QUESTION
Assignment designing human computer interation
Design Review Report
Word Count: 1500 words +/-10%
Individual Work
This assignment is designed to test whether you can analyse a particular human-computer interaction.
Your task is to:
1) Worth: 1% — Choose one type from the list of human-interaction examples. For that type choose a particular make and model (or, in the case of software, name and version). Each student in the semester cohort will select a different example. This will be on a first come first served basis. You may suggest an interaction. However this alternative must be approved by the lecturer, to ensure that your selection has not been already taken, before you begin this assignment. Note that your choice of interaction from the example will need to be approved by the lecturer. This must be in the form of a email acknowledgement from the lecturer that your technology has been approved. This approval must be noted in the submitted report and which must contain at least:
a) The name of the technology, and
b) The interactions. Describing them in the same way as in the first piece of assessment, Interaction Recognition Report.
2) Worth: 10% — Analyse the interactions from your chosen example using whichever reference material you deem useful. Where this analysis method is not in the prescribed text you will need to contrast your choice with the text methods highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of each method.
3) Worth: 2% — Write a report describing the quality and extent of the interactions. Use whichever analysis methodology you chose in the previous section, explaining, in detail, the strong and weak points of each interaction from the point of view of each of those involved in the interaction. Ie. How is the interaction good for the computer, how is the interaction good for the human?
4) Worth: 2% — Write a bibliography. You must state the citation method you chose (eg Vancouver, Chicago, Harvard, APA, IEEE, etc.) and give an indicative example. The university standard is acceptable.
SOLUTION
Introduction to Human Computer Interface and Graphics Tablets
It has been seen that interaction between human beings and computers takes place in many ways and the interface used to facilitate this interaction between humans and computers is very crucial. In this report we will study the usage of Graphic Usage Interface (GUI), a commonly used mode of human computer interactions (HCI) in case of Graphic Tablets.
Human Computer Interaction was born when the usage of computers became much prevalent and more number of researchers started studying this specialised field of interaction between individuals and computers and the study was mainly based on the psychological , theoretical and physical aspects and impacts related to this interaction (Dix et al., 2004). Thus we can say that HCI is a multi-disciplinary subject which involves many fields as depicted below:
Figure 1: Disciplines involved in the field of Human-Computer Interaction
The product which we have chosen to study Human Computers Interaction (HCI) methodology is Graphics Tablets. The Specific Graphic Tablet which interests us the most is the WACOM CTL-470K-EN Bamboo Pen Graphics Tablet, which is manufactured by the most famous company in the field of graphics tablet that is WACOM. This black and green graphics tablet boasts of changing your digital world of Human Computer Interactions (WACOM CTL-470K-EN Bamboo Pen Graphics Tablet, 2012).
Features of Wacom Graphics tablet
This tablet comes with a specially designed pen which works in perfect combination with the ultra-sensitive WACOM Bamboo pen graphics tablet and is best for digital drawings. With the help of this graphics tablet you can very easily transfer your ideas into your computer. It has a built-in pen holder too which makes the storage of ideas or designs quicker and easier (WACOM CTL-470K-EN Bamboo Pen Graphics Tablet, 2012).
- Stylus
- Comes with ArtRage painting Software
- Textured writing surface
- Active Area 14×9 cm
- Precision 1024
- Connectivity through USB, Micro B Tablet side
Technologies used in Graphics Tablets
The tablet surface depicts the movement of the finger or the stylus on the tablet and the displays, thus producing the cursor location information. In Matrix- encoded tablets the special puck or stylus is used to detect the magnetic or electrical signals which are being produced by the grid of conductors in the tablet. Since this one is touch sensitive tablet, it can also work without a special stylus in it the technology used has high frequency waves which are transmitted across the glass surface of the tablet.
Interaction Recognition Report for Graphics Tablet
Graphics Tablet is usually a peripheral device which is attached to the computer and it detects the position of the digital pen on its surface and also finds the intensity used to press the pen on its surface. Most of the Graphic tablets have just two buttons and the sampling rate and resolution is very high. Thus the main method of input in case of Graphics tablets is pen on the surface. Thus we can very well say that the normal user interface is very much useful and suitable to the graphics tablet, but sketch recognition interface will prove helpful in enhancing the human computer interaction in the case of Graphics tablets. With the sketch recognition interface the user will not have to move the hand from the construction area to the toolbar to select any other mode which will save time and would be preferred by many users too.
Thus here if we check out technically the scenario is similar to normal mode of operation where the driver for the graphics tablet just helps in stimulating the button presses and mouse movements while the resources of the computer on which the application is running are the same as they were without the tablet.
Analysis of Interactions
It has been found that it is pleasant experience to use ScribbleD with Graphics tablets, because the rate of events generated by any graphics tablet is very fast and higher, which when coupled with a quick paced computer, this means eth software is bound to get lot of events and recognition in such cases is found to be very nice. Thus whenever a user uses a Graphics tablet it is found that scribbling is better than using it in classic modes, because in this case one does not have to switch the modes very quickly.
Since the graphics tablets have two buttons so, the switching modes can be used for with the help of these buttons (Mahoney and Fromherz, 2002).In many cases it has been found that the back tip of the pen is also recognised as the second mouse button by many graphics, which is mainly used as an eraser in case of several drawing programs. Some of the pens also have small button on the side, just like the whiteboard pens manufactured by Numonics (Moyle and Cockburn, 2002).
Flow Menus help in mode switching very quicker in the graphic Tablets as compared to the regular toolbar method which is traditionally used. In this case the gestures for the mode which the user uses most often are very quickly retained in the form of information and then in near future these necessary gestures can be easily and fluently executed. In this case the scribbling mode switcher is very much functional but the users would prefer the flow menu version because the scribbling version requires extra commands and directions, before it being used.
But if we check out form the Human computer Interaction perspective whether the user prefers to use flow menu and selects the modes or simply uses the traditional modes or simply just scribbles maximum time, it is individuals own preference while interacting with the graphics (Materlik, 2003).
The quikwriting is very much utilizable and practical HCI, but when the user is simply using a simple computer, the user will not find it much beneficial.
Strong and weak points of every interaction
It has been found that using simple slide shows for teaching makes the session very exhaustive as they are very fast and their handwriting speed decreases, so with the initial advent of pen-based devices like Graphics Tablets, teachers started experimenting with them in the lecture halls and classrooms (McKay, 2007). The human computer interaction in Graphic tablets happens with the help of movement of digital pen over the separate screen or surface, thus controlling and operating the computer in remote manner. Thus now the teachers can write annotations in natural and freehand manner.
However the graphics tablets still lack the simplicity and usability which chalks and markers possess. The reason being that not all the teachers feel comfortable with the digital pens which remotely control the computers and they rather prefer to write directly onto the electronic visual slides (Schneiderman and Plaisant, 2005). Moreover writing on touch screens when they are in upright position is also very tough. Because the ideal position for screens is horizontal mounting. Moreover another discrepancy found is that the touch panel reacts to any kind of physical contacts and not just the pen inputs, so it is very big hassle because the teachers cannot rest their other hand on the screen while writing (McKay, 2007).
Another disadvantage which is founding touch sensitive graphics tablets is that they get activated by even the inadvertent touches too.
Implementation Issues faced by Graphics Tablets
In case of method of control of cursor it has been found that while doing compensatory tracking there was less error in absolute mode. Bu6t relative mode of controlling cursor movement would be preferred because the tablet size does not govern the amount of movement of cursor which results form the movements on the tablets (Helander, 1997).
It has been found that the graphic tablets being different from the display are found to be more flexible as compared to the touch screens. Their size can be varied from a big digitizing table to a keyboard size. Moreover since they have lower profile than the joysticks and trackball they depict inadvertent activation lesser. The flat surface proves to be much advantageous of the graphics tablets as they can be configured with different ways (Shneiderman and Plaisant, 2004).
The tablets need a feedback or confirmation mechanism because the tablets have indirect nature of interaction. Thus an audible click or tone or any kind of visual indication can be sued as a signal to indicate that the entry has been recognised. Another advantage which eth touch sensitive tablets have is that there is no stylus or puck to break or lose, but in case of using the finger the resolution decreases because when we use stylus the area where pressure is exerted is very small and the user can make smaller movements as compared to using a finger.
Thus we can say that the tablets have advantages for human as the tablet and the display can be kept separately as per the preference of the user and more over the user’s hand does not cover any part of the display of the tablet. The graphics tablets are devoid of parallax problems too (Te’eni, Carey and Zhang, 2007). And any kind of drift caused in the display will not cause any impact on the input. Moreover the user will not have to lift their hands as they have to while writing on touch screens or whiteboards which results in fatigue. But at the same time there are some disadvantages too like they do not allow eye-hand coordination in direct manner (Kirlik, 2006). Sometimes fatigue also occurs when the sure has to hold their body parts like hands and arms away from tablet to avoid inadvertent tablet activations.
Bibliography
Dix, A., Finlay, J., Abowd, G.D. and Beale, R. (2004) Human-Computer Interaction, 3rd edition, London: Addison-Wesley Pearson Education.
Helander, M. (1997) Handbook of Human Computer Interaction, 2nd edition, Amsterdam , The Netherlands: Elsevier Sceince BV.
Kirlik, A. (2006) Adaptive Perspectives on Human-Technology Interaction, Oxford: Oxfpord University Press.
Mahoney, J.V. and Fromherz, M.P.J. (2002) ‘Three main Concerns in Sketch REgonition and an approaxch to addressing them.’, AAAI Spring SYmposium on Sketch Understanding.
Materlik, D. (2003) ‘Using Sketch REcognition to enhance the Human-Computer Interface of Geometry Software’, Institue for INfirmation, December.
McKay, E. (2007) Enhancing Learning Through Human Computer Interaction, London, Hershey, PA: Idea Group Inc.
Moyle, M. and Cockburn, A. (2002) ‘ANalysing Mouse and Pen Flick gestures’, SIGCHI-NZ Symposium on Human Computer Intercations, 39-46.
Schneiderman, B. and Plaisant, C. (2005) Designing the user interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction, 4th edition, Addison- Wesley.
Shneiderman, B. and Plaisant, C. (2004) Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction, 4th edition, Boston: Pearson/Addison-Wesley.
Te’eni, D., Carey, J. and Zhang, P. (2007) Human Computer Interaction: Developing Effective Organizational Information Systems, Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.
WACOM CTL-470K-EN Bamboo Pen Graphics Tablet (2012), [Online], Available: http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/wacom-ctl-470k-en-bamboo-pen-graphics-tablet-11466673-pdt.html [9 April 2012].
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