I wrote my thesis with support of BMW Group. Hybrid Interfaces adds a physical anchor and a new quality of eyes-off interactions to touch-screens. Without additional electronics the Haptical functions just like finger-movement.
First thesis topic suggested by the student – not given by BMW Group.
To communicate concept and approach, this video was done with the help of my friend Andy King. Watch with sound for full experience.
60 Second Video
When Touchscreens are amazing
Direct Manipulation the fundational metaphor in GUI Design is the direct interaction with graphical objects.
Super Flexible With input surface layered on top a display surface, toich screens allow for extreme flexibility in content and input.
When touchscreens fall short
Bad for Tracking Tracking Interfaces like sliders are often not easy, intuitive or precise on touchscreens.
Shallow branding visual content may be branded, but the haptical experience is still shallow and ubiquitous.
Constant eye-contact needed Without an anchor for the hand, touchscreens do not allow for many blind interactions.
Swiping while holding onto the haptial adds new eyes-off interactions, offering new ways to interact with the touchscreen while driving
Hybrid Gestures
Go Away / Next Song based on a common gesture
Come Back / Last Song also based on a common gesture
Hapticals allow drivers to keep their eyes on the road when interacting with the touchscreen.
Use Case: Cockpit
Color Coding
Podcasts
Spotify
FM Radio
Translucent plastics guide the light to the Haptical's top edge, with color depending on the type of media active. Easily glacible with peripheral vision.
This exploration was advised against as any movable part will turn into a projectile in the event of a crash.
Movable Hapticals
Hapticals snaping to magnets
Fixed and sliding magnets
Digital Haptics
Code-able latching points The experience of latching points is no longer a machanical artefact but designed uniquely to fit content
Solenoid as haptic engine The solenoid allows from small gentle taps for volume up to heavy snapping sensations for temperature interfaces
active haptic feedback helps differentiate between functions mapped to the same Haptical
3D printed and tested over 100 prototyes with differnt sizes, shapes, barrings, magnetic latching points and light-guides
Prototyping Hapticals
Experimenting with Light Guides layers of 3D printing are celebrated as signifiers of digital craftmanship
Experimenting in a DIY Buck recycled bio-plastics locally 3D printed on demand with minimal waste
30 second read Touchscreens all feel the same. Touchscreens are becoming a dominant method for input. But they all feel the same. *Pictures under glass* lack the possibility to create a distinctive visceral User Experience and do not allow the user to build up embodied cognition.
The Addition of Hapticals (= physical input devices) creates value by enabling interactions on a touchscreen without direct view and adding a more tangible experience. Hapticals are low-price and low-complex input devices, that make use of the sensor surface of capacitive touchscreens. No extra wiring required.
Strong vibrations can add the feeling of latching points to Hapticals – with different articulations depinding on the function currently displayed. The Haptical offers the rich experience of mechanical intraction with the flexibility and (over the air) updatability of a purely digital interface.
Hybrid Interfaces in a Car Interior. Based on my explorations, an exemplary cockpit interface for the Infotainment system of semi autonomous vehicles was developed with support of the BMW Group.
