Designing Unobtrusive Interfaces with Minimal Presence
Abstract
The vision of Ubiquitous Computing is a world of invisible technologies. Technologies are so woven into the fabric of everyday life that they become
indistinguishable [1]. In this paper, we discuss unobtrusive interfaces having minimal presence. By merging into everyday objects and environments, the presence of an interface can be minimized, making our everyday life more interactive without increasing its complexity. To obtain minimal presence, physical plasticity of the interface is considered in the present work. This allows the interface to shift between invisible and visible states; the concealed interface appears when it is put into use and disappears after use. In addition, our recent project, Shade Pixel, is presented as an example of an unobtrusive interface with minimal presence. We also briefly describe a design concept for the interface to provide inspiration for its practical application.
Keywords
Unobtrusive interface, Physical plasticity, Minimalism, Simplicity
ACM Classification Keywords
H5.2. Information interfaces and presentation (e.g., HCI): User Interfaces.
Copyright is held by the author/owner(s).
CHI 2009, April 4–9, 2009, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
ACM 978-1-60558-247-4/09/04.
Hyunjung Kim
Dept. of Industrial Design, KAIST 335 Gwahangno, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-701, Korea [email protected]
Woohun Lee
Dept. of Industrial Design, KAIST 335 Gwahangno, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-701, Korea [email protected]
Background
Our everyday environments are replete with high-tech, complex products. We expect these products to make our life simpler. However, unnecessarily complex interfaces impede interaction with them. Moreover, people are exposed to excessive mental and physical clutter created by these obtrusive interfaces, not only when they are in use, but also not in use.
A minimalist approach to user interfaces can be one solution to this problem. Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, where the work is stripped down to its most fundamental features. Minimalist aesthetics of simplicity are well described by the motto “Less is more”, adopted by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Then, how can we attain simplicity in the user interface? In an effort to realize simplicity in the user interface, developers may eliminate needless buttons and blinking lights. Of course, thoughtful reduction can be a good way to achieve simplicity [2]. However, our approach goes one step further.
Interfaces with Minimal Presence
A user interface is an aggregate of means by which people interact with an object or system. Accordingly, input or output, or more precisely, interaction between users takes place at an interface (Figure 1).
Traditionally, interfaces are considered to be rigid, or in other words, frozen. However, recent advances in technology have allowed them so as to be absorbed into the surroundings, and even the users themselves.
Not only products and environments but also the human body can be a medium for these pliable interfaces. Interfaces can now be implemented
anywhere. Conversely, the presence of the interface can be eliminated (Figure 2).
Figure 1. Interaction with a traditional, rigid interface
Figure 2. Interaction with a pliable interface that can be absorbed into the surroundings, or even the users themselves Then, how can we interact with an interface with eliminated presence? Interestingly, the Cheshire Cat provides an inspiration for this. Cheshire Cat is a fictional cat in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. A notable feature of this cat is that it appears and disappears at will. At one point, it fades away gradually until nothing is left but its grin. This
unique behavior of Cheshire Cat inspired us to imagine a concealed interface, which appears when it is in use and disappears after use. This physical plasticity of the interface enables interaction without presence, like a grin without a cat. Figure 3 shows a transition of the interface, from an inactive, invisible, and static state to an active, visible and dynamic state, and vice versa.
This makes our everyday life more interactive without increasing its complexity. Needless to say, this extreme reduction brings simplicity to the appearance of
interactive objects. Notably, the visual complexity of objects is minimized when they are not in use.
Figure 3. Physical plasticity of the interface; the interface can shift between an invisible state and visible state
Related works
Interfaces with minimal presence can be found in several examples. Chronos Chromos Concrete [3], which is concrete mixed with thermochromic ink, allows information repeatedly appear on and vanish from its surface. The History Tablecloth [4] draws the flow of objects over its surface with electroluminescent ink.
The trace disappears after the objects are removed.
Another example, the D/A clock by Alvin Aronson [5]
displays time with physical segments that slowly fade in and out of a flat surface. SKIN:Tattoo [6] by Philips design is also remarkable. The Electronics Tattoo film applied to the human body becomes visible when it is stimulated and subtly transforms its shape.
Shade Pixel
Figure 4. Shade Pixel
Our recent project, Shade Pixel (Figure 4) [7], is also an example of an unobtrusive interface with minimal presence. Shade Pixel is a physical display that uses deformable skin to represent live information. Instead of using ‘light’ like a typical display, Shade Pixel uses
‘shade’ to visualize information. Figure 6 shows a schematic diagram and mechanism of Shade Pixel.
Pixels with shade, which are formed by concave dips on a fabric surface, create numbers, text, and patterns in a lively manner (Figure 5). This is not only aesthetically pleasing, but also provides sensorial and hence
emotional comfort to users. In addition, its non- luminescent nature and simple appearance reduces
visual noise. When it is not in use, only a seamless fabric surface can be seen, with no evidence of the display’s existence. Furthermore, for flexibility to fit any form and to accommodate motion, Shade Pixel
impeccably fits the concept of a display for Organic User Interfaces [8]. Therefore, Shade Pixel is expected to become an ambient display by merging into
everyday life in the form of interactive skin (Figure 7).
Figure 5. Representing (top) images, (middle) numbers, (bottom) text with Shade Pixel
Figure 6. (a) Schematic diagram of Shade Pixel (b) Mechanism of shade pixel; an iron core attached to the fabric moves in and out to make a concave surface which creates a shade
Figure 7. Shade Pixel can be merged into everyday products and environments in the form of interactive skin
Further ideas
To show the feasibility of the practical use of an interface with minimal presence, we provide a further design concept; Transformable buttons. We give a brief description of the idea with an application scenario below.
Transformable buttons
Figure 8. Transformable buttons; (a) a knob (b) a slider Transformable buttons change their shape according to contexts. The level surface of button becomes bumpy, and vice versa (Figure 8). These changes in physical appearance can be used as an element of an unobtrusive interface. One possible application for transformable buttons is a frequency controller for a radio. Noise during channel searching can be mapped to the bumpy surface of a button. When the right frequency is tuned in, the button returns to its original shape (Figure 9). Without any additional interface such as a LCD display, precise control is possible.
Figure 9. Transformable buttons as a frequency controller for a radio
Conclusion
Mark Weiser envisioned Ubiquitous Computing, a world in which computational services can be invisibly integrated into our physical environment [1]. In this paper, we have discussed an “invisible” interface with physical plasticity; the concealed interface appears when it is put into use and disappears after use. This enables reduced presence of the interface, making our everyday life more interactive without increasing its complexity. By merging interfaces into everyday objects and environments, we can preserve their initial form.
To verify the concept of the interface, a user study is needed. We are planning to demonstrate the prototype interface and let users interact with it. It will be helpful to get the idea of what people experience with the interface. In addition, we intend to implement the concept in the real products.
The concept of interfaces with minimal presence is similar to the embodied interaction [9] in a manner.
However, our approach is not limited to the objects with particular metaphor or affordance. We expect this paper to stimulate additional discussion and attempts on the issue.
Acknowledgement
This research was supported by the BK21 program of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Korea.
References
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[2] Maeda, J. The Laws of Simplicity. MIT Press.
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http://www.chromastone.com/
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109, 199 -208.
[5] Aronson, A. D.A clock.
http://alvinaronson.com/
[6] Phillips design SKIN:Tattoo.
http://www.design.philips.com/probes/projects/tattoo/i ndex.page
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[9] Ishii, H., A. Mazalek, and J. Lee, Bottles as a Minimal Interface to Access Digital Information. In Extended Abstracts of CHI 2001, ACM Press (2001), 187-188.