Living wood: a self-hiding calm user interface

Authors:
Lasse Kaila;Henrik Raula;Miika Valtonen;Karri Palovuori
Affiliations:
Tampere University of Technology, Korkeakoulunkatu, Tampere, Finland;Tampere University of Technology, Korkeakoulunkatu, Tampere, Finland;Tampere University of Technology, Korkeakoulunkatu, Tampere, Finland;Tampere University of Technology, Korkeakoulunkatu, Tampere, Finland
Venue:
Proceeding of the 16th International Academic MindTrek Conference
Year:
2012

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Abstract

As user interfaces are becoming more ubiquitous and abundant, users may feel perplexed by the pure number of user interfaces surrounding them. In order to increase user acceptance, ubiquitous user interfaces should be designed to be as calm and nonintrusive as possible. This paper presents the design and evaluation of a calm user interface prototype, Living Wood. Living Wood is a touch sensitive graphical user interface for smart home applications, and designed to fade into the background and hide itself when it is not used. A prototype for lighting control was built and installed in a smart home laboratory. To investigate how the self-hiding nature of the panel, its aesthetic features and usability was experienced by users, we tested Living Wood with 11 users.