Week 8
The Task Gallery : A 3D Windows Manager.
In this paper authors introduce a novel window manager The Task Gallery. It makes use of interactive 3D Graphics to aid in task management and several other things. In this system user tasks appear as artwork on the walls of a gallery with the selected ones presented on the stage. Multiple tasks could be selected at the same time. The task gallery enables the user to customize his gallery in a way that appeals to him. It was an attempt to appeal to user’s spatial cognition and perception.
The current task is always displayed on the stage with the other tasks appearing on the walls and the floor. Task Gallery is also scale intuitive, i.e. they provide controls which move you forward, backward it also enables to glance right, left, up, down. The user controls aid in window management. The gallery is a series of rooms with only one end. When a user selects a new task and it’s location is not known, it is first placed on the floor by moving other tasks in a way to make space for the new task. This is done by using a 3 step animation. First they move the camera back, move the task on the floor and finally switch it with the desired task. Task gallery leverages the toolbars and menu to enable the user to control his tasks in a better way.
The authors further describe their experiments and results of the user testing done. They also discuss the problems they ran into. One of the key problems that came across was to capture the information regarding the state of the running tasks in order to re-launch them when required.
Pre-Patterns for Designing Embodied Interactions in Handheld Augmented Reality Games:
HAR Games is a field that attracts many people, but if they are not well designed the attraction does not stand long. In the above paper authors present 9 design pre-patterns with examples. The design patterns they present are :
1) Device Metaphors: It suggests that the hand-held object acts as a real world object which can be used by the users. In the example they present it as a magnifying glass.
2) Control Mapping: It states that the interface supports certain actions of the users which are directly mapped to the game. These include projection from screen to space, physical object manipulation, device manipulation.
3) Seamful Design: This stresses upon handling a situation where the tracking is lost. They state that the game should continue to have it’s natural flow even when the there is a loss in tracking.
4) World Consistency: Creating a virtual world such that it adheres to the principles of the real world such as laws of physics.
5) Landmarks: Incorporating landmarks which aid the users to navigate and orient in the virtual world. The authors give an example of a beacon at center of the city in the zombie shooting game ARhrrr !!
6) Living Creatures: Incorporating characters that react to the game events.
7) Personal Presence: Giving the user a sense of being in the digital world
8) Body Constraints: The game should be designed in such a way that it should consider the relative positioning of the players while playing.
9) Hidden Information: Hiding information in a way that the user has to pay more attention to his surroundings in order to retrieve the information hidden.
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