Usability of Touchable-Moveable Multimedia Content. Part I (carousels and more)

I've been revisiting the topic of interaction design/usability for "touchable/moveable" multimedia content for the past couple of weeks.    I recently got an iPad2, so I'm in the "app" exploration phase -  a new world, since I never had an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad "1".  


I plan to share  experiences, thoughts, opinions, and suggestions related to this topic during the upcoming months.   I welcome input from IMT readers!


Getting back to my iPad2....In addition to using the device to run apps, like most people, I also use it to visit websites.  Many sites now appear to be optimized for mobile devices, which is great for my Android-based smartphone, but for my iPad, not so much.   I thought by now we'd have more touchy-feely content to play with.


I've noticed that  basic features that work OK with touch interaction, such as the carousel, 
seem to miss the target, as discussed in the following article:



5 Big Usability Designers Make on Carousels
Anthony, UX Movement, 8/2/11


Although the above article was written from a "click" rather than "touch" perspective, many of the comments Anthony brings up ring true for websites and apps that are accessed through tablets and other touch enable screens.



I'm disappointed.  Here are a few of my grumbles:

• Many designers/developers have been slow to look at the increasing number of people who are accessing websites and applications via touch-enabled screens - of any size.   
• Many designers/developers have been slow to catch on that a website or app might be viewed/used by more than one person at a time.  Websites for house-hunting, home furnishings, vacation/travel, and education are a few examples that come to mind.
• Too many "multimedia" apps/websites are flat. Many still have a power-pointy feel.
• Websites optimized for mobile devices often leave important features out.
• Designers/developers sometimes don't seem to think about the various scenarios in which their applications/websites might be used - while balancing a baby on one hip, preparing a meal,  working out,  walking the dog, trotting around the mall with a friends/kids/spouse,  eating, waiting at a stop light, etc.

Too many iPad apps are flat and power-pointy. Too many apps don't take full advantage multi-touch features.  Very few apps allow for efficient interaction between two people on the screen.  




SOMEWHAT RELATED
Carousel Design Patterns   I will add more related links in the future - not limited to carousels : )
Carousel Interaction #21 (Mike Highfield's Rapid eLearning Blog
Carousel (Interaction Patterns Wiki)
Carousel (Welie)
Mobile Implementation of a Web 3D Carousel with Touch Input
Bjorkskog, C., Jacucci, G., Lorentin, B., Gamberinit, L.



Photo Credit:  Ohad

10/GUI: Another Twist to Multi-touch Interface and Interaction

10/GUI from C. Miller on Vimeo.

I came across a link to this video via Experientia's Putting People First blog post about MG Siegler's TechCrunch post, 10/GUI: One Very Slick Desktop Multi-Touch Concept (Video).  This video was created by R. Clayton Miller, and the video above is a concept video, food for further thought and discussion.

I've written about the need for more appropriate form factors in the past, and the idea that Miller proposes is quite intriguing, since I've toyed with the idea of using something like a flexible mouse pad as an adaptive interface for students who have problems with fine-motor control, limiting their ability to use a mouse, keyboard, or even some of the adaptive switches that are available.

(It is interesting to note that Siegler's blog post was written on 10/13/09, and as I write this post on 10/15/09, it has 92 comments and 460 tweets. My guess this is a hot topic, especially now that HP has released new versions of the all-in-one HP TouchSmart PC).

Siegler discusses Michael Arrington's 10/12/09 post, Why Desktop Touch Screens Don't Really Work Well For Humans. Arrington's post discusses the reasons why he's not happy with the TouchSmart, because the desktop on which most people use it requires them to keep their hands up on the screen, above the heart, which can be fatiguing.

I have an HP TouchSmart, and I switch back and forth, depending on what I'm doing.  I didn't think of this before, but I have a very adjustable chair that I raise up when I use my hands on the touch screen. Without thinking, I've made the appropriate adjustment.  Not everyone has the luxury of a fancy adjustable deskchair!

From what I can tell, Miller is focused on how multi-touch technology can support the work or pleasure of just one person, which is still how many people interact with their computers.  What is needed is more thought about ways this technology could support two or more people working together.  My HP TouchSmart works well with two people, even when when running single-touch programs. But it is better when it runs duo-touch enabled programs!

Accenture's Interactive Wall for the Louvre Exhibit at the High Museum

I just came across Lauren Hayne's blog about her experience developing the Accenture Interactive Wall for the Louvre exhibit at the High Museum in Atlanta during the first part of 2009.  Lauren is an analyst at Accenture.

FYI

Louvre Atlanta uses Accenture's Interactive Technology to Explore Changing Nature of Masterpieces

Interactive Wall Technology: Seeing the Big Picture

Louvre Atlanta Case Study(pdf)

Interactive Technology Fact Sheet (pdf)

Interactive Touch Screens Out and About: Touch Screen Party Planner for ASDA, by H Squared LTD

Found on YouTube:



The video below was produced by H Squared LTD, a creative retail design company based in the UK. It demonstrates how a single-touch application is used to help people plan their parties when they visit the ASDA store.



This company just uploaded a number of videos, which can be viewed on the H Squared LTD YouTube channel. It looks like this company has some experience with interactive television. I'm not sure if this company has ventured into multi-touch.

To learn more, I visited  the H Squared LTD website, and found that it works pretty nicely on my TouchSmart PC. You can turn the pages of Issue 1 of the magazine.  The music's fun, too, and it sounds as if someone put some thought into how it was mixed.

If you are contemplating what sort of outfit you'd like to wear to your next costume party, take a look at the styles  in the ASDA's photoshoot video.  The music? "Somebody's Watching Me".

A great beat, and you can dance to it.

WIRED's Overview of Touchscreen PC's and Interface Innovations (and some links for the tech-curious)

According to Priya Ganapati's recent article in WIRED,  only 3% of all PC's and notebooks have interactive touchscreens.  More are coming to market, such as Sony's Vaio L Touch HD PC,  Dell's all-in-one, and Lenovo's tablet PC and ThinkPad laptop.  HP came out with the TouchSmart PC and touch-enabled laptops, and will be adding updated versions soon.

This is a great opportunity for developers interested in touch, multi-touch, and gesture interaction applications.   I think there will be even more opportunity for web developers to create websites that are touch-enabled, or at least optimized for touch screen interaction.

Will the  multi-touch web might be right around the corner?    

At the moment, there is some confusion about what designers should consider when developing applications.  There is not standard system of touch or gesture interaction,  and researchers are still very busy figuring things out.   Some companies have rushed out and patented gestures,  which in my opinion, is like patenting how we breath. But that is another story.

If you are a designer or developer, you might be interested in the Touch First Microsoft Surface Developer Challenge.  It is a chance to win your very own Microsoft Surface!  Hurry, the deadline is October 12th.

If you want to learn more, read WIRED's Gadget Lab:  "Touchscreen PC's Prompt Interface Innovations" for a good overview of what's happening in the Touch PC world.

If you are curious and would like to dig deeper into this topic, take some time to look at some of my blog-posts about multi-touch, touch screen news, innovations, and related musings:

The World Is My Interface:  An Introduction (and some links)
Interactive Touch-Screen Technology, Participatory Design, and "Getting It".
Multimedia and Interaction Resources (a mega-list, work-in-progress)
Bump Top 3D Desktop on a Touch Screen:  Toss Your Photos to your Facebook Icon!
Ron George's Interaction Design Toolbox
So how are people using their multi-touch all-in-ones?  Medion X9613 will be released soon..
Multi-touch, multimedia, multi-modal:  Fujitsu LIFEBOOK 54310 has a multitude of possibilties
Windows Vista User Experience Guidelines: "All Windows programs should be touchable!"

The Touch Research Project, re/Touch, and Near Field Communication Touch Interaction

The Touch Project is based in the Interaction Design department of the Oslow School of Architecture and Design in Norway. "Touch is a research project that investigates Near Field Communication (NFC), a technology that enables connections between mobile phones and physical things. We are developing applications and services that enable people to interact with everyday objects and situations through their mobile devices. Touch consists of an inter-disciplinary team involved in social and cultural enquiry, interaction/industrial design, rapid prototyping, software, testing and exhibitions." -

Nearness Explores Interaction Without Touching

Nearness from timo on Vimeo.

iPhone RFID: Object-based media

iPhone RFID: object-based media from timo on Vimeo.

reTouch Web Site

reTouch Info Sheet (pdf)

reTouch is part of the Touch project, and it " brings together hundreds of cross-cultural examples of social norms and values involving touch—all categorised according to actions related to touching. Using quotes from ethnographic accounts written between the late 1800s and the present, re/touch encourages designers and researchers to explore how touch is used by people to relate to one another and the worlds in which we live. Browse re/touch to create design briefs, refine interaction scenarios, devise game play, or otherwise think, make and do things touchrelated." -reTouch web info, Anne Galloway.


One of the members of the research team is Anne Galloway, a social researcher and the author of the  purselipsquarejaw blog, which she recently resurrected after taking a year off from blogging.

Anne also contributes to the space and culture journal.  I've followed Anne's writing for a while.  Over the course of her Ph.D. studies, she has thought deeply about the intersections of technology, space, and culture,  including cross-cultural meanings of touch.

RELATED
Inspiring Touch Related Interaction Design

Designing With RFID

View more documents from Chen pinmiao.

Original Design Thinking Approach for Researching RFID
-Nikolas Nova, Pasta and Vinegar


Note:  Nikolas Nova's Pasta and Vinegar blog is worth taking a look at if you are interested in design, UX, emerging technologies, pervasive/ubiquitous computing.


About Nikolas and his blog:
"User Experience researcher at LIFTlab. My work is about studying how people use various technologies and turn them into insights, ideas, prototypes or recommendations to inform design and foresight.This blog is a selection of the material that I collect, especially in fields such as mobility, urban environments, digital entertainment and new interfaces. I am also part of the near future laboratory."

Sample of Pasta and Vinegar Posts:
(Touch) Interaction Vocabulary
A Graphic Language for Touch-based Interactions

Links to Accessibility Posts: 1, Hello Haptic Flash Cards; 2. Samsung Braille TouchPhone Prototype is Cool, uses Electric Active Plastic

Here are the links to the posts:

Samsung Braille TouchPhone Prototype is Cool: Uses Electric Active Plastic

Hello Haptic Flash Cards



More about the camera for the visually impaired/blind later!

Hands-On Computing: InfiniTouch's Innovation

In response to the comment I received about my last post, I did some hunting and posted about QSI's InfiniTouch products on the Technology Supported Human-World Interaction blog. The post contains a couple of videoclips about InfiniTouch, as well as links about the various uses of the application/system.

If you are interested in touch interaction, it is worth exploring!