Latest Trends in UI/UX
Have you seen Iron Man? Or the Minority Report (2002)? Weren’t you fascinated by how Stark models the suits or How John Anderton being super cool while showing others details of the mission? I watched these back in my school days which made me think like “wow! that will be something from far future than I live on” But now, after like 2010, the advancement of science and technology have become tremendous that we can’t even predict the future of our world.
Hola guys! Today I am going to speak about something interesting. User interfaces!
Back in good old days and even now, the majority of us uses keyboards or mouse to interact with the computers. Even when I say “user interfaces” I know most of you guys have thought this article is about trends of web designing or mobile interface designing etc. But the word “user interfaces” has more depth to it than that. The word user interfaces mean;
“The means by which the user and a computer system interact, in particular the use of input devices and software” — Oxford
The tides are changing their direction by producing innovative and futuristic methods of user interfaces than a traditional button click.
While surfing on the internet, I found so many fabulous trends. Let’s talk about them today. I’d love to see your comments as well. So today’s topics are,
- Gesture Interfaces
- Voice Interfaces
- Virtual Reality-based User Interfaces
- Augmented Reality based User Interfaces
- Mixed Reality-based User Interfaces
So let’s dive in without a further due!
Gesture Interfaces
Gesture Interfaces has become one of the top trends in futuristic User Interface designing with the release of Google’s Pixel 4 in October 2019.
With the Soli RADAR embedded to its forehead, Pixel 4 give more precise gesture input interpretation than other brands trying to implement the similar use case like Samsung S4 or LG G8 ThinQ.
Possibilities of gesture embedded smartphones include some of the common features like gesture unlock, scroll, swipe music, snooze alarm, volume controls, etc. Beyond that, if you think the gesture is not something limited to your hands, there are other cool features like pausing a video when you fell asleep and playing it again when you open the eyes, scrolling through the page you are reading by tracking your gaze, and so on.
But hey! why should we just limit this talk to smartphones! There are more Gesture Interface based systems than that. You can snap fingers to turn on lights or clap twice to turn on your Television. Volume adjusting, navigation through channels are also possible, along with many more other features, just by the use of gestures as input. These are possibilities brought by products like Eyesight technology’s Device Sense, Microsoft’s Kinect, or LeapMotion Controllers
Image: Oblong’s g-speak
There are researches carried out around the world, trying to expand the bandwidth of machine’s understandability of gestures and implementations of new use cases. For example, Oblong’s g-speak is something very much similar to what you see in the movie Minority Report. (Well, the reason might be because one of the co-founders of Oblong, John Underkoffler, was the science advisor on the film).
Looking at all these in a futuristic mindset, let's talk about a bit on the usability aspects as well.
Good things first. In my opinion (and I think, in the majority’s opinion), gesture interfaces are not only cool but also useful. Think about a simple scenario where you are working in the garden and your hands are too dirty, or wet, to touch your phone’s screen. Gesture input will be very much convenient than wiping or cleaning your hands each time you want to use your phone. If you are like me, who don’t want to waste my effort on finding the small “next” or “previous” button when I play music while concentrating on doing other work, then you will be a fan of gesture interfaces for sure.
However, there are minus points as well, since these technologies are still in the early stages. In Amber Case’s medium article, Why gesture-based interfaces haven’t lived up to the hype, she describes how she found it is hard to use g-speak because of continuous above-the-heart hand movement and comparatively large learning curve. Also in many reviews, it says Pixel 4 does not live up to the expectation of users, even with its super cool Soli RADAR.
Moving on, let's look at another interesting trend in user interfaces, Voice Interfaces
Voice Interfaces
Image: Amazon Echo Show 5 (Source: Tech with Brett — Youtube.com, 2019)
Once again I’m going to refer to the Iron Man movie. Do you remember how Stark mostly interact with JARVIS? That is by talking. Talking is one of the easiest, effortless and commonly used mechanism in conveying ideas among people. So why not we use it to interact with Machines in the same ease. Like Stark talking to JARVIS, we can talk to Alexa (or Siri, or Cortana, or Google Assistant — No discrimination ??) and ask to play your favourite music playlist.
The currently available Application implementations of Voice Interfaces include Amazon’s Echo Show, Google’s Home, and even Apple’s HomePod.
What these can do varies in a great range. It can wake you up in the morning, play you music, answer any sort of questions (What is the weather, How to spell futuristic, what is 6 plus 3 and so on), control your smart home, make calls, message people, keep track of your TODOs, grocery list and appointment, and even, you can ask it to flip a virtual coin for you if you are stuck with making a decision. ??
Some of the leading research in Voice Interfaces are carried out by Future Interfaces Group of Carnegie Mellon University, USA. One of the fascinating research ideas I saw that was implemented by them is machines that can listen to all surrounding noise and understand what is happening around them (Project Ubicoustics — 2018). In future, we will be able to use these in practical scenarios, for example, to take care of elderly people living alone.
Image: Project Ubicoustics (2018) — Source: Engadget-Youtube. com (2019)
In the usability perspective, as I even mentioned before, talking is the most effortless, commonly used and easiest mechanism to convey our ideas. Using it to talk with machines to get the work done, is a way more preferable mechanism than interacting with it using hands. (Unless you are in a library, like me right now ??). If we talk with numbers, 71% of US respondents agreed on this fact as well (Statista, 2019). Also, the discoverability aspect of Usability Engineering is well preserved in those systems. i.e. the learning curve is small.
The other thing is the emotional bond or the feeling that an agent like Alexa or Siri can produce, compared to a traditional machine. In his blog post, Voice Interfaces: New Era Of Human-Computer-Interactions, Anthony Miller had mentioned this in a really nice way:
If you look at the online reviews for Amazon’s Echo speaker, it’s clear that some people establish a close bond with their device in a way that more resembles a pet than a product.
On the other hand, usability is limited to certain environments where we can use voice. We cannot use those voice interface-based devices in places like libraries, court, etc.
Before moving into talk about XR (Cross Reality or Extended Reality) based interfaces, i.e. Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR), Let’s clearly understand what they really are.
Controversy of XR
Term XR is an umbrella term used to call VR, AR and MR. Often people get mixed up regarding those 3 terms and do not have a clear idea about what they mean. So let me explain in a simple way.
Virtual Reality:
VR creates a 3D environment along with its own virtual objects, with which the users can freely interact and immerse in.
For example, VR can give you the experience of real Jungle at the ease of your sofa, by projecting an Artificially created Jungle Environment from your VR box. You can walk through it, touch the leaves, animals etc. (Only if you have a HIVE or Oculus Rift or setup controllers with VR Box since most of VR boxes comes without controllers, even the Google cardboard) in it, to experience the jungle.
Augmented Reality:
Unlike VR, AR does not create a whole new 3D environment. Instead,
AR projects virtual objects into the user’s physical environment. It kind of adds an overlay on top of the real world.
Snapchat or Facebook filters are one of the best examples for this even though they are at a very primitive level. Another good example will be the Pokémon GO game, which can be played with AR mode on. In here, the Pokémon will appear in your real environment. But the important thing to remember is you cannot interact with that synthetic environment.
Mixed Reality:
This is where people generally mess up things. MR, often referred to as hybrid reality, is pretty much similar to AR. In fact, it is also known as AR 2.0.
Like AR, MR also projects virtual objects into the physical environment. But the speciality is that, those physical and synthetic objects come together and interact.
For example, you cannot touch or manipulate the Snapchat filter. But on the other hand, (let us go back to Iron Man again!??) think about how Stark interact with Holographic image of the Suit at ease like it is a physical object in front of him when he was designing it. That is what Mix Reality can hold for the future. For a better understanding, (and to drop your jaw ??) check out the below-embedded video.
So now since we are clear about what each of these terms means, let's look at the User interface perspectives of these.
Virtual Reality Interfaces
Image: SuperChem VR (Schell Games, 2019)
Virtual reality interfaces are used in Virtual reality-based applications. There are endless possibilities of those kinds of applications in a vast range of domains like Education, Healthcare, Military, and of cause Gaming. Some well-known applications include Google expedition, SuperChem VR, and even games like Resident Evil 7: Biohazard.
Of cause, the VR technology has endless possibilities ahead of them and many types of research are carried out to expand those possibilities. Speciality counties like Japan, USA and China, are leading those research.
Talking about the usability perspective, the most important thing is not making the user sick. If you have used VR box before, you will know what I mean. For those who do not know, let me explain. Sometimes when the VR application is not good, the users of it get headache or nausea. Simply putting, users get motion sickness. That is because that VR application is manipulating your eyesight in the wrong way. There are certain technical aspects to consider while developing a VR application like mismatched motion, the field of view, motion parallax, and viewing angle, to avoid user getting motion sickness.
On the better side, VR applications provide an immersive user experience which is capable of impressing people and keeping them engaged. That is why VR based education had become “The thing” in the modern world.
Ok! Now let’s move on to the AR Interfaces.
Augmented Reality Interfaces
Image: Award-Winning Gatwick’s Augmented Reality Passenger App
Augmented Reality based interfaces are used in AR applications. Like VR applications, they also provide an informative and immersive experience to the user. Thatis why those applications are also being used in a larger spectrum of domains.
Popular implementations include Gatwick Airport app for Airport wayfinding, World’s leading cosmetic brand — Sephora’s Virtual Artist app that allows their customers to choose colours of their cosmetic by trying out them virtually, and IKEA Place app which allows their customers to preplan and select their furniture before actually buying them from IKEA.
There are many more possible implementations of these in various different use cases. Japan, USA, China and even Europe lead the research in those areas in various different application domains.
Typically in the usability perspective, AR applications have a smaller learning curve with mostly on-screen, easily understood, single-line guidelines. Also, they have the factor of “attraction” with them to keep the user engaged.
Mixed Reality Interfaces
Image: Mixed Reality in Iron Man 2 (2010)
Mixed reality interfaces might be the real hit in coming years. With its emergence, all those things we saw in scientific movies become way more possible than they did before.
The possible use cases (some are already implemented) include S-Learning (Simulation-based Learning) in fields like education, military, medicine etc., designing or prototyping of products and interior, remote working, communicating face-to-face even though situated remotely, etc. The last one I mentioned will be especially useful with the current social trends like remote working and social distancing, resulting from the global pandemic.
As a user interface, they provide endless possibilities and room for creativity. It is a matter of knowing how to imagine. There is a possibility that it may have a larger learning curve depending on the application, but it will be a trade-off with the immersive experience provided by those applications. Also the Usability Engineering concept of “Feedback” is fully utilized in those kinds of systems with its next-level user experience
EndNote
So to conclude, I would say that all these new User Interface trends will result in a massive impact in future of technology. But using it wisely to make a better future is all up to us, humans.
There will be one day when children who are bed-ridden from birth, can feel the happiness of playing chase with their friends (this is a project I really want to be a part of), or a mother working in a faraway country, can console her child by caressing his hair. With AR, VR, MR, Gesture, Voice and many more yet-to-be emerged User Interfaces, it all will be really possible.
So that’s all for today!
Hope it was interesting for you and not too long to read. Any criticisms, arguments and ideas are warmly welcome. ??
See you in another article. Till then,
Happy Reading!??