筆勢指令應用於小型資訊處理器的設計

Abstract

隨著科技的進步，產品設計所面對的常不僅是造形設計，更是介面設計，若沒有良好的介面設計，使用者將無法容易學習使用。而隨著資訊產品個人化、小型化的發展趨勢，這類產品的人機互動將以筆式運算(pen computing，使用筆為介面的電腦系統)為基礎；透過觸控筆，直接在螢幕上寫或畫出筆勢指令(gesture，由筆畫構成的操作指令)，來代替原先滑鼠等指向裝置。這種輸入方式，更直接易學，然而其介面設計的良否，更將影響到產品的學習使用。而至今對筆勢輸入的人因探討仍相當不足。 有鑑於此，本研究探討應用於PDA(個人數位助理)、掌上型電腦等小型資訊產品上筆勢指令設計的人因問題。首先針對這類產品，先進行現有使用者的訪談，瞭解PDA產品的使用現況。再由專家、使用者篩選出包含資料編輯、介面控制與硬體操作的12個適合筆勢操作的常用指令。接著透過問卷的方式，發掘出受測者(未來潛在的使用者)對這些指令的認知模型(認知圖及認知原則)，再配合其他的設計原則，分析這些問卷資料，推導出筆勢原型設計的可行法則。經由設計專家以推導的設計原則，針對常用指令各設計出4組原型設計。接著以筆勢的學習、記憶、易書寫、匹配、混淆為評估要素，進行評估實驗，找出容易學習記憶、不易混淆且便利書寫的各指令，及適合的筆勢圖符號類型，並由此整理出筆勢指令的一般化設計原則。 由實驗結果發現，對筆勢指令的認知，深受現有電腦使用經驗的影響，因此筆勢指令的一般化設計原則包括：常見熟悉的英文指令之字首筆畫、使用常見的視覺圖像、使用簡單的方向箭頭、使用不同方向及筆畫次序的英文字母、筆勢筆畫越少越好，而適當的練習將有助筆勢的學習與記憶。 透過本研究，可以了解人類對這類產品的使用現況，與筆式介面中筆勢的認知(cognition)，進而從分析調查資料中，找出目前現有PDA產品最佳的常用筆勢指令外，並提出筆勢原型設計的程序，及建立筆勢的一般性設計原則作為將來筆勢指令設計的參考。

With the advance of technology, the product design is not only to design form, but also to design interface. Without proper interface design of a product, users can’t even easily learn to use it, not to say can enjoy the convenience brought by it. The developing trend of information products today is personalization and size reducing. The man-machine interaction of these products will be based on pen computing, especially on writing or drawing gesture commands (pen gestures) on the display directly with stylus to replace the a point device like mouse used in conventional devices. This way of input is more direct and easy to learn, if the interface has been well designed. However, so far there are few researches on the ergonomic aspect of pen gesture. Thus, we tried to explore how the pen gesture can be properly designed to command a miniaturized information device, such as a PDA, in this study. We conducted a series of surveys of questionnaire and interview to find out the critical and frequently used commands in operating a PDA as well as the cognitive model of the users on these commands. By applying the cognitive model as well as appropriate design principles, such as gestalt principles, several alternative prototypes of pen gesture for each command have been developed and systematically evaluated on their ease of learning, memorizing, using, and distinguishing with each other. Through the analysis on the collected data of evaluation, we have concluded not only a set of appropriate design of pen gestures for the critical commands, but also design principles of pen gestures. The result reveals that one’s cognition of gesture commands is affected by his experience of using desktop computer. The general design principles of gesture commands include using the first character of common word, using well-accepted visual icons, using as less strokes as possible in a gesture, using simple directional arrow for orientation commands, using different direction or stroke order in character to distinguish different commands, and proper exercises can enhance the effect of learning and memorizing gestures. From this research, we can understand better the state-of-the-art situation of users using PDA products, and the users’ cognition on pen gestures. From the surveys, the 12 critical and most commonly used commands in PDA have been concluded. We have also proposed a comprehensive procedure of designing gesture, and established the general design principles for future gesture design.