Interaction Design: User Interface Musings

I have a number of ideas swirling about my brain about this project, and it’s probably about time that I committed them to blog. I am particularly interested in making a map that not just the sighted can used but also the visually impaired. Which possibly makes it a little more difficult and I don’t know the number of visually impaired on campus, but it is an important aspect of user interface design that I don’t think should be overlooked. However, depending on how I approach the design it could actually end up being easy for sighted people too to use as a navigation aid.

Often I try not to rely on maps when I navigate myself around a city, especially one I know well. I will look at a map to get a general idea if necessary and then head off in the general direction. I’ve even done this in cities I don’t know that well. If I had to describe how I navigate I would say I navigate by gut instinct and a little cheating look at a map every now and again. Though I only usually do this when I have time, if I don’t I use a map.

I think this is one time where I feel quite fortunate having been around as an adult when there weren’t smartphones to do the navigating for me and I had to use an old-fashioned paper map to navigate. As the chief navigator in the car because of my permanent passenger status I got very good at navigating using a map, even though I suffer a little from right left confusion. I get my left and right mixed up.

I now own a smartphone with maps and GPS navigation and I would say I use it often apart from the fact that I do find it a bit annoying to actually use. I think it goes back to honing the navigation instinct because I hated having to stop and get a map out to see where I was and where I needed to go next. I find I still hate having to do that with the phone. I would rather it knew where I was and I put in where I needed to be and it reminded me when I needed to turn without my having to get it out or hold it.

This may seem a little tangent but is part of my process. I often find myself thinking about the wee personal assistant imp that Vimes has in the Terry Pratchett books. Yes! Finally got to refer to his ideas! How can I sum up the imp…. It’s the Discworld version of the smartphone without the phone or Internet bits. Essentially he reminds Vimes about his appointments at the necessary times by speech. Vimes doesn’t need to get him out and look because he is told. Another idea from Pratchett’s Watch series is the way Vimes navigates the streets of Ankh-Morpork. As the commander of the City Watch and before that just another beat cop in the Night Watch, he walked the streets constantly, at night; often in extremely poor light, he learnt to know exactly where he was by the feel of the street underneath his feet.