Designing peripheral interaction for exploratory bicycle trip navigation

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School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Master's thesis
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Date

2022

Department

Major/Subject

Mcode

Degree programme

Master's Programme in Collaborative and Industrial Design

Language

en

Pages

79

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Abstract

Cycling is a common leisure time activity and popular in touristic regions, by which tourists go on exploration in unfamiliar areas. For exploratory bicycle trips, tourists can immerse themselves in novel scenery while the fear of getting lost in the new environment forces them to use paper maps or navigation applications to find their way. However, stopping to reach for a map or looking down to check the mobile phones will cause much distraction and destroy the cycling and exploration experience. Considering the above, interaction for bicycle navigation should reduce the use of focal vision and try to use the periphery of attention to reduce distraction when checking directions during cycling. This thesis aims to understand and design peripheral interaction to reduce distracted attention when using bicycle navigation while also emphasizing the user experience of the navigation to better support the exploratory bicycle trip. This thesis addresses the issue of distracted attention by studying theories related to peripheral interaction and attention resources. Considering the prevalence of mobile phone use in bicycle trips, this thesis focuses on the visual modality. The ergonomics analysis discovers flickers as the ideal method for peripheral interaction and other visual limits for bicycle navigation. The thesis complements the knowledge about user experience with the semi-structured interview, which helps get an in-depth understanding of exploratory bicycle tourists and discover their needs for bicycle navigation. The research findings of peripheral visual interaction and user research are then transformed into design questions. Abstract concepts are provided as solutions and generated into design prototypes that meet user needs and visual interaction limits. Experienced bicycle tourists are invited to evaluate the prototype afterwards. This thesis draws two conclusions. First, the flickering of mobile phone screens is perceivable in the periphery of attention when not exposed to strong sunlight and changing different colours and frequencies can convey several types of navigation information. Second, rather than giving turn-by-turn information, providing the general direction towards the destination and prompting unsuitable road conditions can better support the spontaneous trip of exploratory bicycle tourists. The thesis contributes to the solutions for peripheral interaction only using mobile phones and suggestions for the navigation design for exploratory bicycle tourists.

Description

Supervisor

Salovaara, Antti

Thesis advisor

Salovaara, Antti

Keywords

peripheral interaction, user interface design, bicycle navigation, exploratory bicycle trips, cycling, attention resources

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