Laugh Floor at Walt Disney World

Similar to my last post, this post will also be about computer-generated figures interacting with the humans. Unlike the last post, this really works. Disney has several human-cartoon interaction shows in their parks.

At Walt Disney World they have a show called Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor where characters from Monster's Inc. come out and crack jokes with the audience. Instead of just a pre-recorded show, the cartoon characters actually interact with the audience. For example, a two-header monster comes out and asks guests where they are from. Based on the response of the guest, they react accordingly. Its June and a guest says they are from Arizona, the monster might insist that it is freezing cold in Arizona and start shivering. The Laugh Floor works because of the corny humor and the wow factor of cartoon characters interacting with you in real time.

Milo

A really cool application of Project Natal is that very natural interaction

could occur between humans and computer generated characters.

Milo is one such character. He is a young British boy who lives in

your television. Using Project Natal's interface, he can talk with

you and take you on his adventures. For example, in the

YouTube video, Milo and Clara, the human, were talking. It sounded

a bit scripted, but his inflection and movements were fairly realistic.

Clara discovers that Milo has not started his school project (how

she knew he had one was never explained), so she offers to help.

Milo decides that he wants to catch and draw fish for his project,

so they head over to the local fish pond. Milo tosses Clara some

glasses through the TV, which Clara pretends to catch. According

to the narrator, everyone who has tried Milo out goes to catch the

glasses. After Clara looks in the pond and splashes around for

a bit, Milo wants some help drawing a picture of a fish. Using a

conveniently located paper and marker to draw a fish, Clara holds

it up to the TV. Project Natal recognizes that it is paper and scans

it. Meanwhile, Milo reaches out and "takes" the drawing from Clara.

While I strongly doubt that Milo is currently functional enough to be

released to the general public, as the video implies, some of how

Milo interacts is possible. I also don't know what function a boy inside

your TV would serve, but its really cool nonetheless.

iPhone App Design

A company, Create with Context, has developed a presentation about iPhone app design based on research about how people really interact with their phone. In particular, they looked at an older demographic - 30 to 55 year-olds. From their research, they came up with 8 design criteria*:

1. Take advantage of learned behaviors - Put things where they usually are (i.e. the search box at the top) and make them work the same across applications. For example, make a plus button in the top right always be add.
2. Avoid interaction inconsistencies - This is quite similar to #1 but focuses more on the user action. For example, to edit, the user usually just clicks on what they want to edit. It is a bad design decision to make them go hunting for an edit button which they must click to edit.
3. Provide clear conceptual link across widgets - Put things that go together next to each other and separate things that don't go together. For example, put the "Go Search" button next to the search bar.
4. Put space between action widgets - Leave room between buttons. Remember that fingers are larger than mice and somewhat imprecise.
5. Plan for accidental overswiping - Similar to #4, users are imprecise.
6. Don't rely exclusively on multi-touch - It can be difficult to perform certain actions at times. For example, if the user is holding something in their other hand, they need to be able to perform the action one-handed.
7. Provide visual feedback for taps -Make it clear that the user hit the button by having some sort of action quickly.
8. Provide interaction affordances -Make it clear what the user is supposed to do. For example, if they can scroll up and down, have cut off pictures or text at the top and/or bottom

* Orange, italic Georgia font is taken directly from the presentation; black Arial font is my comments.

While these criteria were designed for iPhone apps, they are applicable to all touchable interfaces. The eight guidelines can be summarized as follows: Make the application interface look and act like other interfaces, leave enough space around buttons and provide feedback.