Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
If your users will include older people, you may need to give consideration to
the type of technology that you will use. As people get older, or if they have
diabetes, their skin loses its sensitivity. This means that if you are going to use a
touch screen interface it may need to utilize resistive technology rather than
capacitive technology.
If the user's task has to be carried out remotely, or requires wearing gloves
(ranging from those used outdoors to those used in space), then you may want to
augment visual (and auditory) feedback with haptic feedback. Teleoperators, for
example, often like to have feedback about what they are holding in their grippers,
and surgeons performing operations remotely need to know about the shape and
elasticity of the organs that they are dealing with.
One aspect of haptics which we have not considered here, but which can be
important, is the feel of a device and the materials it is made from, its esthetics. A
smooth, shaped surface, for example, may help to lead to a positive emotional
experience of using a particular device. This is one of the reasons why mice
evolved from relatively square devices to something that is now much more
rounded and better suited to the shape of the hand when using it.
If your system will be installed in an environment where there is limited space,
this may determine how the users can interact with the system. It is always worth
going to look at the installation location beforehand. One of the authors was
involved in putting in a system that normally used a mouse. The system was to be
installed alongside another system which meant that there was very limited
desktop space available. As a result, a trackerball interface was used instead of the
mouse because it requires less space to operate.
If your system includes manual controls, it is important to provide haptic
feedback to indicate that these controls have been operated. This is particularly
true when there is no obvious visual or auditory feedback when a button has been
pressed or a switch has been activated, for example.
If you are developing a mobile application or system, you will need to think
about all the contexts in which it may be used. If it can be used in a situation where
visual and auditory feedback are not allowed, for example, then you may want to
give the device a haptic interaction capability. Most mobile phones, for example,
provide a silent mode in which the phone vibrates rather than rings.
3.5 Summary
This chapter has introduced the fact that at least some aspects of users' bodies are
involved in interacting with devices and systems. Although the fields of human
factors and ergonomics routinely consider this aspect of work, it tends to be less
explicitly represented in HCI. Users' bodies provide capabilities and constraints on
Search WWH ::
Custom Search