INPUT DEVICES,

INTERACTION TECHNIQUES
AND INTERACTION TASKS

Introduction
Designing and Implementing GUI
HW and SW costs are low enough to
bring significant computing capability
to our homes and offices
Emphasis on user interface quality
Eg critical applications as ATC and
nuclear power plant monitoring , a
poor interface can cause catastrophic
effects.

Elements of use Interface

Input Devices
Already discussed

Interaction techniques
Ways to use input devices to enter
information into the computer

Interaction tasks
Primitive building blocks from which a
user interface is crafted

Interaction Hardware
Advantages and disadvantages of various
interaction devices can be discussed on 3
levels
Device
Hardware Characteristics

Task
Compare interaction techniques using different
devices for same task

Dialogue
Not just individual interaction tasks but a sequence
of such tasks

Interaction Hardware

Locator devices
Keyboard devices
Valuater devices
choice devices
Other devices
3 D interaction devices
Device level human factors

Locator devices
These devices are classified
according to 3 independent
characteristic
Absolute or relative
Direct or Indirect
Discrete or continuous

Absolute or relative
Absolute devices such as a data
tablet or touch panel have a frame of
reference or origin and report
positions wrt that origin.
Relative devices such as mice, track
ball , joystick have no absolute origin
and report only changes from their
former position.

Direct or Indirect

With a direct device such as light pen

or touch screen the use points
directly at the screen with finger or
surrogate finger.
With an indirect device such as tablet
mouse or joystick user moves a
cursor on the screen.

Discrete or continuous

A continuous device is one in which a

smooth hand motion can create a
smooth cursor eg tablet, mouse ,
joystick.
Cursor control devices are discrete
devices eg cursor movements keys.

Keyboard Devices
QWERTY is a well known keyboard.
Studies show that newer keyboard
design
[DVOR43]
which
places
vowels and other high frequency
char under the home positions of the
finger is somewhat faster.
Alphabetically organised keyboards
are sometimes used when users are
non typists.

Valuater Devices
Some valuaters are bounded like the
vol control on a radio. A dial can be
turned only so far before a stop is
reached that prevents further tuning.

Choice devices
Function keys are common choice
device.
Their placement affects their
usability.

Other Devices
Here we discuss some less common
experimental devices
Voice recognisers because they free
users hands, apply a pattern
recognition
approach
to
the
waveforms created when we speak a
word.

3 D interaction devices
Some of the 2 D interaction devices
are readily extended to 3D.
Joysticks can have a shaft that twists
for third dimension.

Device level human factors

Eg mice differ in important ways.
Physical shapes are different ranging
from hemisphere to elongated low
profile rectangle.
Buttons are positioned differently.
Keyboards designs also vary.

Basic Interaction Tasks

The Position Interaction Task
The Select Interaction Task- variable
sized set of choices
The select Interaction tasks
Relatively fixed sized choice set
The Text Interaction Tasks
The Quantify Interaction Task
3-D Interaction tasks

The Position Interaction Task

The positioning task involves specifying an (x,y) or
(x,y,z) position to the application program.
The task involves either moving the screen cursor
to the desired location and then pushing the button
, or typing the coordinates.
General issues are
Coordinate system
Resolution
Grids
Feedback
Direction Preference
Learning Time

Coordinate system
An important issue is the coordinate
system in which the feedback is provided.
If a locator device is moved right , in
which direction should the object move?
Increasing
x
direction
in
the
screen
coordinates (right choice)
Increasing x direction in the world coordinates
Increasing x direction in the objects own
coordinates

Resolution
Keyboard typein of an (x,y) pair can
provide unlimited resolution.

Grids
A grid is superimposed on the work
area to help in aligning positions or
objects.
Gridding helps users to generate
drawing with a neat appearance.

Feedback
Two types of positioning tasks:
Spatial
User knows where the intended
position is, in spatial relation to
nearby elements. Eg drawing a line
between two rectangles
Linguistic
User knows the numeric position of x,y
coordinates of the position.

Direction Preference
Some positioning devices impede
movements on arbitrary axes.eg
certain joysticks give more resistance
to movement off the principle axes.

Learning Time
Learning the eye hand coordination
for indirect methods is essentially the
same process as learning to steer a
car.

The select Interaction Task Variable

sized set of choices
Choosing an element from choice set.
Selecting objects by naming. The user can type a
choice name. It is reasonable and faster than
pointing if number of objects is large. Also it is
better if the display is cluttered and zooming is
not feasible.
Selecting objects by pointing
First pointing then clicking
But what if the object has multiple levels of
hierarchy.eg select robot, select arm, select hand etc.
Set_selection_level to change level of hierarchy.

The select Interaction tasks

Relatively fixed sized choice set

Menu selection is one of the richest techniques

in this. Several key factors in menu design are
Menu Order
Single level versus Hierarchical Design
Menu Placement
Visual Representation
Current Selection
Size and Shape of menu items
Pattern recognition
Function keys

Menu Order
Menu elements can be organised in
many different orders
Alphabetical
Logically grouped by functional purpose
Most frequently used first
Most imp first

Single level versus Hierarchical

Design
If the choice set is too large to
display all at once

Menu Placement
Menu can be shown on a display
screen or on a second auxiliary
screen, can also be printed on a
tablet.
On screen menus can be static or
can appear dynamically (pop up, pull
down, pull out menus)

Visual Representation
Iconic Menu
Textual Menu

Size and Shape of menu items

Larger items are faster to select.
Smaller items take less space and
allow more items to be displayed in
fixed area but induce more errors
during selection

Pattern recognition
User
makes
a
sequence
of
movements
with
a
continuous
positioning device. The pattern
recognizer compares the sequence
with a set of defined patterns each
of which corresponds to an element
of the selection set.

Function keys
The keys can be used in a
hierarchical selection fashion and
their meanings can be altered using
chords.

The Text Interaction Tasks

Character recognition
The user prints characters with a continuous
positioning device and the computer recognizes it.
Not appropriate for massive input.

Menu selection
A series of letters, syllables and other basic units a
is displayed as a menu. The user inputs by choosing
letters from the menu with selection device.

Evaluation of text entry technique

for massive input the only substitute for a skilled
typist is an automatic scanner.

The Quantify Interaction Task

Involves specifying a numerical value between
some min and max value.
Typical interaction techniques are
Typing a value
Setting a dial to the value
Using an up down counter to select the value

When it is linguistic, user knows the specific

value to be entered
When it is spatial user seeks to increase or
decrease a value by a certain amount with
perhaps an approx idea of the desired val

3-D Interaction tasks

Position and select tasks become more
complicated in 3D
A additional task Rotate
First difficulty in perceiving 3 D depth
Second complication arises when we try to
map movements via 2 D interaction devices
into 3 D.
A common way is to decompose 3 D
manipulation task into simpler lower
dimensional tasks.