We face thousands of decisions every single day. Ultimately these decisions shape our future, who we are and who we become. Thousands of decisions every day. It is not easy to get every single one right every single day. On top of this, the amount of decisions we face is increasing. Fifty years ago there were not twenty different salad dressings in every store or three hundred-different jeans on the market. With the advent of internet shopping, choosing what to buy has become a question of how long you are willing to search. One might think this would make us happier with our choices, however studies show that all these choices are actually making us less satisfied with the choices we make. Furthermore as society becomes more and more liberal social norms are becoming more and more blurred. Our grandparents were likely married in their early twenties. Meet someone you like, marry them and then you have made that choice for the rest of your life. Anyone who has ever been in love knows what a distraction it is and now we get to fall in love many times over before we find “the one”. But how do you know when you find “the one”? It is a decision you have to make. And a hard decision, that requires tons of thinking. Ultimately more choice is ultimately a good thing. There is, however, room for improvement. I want to research how design can help people make good decisions without overwhelming them with choice.
Category: Interaction Design
eHealth as the way to Improve Patient Experience
#Topic
As we have seen recently, the health systems of the countries can be subjected to great burdens of responsibility and work for medical staff who must monitor the well-being of patients and in turn, seek psychological wellness during medical procedures to which such patients are subjected.
Since 2005, the World Health Organization (WHO) recognized eHealth as an essential part of healthcare systems and since then it has not stopped growing, expanding in multiple directions such as mHealth (use of mobile technologies to shorten the distance between patients and medical services ), TeleHealth (as a way of offering medical services over a distance – about 80% of consultations not related to covid were made by telematic means in 2020), the integration of AI (to suggest treatments or clinical diagnoses – the so-called Clinical Decision Support) or Data visualization (to bring the understanding of patients concerning their own health and facilitate to medical staff the sharing of data about their patients). These are just some of the central topics in this growing field.
#Intention
Within this infinite topic, I am especially interested in everything that is focused on the patient experience, meaning everything that in some way will improve the patients’ experience from when he/she decides to go to the consultation until he/she obtains the recommendations for treatment and subsequent follow-up.
There are already many things done in this regard, even not related to technology and making use of more analog processes, but I would like to see what are the possible improvements or development of new functions in the field of AI (for example, assistance to patients outside of consultation) or imaging/data visualization (focused on the understanding and engagement of the patient in their health status).
#Good practices
#Design Challenges
Health systems are an environment where designers encounter many pain points that could be addressed. Trying to find a solution to these pain points entails certain challenges such as:
_To try to focus on only one thing at a time: There are many issues that need to be addressed, but it is important for designers to choose one of them and keep the focus clear during the whole design process.
_ The field requires a lot of time spent on research, understanding, and empathizing with users’ needs. There are thousands of people, both medical professionals, and patients, who might be affected by the same issue. It is important to take the time to collect all information and insights related to the topic.
_ To keep aware of what is going on out there. Since healthcare is a worldwide topic, many companies, designers, and institutions may be way ahead in their discoveries regarding the same issue. To be part of the huge healthcare community is mandatory to move forward in making improvements.
_ To become familiar with the treatment of sensitive data, data visualization, and techniques/machines which are commonly used in medical practices to treat different medical conditions.
_ To be mentally prepared to face a long design process with possible significant unanticipated changes.
#Literature
- https://www.ideou.com/blogs/inspiration/from-design-thinking-to-creative-confidence
- https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/12214/artificial-intelligence-for-ehealth
- https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.02013/full
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168851016302421
- https://ehealthtechnologies.com/news/patient-experience-why-effective-image-sharing-matters
Deceptive Design Patterns
It has happened to almost everyone who spent at least some time in the internet, to be tricked into doing something that they did not intend on doing. In that case usually an interface or experience was specifically designed to manipulate users on purpose for the companies sake. This phenomenon of exploitation has a name: deceptive design patterns*. The prime example for this are travel insurances on airline websites, as they make it really hard to not buy it by hiding information, shifting positions and changing size and colors of buttons. Due to the fact that the term „deceptive design patterns*“ has now been established for more than 10 years, designers as well as users themself are aware of this method and some users even recognize them. Studies show that users have strong negative emotion, like annoyance, anger, frustration and worry, when identifying dark patters. However they still work.
Of course the phenomenon did not just pop up with the internet, but has existed for decades all the way back to salesman in the age of bartering. Since then psychological persuasion has been used to increase sales. The real question here is: When does it really become a deceptive design pattern*? And which specific psychological tricks work best and why? So this is what I want to focus on in my further research. According to Harry Brignull – THE expert on this topic – there is a greyzone and no certain point at which one is a deceptive design pattern*.
Another major question regarding the topic is, if deceptive design patterns* are ethically justifiable and how to convince designers that they are actually not. For this reason some European and national laws have recently been released to restrict using specific design patterns. For example did the European Government forbid to opt people in by default for newsletters and regulated the cookie consent manager. In the United Kingdom it is also not allowed in E-Commerce to sneak products into the shopping-basket of the user. Another attempt to actively fight against deceptive design patterns* is to raise awareness by publicly displaying examples of deceptive techniques, like on website deceptive.design (former darkpatterns.org). At some point this might also convince businesses to stop using this psychological design tool, as they might get an image problem because of user manipulation.
For me personally this topic is interesting from both the designer and also the consumers point of view. How can I train to recognize deceptive design patterns* immediately and on the other hand not get temped to create them, even it is serving the clients goal perfectly.
* formerly called “dark patterns”
Sources:
https://www.businessinsider.com/how-app-developers-keep-us-addicted-to-our-smartphones-2018-1
https://uxdesign.cc/what-is-addivtive-information-95df5ff689ea
https://www.darkpatterns.org/hall-of-shame
https://blog.hubspot.de/marketing/dark-patterns
https://doi.org/10.17011/ht/urn.202008245641
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-319-44902-9_9
UX in the Fashion Industry
SUSTAINABILITY X TECHNOLOGY
How can online shopping become more convenient and sustainable through interaction design?
The fashion industry constitutes one of the biggest players in the world economy. In the last decade, shopping for clothes online has gained a lot of popularity, leading to the global growth of e-commerce and m-commerce. An increase of global e-commerce fashion revenues from $481.2 billion in 2018 to $712.9 billion in 2022 is expected. Since some 20% of online purchases are made via mobile phone, retailers are creating mobile applications to improve the user experience for online shopping. The industry is strongly driven by competition, which makes it all the more important to build connections with customers and offer an experience rather than a mere product.
The success of e-commerce fashion websites or apps depends on the confidence that customers have in their use. In order to increase confidence and generate trust, visual aspects, as well as usability of the website or application, need to be taken into account. Fashion brands in particular are facing certain challenges in online customer experience because customer satisfaction is mainly based on product aesthetic and product fit. The deriving key obstacles in fashion e-commerce are therefore wrong size and bad fit, leading to high return rates. To improve customer experience online and reduce return rates, the integration of smart technologies and service design is enhanced in terms of virtual fitting rooms. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the technology of trying on clothes without touching them has become more popular. By using AR or AI, customers can use their mobile device to try virtually selected garments on a 3D avatar with body features resembling their own or to scan their own body to create a 360-degree 3D model. Such technologies could help customers to make more intentional decisions and build a slower, more sustainable relationship with fashion. In addition, pre-order systems are deployed to counteract overproduction and reduce waste of resources. Offline fashion stores could take recourse to such systems by equipping retail space with virtual mirrors instead of pre-made garments and changing rooms.
Virtual fitting rooms could help online shoppers increase their purchase confidence.
The questions that need to be posed in that context are as followed.
- What is the most effective way to use this technology?
- How can this technology transform service touchpoints?
- How can this technology be explored in the future from a sustainable design perspective?
- How can a virtual system be easy to use for customers?
References
Augmented Reality Platforms for Virtual Fitting Rooms:
Publication by Kostas Kapetanakis and Ioannis Pachoulakis on Researchgate
Influence of Website Design on E-Trust and Positive Word of Mouth Intentions in E-Commerce Fashion Websites: Publication by Antonio Trigo and Pedro Manuel do Espírito Santo on Researchgate
Unlocking the Potential of the Salesperson in the Virtual Fitting Room:
Publication by Eirini Bazaki and Vanissa Wanick on Researchgate
User Research and Real User Problems: Improving the User Experience of Online Shopping:
Publication by Lauren Ciulla on Researchgate
Online Clothing — a UX Case Study:
https://uxplanet.org/online-clothing-a-ux-case-study-13d9b7f5c1c8
Virtual Dressing Rooms: A Guide For Fashion Retailers:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/09/16/virtual- dressing-rooms-a-guide-for-fashion-retailers/?sh=57eb6e5eb87e
What are Virtual Fitting Rooms and Why Should Retailers Use Them?
https://www.shopify.com/retail/virtual-fitting-rooms
Kids and Interaction (I): Beauty and practicality. Does interactive design work in interactive exhibits for children as well?
There is a lot of articles and books that try explain what are the principles of interaction design. These show to us the “correct” way of designing but the big questions are: do these principles prioritise beauty or practicality? Does interactive design work in the same way for different age groups?
The main objective of this project is to analyse and break down the 100 basic principles of interactive design in order to find which of these are applied in interactive installations for children. It is also intended to take into account the concept of “Design for All” but in a more closed way and trying to address age differences.
The exhaustive study of the principles and the analysis of similar works in the field of children’s education based on interaction, will help us to generate a small guide to interactive design aimed at children in installations in order to be able to apply it to future projects.
This will also highlight the importance of the interactive method of education, which helps children to better absorb and apply the concepts they learn. Above all, highlighting the idea of “gamification” as a central point of interaction and learning.
ARS Electronica – Kid’s research laboratory https://ars.electronica.art/center/en/exhibitions/kids/
Potion Design – MelaB https://www.potiondesign.com/project/melaB/
REFERENCES
Hanna, M (2021). UX Crash and Burn: UX brought down the 737 Max and it is UX that can save lives. [World Usability Congress]. https://bit.ly/3AMMAgm
Lidwell, W., Holden, K., & Butler, J. (2010). Universal principles of design, revised and updated: 125 ways to enhance usability, influence perception, increase appeal, make better design decisions, and teach through design. Rockport Pub.
Montero, Y. H. (2006). Factores del diseño web orientado a la satisfacción y no-frustración de uso. Revista española de documentación científica, 29(2), 239-257.
Norman, Donald. (2002). Emotion & design: attractive things work better. Interactions, 9(4), 36-42.
Paterno, F. User Interface Design Adaptation. https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/book/the-encyclopedia-of-human-computer-interaction-2nded/user-interface-design-adaptation
Prensky, Marc. (2001) Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. On the Horizon
Sanford, Kathy, and Leanna Madill (2007). Understanding the Power of New Literacies through Video Game Play and Design. Canadian Journal of Education.
Schaaf, Ryan (2012). Does digital game. based learning improve student time-on-task behavior and engagement in comparison to alternative instructional strategies? Canadian Journal of Action Research.
Stephanidis, C. Design for all. https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/book/the-encyclopedia-of-human-computer-interaction-2nd-ed/design-4-all
Augmented Reality solutions and their challenges for in-car UX/UI
| a short introduction to the research topic
Drivers of new cars nowadays are served by several different assistance systems, presenting information about the car and the environment. With the evolution of digital interfaces, the cars GUIs improved in quality, size and customizability.
Besides displays on the dashboard and center console, the Head Up Displays (HUD) were developed with growing importance due to their optimal positioning directly in the driver’s line of sight. Displaying information on the windshield is the perfect condition for using Augmented Reality in vehicles. By this technology a completely new user experience is enabled without any need for clumsy AR-glasses. There are already some expanded systems in new, high-end cars on the market, and newest demos of suppliers like Continental and Panasonic indicate a fast spread of augmented reality technologies for vehicles in the future.
With further evolution of connected cars and smart cities, there will be countless of inputs and data to be shown besides of driver navigation. Until the cars are not completely autonomous, the collected big data will be more and more used to help the driver on his way. On one hand, probably some implementations like HUDs will become mandatory equipment, because of their safety benefits. On the other hand, the data and information has to be selected and designed precisely, not to overwhelm, confuse and distract the driver in any way.
In my research I want to examine the current and possible future trends of AR solutions for in-car user interfaces and the involved challenges that have to be overcome. Some examples of questions I want to get answers to are:
- What in-car AR solutions are already on the market and in development?
- What are the possible digital information groups that can truly help drivers behind the steering wheel?
- In which ways can AR be implemented to deliver helpful information to the driver?
- What are the boundaries of the human perception and which psychological aspects have to be considered to design a safety critical in-car AR interface?
Inspirations:
Forbes: Are You Ready for Augmented Reality in your Car?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2019/08/26/are-you-ready-for-augmented-reality-in-your-car/?sh=3ffda8973144
Wards Auto: Augmented Reality HUDs Will Make Vehicles Safer, But There’s a Catch
https://www.wardsauto.com/vehicles/augmented-reality-huds-will-make-vehicles-safer-there-s-catch
Next Reality News: Augmented Reality in Cars — the Companies & Tech Driving Us into the Future
https://next.reality.news/news/augmented-reality-cars-companies-tech-driving-us-into-future-0182485/
First literature examples:
Pesce, M.: Augmented Reality – Unboxing Tech’s Next Big Thing; Polity Press, 2021
Aukstakalnis, S.: Practical Augmented Reality: A Guide to the Technologies, Applications and Human Factors for Ar and Vr (Usability); Addison-Wesley Professional, 2016
Castro, C.: Human Factors of Visual and Cognitive Performance in Driving; CRC Press, 2009
Azzam, M.: Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Safety Rules; Independently published, 2019
Jacob, P. & Jeannerod, J.: Ways of Seeing: The scope and limits of visual cognition; Oxford University Press, 2004
Wiklund, M.E., Costantino, C., Post, R. et al.: Designing for Safe Use: 100 Principles for Making Products Safer; CRC Press, 2019
Parker, P.M.: The 2021-2026 World Outlook for Augmented Reality Products; ICON, 2020
_Accessibility in Games
_Games are a great interactive and beloved medium – but only few take their time and establish accessibility options. Yet in the last few years many games started to focus on becoming more and more inclusive.
Every disability is unique. Every game is unique. But that shouldn’t stop developers to make their games more inclusive.
Mark Brown, GMTK
_Accessibility is on the rise and is observable in small indie productions and big AAA-games – yet it is not state of the art. The sophistication of said inclusion can vary a lot between games, but some patterns seem to be visible: it started with the customization of inputs and soon simple colorblind or high contrast options were added. In 2020, the game “The Last of Us: Part II” collected several nominations and prizes and also won the award for ‘Best Innovation in Accessibility’. With over 60 different accessibility options, it did set the bar high for the gaming industry. It’s just better for everyone – even a lot of able-bodied people tend to modify and adjust the game to their specific needs; be it just bigger subtitles or getting help with target acquisition. There are many other ways to make games more inclusive, like the “copilot” function on Xbox – it makes it easier for those who need assistance from another person with game inputs through a separate input device. Better inclusion enhances the overall UX of a product – ultimately making it better.
_Why is accessibly in games so important? Simply put – because games are important. Not only by huge difference they can for people’s lives in regard to creation, recreation, culture and socializing – which can sometimes be inaccessible for some people – games can make up for these missing pieces; it’s a 100$ billion industry. Being left out or even locked out of this form of entertainment by excluding people with lack of accessibility options would be a huge loss – not only defining it by financial loss, also in a huge loss in community members. Designing games in an accessible way can make a huge difference in people’s lives. Also, since 2019 there are legal requirements for new games which hit the market in various countries, (e.g., the CVAA in the USA) making it a requirement for every game to be accessible to wide range of people with impairments since January 2019.
_Right of the bat – accessibility should be a key factor from the beginning of every game development – or even project. The earlier it gets implemented and thought oh, the easier it will work out in the end. Most accessibility issues can be dealt with as long as they are considered early enough in the development cycle. Many indie developers begin to implement accessibility options into their projects. Yet there are many views – mainly misconceptions – on the implementation of accessibility in the industry; AAA-studios often worry about the market size for it, their return of investments, how to convince the whole team and, often in large studios with huge projects, managing its implementation with their already big enough workload and often too tightly planned schedule, which is often already set up to end in horrible crunchtime (unpaid overtime). Indie devs often worry to much about its inherent costs for implementation and often only start thinking about it too late in development. Basically, it’s an awareness problem now.
_The field of accessibility spans over a big area and it’s nearly impossible to cover everything, due to its highly changing nature. With every impairment taken into consideration, more questions and possible ways to approach them will crop up. Advice for starting developers? Just do something – anything helps. It may sound trivial but keeping it in mind and raising awareness for the topic by just including small customization for a start helps a lot – it ultimately cements it in the brains of the users as the default options which should always be there. If you just see the huge mountain of possibilities and get overwhelmed by it, being afraid to not get everything done and in the end do nothing – would be the worst outcome for your project. No matter how small, for a first attempt in accessibility and gradually building on these learnings will turn out perfectly. Just start with the easy things – like adjustable text size.
This journey will lead us through the vast possibilities of making games more accessible and will explore what might be best way for designers to implement said accessibility features.
_Best Practices in the field of Game Accessibility:
PlayStation, Microsoft, The Last of Us: Part II, Spiderman: Miles Morales
_Literature & Resources
- Mark Brown, GMTK: How Accessible Were 2020‘s Biggest Games?
- Mark Brown, GMTK: Designing for Disabilities
- GAconf (Game Accessibility Conference)
- https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/the-last-of-us-part-ii/accessibility/
- http://gameaccessibilityguidelines.com/
- https://caniplaythat.com/
- https://gamesforchange.org/studentchallenge/game-accessibility-resources/#1613102520341-a5961431-e2bb
- https://medium.com/potato/the-right-to-play-accessibility-in-gaming-a954b01023f