Leveraging Nature for the Future of User Interfaces
The recent talk by Phill Motuzas at TEDxCarletonUniversity highlights the evolving landscape of user interfaces, emphasizing the transition from traditional graphical user interfaces (GUIs) to Natural User Interfaces (NUIs). You can watch the full talk here.
Motuzas discusses how smartphones serve as an intriguing amalgamation of technology and our natural instincts. They illustrate that user interfaces can be more intuitive by allowing us to interact with devices as we do with physical objects in our environment. For instance, manipulating pages in a book with a swipe replicates actions familiar from childhood, providing a seamless interaction model.
This shift to NUIs is grounded in neuroscience, particularly through the concept of the cortical homunculus, which maps sensory perception within the brain. The disproportionate size of hands and fingertips in this mapping showcases the incredible density of nerve endings, which can discern surface patterns as small as 13 nanometers. This is on par with the resolution of human vision, illustrating why touch is such a critical medium for interaction.
Despite the advances with NUIs, users typically lose that tactile sensitivity when interacting with glass screens. However, haptic feedback technology attempts to bridge this gap, providing vibrations that simulate touch and enhance user engagement. Neurologists have noted that our fingertips’ discriminative abilities approach that of our eyes; this opens the door for potential applications in creating immersive experiences, such as sensations of slicing fruit in a game or feeling rain on one’s hands through a weather app.
Touchscreens proliferated largely due to the hand’s significant representation in the motor cortex, allowing intricate interactions. Yet, we’ve become accustomed to using limited input methods, such as keyboards, which feel less intuitive compared to voice commands or gestures. Speech recognition technology has been in the wings for decades but only recently gained traction due to the necessity of miniaturizing inputs. Currently, it’s optimal for executing simple tasks, yet the potential for richer, more contextualized communications remains largely untapped.
Motuzas points out the importance of context sometimes gets sidestepped in device design. Presently, smartphones do more than make calls—data suggests that users spend roughly 12% of their smartphone time communicating. The broader functionality has led many to argue for renaming these devices “personal computers” as they fit the usage better. Companies often miss the mark by merely replicating smartphone features in other devices rather than seeking to understand how those devices can intelligently adapt within their own contexts.
Sensors are emerging as fundamentally transformative elements within this ecosystem. Devices equipped with accelerometers, microphones, light sensors, and more can automatically respond to their environment, enhancing the user experience. However, the smartphone industry seems fixated on replicating existing successes rather than innovating strategies around how technology should perceive context.
The talk introduces the concept of “smart” products, underscoring how smartwatches have an unprecedented potential to integrate contextual feedback. By continuously tracking the body and environment, they can provide invaluable health insights, including detecting allergies or heart issues, and thus offering proactive medical attention before emergencies arise.
The notion of crowd-sourced sensor data can bring forth revolutionary insights, allowing for predictive analytics in healthcare. For instance, smartphones can already crowdsource traffic information, and similar approaches could help in detecting air quality or predicting natural disasters.
In summary, user experience designers have long recognized context’s intrinsic value. The emphasis lies not just in adding features but creating products that inherently understand their contexts and adapt intelligently. Sensors’ capabilities go beyond mere functionality; they hold the potential to redefine our interaction paradigms and lead us into a truly smart era of user experiences.