Lecture 6 - Very Mobile HCI

Question 1

What is fragmented attention?

Answer 1

When 2 things are competing for our focus , so we cannot devote 100% attention to a single thing, but rather have divided attention.

Question 2

What is fragmented attention in the mobile hci context?

Answer 2

When our attention is divided between the mobile device and another stimuli.

Question 3

What is the resource competition framework?

Answer 3

The idea that we have limited cognitive resources and hence we often have to prioritize attention.

Question 4

What is situational impairment?

Answer 4

when the context restricts a person’s ability to interact with the device. This is typically physical, but not always (e.g. someone talking to you)

Question 5

Situation when we have competing demands and hence fragmented attention?

Answer 5

walking and looking at our phone

Question 6

Is fragmented attention bad or good?

Answer 6

Bad, as it can lead to dangerous situations depending on the context.

Question 7

What do users face in the modern world?

Answer 7

situational impairment

Question 8

When we are facing situational impairment, what input and output modality is greatly affected?

Answer 8

touch (screen), as the glare might stop us from seeing the screen, while movement might make touch input unstable

Question 9

What are ‘very mobile’ scenarios?

Answer 9

ones that have increased physical and cognitive demands e.g. driving

Question 10

What can happen when we are divided between tasks and prioritize one of them.

Answer 10

Our attention can fully divert to the prioritized task.

Question 11

What is the implication of diverting attention?

Answer 11

potentially dangerous situations e.g. choosing to use phone without steering the car while driving

Question 12

Very mobile scenarios are more likely to

Answer 12

divide our interaction and cognitive resources
divert our attention

Question 13

What things demand attention while cycling?

Answer 13

• situational awareness
• road users
• pedestrians
• traffic signals
• road rules
• surface / terrain
• navigation
• scenery

Question 14

What things are physically demanding when cycling?

Answer 14

• exertion
• steering
• breaking
• gear shifting
• balance

Question 15

Is it hard to use a mobile device on a bike?

Answer 15

yes, atleast the standard way , as we have impact interaction and hence device instability , while also not being completely hands free

Question 16

What things demand attention in a running example?

Answer 16

• situational awareness
• pedestrians
• traffic
• surface / terrain e.g. potholes
• road crossings
• navigation
• scenery e.g. obstacles

Question 17

What are the physical demands of running?

Answer 17

• exertion
• gait (impact of stepping and arms swinging, massive effect on interaction)
• balance
• arms swinging (as mentioned in gait (kind of part of gait))

Question 18

What are the things that demand our attention while driving?

Answer 18

• situational awareness
• pedestrians
• other road users
• traffic signals
• road rules
• navigation
• scenery
• dashboard
• displays
• devices

Question 19

Why is having devices near while driving dangerous?

Answer 19

As it fragments our attention due to increased mental demands (refers to resource competition framework, we might have to prioritize one or the other)

Question 20

What are the physical demands of driving?

Answer 20

• gear changes
• pedal and wheel control
• maneuver signalling

(hands are not free for input)

Question 21

How should we design for mobility?

Answer 21

We need to anticipate that standard interaction capabilities will be limited, so we need to think about:
- alternative ways of input
- alternative ways of output
- perhaps interaction via other sensors e.g. camera via gestures

Your choice will depend on the scenario.

We should also minimize visual attention demands by making the UI simple, clear and minimize available actions while attention is divided.

Question 22

Without touchscreen e.g. using gestures reduces what?

Answer 22

• reduces visual attention necessary
• reduces physical contact necessary
• reduces potential precision (depending on modality)

Question 23

What are the alternative input modalities to touchscreen?

Answer 23

• air gestures
• speech
• physical controls (no visual attention required , can be felt when activated, so immediate feedback-> less need for stability and precision as grasping surrounding area can stabilize the device)
• touchscreen gestures (less precision needed, reduced visual attention to locate target)
• contact-less interactions (as mentioned above this is air gestures and speech -> have a lot of usability issues)

Question 24

Why can contactless interactions be bad

Answer 24

as people’s attention might be drawn away if they keep trying to do something, but not knowing how to do it properly

-> prioritization and hence risk of diverting attention

Question 25

Possible output modalities?

Answer 25

• audio
• haptic feedback

Question 26

What questions should we ask when designing output modalities?

Answer 26

• can they be perceived
• can they be understood

Question 27

What happens if our output is not perceived or understood?

Answer 27

Users visual attention might divert to check

Question 28

Possible alternative for output to avoid diversion?

Answer 28

visual feedback in front e.g. google glass

Question 29

What do we want to achieve in very mobile situations?

Answer 29

interactions that minimize the need (by minimizing visual demands to avoid attention fragmentation) for the user to divert resources (attention and concentration)