Interaction in 4-Second Bursts

The Fragmented Nature of Attentional Resources in Mobile HCI

IS 698: Mobile HCIPresented by:Marie K. Silverstrim

Authors: Dr. Antti Oulasvirta

Education:PhD (2006), MA (2001) in Cognitive Science from University of Helsinki

Currently: Senior Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics and the Cluster of Excellence on Multimodal Computing and Interaction in Germany, leads the HCI Group

Research interests: HCI, UI Design, Human Performance

“My mission is to identify and exploit optima of joint human-computer performance.”

http://www.mpi-inf.mpg.de/~oantti/index.html#education

Authors: Dr. Virpi Roto

Education:PhD (2006) Comp Sci & Eng from Helsinki University of TechnologyMA (1993) Computer Science from University of Helsinki

Currently: Acting Professor at Aalto University, School of Art and Design

Research interests: Web browsing on Mobile devices

“My mission is to make user experience work more systematic by clarifying the concept of user experience and providing means for evaluating and designing it”

http://www.allaboutux.org/virpiroto

Authors: Tamminen & Kuorelahti

Sakari Tamminen

AffiliationsHelsinki Institute for Information Technology HIIT / Aalto UniversityHelsinki University of Technology

Publications6 between 2001-2011

Jaana Kuorelahti

AffiliationsHelsinki University of TechnologyNokia Research Center

PublicationsOnly this paper

“… being mobile is cognitively costly”

“We all have experiences where we have to slow down, to postpone, or to stop interaction with a device entirely because of a cognitively taxing situation” (p. 919)

In short:Cognitive resources are limited… and there’s competition for those

resources…So when the tasks outnumber the brain power,

something gets left behind.

Just existing takes a lot of effort

Setting Adjusts

Context Is Defined

Response

Action** No action is also a response!

Resource Competition Framework: Assumptions Cognitive systems have modules, or “buckets” Modules can operate in parallel BUT! There is an overall limited capacity And the co-ordination of those modules is

serial Due to parallel modules, can multi-task Boundaries of modules are fuzzy, pool

resources Not all tasks are created equal, some are

harder Resource sharing is not fair Tasks that aren’t priorities are cut off

Cognitive systems have modules, or “buckets” Modules can operate in parallel BUT! There is an overall limited capacity And the co-ordination of those modules is

serial

Experiment

Research focused on page load time Needs to happen to complete the task Varies considerably, so needs checking Load time is independent of participant

expertise 28 persons given a mobile phone,

tasks, training, and a route Field trip through Helsinki (1.5 hrs),

recording everything – 4 cameras Coded results by watching the tapes

(168 hrs)

Looked at a lot of this…

… and came up with this.

Results: Attention based on Environment

Why is the escalator total half of the lab total?

Results: Attention based on Situation

15%45%

Does it surprise you the baseline is closer to hurrying than waiting? Do you think being part of an experiment skewed the baseline?

So what?

If you know the strategies that people use, then can design to optimize the experience.

The strategies: Attention on environment early – know you’ll be

waiting a bit, get the lay of the land Brief sampling while waiting– already know the

situation, confirm expected changes Tunnel vision on device at moment of task

completion Social interaction rules guide behavior in groups

Do you employ these strategies? If not, what do you do instead?

What if we’re doing other stuff besides walking?

NY Times article (thanks Joe!) Discusses studies of “driver

workload management” Actually a bell curve for

optimal attention▪ Too little stimulus – bored, don’t pay attention▪ Too much stimulus – brain is overwhelmed▪ Just right! All is well.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/07/automobiles/as-workload-overwhelms-cars-are-set-to-intervene.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

performance

stimulus

Any Questions?

The End.

Thank you!