340 people defined their own touchscreen-based gestures for 28 actions (like scroll, rotate, cut, copy, paste) across 9 countries, totaling over 9,500 gestures. What can we learn from this?
A lot.
Some believe we have entered a new era in interaction design. For many years we’ve been using the mouse, pointstick, touchpad, and of course, the keyboard. A new interaction convention is gaining popularity now that makes use of the whole human body.
This is the first in a series of blogs about gesture research conducted by the International Usability Partners (IUP). As this research is conducted, analyses and conclusions will be posted here as they are completed. The first couple blogs will provide the background, protocol, and data collection methods. Future blogs will contain the analyses and results.
Touchscreen user interfaces are gaining popularity seemingly exponentially. Many touchscreens are incorporating gestures, and they are rising just as rapidly. Touchscreens are most popular on mobile phones, but many products are under development and on the market using touchscreens such as ovens, refrigerators, combines, laptops, automobiles, insulin pumps and many others. Touchscreens are appearing on an increasing number of consumer products. And the desire to enable gestures will follow.
Dan Saffer states in his book Designing Gestural Interfaces that “the next several years will be seminal years for interaction designers and engineers who will create the next generation of interaction design inputs, possibly defining them for decades to come. We will design new ways of interaction with our devices, environment, and even each other. We have an opportunity that comes along only once in a generation, and we should seize it.”
Very few studies appear in the literature on the identification and understandability of gestures on touchscreens. It is truly an emerging convention. Even fewer, and perhaps even none, have studied the identification and understandability of gestures across cultures. Yet, many of the products that enable gestures will be intended for a global audience. Designers have a definite need to know how understandable gestures are, and how universal they are, while the field is still young.
The International Usability Partners (IUP) has run a global study aimed at identifying the most common user-generated gestures for control of a touchscreen within a given country and across cultures. The (IUP) is an established network of 12 independent usability companies based in 12 different countries (including Belgium, China, Chile, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Spain, Sweden, UK, and USA) who have joined to provide user experience services worldwide. This research involved collecting user-defined gestures for 28 common commands (like scroll, open, rotate, zoom in, cut, copy, paste) across 9 different countries and analyzing the resultant data for consistency of responses and cultural influence. 40 participants in each country were presented with a “before” screen image and an “after” screen image and requested to make a gesture that will result in that “after” screen image. The gesture made was recorded and catalogued.
The analysis begins soon.
About the International Usability Partners:
IUP is a network of equals, run by all partners for their clients’ benefit. Each partner is an expert in global user-experience research and design, specializing in the cultural and linguistic characteristics of their home country. “IUP quality” stands for companies that offer world-class user experience services of consistently high quality in a reliable and efficient manner. All IUP members have a common understanding of the methods, processes and scientific background of the field of user experience (human-computer interaction).
IUP members have effective quality assurance and process improvement programs in place as well as regular professional training for their staff. Members also have state of the art equipment and tools that facilitate in-house and mobile user research. Facilities are conveniently located around the world in 14 cities including: Chicago, Helsinki, Hyderabad, London, Paris, Torino, Munich, and Beijing.
Dan is the Director of Human Factors & Research at HumanCentric in the United States. Dan received his Ph.D. in Human Factors in 1994 and has been designing and evaluating user interfaces for a variety of companies since then. When Dan is not studying gestures for work, he is the receipient of them from his 2 children. 