Interaction technique
An interaction technique, user interface technique or input technique is a combination of
Definition
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.[1]
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.[2]
The computing view
From the computer's perspective, an interaction technique involves:
- One or several input devicesthat capture user input,
- One or several output devicesthat display user feedback,
- A piece of software that:
- interprets user input into commands the computer can understand,
- produces user feedback based on user input and the system's state.
Consider for example the process of deleting a file using a
The user's view
From the user's perspective, an interaction technique is a way to perform a single computing task and can be informally expressed with user instructions or usage scenarios. For example, "to delete a file, right-click on the file you want to delete, then click on the delete item".
The designer's view
From the user interface designer's perspective, an interaction technique is a well-defined solution to a specific
Level of granularity
One extant cause of confusion in the general discussion of interaction is a lack of clarity about levels of granularity.[3] Interaction techniques are usually characterized at a low level of granularity—not necessarily at the lowest level of physical events, but at a level that is technology-, platform-, and/or implementation-dependent. For example, interaction techniques exist that are specific to mobile devices, touch-based displays, traditional mouse/keyboard inputs, and other paradigms—in other words, they are dependent on a specific technology or platform. In contrast, viewed at higher levels of granularity, interaction is not tied to any specific technology or platform. The interaction of 'filtering', for example, can be characterized in a way that is technology-independent—e.g., performing an action such that some information is hidden and only a subset of the original information remains. Such an interaction could be implemented using any number of techniques, and on any number of platforms and technologies.[4] See also the discussion of #interaction patterns below.
Interaction tasks and domain objects
An
Interaction techniques are the glue between physical I/O devices and interaction tasks or domain objects.[5][6] Different types of interaction techniques can be used to map a specific device to a specific domain object. For example, different gesture alphabets exist for pen-based text input.
In general, the less compatible the device is with the domain object, the more complex the interaction technique.[7] 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,
Interaction style
Interaction techniques that share the same
Interaction patterns
While interaction techniques are typically technology-, platform-, and/or implementation-dependent (see #level of granularity above), human-computer or human-information interactions can be characterized at higher levels of abstraction that are independent of particular technologies and platforms. At such levels of abstraction, the concern is not precisely how an interaction is performed; rather, the concern is a conceptual characterization of what the interaction is, and what the general utility of the interaction is for the user(s). Thus, any single interaction pattern may be instantiated by any number of interaction techniques, on any number of different technologies and platforms. Interaction patterns are more concerned with the timeless, invariant qualities of an interaction.[4]
Visualization technique
Interaction techniques essentially involve data entry and manipulation, and thus place greater emphasis on input than output. Output is merely used to convey
Research and innovation
A large part of research in
See also
- 3D interaction techniques
- Interaction styles
- Types of user interface
- Input devices
- Interaction Design
- Interactivity
- Information Visualization
- Visual Analytics
- Widget (GUI)
References
- ^ a b J.D. Foley, A. van Dam, S.K. Feiner and J.F. Hughes (1990), Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice, Addison–Wesley.
- ^ A.B. Tucker (2004), Computer Science Handbook, Second Edition. Chapman & Hall/CRC. pp 20–2.
- ^ Sedig, K., Parsons, P., Dittmer, M., & Haworth, R. (2013). Human–centered interactivity of visualization tools: Micro– and macro–level considerations. In W. Huang (Ed.), Handbook of Human-Centric Visualization (pp. 717–743). Springer, New York.
- ^ a b Sedig, K. & Parsons, P. (2013). Interaction design for complex cognitive activities with visual representations: A pattern-based approach. AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction, 5(2), 84–133.
- ^ a b M. Beaudouin-Lafon (2000) Instrumental interaction: an interaction model for designing post-WIMP user interfaces. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
- ^ P. Dragicevic and J-D Fekete (2004) The Input Configurator toolkit: towards high input adaptability in interactive applications[dead link]. In Proceedings of the Working Conference on Advanced Visual interfaces.
- ^ a b 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–Computer Interaction. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, New Jersey, 319–337.
- ^ 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–Computer interaction on 15eme Conference Francophone Sur L'interaction Homme–Machine (Caen, France, November 25–28, 2003). T. Baudel, Ed. IHM 2003, vol. 51. ACM, New York, NY, 150–157.
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