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Interfaces for Optimal Flow in Human-Computer Interaction

Learn how to design interfaces that challenge, engage, and empower users, helping them maintain focus and control, with clear goals and feedback. Explore techniques to enhance concentration, manage time perception, and balance complexity and ease-of-use. Discover practical design principles for creating interfaces that support optimal user experience.

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Interfaces for Optimal Flow in Human-Computer Interaction

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  1. Interfaces for Staying in the Flow Benjamin B. Bederson Computer Science Department Human-Computer Interaction Lab University of Maryland www.cs.umd.edu/hcil bederson@cs.umd.edu

  2. Human Goals • Life Goal: Happiness • Work Goal: productivity, creativity, recognition, etc.

  3. Flow – Folk Definition • “To move or run freely in the manner characteristic of a fluid” • Concentrate to the exclusion of all else • To be “in the zone” • Counter example: Writer w/ writer’s block

  4. Flow – Psychology Definition • “Optimal Experience” – see “Flow” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1990) • Started by interviewing “experts” • Then used “Experience Sampling Method” => Characteristics of optimal experience => Flow is universal, and is a combination of activity, individual and state of mind

  5. 1. Challenge and Require Skill • Person must expend effort to acquire skills, and then apply them • Examples: • Tennis • Programming • Not passive or relaxing • Not “go with the flow”

  6. 2. Concentrate • Ability to focus attention at length is crucial • Focusing enables tuning out of other input • People w/ A.D.D. at real disadvantage • Examples: • Reading • Painting

  7. 3. Clear Goals and Feedback • Must define success up front • Clearly measure progress along path • Examples: • Surgery • Factory work

  8. 4. Maintain Control • Minimize loss of “objective” control • Maximize “subjective” control • Examples: • Mountain climbing • Counter example: Driving in traffic

  9. 5. Transformation of Time • Time flies • Or, can slow down • Examples: • Pottery • New romantic interest

  10. Our Goal • Build computer systems that work as a “tool” to support optimal experience ► But computers could never be that good. You’ve described only simple tools. ► But isn’t flow a fuzzy, unmeasurable and unscientific concept? And even if you could measure it, is it really important?

  11. Interfaces for Staying in the Flow • How do these characteristics of flow apply to interface design?

  12. 1. Challenge and Require Skill • Interfaces should be: • neither so difficult as to discourage users • nor so easy as to be boring FlowChannel DemoTimeSearcher Anxiety Challenges Boredom Skills

  13. Guimbretière et al. “FlowMenus: Combining Command,Text Entry and direct manipulation”UIST 2000 2. Concentrate • Avoid interruptions • Stay in task domain, not interface domain Three levels of interaction: 1. Learn from the interface 2. Feedback from the interface 3. Autonomous interaction (no feedback necessary)

  14. 2. Concentrate (cont.) • Maintain object constancy • Save short-term memory DemoPhotoMesa

  15. 3. Clear Goals and Feedback • Help user to specify what they are doing • And how they are getting there • Many e-commercewebsites

  16. 4. Maintain Control • Challenge of “Expert” vs. “Novice” interfaces (controls vs. wizards) (Microsoft vs. Apple philosophy) • Emacs vs. IDEs (Visual Studio & Eclipse) • Difficulty of learning • Keyboard vs. mouse control • Home keys vs. arrow/nav keys • Integrated shell, grep, directory, etc. • Filename completion, command history

  17. 4. Maintain Control (cont.) • Problem w/ adaptive interfaces: • Unpredictable • Loss of objective control • Leads to frustration and slow performance • Encourage controllable,configurable interfaces DemoFavorite Folders

  18. 5. Transformation of Time • Based on pyschology principle: • When interrupted, people will overestimate time • Relative Subjective Duration (RSD)Czerwinski et al., “Subjective Duration Assessment: A New Metric for HCI”, HCI 2001 • Avoids positive bias of subjective preference DemoDateLens

  19. Summary • Maintain lofty goals • “Computer as tool”should be an extension of our body • Don’t underestimate the importance of speed in supporting: • creativity • quality • enjoyment

  20. Design Principles • Human memory is limited • Modes are bad • Input device switches are bad • Maintain object constancy • Minimize use of interface • Balance features vs. ease-of-use

  21. Challenge • Design for novices and experts is really hard, but important • Don’t forget the expert!

  22. Suggestion • Add Relative Subjective Duration (RSD) to standard list of metrics => Minimizing cognitive load and improving subjective satisfaction can help achieve optimal experience

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