Challenges In Human-Computer Interaction Design For
Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering and Computer Science 2009 Vol IWCECS 2009, October 20-22, 2009, San Francisco, USAChallenges in Human-Computer InteractionDesign for Mobile DevicesKuo-Ying Huang *Abstract—Designs in human-computer interaction (HCI) aim tocreate interactive products that are easy and enjoyable to use.However, owing to the multidisciplinary nature of HCI and thedifferent value systems of interface users from variousbackgrounds and experiences, it is highly challenging fordesigners to create applications which are usable and affordableto such a heterogeneous set of users. Nowadays, more and morepeople are heard complaining about the bad interaction design ofmobile devices. Is this problem caused by the bad design ofproducts or by the users’ ignorance of the logics of humanmachine interaction design? This paper aims to explore thehuman-computer interaction challenges in designing applicationsin both hardware and software for mobile devices. It also makesan attempt to investigate the principles for designing mobileinterfaces that result in greater user acceptance and figure outpossible solutions to the problems with interaction designs formobile devices.Keywords: Human-computer interaction, mobile interface, mobiledevice, interaction design.I. INTRODUCTIONHuman-computer interaction (HCI) is the study of theinteraction between people and computers [1]. Suchinteraction is mainly done at the user interface. One of themajor concerns of professional practitioners in the field ofHCI is the design of interactive computing systems for humanuse. As a result, it is a basic goal of HCI designers to makecomputers more usable and more receptive to the user’s needs.To provide the best possible interface within given constraints,the HCI designers are supposed to develop systems thatminimize the barrier between the human’s cognitive model ofwhat users want to accomplish and the computer’sunderstanding of the users’ task [2].Interaction between users and computers occurs at the userinterface, including both hardware and software. Interactiondesign means designing interactive products to support peoplein their everyday and working lives. Because HCI concerns ahuman and a machine in conjunction with each other,designing a user interface requires knowledge on both thehuman and the machine side. On the one side, informationabout communication theory, graphic disciplines, socialsciences, cognitive psychology, etc. are needed; on the otherside, techniques in computer graphics, operating systems,programming languages, etc. are required.*Graduate School of Computer and Information Sciences, NovaSoutheastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33314-7796, USA. Email:kuoying@nova.eduISBN:978-988-17012-6-8Mobile devices play an important role in the modern society.They are being used by people of all walks of life for variouspurposes. They can be found in the fields of education,entertainment, medicine, communication service, militarysystems, and so on. Due to the multidisciplinary nature ofHCI, designing user interfaces for mobile devices posesseveral interaction challenges [3]. Some of these challengesare hardware-related, while the others software-related.II. STATEMENT OF PROBLEMOwing to the fast development in the digital technology, theoperation of human-computer interface is becoming more andmore complicated. Consequently, to catch up with the speedyand fleeting transformation, the user of digital interactiveproducts can only keep on learning various operatinginterfaces, programming languages, and developmentenvironments. Nowadays, in our daily lives, we can hear moreand more people complaining about the bad design ininteraction interface. Is this problem caused by the bad designof the interactive products or by the shortage of users’knowledge about the logics of the human-machine interactiondesign?Most researchers in HCI take interest in developing newdesign methodologies, experiencing with new hardwaredevices, prototyping new software systems, and exploring newparadigms for interaction. Designs in HCI aim to create userinterfaces which can be operated with ease and efficiency.Many digital products that require users to interact with themto accomplish their tasks have not necessarily designed withthe users in mind. The designer always claims how usable theproducts are; however, an even more basic requirement is thatthe interface should allow the user to carry out relevant taskscompletely. In other words, the design must be both usableand useful for the user and it must be a user-centered design.Current mobile computing devices such as palmtopcomputers, Personal Digital Assistants (PAD), and mobilephones have a problem in common—attempting to provideusers with powerful computing services and resources throughsmall interfaces [4]. As is usually the case with mobiledevices, limited screen size makes it difficult to efficientlypresent information and help users navigate to and from theinformation they want. And since mobile devices are oftenrequired to possess multiple functionalities, the convergenceof electronics, computing, and communication is becoming aWCECS 2009
Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering and Computer Science 2009 Vol IWCECS 2009, October 20-22, 2009, San Francisco, USAmust in the mobile industry. In addition, because mobiledevices need to operate with limited battery charge, how todeal with the power consumption has also become one of themost important issues for system designers.Therefore, it is very crucial for interface designers to makeefforts to develop interactive mobile products that are easy tolearn, effective to use, and provide an enjoyable userexperience. Nowadays, mobile devices are widely used bydifferent types of people who have different goals of operatingsuch interactive products. Designing applications for usableand useful mobile devices to meet the requirement of differenttypes of interface users encounter a couple of challenges.Users, designers, and technical practitioners should cooperateand collaborate to contribute to its success.Based on the problems in HCI design for mobile devicesmentioned above, this paper addresses the following researchquestions:1. What are the major challenges of designing interactiveproducts for mobile devices?2. What are the possible solutions to such problems indeveloping a good user-centered design for mobilecomputing devices?3. What are the principles of user interface design for mobiledevices?4. What are the new trends in mobile industry in the nearfuture?III. MOBILE DEVICESMobile devices can be defined in different ways when theyare looked at from different perspectives. They can be definedin terms of the services they offer or based on the level offunctionality connected with the devices. According to Sharpet al. [2], they refer to the devices that are handheld andintended to be used while on the move. Nowadays, mobiledevices are being used by different people for variouspurposes.B. Use of Mobile DevicesMobile devices are increasingly being used by differenttypes of people. In medicine, for instance, PDAs are used torecord symptoms for patients and to support the cardiologist inthe medical decision-making process and have been proven tohelp both diagnosis and pharmacy selection [5]. Besides, theyare also used to improve the effectiveness of communicationbetween the patient and the hospital during follow-uptreatments.In education, mobile devices are being used in differentschools and universities for specific applications under thename of mobile learning or m-learning. M-learning is the useof mobile or wireless devices for learning while the learner ison the move. It has been found that m-learning has moreadvantages compared to electronic learning or e-learning [6,7]. And they are also used in cooperative educational activitieswhere teachers and students can collaborate by using commonmobile devices to transfer information between each other [8].Other common educational applications for mobile devicesinclude electronic dictionaries, translators, scientificcalculators, remote presentation controls, etc.Another important use of mobile devices is that inentertainment. People are widely using mobile devices forplaying music, watching movies, playing games, and so on.For example, mobile games have been increasingly used bypeople of various backgrounds to the extent that nowadays wecan hardly find a mobile phone that does not have some videogames installed in it by the manufacturer.Global Positioning System (GPS) is another well-known useof mobile devices. It is a satellite navigation system ownedand operated by the U.S. Department of Defense and availablefor general use around the world [9]. A GSP receiver is usedto get the signal from the orbital satellite to pinpoint thegeographic location. It can be a personal computer, a laptop orpalmtop, a watch, a mobile phone, or a PDA. Some PDAbased GPS systems, for example, have been found to be veryuseful for geological mapping projects in remote regions andin situations where there is limited power supply [10].A. Types of Mobile DevicesC. Operating Systems for Mobile DevicesA mobile device refers to a pocket-sized computing device,typically having a small display screen, a small keypad withminiature buttons or a touch screen with stylus of input.Examples of mobile devices include mobile computers likehandheld or palmtop PC and personal digital assistant (PDA),handheld game consoles such as Nintendo DS and Game BoyAdvance, media recorders like digital still camera (DSC) anddigital audio recorders, and communication devices such asmobile phones, cordless phones and pagers. As is often thecase, mobile devices have wireless capability to connect to theInternet and home computer systems. However, wirelesscapability poses a number of security risks. It takesconsiderable knowledge of the threats posed to mobile devicesto deal with the risks.ISBN:978-988-17012-6-8Several operating systems developed by different companiesand programmers are being used to run mobile devices. One ofthem is Microsoft Windows Mobile, which is a compactoperating system developed and owned by MicrosoftCorporation. Windows Mobile has been updated several times,with the current version being Windows Mobile 6.1, whichwas announced on April 1, 2008 [11]. Windows Mobile 6.1 isa minor upgrade to the existing Windows Mobile 6 platform.It makes it easier to stay connected and manage your life fromjust about anywhere. Devices running Windows Mobileinclude Pocket PCs, Smartphones, Portable Media Centers,and on-board computers for certain automobiles.WCECS 2009
Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering and Computer Science 2009 Vol IWCECS 2009, October 20-22, 2009, San Francisco, USAPalm OS, also known as Garnet OS, is another widely-usedoperating system for mobile devices. It is an embeddedoperating system originally developed for personal digitalassistants by U.S. Robotics owned Palm Computing, Inc. in1996. Then Palm OS changed its owners for several times. OnJanuary 25, 2007 one new owner, ACCESS SystemsAmericas, Inc., announced a name change to their currentPalm OS Garnet computing system, now titled ‘Garnet OS’.The latest stable version of Garnet OS is Garnet 5.4; munication, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth ction designer appropriately tailor and maximizeusability.Varieties of processes are involved to end up with aneffective interaction design. These include understandingpeople’s needs and establishing their requirements, developingprototypes, usability testing, and system evaluation. They are aset of activities that are iterative [2]. It means that the designprocess does not occur in a one-way or clear-cut fashion;instead, designs are formed and reformed over and over againin the process.V. CHALLENGES IN HCI DESIGN FOR MOBILE DEVICESIV. INTERACTION DESIGNInteraction design is a term used by different people fromvarious backgrounds. The term is used to describe differentactivities in designing and creating different artifacts includingartistic objects, websites, PC applications, GPS systems, etc. Itmakes it difficult to define such a term. Sharp et al. [2] definedthis term as “designing interactive products to support the waypeople communicate and interact in their everyday andworking lives” (p. 8). From this definition, we can observetwo key points of interaction design. For one thing, the authorsattempted to emphasize that interaction designers have to dealwith their designs from the consumer’s perspective; in otherwords, they must involve users in the designing process. Inaddition, interaction designers ought to view their designs asproducts that are going to be sold in the market. The other keypoint here is that these interactive products should be usefulfor their potential users in their daily lives; it follows thatinteractive products should help people in their homes, offices,stores, vehicles, and anywhere they are.Another definition of interaction design was proposed byTerry Winograd [12], who defined this term as “the design ofspaces for human communication and interaction”, and “theconstruction of the ‘interspace’ in which people live, ratherthan an ‘interface’ with which they interact” (p. 149). Onceagain, this definition put an emphasis on the importance ofunderstanding the user’s need in the process of designingproducts. In some way, this definition draws a clear linebetween interface design and interaction design. Interfacedesign is part of the development process of interactiondesign, while interaction design includes more processes thanjust the interface design.Academically speaking, according to Jones and Marsden[13], interaction design is the discipline of defining thebehavior of products and systems in response to their users.Some basic principles of cognitive psychology provide anunderlying foundation for interaction design. Interactiondesigners lay a great emphasis on user goals and experienceand evaluate designs in terms of usability and affectiveinfluence [2]. Good interaction design is user-centric; its goalis to reduce frustration and increase user productivity andsatisfaction. It is the user that makes actual use of a product orsystem. Therefore, only by involving real users can anISBN:978-988-17012-6-8Designing user interfaces for mobile devices implicatesmany human-computer interaction challenges. In this section,the researcher will explore these challenges in HCI design formobile devices in terms of hardware-related challenges andsoftware-related challenges.A. Hardware ChallengesDue to the limitations of size and weight for portabilitypurpose, the interface design for mobile devices comes withmore hardware challenges when compared to other regularsized devices such as desktop phones or printers; thesechallenges include limited input facilities, limited outputfacilities, and designing for mobility.Limited Input FacilitiesAccording to Muhanna [14], there are three main inputfacilities for mobile devices that are on the market: thekeyboard, the stylus with the touch screen, and the scrollwheel. The keyboard allows a user to hit a key to perform atask or navigate through the mobile menu functionalities; thestylus with the touch screen allows a user to hit the screen todo the task; the scroll wheel can be scrolled and pushed by auser to do a task and also navigate through the menus andsubmenus.The design of keyboards for mobile devices has been achallenge because the space for key installation on a mobiledevice is limited. In an earlier research, the authors claimedthat the size of a keyboard in a mobile device does not affectdata entry rates; they also found that making a smallerkeyboard does not increase error rates [15]. However, the laterresearches showed that mobile interfaces can be quite trickyand cumbersome to use when compared to the fully-blownGUI, especially for those with poor manual dexterity or fatfingers and those who have difficulty in selecting tiny buttonson mobile devices [16].Research directions on this limitation have come up withdifferent alternatives and solutions. Green, Kruger, Faldu, andAmant [17] described a specialized keyboard ‘Stick’ that mapsfour rows of a standard QWERTY keyboard onto the homeWCECS 2009
Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering and Computer Science 2009 Vol IWCECS 2009, October 20-22, 2009, San Francisco, USArow to decrease the physical space. However, a drastic keyreduction in order to achieve sufficient portability decreasestext entry performance, and requires additional effort to learna new typing method. Kim, Sohn, Pak, and Lee [18] adopted anew keyboard minimization method of reducing key pitch toaddress this problem, and have developed the One-keyKeyboard that gives consideration to social acceptance, inputspeed, and learnability.The stylus and touch screen which are widely used inpersonal digital assistants and smartphones can be a goodalternative for the keyboard in some cases. However, touchinput would be problematic if the screen of a mobile device issmall and that would lead a user’s fingers to occlude thegraphical elements he wishes to work with. There have beendifferent solutions trying to address this limitation; one ofthem, for example, is allowing the user to control theapplication by touching the back of the device [19].The scroll wheel can be a different solution as well toovercome the challenge of the limited input facilities in mobiledevices. According to Sears et al. [15], a scroll wheel can beused to navigate a mobile device menu in one direction, eitherhorizontally or vertically. It can also be used as a push buttonto do a specific task to support the use of one hand to interactwith the mobile device [20].Limited Output FacilitiesThere are various output facilities that are used on mobiledevices. The small-sized screen is one of the mainly and mostcommonly used output facilities for mobile devices. Designingthe screen for outputting is a trade-off challenge that needs tobe experimentally studied to find out which is the efficient andmost effective size of the screen that can be used for thedifferent types of mobile devices [14]. For example, having alarger screen can solve a limited output facilities challenge;however, it will bring up another challenge of designing formobility that will be discussed in next subsection.The audio output is another output facility that is commonlyused on mobile devices. It can be a good output facility forfeedback messages to the user, and can be used in conjunctionwith the graphics and text messages to have an effectiveinteraction between the human and the device [14]. Theimportance of audio is increasing as we are moving towardsmultimodal user interfaces where audio is one of the majorcomponents. By utilizing real-time signal processing, ways ofusing audio feedback become more efficiently andintelligently in mobile user interfaces. Sound effects arecapable of passing information to the user to some extent, butthey are more useful in impressing the user and makingexisting audio feedback sound better [21].Designing for MobilityA mobile device should be portable and easy to be held bythe user, and this brings up the big challenge of designing formobility [22]. The power facility in a mobile device is themain challenge of designing for mobility that is characterizedISBN:978-988-17012-6-8by limited and dynamically varying available resources andstringent application requirements.Ashwini, Thawani, and Srikant [23] indicated that the powerconsumed by an application depends on the performance levelrequested by the user or application, and that the mobiledevice can be viewed as the collection of devices. Theyproposed a power management middleware for mobiledevices, which not only considers energy savings for theprocessor but also optimizes energy savings for other devicessuch as display unit, RF
human-computer interaction challenges in designing applications in both hardware and software for mobile devices. It also makes an attempt to investigate the principles for designing mobile interfaces that result in greater user acceptance and figure out possible solutions to
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comprehensive quide to HCI and interaction design, Addison Wesley, 2005, 2010, 2014. -1 chapter: Designing interactive systems: a fusion of skills Jennifer Preece, Yvonne Rogers, Helen Sharp (2002, 2007, 2011). Interaction design: beyond human -computer interaction. John Wiley & Sons www.id-book.com -1 chapter: What is Interaction .
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