Papers by Leena Arhippainen
Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference on Envisioning Future Media Environments - MindTrek '11, 2011
ABSTRACT This paper presents the results of qualitative interviews conducted with musicians and l... more ABSTRACT This paper presents the results of qualitative interviews conducted with musicians and listeners about their music activities and use of social media services. The paper describes different music user groups, their wishes and what services are needed from a mobile network virtual environment. This information can help developers design new mobile network services from the user experience points of views.
Proceedings of the 24th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference on - OzCHI '12, 2012
ABSTRACT This paper introduces a continuous gaze tracking and non-touch gesture recognition based... more ABSTRACT This paper introduces a continuous gaze tracking and non-touch gesture recognition based interaction method for 3D virtual spaces on tablet devices. The user can turn his/her viewpoint, select objects with gaze and grab and manipulate objects with non-touch hand gestures. The interaction method does not require the use of a mouse or a keyboard. We created a test scenario with an object manipulation task and measured the completion times of a combined gaze tracking and non-touch gesture interaction method, with a touch screen only input method. Short interviews were conducted with 13 test subjects and data was gathered through questionnaires. The touch screen method was generally faster than or as fast as the combined gaze and non-touch gesture method. The users thought, however, that gaze tracking was more interesting and showed potential. The gaze tracking would however require more stability to be suitable for use with mobile devices.
Proceedings of the 2005 joint conference on Smart objects and ambient intelligence innovative context-aware services: usages and technologies - sOc-EUSAI '05, 2005
One of the essentials for the breakthrough of ubiquitous computing, a.k.a. computers everywhere, ... more One of the essentials for the breakthrough of ubiquitous computing, a.k.a. computers everywhere, is to develop methods that reduce the demand and relieve the effort needed for conscious control by users. Solutions that incorporate sensor-based adaptation have been offered, especially in the field of mobile applications. Whether these methods succeed or not depends not only on technical issues but also on user acceptance. Currently, it is somewhat unknown how user interface adaptation and control based on sensors affects to user experience. In this paper, we provide more insight by evaluating both the performance and the user experience of an adaptive, mobile map-application. The focus is placed on scrolling, zooming and rotating of maps, which are enhanced with sensor-based techniques. Our evaluation is based on measurements and a user experience study with ten users in a laboratory environment.
A principal characteristic of three dimensional user interfaces is that it contains information i... more A principal characteristic of three dimensional user interfaces is that it contains information in the 3rd axis. Visually, this information is presented as being placed further away from the screen or having depth. A consequence of this is that information can be occluded. Determining the optimal amount of depth levels for specifically sized icons is important in the design of 3D user interfaces. This paper investigates the depth placement of objects of a three dimensional user interface on a tablet device at the early stage of the development process. We present mixed methods evaluation with a paper prototype with a focus on the users' subjective experiences. Users were presented with concepts of different depth levels, with and without 3D objects. The findings indicate that users' preference was for depth levels 3-5. We recommend designing 3D UIs with a controllable depth by starting with a few depth levels and increasing them automatically based on the amount of 3D object...
In this poster paper we present preliminary design guidelines for 3D user interfaces on touch scr... more In this poster paper we present preliminary design guidelines for 3D user interfaces on touch screen tablet devices. These guidelines are defined based on the findings from two user experience evaluations conducted in the early phase of a 3D user interface development process.
This article focuses on a possibility to have a personal three dimensional graphical user interfa... more This article focuses on a possibility to have a personal three dimensional graphical user interface inside a virtual environment on a tablet device. We describe the visual design process and early phase user experience evaluation of four 3D GUIs in a virtual environment. A user evaluation was conducted by using a structured pair evaluation procedure, where we adapted the concept walkthrough method with non-functional visually high quality prototypes. In addition, we conducted a self-expression task, where participants were able to draw their idea of a 3D GUI on a touch screen tablet device. This evaluation provided us a lot of user feedback for the design, which we utilized in the final iterated designs. In addition, we point out many design issues relating to the visual design of the personal GUI in virtual environments in a touch screen context. Our user evaluation indicated that participants would like to have their personal 3D GUI in a virtual environment. However, the visual de...
In this paper, we focus on a possibility to have a personal 3D GUI inside a virtual environment o... more In this paper, we focus on a possibility to have a personal 3D GUI inside a virtual environment on tablet device. We describe the visual design process and user experience evaluation of four 3D GUIs in a virtual environment. A user evaluation was conducted by using a structured pair evaluation procedure, where we adapted a concept walkthrough method with non-functional visually high quality prototypes. We found that participants would like to have their personal 3D GUI in a virtual environment. However, the visual design of the 3D GUI should create a secure and private feeling for them. Also, participants did not want the GUI to occlude too much with the background. The visual indication is needed also when a user transfers items from personal GUI to the virtual environment and for showing the user's active position between the GUI and virtual environment. We point out also other issues for interaction and visual designers.
Each user experience test is a unique. Researchers need to find out how to introduce the research... more Each user experience test is a unique. Researchers need to find out how to introduce the research target (e.g. application, device, service) to the participants and what methods to use for capturing one's subjective experiences. Each test participant is a unique. Researchers need to know how to handle each subject, how to get them to express their experiences, wishes and needs verbally or nonverbally. Mixed methods test procedures can help researchers to 1) introduce a test topic to participants step by step, and 2) learn about the users and their ways to express, and 3) catch user experience information piece by piece by utilizing different methods. This paper presents practical examples of different case studies, where several mixed methods have been used together for getting a deeper understanding of users' experiences
There is a growing proliferation of 3D based applications in tablet devices, but there is a lack ... more There is a growing proliferation of 3D based applications in tablet devices, but there is a lack of studies evaluating user experiences of these user interfaces. In particular, most of these applications use a mix of overlaid 2D controls and embedded 3D controls for user interactions and there is little current understanding on how users perceive and experience these controls. This paper presents the results of a user experience evaluation made for the user interface of four 3D applications running on two different tablet devices. A number of results are obtained. First, the results show that users wish that applications had less 2D overlaid icons and more space for touch gesture interactions. Second, the number of on screen control elements complicates the activity and provides a more disappointing experience. Third, avatar control was difficult as there were no tips or clear cues on how to use them. Fourth, users expected to control and interact with the applications by using dire...
Proceedings of the 26th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference on Designing Futures the Future of Design - OzCHI '14, 2014
ABSTRACT The tourism sector has found virtual reality technology to be a good way to market trave... more ABSTRACT The tourism sector has found virtual reality technology to be a good way to market travel destinations for consumers. In this paper, we describe two user studies with three web-based 3D virtual travel destination marketing portals. These three portals were developed to support and attract wintertime tourism into the region by offering a possibility to experience in advance, a virtual snowy scenery with different activities, for example downhill skiing. In both user studies with 21 subjects the focus was on user experience with the 3D virtual travel destination marketing portals. In the second study also the visual design aspects within these portals were studied. Our studies indicate that 3D virtual travel destination marketing portals can enhance 2D web pages, if they offer the possibility to explore the location freely and through different kinds of virtual activities. Also our studies support prior findings of the efficiency of glow effect for indicating interactive 3D elements within a 3D virtual environment.
Proceedings of International Conference on Making Sense of Converging Media - AcademicMindTrek '13, 2013
ABSTRACT In this paper, we introduce our Self-Expression Template Method for design. We also brie... more ABSTRACT In this paper, we introduce our Self-Expression Template Method for design. We also briefly present three different UI design cases utilizing the template with authentic users and UI professionals from both research and industry. This method provided lots of valuable information to our design process of 3D UIs on touch screen tablet devices. We can recommend this type of low-fidelity method to other visual GUI designers also when involving users into the design process. This method is flexible, cost-effective and time-saving to be used in various different participatory or co-design cases among UI development process.
Proceedings of International Conference on Making Sense of Converging Media - AcademicMindTrek '13, 2013
ABSTRACT In this paper we present the user evaluation results on the indication of interactive th... more ABSTRACT In this paper we present the user evaluation results on the indication of interactive three dimensional elements in a virtual environment. The evaluation was conducted with a functional prototype and additional high quality images that were printed on paper sheets. The evaluation indicated that without any visual indication provided in the prototype, participants were not sure which items in the office scene are interactable when they enter to the scene. Also the indication while a user is interacting with the prototype, needs to be distinctive enough. For the visual indication of interactable elements in the virtual environment, participants preferred a glow effect in both circumstances; 1st while they enter to the virtual environment and 2nd while they are interacting with the elements. This information is useful to HCI researchers, 3D UI designers and developers to improve user experiences with virtual environments.
Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference on Envisioning Future Media Environments - MindTrek '11, 2011
We present results on the user experience studies carried out with primary, lower and upper secon... more We present results on the user experience studies carried out with primary, lower and upper secondary schools' pupils and students using an extensible 3D virtual learning environment for the first time. Based on the first experiments we present user experience issues that need to be taken into account when developing extensible 3D virtual learning environments.
Proceeding of the 16th International Academic MindTrek Conference on - MindTrek '12, 2012
ABSTRACT This paper presents a qualitative study of users' needs and wishes for designing... more ABSTRACT This paper presents a qualitative study of users' needs and wishes for designing 3D virtual music spaces. We used a mix of methods in order to find out which kinds of virtual 3D spaces and activities would provide a positive music and entertainment experiences. Our concept design and evaluation phases included several methods; interviews, user evaluations, scenario walkthrough, selection tasks for sketches, and self-expression method. We created a self-expression template, which enables users to express their ideas, wishes and needs by drawing and writing. Based on the results of the concept evaluation with 23 participants, we designed 3D models of the two different types of the 3D virtual music club spaces for designers' and developers' use.
Proceedings of the 24th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference on - OzCHI '12, 2012
ABSTRACT In this paper we present findings from a user experience evaluation of a first generatio... more ABSTRACT In this paper we present findings from a user experience evaluation of a first generation autostereoscopic 3D menu on a mobile phone. The aim of this paper was to discover users' preferences for S3D menus on a mobile touch screen device, with the intent that the results can be used for future designs. In the evaluation we used methods such as interviews, observations and adjective card selections. The positive adjective selections made by users related to user experience qualities such as visually pleasant, entertaining, fun, innovative and empowering. The negative adjective selections made by users related to usability aspects such as uncontrollable, unclear and time-consuming. Also, users did not see the benefit of using an autostereoscopic 3D for the user interface under evaluation. According to them, S3D could bring value by empowering new ways of interacting with touch screen mobile devices.
Proceedings of the 24th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference on - OzCHI '12, 2012
ABSTRACT The adoption of 3D map based services by users will be more likely if they can provide a... more ABSTRACT The adoption of 3D map based services by users will be more likely if they can provide additional value and utility, while maintaining visual appeal and usability. We present a 3D user interface which objectifies real-time data, provides a set of operations for that data and uses simple object manipulation. In user tests focusing on the usefulness of this approach, our system scored highly for interesting, useful, easy, fast and natural. In our user interface, users liked the 'drag to service' option, but 'drag to map' was not considered to be easy or a natural means of behaving.
Proceeding of the 16th International Academic MindTrek Conference on - MindTrek '12, 2012
ABSTRACT This poster paper presents our experience of using low-cost user experience methods in t... more ABSTRACT This poster paper presents our experience of using low-cost user experience methods in the very early visual design phase of a 3D environment targeted for tablet devices. We presented early phase sketches to 23 participants, prior to the modeling phase, of a 'music club' themed virtual environment. Then we designed a 3D model based on the most preferred sketch and user feedback.
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Papers by Leena Arhippainen