Sign language has largely been dismissed in gesture interface research on grounds of being a natural language. This essay argues that this has been premature. We begin with an overview of relevant literature in the fields of both gesture interface design and sign language, followed by a discussion of other graphical and text-based user interfaces in the context of language - effectively a short essay on language and metaphors in interface design, going into more detail why I believe dismissing sign languages based on their linguistic nature is a mistake. This is further explored in an example user interface that was designed by taking an insight from sign language as a starting point to replace the desktop metaphor and combining it with the discussed text-based interfaces to extend the WIMP paradigm. This experimental design was used as a way to pose questions to users about potential uses of gesture interfaces.

Building upon previous research done on interactivity attributes describing the aesthetic quality of interactions, this paper aims to explore the sense of ow in screen-based interactions, narrowing down to the finer details that make the personality of the interactive experience. The goal is to provide a deeper knowledge on the concrete, expressive qualities of screen based interaction, being “the immaterial material” moulded in the design process. The relevant information for practicing designers is the awareness of what emotions certain interactions elicit and how interactions can be used to convey brand personality.The process conducted followed a research through design methodology, as the aim was to explore the defined design space rather than answer a specific problem. Two major user studies provided insights and refocus in the process along the way to the final result: a set of guidelines and a prototype embodying them. The guidelines provide some details on designing flow experiences on a mobile screen, and are to serve as inspiration and reference to future work and design practice. The prototype, called ‘The Embodiment’ serves as an illustration of the guidelines, as mere words are not able to fully describe the dynamic quality.

This paper explores the possibilities concerning the use of smartwatches for practical use when cycling in the city of today. What is explored specifically is how place-specific information can be displayed in the user interface of the smartwatch in the best way possible, while cycling in an urban context. A design proposal is therefore presented as a means to prove the beneficial aspects of place-specific services in the context of cycling. This proposal is based on analysing user feedback upon usability testing performed on the prototypes developed for this purpose.

The outset of this thesis is to raise questions on how we design for the mobile context and the capabilities of smartphones. Not only the presentation but also the use of input and interaction between a service and a user.This work evolves around sign up forms and answers the question: How does the sign up process affect the holistic perspective of a digital service regarding usability and user experience?This thesis consists of a case studies, and design experiments conducted on Twitter, Instagram and Randos sign up processes to explore if and how the usability, and the user experience could be affected and im- proved.This concluded some important aspects to be considered when designing sign up forms for a digital service.The usability, and the user experience is not only affected by user interaction, and the choice of input method but it’s also affected by which data the service is requesting, and more important; if that data is motivated to request by the service.

This thesis project, conducted in collaboration with Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), investigates how safety-critical internal systems can be designed to enhance usability and user experience through an examination of the Aerodrome Approval system at SAS. Employing a research-through-design approach and utilizing heuristic evaluations, semi-structured interviews, contextual inquiries, and a redesign process, several guidelines for improving usability and user experience have been identified. Key insights reveal that optimizing login functionalities can enhance security and role-specific access, thereby reducing errors and improving the user experience. Consistency in design elements and adherence to standards play a critical role in usability, aiding in error prevention and improving system navigation efficiency. Additionally, effective strategies for error prevention, such as contextual warnings tailored to specific conflicts, help maintain workflow efficiency and prevent user fatigue, whereas ensuring a balanced and timely presentation of information is essential to prevent information overload while still ensuring access to critical data. The project illustrates how multiple usability principles are interconnected yet sometimes conflicting and emphasizes the need to further investigate safety-critical internal systems to a broader extent to be able to identify more generalizable design guidelines in the future.

Using Mehrabian and Russell’s (1974) stimulus (S) - organism (O) - response (R) model, this study developed online shopping experience framework that explains consumer behavioral responses toward online and offline stores. The results of the examined hypothesized relationships in this study reveal website attributes that create positive affective and attitudinal states and behavioral responses toward the retailers and retailers’ websites. Among website attributes, interface design is the strongest predictor of all behavioral responses, while website attributes relating to shopping services and security/privacy affect long term behavioral responses, such as purchase intention and brand loyalty. This study is imperative to practitioners and researchers, as they will help further develop online store environments and online shopping experience.

This study investigates the effect of testing mode on lower-level Saudi Arabian test-takers’ performance and cognitive processes when taking an L2 reading test on computer compared to its paper-based counterpart from an interface design perspective. An interface was developed and implemented into the computer-based version of the L2 reading test in this study, which was administered to 102 Saudi Arabian University students for quantitative analyses and to an additional eighteen for qualitative analyses. All participants were assessed on the same L2 reading test in two modes on two separate occasions in a within-subject design. Statistical tests such as correlations, group comparisons, and item analyses were employed to investigate test-mode effect on test-takers’ performance whereas test-takers’ concurrent verbalizations were recorded when taking the reading test to investigate their cognitive processes. Strategies found in both modes were compared through their frequency of occurrence. In addition, a qualitative illustration of test-takers cognitive behavior was given to describe the processes when taking a lower-level L2 reading test. A mixed-method approach was adhered to when collecting data consisting of questionnaires think-aloud protocols, and post-experimental interviews as main data collection instruments. Results on test-takers’ performance showed that there was no significant difference between the two modes of testing on overall reading performance, however, item level analyses discovered significant differences on two of the test’s items. Further qualitative investigation into possible interface design related causes for these differences showed no identifiable relationship between test-takers’ performance and the computer-based testing mode. Results of the cognitive processes analyses showed significant differences in three out of the total number of cognitive processes employed by test-takers indicating that test-takers had more difficulties in processing text in the paper-based test than in the computer-based test. Both product and process analyses carried out further provided convincing supporting evidence for the cognitive validity, content validity, and context validity contributing to the construct validity of the computer-based test used in this study.

Cette thèse s’intéresse au rôle de l’interface dans l’interaction humain-robot pour l’apprentissage. Elle étudie comment une interface bien conçue peut aider les utilisateurs non-experts à guider l’apprentissage social d’un robot, notamment en facilitant les situations d’attention partagée. Nous étudierons comment l’interface peut rendre l’interaction plus robuste, plus intuitive, mais aussi peut pousser les humains à fournir les bons exemples d’apprentissage qui amélioreront les performances de l’ensemble du système. Nous examinerons cette question dans le cadre de la robotique personnelle où l’apprentissage social peut jouer un rôle clé dans la découverte et l’adaptation d’un robot à son environnement immédiat. Nous avons choisi d’étudier le rôle de l’interface sur une instance particulière d’apprentissage social : l’apprentissage conjoint d’objets visuels et de mots nouveaux par un robot en interaction avec un humain non-expert. Ce défi représente en effet un levier important du développement de la robotique personnelle, l’acquisition du langage chez les robots et la communication entre un humain et un robot. Nous avons particulièrement étudié les défis d’interaction tels que le pointage et l’attention partagée.Nous présenterons au chapitre 1 une description de notre contexte applicatif : la robotique personnelle. Nous décrirons ensuite au chapitre 2 les problématiques liées au développement de robots sociaux et aux interactions avec l’homme. Enfin, au chapitre 3 nous présenterons la question de l’interface dans l’acquisition des premiers mots du langage chez les robots. La démarche centrée utilisateur suivie tout au long du travail de cette thèse sera décrite au chapitre 4. Dans les chapitres suivants, nous présenterons les différentes contributions de cette thèse. Au chapitre 5, nous montrerons comment des interfaces basées sur des objets médiateurs peuvent permettre de guider un robot dans un environnement du quotidien encombré. Au chapitre 6, nous présenterons un système complet basé sur des interfaces humain-robot, des algorithmes de perception visuelle et des mécanismes d’apprentissage, afin d’étudier l’impact des interfaces sur la qualité des exemples d’apprentissage d’objets visuels collectés. Une évaluation à grande échelle de ces interfaces, conçue sous forme de jeu robotique afin de reproduire des conditions réalistes d’utilisation hors-laboratoire, sera décrite au chapitre 7. Au chapitre 8, nous présenterons une extension de ce système permettant la collecte semi-automatique d’exemples d’apprentissage d’objets visuels. Nous étudierons ensuite la question de l’acquisition conjointe de mots vocaux nouveaux associés aux objets visuels dans le chapitre 9. Nous montrerons comment l’interface peut permettre d’améliorer les performances du système de reconnaissance vocale, et de faire directement catégoriser les exemples d’apprentissage à l’utilisateur à travers des interactions simples et transparentes. Enfin, les limites et extensions possibles de ces contributions seront présentées au chapitre 10. / This thesis is interested in the role of interfaces in human-robot interactions for learning. In particular it studies how a well conceived interface can aid users, and more specifically non-expert users, to guide social learning of a robotic student, notably by facilitating situations of joint attention. We study how the interface can make the interaction more robust, more intuitive, but can also push the humans to provide good learning examples which permits the improvement of performance of the system as a whole. We examine this question in the realm of personal robotics where social learning can play a key role in the discovery and adaptation of a robot in its immediate environment. We have chosen to study this question of the role of the interface in social learning within a particular instance of learning : the combined learning of visual objects and new words by a robot in interactions with a non-expert human. Indeed this challenge represents an important an lever in the development of personal robotics, the acquisition of language for robots, and natural communication between a human and a robot. We have studied more particularly the challenge of human-robot interaction with respect to pointing and joint attention.We present first of all in Chapter 1 a description of our context : personal robotics. We then describe in Chapter 2 the problems which are more specifically linked to social robotic development and interactions with people. Finally, in Chapter 3, we present the question of interfaces in acquisition of the first words of language for a robot. The user centered approach followed throughout the work of this thesis will be described in Chapter 4. In the following chapters, we present the different contributions of this thesis. In Chapter 5, we show how some interfaces based on mediator objects can permit the guiding of a personal robot in a cluttered home environment. In Chapter 6, we present a complete system based on human-robot interfaces, the algorithms of visual perception and machine learning in order to study the impact of interfaces, and more specifically the role of different feedback of what the robot perceives, on the quality of collected learning examples of visual objects. A large scale user-study of these interfaces, designed in the form of a robotic game that reproduces realistic conditions of use outside of a laboratory, will be described in details in Chapter 7. In Chapter 8, we present an extension of the system which allows the collection of semi-automatic learning examples of visual objects. We then study the question of combined acquisition of new vocal words associated with visual objects in Chapter 9. We show that the interface can permit both the improvement of the performance of the speech recognition and direct categorization of the different learning examples through simple and transparent user’s interactions. Finally, a discussion of the limits and possible extensions of these contributions will be presented in Chapter 10.

[pt] Com a incorporação de recursos computacionais aos elementos físicos, a computação evolui para a ubiquidade e está presente nos elementos do ambiente físico. Casas, móveis e objetos do dia-a-dia, isto é, o ambiente que nos cerca, são as novas interfaces com as quais as pessoas interagem para colaborar e se informar. Essas novas interfaces implicam em um novo paradigma de interação, ainda pouco conhecido e explorado, como é o caso das Interfaces Tangíveis (Tangible User Interfaces - TUIs), que usam artefatos físicos para representação e controle de informações digitais. Desenvolver Interfaces Tangíveis requer combinar o trabalho voltado para o concreto (forma) com a abstração característica do desenvolvimento de software (comportamento). Este trabalho propõe um método denominado Prototipação Colaborativa de Tangíveis Baseada na Engenharia Semiótica, que combina as abordagens de prototipação e da Engenharia Semiótica no projeto de interfaces tangíveis. Ao combinar estas abordagens, o método agrega os benefícios da experimentação continuada de forma estruturada proporcionada pela prototipação com as vantagens do foco na comunicabilidade da Engenharia Semiótica no projeto de tangíveis. Um estudo de caso é conduzido a fim de investigar a contribuição do método proposto para incorporação da perspectiva da Engenharia Semiótica ao projeto de interfaces tangíveis. / [en] With the embedding of computing resources into physical elements, computing is moving toward ubiquity (or pervasiveness) and is present throughout the physical environment. Homes, furniture, and everyday life objects are the interfaces with which people now interact. Such new interfaces harbinger a new interaction paradigm that is little known and exploited to date, such as Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs) that use physical artefacts for representing and manipulating digital information. Developing TUIs means acknowledging both concrete (form) and abstract (behavior) aspects of an interface. This work proposes a method called Collaborative Tangible Prototyping Based on Semiotics Engineering that combines prototyping and Semiotic Engineering approaches to tangible interfaces design. By combining these approaches, the method brings together the benefits of continued structured experimentation provided by prototyping with the advantages of a focus on communicability from Semiotic Engineering for designing tangibles. A case study is conducted to investigate whether the proposed method contributes to incorporate the Semiotic Engineering perspective in the design of tangible user interfaces.

Nos últimos anos observa-se um intenso debate acerca da transição da TV analógica para a TV digital, acompanhada pela incorporação de inúmeras inovações, dentre as quais destacamos a interatividade, que abre uma nova modalidade para este meio de comunicação, a TV interativa. Os desafios de pesquisa e desenvolvimento em TV interativa são amplos e ainda não totalmente investigados. Em particular, a questão da consistência de interfaces com usuário se apresenta como um tópico relevante e pouco explorado na literatura. Esta dissertação investiga a questão da consistência da interface com o usuário para a TV interativa, considerando seus aspectos teóricos e de implementação. Para tanto investigamos na literatura de Interfaces Humano-Computador a questão da consistência e suas abordagens. Considerando que a consistência é uma característica relativa a um modelo, buscamos identificar modelos de interfaces de TV interativa que sejam exemplos de boas práticas a serem seguidas. A metodologia proposta e utilizada é composta por cinco etapas, a saber: modelagem do usuário, análise de tarefas, diretrizes gerais de interface, análise comparativa de plataformas e coordenação da interface. As três primeiras etapas geram recomendações enquanto que a etapa de análise comparativa gera referências. Utilizando estes dois subsídios a etapa de coordenação da interface objetiva elencar exemplos de interfaces que possam se tornar modelos, esta etapa também verifica a consistência interna do modelo proposto e elabora alternativas no caso das soluções encontradas não serem satisfatórias. No âmbito desta metodologia realizamos extensas avaliações experimentais, dentre as quais destacamos a proposta de quatro modelos de usuário (Torcedor Antenado, Mãe Ocupada, Meia Idade com Ajuda e Torcedor com Baixa Alfabetização), uma análise contextual de tarefas envolvendo dois dos quatro modelos de usuário propostos, bem como uma extensa análise comparativa entre sete plataformas de TV. Este trabalho resultou numa proposta integrada de interface que abrange três aspectos: um mapa de navegação, um conjunto mínimo de teclas para o controle remoto e um modelo de navegação. O mapa de navegação apresenta a taxonomia do sistema. O conjunto mínimo de teclas compreende os recursos mínimos que devem estar universalmente disponíveis ao usuário. O modelo de navegação apresenta uma forma consistente e extensível de navegação para ser utilizada em aplicativos de TV interativa. / In the past few years there has been an intense debate about the transition from analog to digital Television, with the acquisition of many innovations. Of particular interest to this study is the interactivity, which opens a new modality for this medium, the interactive TV. The challenges posed by research and development in interactive TV are ample and not fully investigated. In particular, the question of user interface consistency presents itself as a relevant topic, which is little explored in the literature. This work investigates the question of user interface consistency for interactive TV, taking into account it\'s theoretical and implementation implications. The question of consistency and its approaches was reviewed in the literature of Human-Computer Interfaces. Considering that consistency is a characteristic relative to a model, we tried to identify models of interactive TV interfaces, which are examples of best practices to be followed. The methodology proposed and utilized has five steps: user modeling, task analysis, interface guidelines, platform comparative analysis and interface coordination. The first three steps generate recommendations while the comparative analysis generates references. Using these two products the interface coordination tries to determine examples of interfaces, which can become models, this step also verifies the internal consistency of the proposed model and elaborates alternatives if the found solutions are not satisfactory. Using this methodology a large experimental evaluation was performed. Of special interest is the proposition of four user models, a contextual task analysis of two of the user models as well as an extensive comparative analysis between seven TV platforms. The result of this work is the proposition of an integrated interface, which focuses on three aspects: the navigation map, the minimum remote and a navigation model. The navigation map is the taxonomy of the system. The minimum remote is a group of keys that should be universally available to the user. The navigation model presents a consistent and extensible mechanism for navigation in interactive TV applications.