So, I’ve been designing an app that is basically meant to be used by car drivers. It’s tentative going to have full Voice Control for enhanced usability and safety. It’s going to be a great app. I think.
Although I can totally identify with my lead user, a salesman type of guy that drives all over town, the app wasn’t really resonating with me now that I work out of my home office and spend most of my ‘commute’ either walking, biking, or on mass transit. My automobile time is often with wife and family, so Voice Control would be terrible in-effective over the dins of a car full of talkers. So what about me?
I’m a big fan of Apple’s new Voice Control, but although society apparently now accepts hearing one side of a phone conversation from people walking down the street, are they ready to accept that somebody saying, to no one in particular, ‘Next Item’, ‘Back’, ‘Postpone’, ‘Play songs by the Shin Shins’, isn’t a little crazy, or at least a little socially inept? I’m not ready to be that bold trend setter.
So, how can we interact with our mobile devices while walking down the street? If I presume that I’m wearing headphone, then I can image holding my phone in my pocket and using my phone for input if my app is giving me adequate audio feedback. The phone could say into your ear “Your next appoint with Mr. Smith is in 15 minutes. Tap once to acknowledge or tap twice to remind you again in 10 minutes.” I’m excited about this and can image a whole set of utilities and games that I can use while moving around the city. I’m calling this method of input “Grope Control,” though I’m hoping to get suggestions for a more politically correct name.
For the sake of completeness, I’ve started to enumerate some common input and output methods and came up with some names for some of the combinations, namely Classic Control, Voice Control, Grope Control, and Spy Control. I like to name things. I think the introduction from The Non-Designer’s Design Book put it well when it’s introduction concluded that “Once you can name something, you’re conscious of it. You have power over it. You own it. You’re in control.”
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We’ll ignore mouth and nose as useful output options, though its fun to think about. Hmm, my phone smells musky, and tastes bitter, it must be time for my 3:30 appointment.
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Implications for the app producer
- Know your user personas. How and where will they be using your app? Ask yourself whether you want to limit your app to a single I/O combination, or do you want to allow, and budget for, multiple IO combinations?
- You might also plan on spending some extra marketing effort in explaining and showing the benefits of your non-classic I/O options. Can you imagine the virus buzz you’ll get as the first Spy Control app published. Can you make a killer YouTube video to go along with it?
Implications for the app programmer
- You’ll simply need a solid gesture library. Apple is clearly working in this direction and now has a built-in and refined “Shake” detector.
- Have a standard voice control browser for your platform would be useful. You can test your voicexml stuff at voxeo.com’s site before putting into your app.
- What would the voicexml equivalent for SpyControl be?
Implications for the DoD
- Patent 6899539 addresses putting a trackball onto a weapon to provide (http://bit.ly/Patent899539) some mechanism to get feedback into a computer w/o taking your hands off of a weapon, say, your rifle. The trackball approach presumes that your see a screen, which means you are not focused on your target. Fundamentally the soldier needs more combat appropriate input methods.
- Software robustness: If, say, a screen is damaged or, untrusted, should there be another input method available to the operator?
Chris Yeh says
Spy Control. Definitely Spy Control.
JJ Rohrer says
Coincidentally, Apple is playing right into my plans with “Haptic Feedback, Fingerprint Identification, and RFID Tag Readers in Future iPhones?” (http://bit.ly/RKUYV)
FN says
Very cool. Maybe call it “fumble” control. Users would fumble around. “What are you doing?” “Ah, just fumbling around…”
Mac says
Blind or Pocket Control get the message across, but are not as catchy. Fumble isn’t bad, either, but I’m casting my vote for Grope Control. “Be polite. Grope on the subway.” may be left out of initial promo material, but not for long.
How long did people misinterpret ‘gay’ as ‘happy’ for after society began commonly using it to describe something else? Let’s not kid ourselves, there are or will soon be enough touch-sensitive phones to redefine a term by it’s mere usage within that context.
One consideration would be accidental input detection when rubbing and bumping into things whilst in grope detection mode, whether in your pocket or a handbag. Locking and unlocking would ideally not be necessary to perform after each grope.
Thanks for sharing your ideas.
JJ Rohrer says
Jason pointed out to me that the iPhone works through a thin fabric, like a light shirt, but not through something heavier, such as jeans.
“Blind Control” might still have political correctness issues, so maybe something like “Lights Out Control”, “Lights Off Control”, or “Dark Control”?
JJ Rohrer says
Nudge Control. Thumb Control. Eyes-Free Control.
JJ Rohrer says
The app I’m working on is tentatively using a segmented control bar to switch between control modes. The options are:
Classic – Big – Voice – Pocket.
Big = for either when you can not concentrate on the screen, when the screen is jiggling, or if you fine motor control is what it used to to.
Pocket = Grope Control