Understanding affordance, system state, and feedback in shape-changing buttons

John Samy Selim Tiab, Kasper Hornbæk

13 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Research on shape-changing interfaces has explored various technologies, parameters for shape changes, and transformations between shapes. While much is known about how to implement these variations, it is unclear what affordance they provide, how users understand their relation to the underlying system state, and how feedback via shape change is perceived. We investigated this by studying how 15 participants perceived and used 13 shape-changing buttons. The buttons covered several aspects of affordance, system state, and feedback, including invite-to-touch movements, two styles of transition animation, and two actuation technologies. Participants explored and interacted with the buttons while thinking aloud. The results show that affordances are hard to communicate clearly with shape change; while some movements invited actions, others were seen as a malfunction. The best clue as to button state was provided by the position of the button in combination with vibration. Linear transition animation for changes in button state was the best received form of shape-change feedback. We discuss also how these findings can inform the design of shape-changing interfaces more generally.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - the 34th Annual CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Number of pages12
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
Publication date7 May 2016
Pages2752-2763
ISBN (Print)978-1-4503-3362-7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 7 May 2016
Event34th Annual CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - San Jose Convention Center, San Jose, United States
Duration: 7 May 201612 May 2016
Conference number: 34

Conference

Conference34th Annual CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Number34
LocationSan Jose Convention Center
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CitySan Jose
Period07/05/201612/05/2016

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