Interaction technique
Encyclopedia
Computer hardware
Personal computer hardware are component devices which are typically installed into or peripheral to a computer case to create a personal computer upon which system software is installed including a firmware interface such as a BIOS and an operating system which supports application software that...
and software elements that provides a way for computer users to accomplish a single task. For example, one can go back to the previously visited page on a Web browser by either clicking
Point-and-click
Point-and-click is the action of a computer user moving a cursor to a certain location on a screen and then pressing a mouse button, usually the left button , or other pointing device...
a button
Button (computing)
In computing, a button is a user interface element that provides the user a simple way to trigger an event, like searching for a query at a search engine, or to interact with dialog boxes, like confirming an action.-Description:A typical button is a rectangle or rounded rectangle, wider than it is...
, pressing a key, performing a mouse gesture
Mouse gesture
In computing, a pointing device gesture or mouse gesture is a way of combining pointing device movements and clicks which the software recognizes as a specific command. Pointing device gestures can provide quick access to common functions of a program. They can also be useful for people who have...
or uttering a speech command
Hands-free computing
Hands-free computing is a term used to describe a configuration of computers so that they can be used by persons without the use of the hands interfacing with commonly used human interface devices such as the mouse and keyboard. Hands-free computing is important because it is useful to both able...
. It is a widely-used term in human-computer interaction. In particular, the term "new interaction technique" is frequently used to introduce a novel user interface design idea.
Definition
Although there is no general agreement on the exact meaning of the term "interaction technique", the most popular definition is from the computer graphicsComputer graphics
Computer graphics are graphics created using computers and, more generally, the representation and manipulation of image data by a computer with help from specialized software and hardware....
literature:
A more recent variation is:
The computing view
From the computer's perspective, an interaction technique involves:- One or several input devices that capture user input,
- One or several output devices that display user feedback,
- A piece of software that:
- interprets user input into commandsCommand (computing)In computing, a command is a directive to a computer program acting as an interpreter of some kind, in order to perform a specific task. Most commonly a command is a directive to some kind of command line interface, such as a shell....
the computer can understand, - produces user feedback based on user input and the system's state.
- interprets user input into commands
Consider for example the process of deleting a file using a contextual menu. This assumes the existence of a mouse (input device), a screen (output device), and a piece of code that paints a menu and updates its selection (user feedback) and sends a command to the file system when the user clicks on the "delete" item (interpretation). User feedback can be further used to confirm that the command has been invoked.
The user's view
From the user's perspective, an interaction technique is a way to perform a single computing task and can be informally expressed with user instructions or usage scenariosScenario (computing)
In computing, a scenario is a narrative describing foreseeable interactions of types of users and the system. Scenarios include information about goals, expectations, motivations, actions and reactions...
. For example "to delete a file, right-click on the file you want to delete, then click on the delete item".
The designer's view
From the user interface designer's perspective, an interaction technique is a well-defined solution to a specific user interface designUser interface design
User interface design or user interface engineering is the design of computers, appliances, machines, mobile communication devices, software applications, and websites with the focus on the user's experience and interaction...
problem. Interaction techniques as conceptual ideas can be refined, extended, modified and combined. For example, contextual menus are a solution to the problem of rapidly selecting commands. Pie menus are a radial variant of contextual menus. Marking menus combine pie menus with gesture recognition
Gesture recognition
Gesture recognition is a topic in computer science and language technology with the goal of interpreting human gestures via mathematical algorithms. Gestures can originate from any bodily motion or state but commonly originate from the face or hand. Current focuses in the field include emotion...
.
Level of granularity
Interaction techniques are usually fine-grained entities. For example, a desktop environmentDesktop environment
In graphical computing, a desktop environment commonly refers to a style of graphical user interface derived from the desktop metaphor that is seen on most modern personal computers. These GUIs help the user in easily accessing, configuring, and modifying many important and frequently accessed...
is too complex to be an interaction technique, whereas Exposé
Exposé (Mac OS X)
Exposé is a feature of the Mac OS X operating system. First previewed on 23 June 2003 at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference as a feature of the then forthcoming Mac OS X v10.3, Exposé allows a user to quickly locate an open window, or to hide all windows and show the desktop without the need...
fits the common intuitive understanding of the term perfectly well. Also, a graph may have a large disparity between the lowest and highest values along the Y-Axis and unable to display clarity, so the Harrison Curve, some what similar in nature to a standard linear zoom, allows the user to distort the focual area to their benefit. In general, a user interface can be seen as a combination of many interaction techniques, some of which are not necessarily as explicit as widgets.
Interaction tasks and domain objects
An interaction task is "the unit of an entry of information by the user", such as entering a piece of text, issuing a command, or specifying a 2D position. A similar concept is that of domain object, which is a piece of application data that can be manipulated by the user.Interaction techniques are the glue between physical I/O devices and interaction tasks or domain objects. Different types of interaction techniques can be used to map a specific device to a specific domain object. For example, different gesture alphabets
Handwriting recognition
Handwriting recognition is the ability of a computer to receive and interpret intelligible handwritten input from sources such as paper documents, photographs, touch-screens and other devices. The image of the written text may be sensed "off line" from a piece of paper by optical scanning or...
exist for pen-based
Pen computing
Pen computing refers to a computer user-interface using a pen and tablet, rather than devices such as a keyboard, joysticks or a mouse....
text input.
In general, the less compatible the device is with the domain object, the more complex the interaction technique. For example, using a mouse to specify a 2D point involves a trivial interaction technique, whereas using a mouse to rotate a 3D object requires more creativity to design the technique and more lines of code to implement it.
A current trend is to avoid complex interaction techniques by matching physical devices with the task as close as possible, such as exemplified by the field of tangible computing
Tangible User Interface
A tangible user interface is a user interface in which a person interacts with digital information through the physical environment. The initial name was Graspable User Interface, which no longer is used....
. But this is not always a feasible solution. Furthermore, device/task incompatibilities are unavoidable in computer accessibility
Computer accessibility
In human-computer interaction, computer accessibility refers to the accessibility of a computer system to all people, regardless of disability or severity of impairment...
, where a single switch
Switch Access
Many people with severe physical or cognitive impairment use one or more switches to access computers. A switch is an assistive technology device that replaces the need to use a computer keyboard or a mouse.-Types of switch:...
can be used to control the whole computer environment.
Interaction style
Interaction techniques that share the same metaphorInterface metaphor
An Interface metaphor is a set of user interface visuals, actions and procedures that exploit specific knowledge that users already have of other domains. The purpose of the interface metaphor is to give the user instantaneous knowledge about how to interact with the user interface...
or design principles can be seen as belonging to the same interaction style. General examples are command line and direct manipulation user interfaces.
Visualization technique
Interaction techniques essentially involve data entry and manipulation, and thus place greater emphasis on input than output. Output is merely used to convey affordances and provide user feedback. The use of the term input technique further reinforces the central role of input. Conversely, techniques that mainly involve data exploration and thus place greater emphasis on output are called visualization techniques. They are studied in the field of information visualizationInformation visualization
Information visualization is the interdisciplinary study of "the visual representation of large-scale collections of non-numerical information, such as files and lines of code in software systems, library and bibliographic databases, networks of relations on the internet, and so forth".- Overview...
.
Research and innovation
A large part of research in human-computer interaction involves exploring easier-to-learn or more efficient interaction techniques for common computing tasks. This includes inventing new (post-WIMPPost-WIMP
In computing post-WIMP comprises work on user interfaces, mostly graphical user interfaces, which attempt to go beyond the paradigm of windows, icons, menus and a pointing device, i.e. WIMP interfaces....
) interaction techniques, possibly relying on methods from user interface design
User interface design
User interface design or user interface engineering is the design of computers, appliances, machines, mobile communication devices, software applications, and websites with the focus on the user's experience and interaction...
, and assessing their efficiency with respect to existing techniques using methods from experimental psychology
Experimental psychology
Experimental psychology is a methodological approach, rather than a subject, and encompasses varied fields within psychology. Experimental psychologists have traditionally conducted research, published articles, and taught classes on neuroscience, developmental psychology, sensation, perception,...
. Examples of scientific venues in these topics are the UIST and the CHI
CHI (conference)
The ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems series of academic conferences is generally considered the most prestigious in the field of human–computer interaction. It is hosted by ACM SIGCHI, the Special Interest Group on computer–human interaction. CHI has been held annually since...
conferences. Other research focuses on the specification of interaction techniques, sometimes using formalisms such as Petri nets for the purposes of formal verification
Formal verification
In the context of hardware and software systems, formal verification is the act of proving or disproving the correctness of intended algorithms underlying a system with respect to a certain formal specification or property, using formal methods of mathematics .- Usage :Formal verification can be...
.
See also
- 3D interaction techniques
- Interaction styles
- Types of user interface
- Input devices