04.07.2010
Andrew Wirtanen /
Gestural Interfaces /
New Technology /
Usability /
User Research
This video is a reminder that there’s so much we can learn from watching others. This 2.5 year-old discovers a common problem that adults encounter: if you hold the iPad with your thumb on the screen, then you can’t use another finger to select an application on the home screen. The problem is that many people will find it natural to hold the iPad this way and now need to change their behavior to accommodate the device.
I am not sure whether Apple knew about this issue beforehand or not, but it demonstrates the importance of testing before release. Here’s a great quote I saw this morning on Twitter:
“A usability test is going to happen before or after you launch. The question is whether you want to be there or not.” - tsharon
Source: YouTube via Laughing Squid
12.18.2009
Miranda Capra /
Consumer Products /
Gestural Interfaces /
New Technology /
Usability
Our friends at Amberlight have written a review of Apple’s Magic Mouse.
If you haven’t heard, the entire surface of the Magic Mouse is touch-sensitive, and the mouse supports several touch gestures for interacting with your computer. So head on over to our other blog, TouchThinking, and read all about it!
TouchThinking is a gestural interfaces blog that members of the International Usability Partners contribute to (including us, HumanCentric).
10.22.2009
Jon Howarth /
Community Involvement /
Gestural Interfaces /
Human Factors /
User Experience /
User Research
Dr. Dan Mauney and Dr. Miranda Capra gave a presentation at a “works-in-progress” forum on Tuesday, October 20 at 1:30pm at this year’s Annual Conference of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society in San Antonio, TX. Dan and Miranda’s talk was titled “Cultural Influence on Gestural Interface Design”. They described a recent study conducted in association with the International Usability Partners in which they collected user-generated gestures from 40 people in 9 countries for 28 common software commands (e.g. zoom, scroll, cut, copy, rotate).
Dan is releasing regular blog posts about the study at http://www.humancentric.com/GestureResearch.
