#usabiliy

Last Wednesday I visited City University London to be shown around their HCI lab. City are one of the leading universities for Human Computer Interaction studies and provide HCI consultancy for the commercial sector. In the past the university has helped to user test the official London 2012 web site, most recently they’ve helped redesign the Barclays Cycle Hire payment system. They house a variety of tools in the lab and we were guided through the application of each of these.

Here is a summary of technologies currently being used at the lab:

  Xbox Kinect

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinect

Up until now gesture based interaction has been most commonly associated with gaming, some of the latest ‘Smart’ TVs are now also employing gesture based technology. City University are currently experimenting on how gesture based interaction can be applied to office environments. Recently a masters student built an app that uses gestures to allow a user to navigate through an image library.

    E-beam

http://www.e-beam.com/business/ebeam-edge/overview.html

This piece of kit is used as an interactive whiteboard. The e-beam pen uses ultra sound waves to capture what is drawn on a whiteboard and saves it in documents to a computer. You could for example have a website/e-learning screen grab projected to the white board and whilst suggesting changes to it by drawing on the white board the software updates the screen grab file on your computer. The university use this predominantly for wireframing and rapid prototyping. It is suited to group brain storming sessions where a quick solution is required. The e-beam costs around £800.

  Alternative to E-beam:

  Nintendo Wiimote

The Wii remote(Wiimote) uses infra-red to track movement. In the lab they have connected the Wiimote to a pc and used an open source app to make it function as cheaper alternative to e-beam, a Wii remote costs around £15. You can see how Wiimotes are being used for a variety of different projects here : http://johnnylee.net/projects/wii/

    Microsoft PixelSense (formally Surface 1.0) 

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/pixelsense/default.aspx

Before Microsoft launched their new range of personal touchscreen devices they were working on project Surface, now renamed PixelSense. You may remember media coverage of their interactive table from a few years ago. The technology uses infra-red to track movement, the tables can also recognise objects placed on them. At the moment the university is using it to research how younger age groups interact with technology.

    3d printer

The 3d printer can be used to build prototypes, designs can be created in CAD. The university are using the technology in research and product design. 3D printers vary in size, the one housed at the lab was quite small and cost in the region of £1800. We were shown a bookmark that was created by the printer, which was pretty simplistic but usable. A website called thingiverse allows you to download blueprints of 3d objects which you can use to produce actual products, see this example of a plastic bottle : http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:65922

    Tobii mobile testing

http://www.tobii.com/

Tobii specialise in eye tracking technology. The lab has a three pieces of kit from Tobii. The first demonstration was of the Tobii mobile testing kit. This is made up of a stand for the mobile device to sit on, one camera hovers above the device, and another is positioned to track the eye movements of the user. Tobii records interactions using red lines to show the users eye movements. Red dots represent areas on screen where the user has clicked. The software is used to record multiple user tests, the tracks left by each user can be overlaid for analysis. Heat maps can be produced for interactions as well. The kit is quite expensive at £10-15,000, however there are cheaper more simplistic alternatives.

  Alternatives to mobile user testing:

Mr Tappy

http://www.mrtappy.com/

One alternative is Mr. Tappy, which is a camera that can be attached to smartphones or tablets allowing you to record a user session. 

Reflector

https://www.reflectorapp.com/

I spoke to someone who is user experience lead for a gaming company, and he told me about reflector as an alternative for mobile testing.

Reflector is an app that wirelessly links your apple device to a computer, the computer can then show and record the way the device is being used.

      Tobii desktop eye tracking

http://www.tobii.com/

The desktop kit uses 2 screens, one for the user and one for a facilitator. The facilitator sees a copy of the users screen with live eye tracking and a live feed of the users face. Each user is asked to perform a certain task. For example, find the latest basketball results from a sports website. Typically a user talks allowed, this helps the facilitator understand their trail of thought which in turn can go on to explain why their eye tracks in a certain pattern. Normally this sort of testing is carried out for a group of 8-10 users. As with Tobii mobile you can overlay several users eye tracks to look for common patterns. Tobii is also used for academic research, for these purposes the number of users tested can go up to between 20 - 30.

  Agencies are used to recruit users for user testing sessions. Commercial clients requiring consultancy will have specific user personas. These personas inform agencies about what sort of users are required for a session. One such agency is http://www.peopleforresearch.co.uk/

    Brain wave tracking

http://www.emotiv.com/

This technology is relatively new, the university are still exploring ways in which this can be applied effectively.

The devices  use Electroencephalography (EEG), they can also track heart rate, blink rate and skin response. Once this technology is understood fully it is hoped that the device will be able to recognise the 8 primary emotions of users. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutchik%27s_Wheel_of_Emotions#Plutchik.27s_wheel_of_emotions

Currently this technology is being used in the gaming and entertainment industry.

  One of the EEG devices the lab had was called Emotiv EPOC: http://www.emotiv.com/

  The whole subject of brainwave tracking reminded me of this interesting experiment:

http://science.discovery.com/tv-shows/through-the-wormhole/videos/creativity-cap.htm

    Morae recorder

http://www.techsmith.com/morae-uses.html

Morae provide a suite of usability tools. The software can comprehensively record user interaction which includes voice, video, keystrokes, and mouse movements. The suite includes a powerful analysis package which can help interpret results. The university uses Morae to track usability for users with accessibility needs, it is used in conjunction with assistive software like JAWS, Dragon and ZoomText.

    Morae observer

The lab had a hidden viewing gallery behind a mirrored wall. The viewing gallery used Morae observer to allow facilitators to view user testing in action. This viewing gallery is often used to ensure that the presence of facilitators does not impact on the way users behave.

    Tobii eye tracking glasses

http://www.tobii.com/en/eye-tracking-research/global/products/hardware/tobii-glasses-eye-tracker/

Eye tracking glasses are being used to track user behaviour in real life environments, for example a supermarket or whilst driving a car.

Here is a case study of how these glasses have been used to understand how customers in pubs select their drinks:

http://www.research-live.com/magazine/case-study-its-all-in-the-eyes/4004622.article