manipulation are that it is very easy to learn, encourages exploration, errors are easily avoided, use of recognition memory, satisfaction is highly subjective, and task concepts are represented visually. Its limitations are: It may be difficult to programme, it is not suitable for small graphic displays, visual or spatial representation is not always preferred, and compact notations only appeal to expert users.
Mobile Phones and Direct Manipulation
Mobile phone usage is increasing at exponential growth globally, and with the ever changing technology, their use is diversified and versatile. Especially, internet access on mobile phones emerged from the mid 1990s with thriving activities. Smart phone sales peaked 1.18 billion users in 2008, with consumers aware of the services they can offer, but are not ready to use them. Direct manipulation is common in many mobile phones and smart phones because of ease of use. This versatility makes internet usage on mobile phones enjoyable, and therefore, factors and perspectives should be identified to improve the understanding of users preferences and the various usage contexts (Koblentz, 2009; Prates, de Souza, &, Barbosa , 2000).
Some of the problems related to the service should be tackled by giving location based access, and by using visual cues embedded into that environment so as to help in discovering services and content. Today’s mobile phones solve this problem by touch screens where users do not have to memorize user resource locators, thus eliminating the need to type via the keypad. The touch screen provides a semantic convergence between the mobile internet experience and the physical context of the user. The users experience finds a bridge seamlessly with the physical context intone where the physical context and the digital world play a significant role.
Improving user experience is of the essence to facilitate the relationship between technology and people. Therefore, the design and evaluation of a technique that improves users experience is the direct pointer. This enables the users to interact with mobile phones and other hand held devices with large displays. Direct manipulation of the pointer position provides continuous feedback. This technique does not require many types of equipment. The user only needs to have an electronic display, a mobile phone, and a connection between the user and the mobile phone. It does not need any visual markers
Electronic large displays are designed for cameras equipped with mobile phones, which enable direct selection of objects on the electronic display by just pointing at the particular object of interest. This kind of interaction is very beneficial in public environments, subway stations, and shopping malls. These phones use a visual movement detection algorithm that incrementally drags the desired objects across the screen.
These camera based mobile phones is giving rise to unimaginable possibilities in this area of direct manipulation. The camera gives the versatile input and the phone can be connected to other situational displays through Bluetooth. People are generally at ease using their own devices, and this may explain the widespread use. The main application areas of direct manipulation are found in gaming, interactive arts, advertisement, digital bulletins, and entertainment.
Conclusion
Of all the interaction techniques that technology can offer, direct manipulation is based on visual code sensing and relative object movement based on optical flow detection. Direct manipulation allows for selection, dragging, and rotation of object. It enchants the user as it provides a communication channels between the user and technology in a manner that it provides greater opportunities.
References
Prates R, de Souza C, and Barbosa S. (2000) A method for evaluating the communicability of User Interfaces, Interactions Jan/Feb, pp.31-38.
de Haan, G. (2000). ETAG, a Formal Model of Competence Knowledge for User Interface
Design. Free University Amsterdam, October 2000.
Benyon, D, (2001). The new HCI. Navigation of information space, Knowledge-Based Systems, Volume 14, Issue 8, 1 December 2001, Pages 425-430.
Bøgh A, (2001) What Semiotics can and cannot do for HCI, Knowledge-Based Systems, Volume 14, Issue 8, 1 December 2001, Pages 419-424
HYPERLINK “http://www.interaction-design.org/references/authors/scott_sherwood.html” o “Scott Sherwood: Publications, homepage, mini-biography etc;” Sherwood, et al (2009). Adapting evaluation to study behaviour in context. In International Journal of Mobile Human Computer Interaction.
Roto, V. (2009): Guest editorial Preface Mobile internet User experience: introduction to the special issue. International Journal of Mobile Human Computer Interaction, 1 (4) pp. i-v.
Koblentz, E, (2009): How It Started Mobile Internet Devices of the Previous Millennium. International Journal of Mobile Human Computer Interaction, 1 (4) pp. 1-3.
