Direct manipulation

The keyboard and mouse are input devices we’re all familiar with. Same with video game controllers. Yet they’re all an abstraction from how we interact with the real world. Enter the quickly-becoming-huge world of Direct Manipulation.

Wii: Everyone knows how this works. Instead of pressing the Square button to swing a tennis racket, you actually swing your arm like it’s holding a racket, but it’s actually holding a Wii remote that detects speed and direction. It’s uncanny in its accuracy and it’s very well implemented.

iPhone: Small-scale touchscreen interface, but the first one that is widely available to the public. Bring up pictures on your iPhone and flick your finger across the screen to get to the next picture. No more button pushing! To zoom in, you pinch. To zoom out, you spread your fingers out. Natural and far less abstract than looking for “+” and “-” buttons.

Microsoft Surface/Northrop Grumman Touchtable: Large-scale collaborative touchscreen interface. Many people can view a map, satellite photo, or your music collection. Multiple people can annotate, swap, and analyze information all at once. This is not yet available to the general public - the Microsoft Surface is years away from actual use (too many Blue Tables of Death), and the NG Touchtable is mostly military with some other government applications.

What does this have to do with cognitive psychology? Ease of learning and ease of use, of course! Direct manipulation is natural. It feels natural to tap the screen and drag down when you want to scroll. It feels natural to throw a bowling ball like you actually would in a video game. Think about the first time you had to learn how to use a mouse, or every time you pick up a new video game. Direct manipulation cuts down on the learning curve and increases a concept known as transfer of training - essentially, how easy it is to switch from one system to another. The closer we get to natural behavior as input, the less we have to learn about a new system. Instead, we can do what comes naturally. What’s easier than that?

Grand Canyon: The Human Factor

I just got back from visiting the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas - it was a perfect way to relax, since I just took my comprehensive exams. There were still a few interesting notes from the human factors realm, though, including a bit from the Grand Canyon.

One of the most useful thing that the National Parks Service does at the park it to put up signs at important canyon overlooks with information and history. Additionally, there is usually a sign that labels the visual points of interest. This scenic locator is incredibly well-crafted - a huge photo taken on a clear day with every interesting point labeled. You would find a point of interest on the sign, then look out into the canyon and find the exact geographic feature exactly where you expected it. It seems like an obvious thing to do, but it wasn’t, at least in the past. This scenic locator from 1922 is hardly a photo-realistic representation of the lookout point:

While this must have taken more work to make than a large photograph, this is (of course) not as intuitive for the visitor. There is no mental imagery, and mental mapping from the representation to the real thing is much more difficult. People have difficulties interpreting abstract images, which the 1922 scenic locator definitely is. Modern technology enabled the National Park Service to create the intuitive representation of the Grand Canyon, which enriches everyone’s experience.