SMART Seminar Series: Ozlab for the interactive prototyping of interactivity

KARLSTAD UNIVERSITY Information Systems and Centre for HumanIT

Univ. of Wollongong 2015-04-28 John Sören Pettersson

Sweden Ozlab for the interactive prototyping of interactivity John Sören Pettersson Professor in Information Systems at the Karlstad Business School Main focus: HCI Started the Web and multimedia program Mgr of Master pgm in Information Systems Coordinator of res.pgm in IS Together with Rodney working on finding points of collaboration between UoW and KaU



Geography Karlstad



Karlstad University

• Teacher college 1840

• Affiliated to Gothenburg University 1967

• University college 1977

• Inaugurated as a university in 1999 with research funding from the Government

• Karlstad Business School founded in 2009; department from 2013 incl. IS.



Prototyping in interaction design

A goal specification does not lead directly to the optimal form of a product.

Therefore, testing design suggestions (testing prototypes) is a very good step in systems development. In particular this concerns user testing, as not only design but also new demands on functionality may appear when prospective users start to grasp what might be available in the future.



UI Prototyping Caveats

• Bill Verplank: “they had a working prototype even before they decided what the product was going to be.”

• Christine Faulkner on ‘rapid prototyping’ and programming environments supporting it: “often causes the systems to be a mishmash of hacked together code” (1998, p.104)



Conclusion

• Using programmed prototypes does not always lead to good systems

• Question: how can interactive prototypes be developed?



User interface articulation

• Prototypes are good to discuss around • …but does not yield an open design space • Expensive to re-program

• Paper prototypes are often cost-effective • However, interactivity is hard to simulate • Wizard of Oz – illusory system tests



Wizard of Oz - functionality without implementation



The Ozlab System

• For “graphic” interaction (spatial) • Best for interaction rather than navigation (neither action games)

• Admits full functionality without implementation

• I.e., admits explorative tests

• Even possible to involve new groups as developers (designers)



Ozlab in laboratory setting

Mini- Ozlab

Ozlab in field set-up



Ozlab and orthopedists

PinTrace surgical robot



A testing and interaction tool

• Professional developers using test subjects

• Developers and content experts together test/discuss • Developers and users together test/discuss

Users can test their own ideas:

• End-users testing on peers • (End-)users testing on clients • Users testing on developer



On-going work: webification of the Ozlab concept • The original Ozlab relied on software no longer maintained by the

vendors (Macromedia’s Director) • In the same time, it was not always easy for new wizards to find the

Ozlab functions in the complex multimedia tool • Since 2012 we are elaborating on a web-based solution • The Shell Builder and Test Runner are both designed by us • Technically: websockets make it possible to send information to the

test persons computer • We use a web browser with only a window pane, no chrome • Usabilitily: web browser have their limitations, but they work on

smartphones (even if iPhones are a bit prohibitive)

www.kau.se/en/ozlab



Shell Builder



TP and TL view in Test Runner

/TP



TP phone and TL computer view in Test Runner



A literature survey on generic Wizard-of-Oz systems (1)

• Generic systems start to appear from around the turn of the millennium

• The idea seems to have been compelling to several groups, often within NLP but also other interaction design researchers: ”Why should we have to program a wizard setup when we try to avoid programming by using the Wizard-of-Oz method?”

Generic WOz tools in our survey

ActiveStory, ConWIZ, Mobile Wizard, DART, DiaWOz-II, d.tools, Jaspis,LIVE, MDWOZ, Mobile, Momento, MultiCom, MuMoWOz, NEIMO, OpenWizard, Ozlab, SketchWizard, SUEDE, Topiary, UISKEI++, WebWOZ, "Wizard of Oz tool for Android", WOEB, WozARd, WOZ Pro.



A literature survey on generic Wizard-of-Oz systems (2)

• Still new generic systems are developed. Why? • Well, most fall into disuse after 2-3 years, that is after the initial

experiment which motivated their creation, so there is a need for new systems (!)

• Reliance of specific programming environments and application-running environments are not circumvented just because the intention is to circumvent programming for experimentation

• This dependence on specific software infrastructures will not be wholly circumvented even for web solutions



Why did Ozlab survive?

• It was not planned to ease a specific experiment, but designed by keeping the articulatory requirements of a GUI in mind

• Continued use in HCI education – This is not to say that not other groups have repeatedly used WOz in

education, but then in connection to continued experimentation and new Woz setups

– Learners as one of the prime users of a system will help to keep focus of accessibility of the WOz system

– That said, the Director-based Ozlab was limping in the end • WUI, the wizard’s user interface, is in Ozlab constructed by building

the prototype (“shell”) – This lower the threshold when learning Ozlab for the first time – It allows for much flexibility



Prominent Ozlab ideas

One of the most important features of the manually articulable GUI is the possibility to hide things. This holds for text messages as well as for graphical objects and can be used to realise a whole window. Ozlab makes invisible objects semi-transparent. However, there is also the possibility to put things partly or wholly outside the scene (compare previous figures; compare also Power Point slides where it is possible to put things outside the area visible when showing the presentation). The drag-and-drop of the GUI is thus not only for making simple animations in a help function or in a multimedia piece for children. More importantly, it helps the wizard to organise the means of expressions that he/she may utilise during an interaction session. Making a mockup in Ozlab is simultaneous a designing of the wizard user interface.



Thank you!

For anyone interested I can give more information on how we started Ozlab by using content professionals who were totally novices in interaction design

Non-HCI: I can also present results from a study on how early user-testing (i.e. before programming) improves software quality

http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:745324/FULLTEXT05.pdf

www.kau.se/en/ozlab

[email protected]






http://www.kau.se/en/ozlab

mailto:[email protected]

Presentations & Public Speaking

SMART Seminar Series: Ozlab for the interactive prototyping of interactivity