Beyond Performance
Pourang Irani · 2020
Our reliance on computing technologies for making decisions or sense-making, has undergone a transformation from occurring in well defined settings (such as on traditional PCs) to taking place in-situ, for supporting everyday activities. In-situ user interfaces, have emerged largely from improved mobile and mixed-reality technologies and rely on mid-air input as the basis for interaction. Often, designers of such, on-the-go, user interfaces place an emphasis on enhancing end-user performance. However, we argue that supporting end-user comfort is as critical if in-situ interfaces are to become commonplace among the general population. In this talk, I will present some of our work on various aspects of end-user comfort for in-situ interactions. I will present models for estimating arm fatigue induced by mid-air input, and showcase interactive systems that have been specifically designed to circumvent such fatigue. I will also discuss elements of social comfort and present a framework for including such factors in the design process of end-user interfaces. I end my presentation with a discussion of some of the open problems in this space.