Interaction technique: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 06:41, 6 June 2011

Revision as of 16:04, 11 June 2011

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Although there is no general agreement on the exact meaning of the term "interaction technique", the most popular definition is from the [[computer graphics]] literature:

{{"|An interaction technique is a way of using a physical input/output device to perform a generic task in a human-computer dialogue.<ref name="foley">J.D. Foley, A. van Dam, S.K. Feiner and J.F. Hughes (1990), [[Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice]], Addison-WesleyAddison–Wesley.</ref> }}

A more recent variation is:

{{"|An interaction technique is the fusion of input and output, consisting of all software and hardware elements, that provides a way for the user to accomplish a task.<ref name="tucker">A.B. Tucker (2004), Computer Science Handbook, Second Edition. Chapman & Hall/CRC. p20-2pp 20–2.</ref> }}

=== The computing view ===

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In general, the less compatible the device is with the ___domain object, the more complex the interaction technique.<ref name="buxton">W. Buxton (1986) There's More to Interaction than Meets the Eye: Some Issues in Manual

Input. In Norman, D. A. and Draper, S. W. (Eds.), User Centered System Design:

New Perspectives on Human-ComputerHuman–Computer Interaction. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale,

New Jersey, 319-337319–337.</ref> For example, using a mouse to specify a 2D point involves a trivial interaction technique, whereas using a mouse to rotate a 3D object requires more creativity to design the technique and more lines of code to implement it.

A current trend is to avoid complex interaction techniques by matching physical devices with the task as close as possible,<ref name="buxton"/> such as exemplified by the field of [[Tangible User Interface|tangible computing]]. But this is not always a feasible solution. Furthermore, device/task incompatibilities are unavoidable in [[computer accessibility]], where a [[Switch Access|single switch]] can be used to control the whole computer environment.

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== Research and innovation ==

A large part of research in [[human-computer interaction]] involves exploring easier-to-learn or more efficient interaction techniques for common computing tasks. This includes inventing new ([[post-WIMP]]) interaction techniques, possibly relying on methods from [[user interface design]], and assessing their efficiency with respect to existing techniques using methods from [[experimental psychology]]. Examples of scientific venues in these topics are the [http://www.acm.org/uist UIST] and the [[CHI (conference)|CHI]] conferences. Other research focuses on the specification of interaction techniques, sometimes using formalisms such as [[Petri nets]] for the purposes of [[formal verification]].<ref name="schyn">Schyn, A., Navarre, D., Palanque, P., and Porcher Nedel, L. 2003. Formal description of a multimodal interaction technique in an immersive virtual reality application. In Proceedings of the 15th French-Speaking Conference on Human-ComputerHuman–Computer interaction on 15eme Conference Francophone Sur L'interaction Homme-MachineHomme–Machine (Caen, France, November 25–28, 2003). T. Baudel, Ed. IHM 2003, vol. 51. ACM, New York, NY, 150-157150–157.</ref>

== See also ==