Oldenburg Computer Science Series

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Susanne Boll,
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Sebastian Lehnhoff (Hrsg.)

Heiko Müller

Ambient Light Displays for Temporal Information

Many technical appliances compete for the user’s attention. Reminders and notifications are displayed without any knowledge of the user’s cognitive load. No coordination among the appliances is conducted and notifications are displayed regardless of their urgency and current value to the user. As a result, we suffer from a lot of interruptions by these devices. In addition, there are interruptions we have no influence on, e.g. an incoming phone-call.

Some information and notifications however are foreseeable, such as upcoming calendar events or progress information on ongoing concurrent tasks. This information can well be placed in the periphery of a person’s attention.

In this dissertation, I investigate ambient light displays for the transmission of temporal information. The systems presented here can be classified into two categories: Systems for displaying a notification of an approaching event and systems for displaying progress over time.

Prototypes were developed along the human-centred system design to explore the presentation of notification and progress information following a research through design approach. These prototypes were evaluated in user studies both in the laboratory and in the field. The results of these studies suggest that ambient light displays are well suited for displaying temporal notification and progress information. However, there are a number of things to consider. The most important points are summarized in "Design Guidelines" and "Considerations" for future designers and researchers.

In addition to providing temporal information for adults, this dissertation also looks at how ambient light displays can be used to help children between the ages of five and eight better understand and learn time durations.

This thesis concludes with a summary and an outlook on possible connecting points for the continuation of studies with ambient light displays for temporal information.

Bd. 45, X, 205 S., Edewecht 2019, € 49,80
ISBN-13 978-3-95599-058-9

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