Tero Hakala

Spatial interactive visualization on small screen

The amount of data stored in personal digital devices increases rapidly as their memory capacities increase. These devices are usually equipped with relatively small displays, which makes presenting the information a challenge. We set out to explore the spatial design space for small screen user interfaces by incorporating additional dimensions into the visual representation, and investigate techniques that may be used to display more information at once. We focus on interactive visualization, with a document manager as a target application. We present the design factors and a simulated application running on a desktop computer. We also report a formative usability study with promising results.

Mobile photo browsing with pipelines and spatial cues

Local memory in mobile devices increases rapidly. Simultaneously, new content creation devices, such as digital cameras, are embedded. As a consequence, the amount of locally stored content is bound to increase in huge numbers. In order to provide support for end-users in managing this ever-growing pile of content, new means of accessing, organizing, and enjoying the content are needed. We investigate techniques that may be used to display more information, especially visual content, on the mobile device screen at once, as well as accessing the content with ease. We focus on visual interaction, with a media manager as a target application. We present the design factors and a prototype application running on a mobile phone. We show that it is feasible to include spatial cues in the design of mobile user interfaces, and report an initial usability study with very encouraging results.