UI Morphism

In ergonomics there is a basic concept called knowledge transfer. It relates to transferring knowledge from training situation to real world (work / production) situation. In addition it refers to transferring knowledge accumulated from using one device to another device. Knowledge transfer is especially relevant when introducing new products to the market and divides into two categories, positive transfer which is good, and negative transfer which is bad.

A simple example for positive transfer is the computer keyboard which transferred knowledge user gathered while using a typing machine. It is much harder to fined examples for negative transfer; some think that the method of shifting gears in automatic cars is a negative transfer, in buses it is done by pressing buttons (no knob).

Well can we use knowledge transfer to evaluate the functionality of user interfaces? I guess we can try, so let’s play a game I call UI morphism. The idea is to get to different products with different functionality and see whether we can morph one device user interface to operate the other device. A simple example (game level: novice) will help…

I will start to map functions that I use in my mobile phone to my TV remote control and vice versa. This can be used to simplify and interface while identifying the main activities.

First I identified areas that serve for similar functionality, of course in this example I’m doing it very roughly. So right now I can dial with the remote control, navigate and get feedback for my actions on the TV screen. With my cell phone I can change channels and control the volume.

It is clear that on the remote control there are much more unmapped buttons than in the cell phone, but I’m sure that the cell phone encapsulate higher number of functions in it (calendar, alarm clock, SMS and more). The cell phone uses soft keys which operates differently according to a situation, usually a label appears on the screen above the button indicating on the current functionality. Something similar to this occurs on the TV when clicking the Menu button. What is interesting to see that the interaction method is completely different. Not selecting from menus and sub-menus till changing one visible value on screen but something similar to slider, which is not a common interface in mobile phones and I wander why.

So what did we learn by now? In both devices there are many functions that are not used but in the mobile phone they are well hidden. Sliders might be good for phones and soft keys might be good for TV remote controls. This is only scrubbing the surface, both devices main function is related to auditory activities why the volume control of the phone is not upfront? And visible (as a soft key) only when the display is visible by the ear?

I know many will disagree with me, but I would like to have less functionality in cell my phone and more buttons. It is possible to map each and every known function to the remote control and identify unneeded once or functions berried too deep. It is a nice game to play, next time I might try to map elevator controllers to my toaster, have fun.