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Studying The Use of Handhelds To Control Smart Appliances. Jeffrey Nichols Carnegie Mellon University May 19, 2003. The Problem. Appliances are too complex. The Problem, cont. Each complex appliance has its own idiosyncratic interface! Home and Car Stereos Car Navigation Systems - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Jeffrey Nichols • 1 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
Studying The Use of Handhelds To
Control Smart Appliances
Jeffrey NicholsCarnegie Mellon University
May 19, 2003
Jeffrey Nichols • 2 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
The Problem
Appliances are too complex
Jeffrey Nichols • 3 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
The Problem, cont.
Each complex appliance has its own idiosyncratic interface!• Home and Car Stereos• Car Navigation Systems• Answering Machines• …
Increasingly Computerized
Low Usability
Jeffrey Nichols • 4 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
Our Solution
Separate the interface from the appliance!
Key Features User interface-independent appliance specification Automatic generation of GUI and speech interfaces
Specifications
Control
Feedback
Jeffrey Nichols • 5 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
Benefits of Our Approach
Handheld has richer interface technology than appliance can afford Color LCD screen, touch screen, text entry technology
More effort can be put into interface design technology Appliance manufacturer’s must weigh trade-offs
between usability, cost, time-to-market, etc.
Two-way communication channel Better feedback can be provided to the user regarding
the appliance’s state.
Jeffrey Nichols • 6 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
Automatic Generation of UIs
Benefits All interfaces consistent for the user
With conventions of handheldOther applications and UI guidelines
Even from multiple manufacturersAddresses idiosyncracy problem!
Multiple modalities (GUI + Speech UI)
Can take into account user preferences
Will work on special purpose devices (for disabled)
Jeffrey Nichols • 7 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
Outline
A First Step
User Studies
Current Work
Jeffrey Nichols • 8 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
A First Step
Build Reference Interfaces
Remote control interfaces for various appliances that we design manually.
Verify that better interfaces can be created on a handheld
Used for understanding what functional knowledge is necessary to make a good interface.
Jeffrey Nichols • 9 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
Reference Interfaces
Interfaces were hand-designed for two appliances and two handhelds Appliances
AIWA CX-NMT70 Shelf Stereo AT&T 1825 Telephone/Answering
Machine Handhelds
Palm Microsoft PocketPC
Jeffrey Nichols • 10 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
Palm Interfaces
We initially designed paper-prototype interfaces for Palm
telephone stereo
Jeffrey Nichols • 11 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
PocketPC Interfaces
We later implemented interfaces for Microsoft’s PocketPC (simulated remote control).
telephone stereo
Jeffrey Nichols • 12 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
Interface Quality?
We iteratively improved the interfaces using heuristic analysis techniques.
We conducted a think-aloud study with several Carnegie Mellon students to find problems in the interfaces.
Lastly, we conducted a user study that compared our reference interfaces with the manufacturer’s interfaces.
Jeffrey Nichols • 13 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
Outline
A First Step
User Studies
Current Work
Jeffrey Nichols • 14 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
User Studies
Two Studies Study #1:
Paper-Prototype Palm vs. Actual Appliance
Study #2: Functional PocketPC vs. Actual Appliance
Jeffrey Nichols • 15 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
User Studies, cont.
Procedure We did a between-subjects study.
Each subject worked on two sets of tasks. In order to minimize subjects, each worked
on both the stereo and the phone.
We controlled for order and interface type.
Jeffrey Nichols • 16 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
Evaluation of Task Performance
Three Metrics: Time to complete all tasks
Number of times help was requested How often did the subject need the manual
or online help?
Number of missteps Misstep = the pressing of a button that does
not advance the progress on the current task
No missteps were counted after the user requested help.
Jeffrey Nichols • 17 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
User Study #1: PalmOS
Compared paper prototype interfaces with the interfaces of the actual appliances Experimenter changed paper
as subjects tapped
Control of stereo and phone simulated verbally
When the stereo started playing music, the experimenter said “you now hear music from the stereo”
Jeffrey Nichols • 18 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
User Study #1, cont.
Participants 13 Carnegie Mellon Graduate Students
Five female, Eight male Enrolled in School of Computer Science Volunteers (unpaid) Seven owned a Palm device One had no Palm experience Four owned Aiwa-brand stereo systems
Jeffrey Nichols • 19 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
User Study #1 Results
Users made five times the errors and needed help twice as often with the actual appliances!
All results significant (p < 0.001 for all)
Jeffrey Nichols • 20 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
User Study #2
We implemented the interfaces on a handheld and simulated remote control of an actual appliance. Remote control applications built
in Visual Basic on a PocketPC
Control of stereo and phone simulated in software
Feedback appeared to come from the actual appliance
Jeffrey Nichols • 21 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
User Study #2, cont.
Participants Twelve students from Carnegie Mellon
Four female, Eight male
Volunteered in response to a newsgroup advertisement
Paid $7 for their participation (30-45 minutes)
All had limited handheld experience
Half (6) owned Aiwa-brand stereos
Two had AT&T digital answering machines
Jeffrey Nichols • 22 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
User Study #2 Results
All differences are significant (p < 0.05)
About ½ the time and ½ the errors!
Jeffrey Nichols • 23 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
Qualitative Results
Why were the reference interfaces better? Clear feedback and explanation of the
current state was possible.
Elements could be disabled on the screen (graying out)
Functions were separated across multiple screens.
Jeffrey Nichols • 24 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
Outline
A First Step
User Studies
Current Work
Jeffrey Nichols • 25 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
Current Work
Designed a XML-based Specification Lang Functions of Device
State Variables and Commands
LabelingMultiple labels are necessary
GroupingHierarchical groups
Dependency InformationFor enabling and structure
Jeffrey Nichols • 26 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
Current Work, cont.
Built multiple automatic interface generators PocketPC
SmartPhone Tablet PC
(desktop)
Speech
Jeffrey Nichols • 27 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
Control of Real Appliances
Jeffrey Nichols • 28 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
Acknowledgements
Funding National Science
Foundation Microsoft General Motors Pittsburgh Digital
Greenhouse
Equipment Grants Mitsubishi (MERL) VividLogic Hewlett-Packard
PUC Project Members Brad A. Myers Thomas K. Harris Roni Rosenfeld Michael Higgins Joseph Hughes Kevin Litwack Rajesh Seenichamy Mathilde Pignol Stefanie Shriver Jeffrey Stylos Peter Lucas
Jeffrey Nichols • 29 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
Thanks!
For more information see… http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~jeffreyn/
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~pebbles/puc/
Or e-mail me at… [email protected]
Jeffrey Nichols • 30 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
Jeffrey Nichols • 31 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
Actual Appliance Interfaces
Lots of Problems Poorly labeled and overloaded buttons Insufficient feedback
Timer example Programming the speed-dial
Phone has technical separation between phone and answering machine
Jeffrey Nichols • 32 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
Qualitative Results
Grouping controls is important Groups define which elements are
placed adjacent to each other and how elements are separated onto pages.
Groupings vary between devices and interface styles.
Jeffrey Nichols • 33 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
Qualitative Results, cont.
Dual-associated functions are hard to make obvious for users The record button is associated
with both tapes (record onto) and each of the other modes (recorded from).
Some users expected the first mapping to used, whereas the controller used the second mapping.
Jeffrey Nichols • 34 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
Qualitative Results, cont.
Tree-based structures are not sufficient for fully describing an interface Some interface concepts, especially dual-
associated functions, break the tree because they may interact with the children of several different elements within the tree
The record button breaks the stereo’s tree structure because it is globally accessible but has different local effects.
Jeffrey Nichols • 35 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
Qualitative Results, cont.
A single function may map to multiple interface widgets (and vice versa) Example: One state variable could be used
to represent all of the playback states of a tape player. The play, stop, fast-forward, and rewind buttons all act on this single variable.
Jeffrey Nichols • 36 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
Applying These Results
We are actively applying these results to the design of the specification language A tree-grouping structure is augmented
with a dependency graph to help describe dual-mapped functions
Ranking relationships within groups using “priorities”
We will also apply them in the design of the automatic layout engine
Jeffrey Nichols • 37 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
Future Work
Build the specification language and automatic generation engine
Jeffrey Nichols • 38 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
A Hard Problem…
Automatically generating a good user interface is hard, but we think we can do it for several reasons:
Remote controls are a special class of user interface that use relatively simple interaction techniques.
Buttons, text fields, and other standard widgets.
Our approach differs from earlier work…
Jeffrey Nichols • 39 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
The Approach
Study Interfaces Functional knowledge of the appliance
What must the appliance tell the handheld about itself so that a “good” interface can be constructed.
Design and Layout How do we turn the knowledge about the
appliance into a usable interface?
Design a specification language
Build an automatic interface generator
Jeffrey Nichols • 40 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
Our Progress…
Study Interfaces Functional knowledge of the appliance
What must the appliance tell the handheld about itself so that a “good” interface can be constructed.
Design and Layout How do we turn the knowledge about the
appliance into a usable interface?
Design a specification language (in progress)
Build an automatic interface generator
Jeffrey Nichols • 41 • International Workshop on Smart Appliances and Wearable Computing • May 19, 2003
Problems with User Study #1
Paper-prototype study introduced a high possibility of experimenter interference.
Solution Create an environment that completely
simulates what one might experience using a personal universal controller
Interfaces running on an actual handheld Interfaces should appear to control an
actual appliance