Interaction Devices by Ben Shneiderman

Keyboard: primary device for text input.

Pointing devices can free users from the keyboard.
The future of computing:
gestural input
2 handed input
3-D pointing
voice input-output
wearable devices

Keyboards and Function Keys

Keyboard layouts
QWERTY layout
puts frequently used letter pairs far apart
Increases finger travel distances
Dvorak layout
reduces finger travel distances by 1 order of magnitude
takes about 1 week of regular typing to make the switch, but most people are
unwilling to make the change.

Keyboards and Function Keys (Continued)

Keyboard layouts (Continued)
Early IBM PC keyboard:
backslash key where people expected the Shift key
special characters near the Enter key.

Ergonomic keyboard
Separate left and right hand keys
Angle the left and right hand keys slightly
Slightly incline the keyboard
Offer more area for wrist support

Chord keyboards
Allow several keys to be pressed simultaneously
Enables rates of up to 300 words per minute

Keyboards and Function Keys (Continued)

Function Keys
difficult to remember meanings
arbitrary labels (e.g. F1 F12)
often inconsistent between applications
layout affects memory
3x4 layout easiest to remember
1x12 layout is error-prone

Placement is important
It is beneficial if you dont have to remove your hands from the home position
on the keyboard.

Cursor Movement Keys

best layouts place keys in their natural positions
inverted-T arrangement is increasingly popular

Pointing Devices
Useful for 6 types of interaction
Select
Position
Orient
Path
Quantify
Text

Pointing Devices (Continued)

Direct-control pointing devices
Lightpen
it could support all 6 of the tasks on the previous slide
Disadvantages:

Touchscreen
land-on strategy
lift-off strategy
user touches the surface
drags a cursor around on the display
lift finger off the display to activate

Applications: public-access systems, air-traffic-control, etc.

Pointing Devices (Continued)

Indirect-control pointing devices
Mouse
hand rests in a comfortable position
Disadvantages:

Trackball
rotating ball that is used to move a cursor around the screen
some laptop computers have a small version of the trackball

Joystick
began in aircraft-control devices
The trackpoint is a small joystick embedded in a laptop keyboard

Pointing Devices (Continued)

Indirect-control pointing devices (Continued)
Graphics tablet
touch-sensitive surface separate from the screen, usually laid flat on the table
or in users lap

Touchpad
Built in near the keyboard
Good for use in laptop computers

Novel pointing devices

Foot controls
Eye-tracking devices
The VPL DataGlove

Pointing Devices (Continued)

Comparing pointing devices
Consider how often you have to switch between the pointing device and
the keyboard
The touchscreen and trackball are good in public-access, shop-floor, and
laboratory applications.
The mouse, trackball, trackpoint, graphics tablet, and touchpad are
effective for pixel-level pointing.
Fitts Law can be used to make comparisons between some pointing
devices.

Speech recognition, digitalization, and

generation
Discrete-word recognition
Conditions for successful applications
Speakers hands are busy
Mobility is required
Speakers eyes are occupied
Harsh or cramped conditions preclude the use of a keyboard

Problems with recognition rates occur when background sounds change,

when the user is ill or under stress, or when words sound similar
Speaking commands is more demanding of working memory than is
performing the hand-eye coordination needed for mouse pointing.

Speech recognition, digitalization, and

generation (Continued)
Continuous-speech recognition
Comfortable and natural communication in a general setting (no
constraints on what you can say and how you say it) is beyond us for now,
posing a problem too difficult to solve.

Speech store and forward

Commonly used for weather, airline, and financial information as well as
for personal messaging

Speech generation
Can be used in cameras, vending machines, automobiles.
The Kurzweil reader can scan the text of a book and read one word at a
time.

Image and Video Displays

The visual display unit (VDU)
the primary source of feedback to the user from the computer
important features
rapid operation, reasonable size, reasonable resolution, quiet operation, no
paper waste, relatively low cost, reliability, highlighting, graphics and
animation

Health concerns
visual fatigue, stress, and radiation exposure

Digital photography and scanners

Digital video
CD-ROMs can provide anywhere from 6 - 72 minutes of motion video
Digital video disks (DVDs) will have an order of magnitude greater
storage space

Image and Video Displays (Continued)

Projectors, heads-up displays, helmet-mounted displays
heads-up display
projects information on a partially silvered windscreen of an airplane or car

helmet-mounted display
small partially silvered glass mounted on a helmet so that users can see the
information while turning their head

Printers
Color printers
Color laser printers produce high quality images
Usually the color inkjet printers produce lower quality images than the screen
images, and the colors may not match those on the screen

Plotters
enable the output of graphs, line drawings, maps, and posters on rolls of paper
up to 100 x 150 cm.

Summary
Choosing hardware is a compromise between the ideal and the
practical.
Consider other forms of input when text entry is limited.
Strive to reduce the number of shifts between the keyboard and the
pointing device.
Make sure that your choice improves performance.
s by Mark Roseman and Saul Greenberg