•
•


I very much enjoy working with talented and ambitious
students, both in classes I teach and
in the projects I supervise.
Most of the projects that I supervise have a
close connection to my research
activities within the field of Human-Computer
Interaction and consist of designing, prototyping,
and evaluating new ways of interacting with smartphones,
smartwatches, or desktop computers.
If you are studying computer science at the
University of Klagenfurt
and are interested in doing your Bachelor's software
project or writing your Master's thesis on a topic
related to Human-Computer Interaction,
please get inspired and check the descriptions of
open, ongoing, and already finished projects that are listed below.
Do not hesitate to contact me if you find interest in any of the listed projects,
have questions regarding the projects, or if you have your own idea
for an interesting project that you would like to start!
!
I am always looking for motivated and talented students for
cooperations in various PhD-projects!
If you are interested in doing a PhD in HCI
at the Alpen-Adria-University of Klagenfurt,
send me
an email with a short description of your background so
that we can get in contact to discuss the possibilities for a cooperation!
OPEN PROJECTS
Open • Bachelor or Master Project
VIBRATION-BASED INTERACTIONS FOR DESKTOP COMPUTERS
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
Java • Android


In this project, we will explore augmenting desktop computing with vibration data sampled
by an accelerometer in a smartphone positioned on the table next to the keyboard and the mouse.
The first part includes identifying and charting out the different vibration
patterns that emerge when the user works with the keyboard and the mouse. The second part aims at
devising and testing purposeful ways to capitalize on this knowledge.
!
By excluding the second part, this project can be adapted into a Bachelor project.
Open • Bachelor or Master Project
DESKTOP USERS' PERIPHERAL VISION CAPABILITIES
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
Java • Android


The goal of this project is an application for testing desktop users'
visual attention capabilities for information
and changes outside their focused field of view. The intention is to use the test application
to explore which visual features – such as the color,
shape, size, and object density – users do more easily recognize
and differentiate when the information appears within their peripheral vision,
such as on a secondary monitor or a smartphone positioned next to the keyboard.
Open • Bachelor or Master Project
TYPEFACE READABILITY & EYETRACKING
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
Java • Android • eyetracking • SPSS (for statistical analysis)


In the graphic design community and in the usability
community there is an on-going discussion about how fast and
easy people can read text on computer monitors and smartphone
screens. The readability of a text piece is influenced by
several factors. Such as the letter size, text and background
color, the row length, and the shape of the individual characters making up the text.
In this project you will first develop a software package
that provides the functionality that is necessary
to conduct a user study on readability. This includes
functionality to configure different test
cases (by defining combinations of various text attributes
such as letter size, color, and typeface),
functionality to present the different test cases to
study participants, and to log the time
participants need to read text in the different test cases.
In the second part of this project you will gain insights
and experience in conducting user experiments,
statistical data analysis, and in using eyetracking
technology. Together, we will use your
experimental software and conduct one user
experiment using our lab's new eyetracking system
from Ergoneers.
After that, we will analyse the results from the experiment.
!
By excluding the last part with the experiment
this project can be adapted into a Bachelor project.
Open • Master Project
EVALUATING NON-STANDARD MENU DESIGNS
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
Java • SPSS (for statistical analysis)


In Human-Computer interaction (HCI) research –
as well as in many other
disciplines – new scientific knowledge and technological
advances are often based on empirical
research where new ideas and theories are
explored through hypothesis testing and controlled
experiments. However, critical voices
within the HCI research community question the value and
use of controlled experiments in HCI.
In this project we will contribute to this discussion
by redoing – replicating – a series of »famous«
user experiments from the HCI literature. We will focus on
experiments that have studied the usability of non-standard
drop‐down menus and how easy and fast users can navigate
menu structures and select the containing menu items.
For this purpose, a first version of a »menu test suite« application
has been developed. After further development and adaptations
we can start replicating previous menu experiments. This includes
carefully studying the descriptions of the previous
experiments, then running the experiments with a group of
computer users, and finally analyzing our results and comparing
these with previously reported results.
Accordingly, in this project you will acquire skills and experience in designing,
conducting, and evaluating user experiments.
Open • Master Project
SELECTION OF MOVING SCREEN TARGETS
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
Java • SPSS (for statistical analysis)


In many applications – such as in air-traffic control, in video surveillance, and
in computer games – the user needs to quickly and accurately select objects that
are moving across the screen. Several previous research projects have proposed various
techniques that can assist the user when clicking on moving screen objects. The aim with this
project is to compare such techniques and to build a theoretical
model that mathematically describes
and predicts how fast users can select targets that are moving across the screen (depending on
the size of the target and its moving speed).
A first version of a Java application that provides the necessary
functionality to conduct user experiments on selection of
moving screen objects has already been developed. In this project you
will first extend this application with additional functionality
and then design and conduct a user experiment that allows you to 1)
verify previously reported research results on the effectiveness of
various techniques that support the selection of moving screen
objects, and 2) empirically build and verify a predictive performance
model that explains how fast users can select moving screen objects.
Accordingly, with this project you have the opportunity to deepen
your programming skills (using Swing, Java's GUI toolkit)
and you will gain experience in how to design, conduct, and
evaluate user experiments, and in
theoretical modelling of user performance.
ONGOING PROJECTS
Open • Bachelor Project • Oskar Kozeschnik
CursorRec: A RECORDING SOFTWARE TO TRACK AND SAVE CURSOR EVENT DATA
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
Python or Java


With this project we want to learn more about how desktop users use their computer mouse. The project aims to create a cursor recording software that runs unobtrusively
in the background while the user performs his or her normal computing tasks. The software should log all cursor movements, clicks, the corresponding spatial and temporal data, as well as information about the open application windows.
Ongoing • Bachelor Project • Johan Jäger
A WEB-BASED FITTS' LAW TOOL
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
PHP • MySQL


Fitts' law is a
mathematical model that describes rapid, aimed human pointing
perfor­mance, such as pointing with a computer mouse or tapping
targets on a smartphone screen. The goal of this project is
a web-based tool that provides all necessary functionality
for setting up, conducting, and analysing the results from Fitts' law
user experiments where participants select targets presented
on a computer screen.
Ongoing • Bachelor Project • Florian Lanz
USER PERFORMANCE IN LEARNING AND TAPPING ON INVISIBLE SCREEN BUTTONS
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
Java • Android


Many people are skilled at typing on their smartphones,
even in suboptimal conditions when visual access to
the screen is limited, such as when walking. When doing so,
they heavily rely on their muscle memory to locate and tap
the correct buttons on the screen. This project aims to
explore the human limits relevant for learning and
remembering the position of touchscreen buttons.
In particular, we are interested in learning about
situations where smartphone users cannot see the
buttons they need to tap.
Accordingly, we will first build the necessary study
software that allows us to test how quick people can
learn the locations of invisible screen buttons and
how accurately they can tap such buttons. After that,
we will run the corresponding user study.
Ongoing • Bachelor Project • Christian Schönberg
PAN AND ZOOM INTERFACES ON SMARTPHONES AND DESKTOP COMPUTERS
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
Java • Android


Panning and zooming are fundamental user actions
on smartphones and in many desktop applications,
such as drawing or map navigation applications.
In this project, we will build a test framework that provides
functionality to conduct user studies with different
panning and zooming interfaces on both desktop computers
and smartphones. This includes features to set up test series of
navigation tasks for the participants
and features to measure and log performance data
(such as task completion time, errors, and click or touch points).
Ongoing • Bachelor Project • Deniese Lafleur
EXTENDING HOME SCREEN ICONS WITH RADIAL MENUS
TECHNOLOGY: Android


The first phase of this project aims at evaluating smartphone
users' performance with different menu designs.
We are particularly interested in
comparing how fast users can select menu items in a
standard vertical list menu and how fast they
can select menu items
in a Pie menu
where the items are arranged in a radial fashion. The
second phase of the project aims at
enhancing home screen icons on a smartphone with radial menus.
Ongoing • Bachelor Project • Ajdin Memić
FITTS' LAW AND MOUSE-POINTING STRATEGIES
TECHNOLOGY:
JavaFX


Fitts' law is a
mathematical model that describes rapid, aimed human pointing
perfor­mance, such as pointing with a computer mouse or tapping
targets on a smartphone screen. As such,
interaction designers often use Fitts' law as an analytic tool
to characterize and com­pare different interface design
alternatives and pointing devices.
In this project we will prepare a
test environment for a Fitts' law user experiment. The aim with the experiment is
to investigate
how people adopt different pointing strategies:
some people tend to focus on pointing accuracy,
some on speed, and others try to balance speed and accuracy.
In short, the test environment should include functionality for
triggering and timing of various mouse-pointing tasks and functionality
for recording participants' pointing times and accuracy.
FINISHED PROJECTS
Finished • Bachelor Project • July 2023
Leon Pließnig
HAND AND FINGER TRACKING DURING DESKTOP COMPUTING
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
Java • Android • MediaPipe


This project will use the MediaPipe machine learning library
to track a desktop user's hands and fingers while she points with the mouse and types on the keyboard. The
first part of the project concerns setting up the necessary software and hardware. The
second part includes developing robust tracking software that records hand and finger
movements over an extended period. The third part of the project consists of running
a user study where the software records the participants'
fingers and hands while they work on common computer tasks.
Finished • Bachelor Project • November 2022
Mario Leopold
NEW INTERACTION TECHNIQUES FOR MULTI-MONITOR SETTINGS
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
Java • Android


Many computer users have set up their workspace with
two or more monitors. Such multi-monitor settings allow
for easy visual access to many application windows and their
content simultaneously. However, the extended screen space
available in multi-monitor settings also poses challenges, such as
more cursor movements during mouse pointing.
Accordingly, this project explores
different techniques to speed up
mouse pointing in multi-monitor settings.
Finished • Master Project • Bernhard Nitsch • March 2022
EVALUIERUNG DER BENUTZERZUFRIEDENHEIT MIT TYPOGRAFIE DESIGNS DURCH INTERAKTIONSDATEN BEIM MOBILEN LESEN
[In German, English title: Evaluating User Satisfaction with Typography Designs Using Interaction Data in Mobile Reading]
[In German, English title: Evaluating User Satisfaction with Typography Designs Using Interaction Data in Mobile Reading]
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
Java • Android • Web


In the graphic design community and in the usability community
there is an on-going discussion about how fast and easy people
can read text on computer monitors and smartphone screens.
The readability of a text piece is influenced by several
factors. Such as the letter size, text and background
color, the line length, and the shape of the individual
characters making up the text.
The intended outcome of this project is a software package that
provides the functionality that is necessary to conduct
user studies on readability. This includes functionality to
configure different test cases (i.e., combinations
of various text attributes such as letter size, text color, and
typeface) and functionality to present the different test
cases to study participants, as well as functionality to log
the time participants need to read the text in the different test cases.
Immer mehr Leute verwenden ihr Smartphone und navigieren auf berührungsempfindlichen Bildschirmen durch das Internet. Die Gestaltung der Webseiten ist jedoch für den Großteil der Bevölkerung ausgelegt und individuelle Bedürfnisse der Nutzer*innen werden oft vernachlässigt. Ob ein*e Nutzer*in mit der Darstellung einer Webseite zufrieden oder unzufrieden ist, lässt sich nicht so leicht herausfinden, ohne die Nutzer*innen selbst während der Interaktion zu unterbrechen und direkt zu fragen.
Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es ein Programm zu entwickeln, um Lesbarkeitsstudien mit unterschiedlichen Typografischen Designs auf mobilen Geräten durchführen zu können, sodass aufgezeichnete Berührungs- und Wischgesten zwischen gelesenen Texten verglichen werden können.
Des Weiteren wurde dieses Programm in einer kleinen quantitativen Feldstudie überprüft. Es wurden Interaktionsdaten von 24 Versuchspersonen während des Lesens auf mobilen Geräten von Texten in unterschiedlich schwer lesbaren Schriftarten erhoben und mittels deskriptiver Statistik ausgewertet.
Die Ergebnisse zeigten, dass die Interaktionsdaten zwischen leicht und schwer lesbaren Texten durchaus Unterschiede aufweisen. Es wurden die Hypothesen der bereits bestehenden Literatur von Wang et al. [WYDL+18] sowohl bestätigt als auch widerlegt. Erhobene Interaktionsdaten während dem Lesen auf mobilen Geräten haben demnach großes Potential und könnten in zukünftigen Forschungen neue Ansätze zur Beurteilung der Benutzerzufriedenheit aufzeigen.
Finished • Master Project • Demi Dauerer • December 2021
EVALUATION OF SCROLLING TECHNIQUES FOR A MOUSE WITH A TOUCHSCREEN
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
Java • Android


Next to point-and-click and dragging, scrolling is a
fundamental low-level interaction on
desktop computers.
Currently, scrolling is enabled through the
scroll wheel on the mouse, swiping gestures
on a laptop's touchpad, the arrow keys on the
keyboard, and manipulation of the scrollbar
in the application window. Our main objective
in this project is to devise new,
improved, mouse-based scrolling techniques. We are also interested in
designing scrolling techniques for a mouse prototype
which has a touchscreen intergrated into the mouse. With such a mouse, that has
a touch-sensitive input surface, we envision that the user could quickly scroll
using circular finger gestures or small and rapid
back-and-forth rubbing-like finger movements.
When we have devised a set of candidate techniques,
we will conduct a series of experiments to
evaluate and compare how fast and
accurately people can use the various techniques
in typical scrolling scenarios.
This thesis introduces the concept of the Moose, which is a mouse with a touchscreen. The Moose offers many new opportunities for interaction with the PC. Before those can be explored, it needs to be ensured that the Moose can perform the fundamental interactions, that a mouse provides, such as clicking, dragging, and scrolling. To pave the way for future research, this thesis investigates how scrolling can be implemented on the Moose.
A comprehensive assessment of current scrolling techniques and related literature is presented. Following this, prototypes are iteratively implemented and tested. The most promising techniques Drag, Circle, Flick, Rubbing, and Rate-based, are then further evaluated in a user study.
All techniques that were evaluated perform well and have their pros and cons. Drag is good for the exact positioning of content, whereas Flick, Rate-based, and Rubbing are good for fast movement. Even though performing the worst, Circle was still very much enjoyed by some participants. The heterogeneous feedback from the users makes it hard to specify which technique is the most popular. Yet, the obtained results indicate that Flick and Rate-based work the best on the Moose. At the end of this thesis, ways to further improve the techniques are presented and suggestions for future work are made.
Finished • Bachelor Project • June 2021
Wilhelm Stuhlpfarrer
DESKTOP-TOOL FOR BIBTEX REFERENCES
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
JavaFX


BibTeX is a literature
management software for the formatting
of bibliographies, which is often used by academic authors.
The goal of this project is to create a
Java-based desktop application that allows authors to quickly copy and save
references they find on the Web (typically from the Internet
sites of large publishers) to their personal collection of
BibTeX-formatted reference lists.
Finished • Bachelor Project • May 2021
Marcel Mandl
TEXT EDITING & COPY-AND-PASTE ON TOUCHSCREENS
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
different Web technologies


Quickly editing text or copy and paste text parts on smartphones and
tablets can be challenging. Android and iOS use slightly different
interfaces and mechanisms for these frequent tasks. The goal of this
project is a web application that allows us to test and measure how fast
and accurate people can copy and paste and edit text on touchscreens.
This includes functionality to:
-
configure different test cases for three
task types: copy-
and- paste of text, inserting text, and deleting text, - present the different test cases to study participants, and
- record how fast and accurate study participants can complete the different test cases.
Finished • Bachelor Project • May 2021
Adrian Guzikowski
INTERCTIVE 3D-VISUALIZATION OF TERRAIN MODELS FOR PHOTOVOLTAIC INSTALLATIONS
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
Javascript • WebGL


This project is a cooperation with the Klagenfurt-based
company Levasoft. The aim is to
develop a software module to visualize
terrain and elevation data in 3D using
the digital elevation model
from NASA's Shutter
Radar Topography Mission project.
When finished, the 3D-visualization module will be
integrated into Levasoft's panning application
for photovoltaic installations, the Solar.Pro.Tool.
Finished • Bachelor Project • May 2021
Felix Gaggl
IN-AIR INTERACTION FOR DESKTOP COMPUTERS
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
Java


Recent advances in software and hardware technology
for object tracking make it now possible to detect and
accurately track the position of virtually any object
that is moved around within the range of the tracking
hardware. In this project we will explore how
a Leap Motion Controller
can be used to track a user's fingers and hands as they
move around on and above the keyboard and back and forth
between the keyboard and the mouse while the user is surfing the Web.
The intention
is to design suitable finger and hand gestures that can
serve as alternative input mechanisms. For example,
wiggling up and down with a finger could be mapped to window
scrolling and a quick pointing gesture to the left
could be used to reload the previous webpage.
In this project you will get familiar with the
Leap
Motion Controller and its API and then implement
a »gesture module« that maps finger and hand
tracking information to various interface
actions, such as switching
between applications, copy & paste, scrolling, or zooming.
Finished • Bachelor Project • March 2021
Jonas Schaltegger
BEND-INPUT FOR SMARTPHONE INTERACTIONS
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
Arduino • Android


Arduino is a
popular open source hardware and software platform
that can be used to »digitalize«
physical objects or to enhance computing devices, such as smartphones,
with additional sensors. In this project we use an
Arduino microcontroller and a
bend sensor to explore ways to create
new input possibilities (beyond the
standard touch-screen interactions) for smartphones. In the
first project phase we focus on getting
familiar with the Arduino Software
(IDE) and its basic hardware (sensors
and controller board). The work in the second
project phase will aim at reading data from the
bend sensor and on preparing this data for
further use on an Android smartphone.
Finished • Bachelor Project • February 2021
Elias Sandner
ALIVE ICONS: MAKING SMARTPHONE APP ICONS INTERACTIVE
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
Android


Most app icons on smartphones are static and serve only one purpose:
to let the user launch the corresponding app. Some app icons do also
provide the user with app-dependent information.
For example, an app icon for a calendar app
typically also displays the current date and an app icon for a
communication app may show the number of unread
messages or missed calls. In this project we will explore
ways how we can extend the somewhat
limited functionality provided by standard app icons.
In the first part of the project we will design and implement
two app icon ‘extentions’. Both allow the user, each in
different way, to first select a parameter from the
homescreen, and then automatically pass the
parameter to the app when the app is launched.
The second part of the project consists of implementing
a test framework that provides the functionality
which is necessary to test and compare the usability
of the app icon ‘extentions’ designed in the first part of the
project with a group of people. This mainly includes tracking
and logging the touch-point events that are generated when
test participants use the extentions.
Finished • Bachelor Project • September 2019
Demi Dauerer
macOS AND iOS UTILITY APP – iCAL EXPORT
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
Swift • Cocoa • Xcode


Busy people with tight time schedules and full calendars
often face problems finding empty »slots« in
their schedules for new appointments. Often,
persons negotiate about the date and time for an
upcoming meeting over email, sending a list of possible dates
and times to meet, back and forth.
Remarkably, with electronic
calendars, such as the iCal App, it is difficult
to quickly become an overview of empty time slots between day X and Y.
Moreover, the user cannot generate a list
that only contains empty time slots.
Accordingly, the outcome of this project was a utility app for macOS and iOS
that reads the stored iCal calendar events and
provides powerful filtering functionality
to let the user easily view and export information
about both upcoming events
and empty time slots that are available for new meetings.
Finished • Bachelor Project • March 2018
Bernhard Nitsch
WEBSITE WITH GRAPHIC DESIGN EXERSICES
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
HTML 5.0 • CSS • jQuery


Professional graphic designers and web designers use several powerful
design techniques and »tricks« to create
expressive and visually appealing designs. For most
design novices, many of these techniques
and »tricks« are rather easy to understand
but, unfortunately, many novices think it is
often quite difficult to successfully apply them to their own designs.
Accordingly, in this project we developed an interactive
website where design novices can learn and practice
many such useful design techniques and »tricks«
through illustrating examples and exercises.
The website includes explaining materials
and various exercises
about typography, color theory, image
cropping, composition, and layout.
Finished • Bachelor Project • March 2016
Sheel M. Schmölzer
MOUSE POINTING TECHNIQUES FOR MOVING TARGETS
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
Java SWING


This project was a revival and extension to an
earlier Bachelor project on selection techniques
for moving targets (see the project »Acquisition
of moving targets« below).
In this project we extended an already existing test application for
a desktop setting where several different pointing
facilitation techniques found in the
literature had been implemented. The extension included two
new assistive selection technique,
so called
»Force Fields« and the
»Fan Cursor«.
The objective was to test and find out how well each technique helps
a user when he or she tries to select targets that move around
across the computer screen. We plan to compare and evaluate
the efficiency of the techniques in a series of user studies.
The software was also extended with functionality needed to
conduct Fitts' Law
pointing experiments.
We were also interested in build a predictive performance
model (based on Fitts' Law)
that accurately predicts how fast a user can click on a moving target,
with and without the assistance
of the different pointing facilitation techniques.
Finished • Bachelor Project • June 2013
Joachim Frießer
OFF-SCREEN INTERACTIONS FOR SMARTPHONES
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
Microsoft Kinect • openNI • C#


At that time, motivated by new object tracking software and hardware, in this project we
explored how accurately we can detect and distinguish between different
and very small finger movements and gestures using a Microsoft Kinect sensor. We used
a pico projector mounted above a table to project virtual objects »in the air« above
the table and designed and tested various »in air« finger gestures that could be used to
select objects »floating around« in the air within a user's workspace.
Finished • Bachelor Project • June 2013
Karl-Heinz Moll • Michael Orieschnig
ACQUISITION OF MOVING TARGETS
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
Java SWING


In this project we created a test application for
a desktop setting where several different pointing facilitation
techniques found in the literature have been implemented, such as the
»Comet«,
»Ghost«, and
»Bubble Cursor« techniques.
The objective was to test and find out how well each technique helps
a user selecting targets that move across the computer screen.
We plan to compare and evaluate the efficiency of the different techniques
in user studies.
Finished • Bachelor Project • March 2012
Maria Joszt • Marco Wurzer
ICON POSITION RECALL
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
Java SWING


In this project we implemented a test software to perform studies on
how well persons can recall
the exact position of icons displayed in a graphical user interface.
The software allows us to
test users' icon location recall performance when icons are arranged in different layouts,
such as row-based, column-based or grid-based layouts. The software also
allows us to test such
arrangements with varying number of icons.
In subsequent work, we used the icon-testing software in such a user study. The results were published
in the Proceedings of the
10th Conference of the Austrian Psychology Association, 2012
(see my publication list).
Finished • Master Project • March 2010
Vera Koren
DAS KIND UND DIE MAUS – DAS COMPUTERMAUSVERHALTEN
VON KINDERGARTENKINDER
[In German, English title: The Child and the Computer Mouse – Computer Mouse Behavior of Pre-School Children ]
[In German, English title: The Child and the Computer Mouse – Computer Mouse Behavior of Pre-
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
Java • SPSS


In her work, Vera explored software enhancements aimed to
support small childeren to accurately operating a computer mouse.
In two point-and-click experiments
with four-year-olds Vera tested how well participants performed with
Hourcade et al.'s
PointAssist technique and how well they performed with various mouse cursor speeds.
The results were later published at the International Conference on
Interaction Design and Children
in 2013 (see my
publication list).
In dieser Arbeit wird der Umgang mit der Computermaus von Kindern
im Alter zwischen vier und fünf Jahren untersucht. Die zwei
Hauptziele dieser Arbeit waren zwei essentielle Fragestellungen:
1) »Gibt es DIE optimale Mausgeschwindigkeit für Kinder, d.h.
gibt es eine Mausgeschwindigkeit, die besser für Kinder geeignet
ist als andere?« und 2) »Bietet die Mausbeschleunigung in
Kombination mit dem PointAssist von
Hourcade et al.
eine Hilfestellung
für Kinder bei Point-and-Click-Aufgaben?«
Für die Beantwortung dieser Fragen,
musste zuerst der Stand der Forschung klar abgesteckt
werden, wobei auch die spärliche Behandlung dieses Themas
aufgedeckt wurde. Des Weiteren war die Durchführung zweier
Experimente notwendig, welche den praktischen Kern dieser Arbeit bilden.
Das erste Experiment beschäftigte sich mit der
Beantwortung der Fragestellung »Gibt es DIE optimale
Mausgeschwindigkeit für Kinder, d.h. gibt es eine
Mausgeschwindigkeit, die besser für Kinder geeignet
ist als andere?«. Die Kinder fürten Selektionsaufgaben unter
Verwendung von vier Mausgeschwindigkeiten durch. Dabei ergab die
Analyse der Ergebnisse, dass es sehr wohl eine Mausgeschwindigkeit
gibt, die besser für Kinder geeignet ist als andere. So lösen Kinder
Aufgaben mit Geschwindigkeit »8« exakter und schneller als mit den
drei anderen, getesteten Geschwindigkeiten.
Das zweite Ex&shperiment, welches unter anderem die Verifikation
einer bereits im Jahr 2008 von Hourcade et al. durchgeführten Studie
zum Ziel hatte, gab Antworten auf die zweite Zielfragestellung.
So kam es zu einer teilweisen Verifikation von
Hourcade et al.'s Studie,
sowie zur Untersuchung welche Auswirkungen die Kombination
zwischen PointAssist und Mausbeschleunigung auf das Klickverhalten
von Kindern hat.
Finished • Bachelor Project • March 2010
Thorsten Dalmatiner • Marco A. Hudelist • Alexander Taurer
MULTI-MONITOR INTERACTION
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
Java SWING


The outcome of this project was a test software with which we explored different techniques
that could be used to switch between open application windows in a multi-monitor setting. In a
small user study we used the software and compared persons' window switching performance using
the keyboard shortcut »Alt+Tab«, Windows' taskbar, and when using the mouse to
click inside the windows.
This project was inspired by an earlier project on window switching techniques that I worked
on and published with colleagues
from New Zealand in 2009 (see
my publication list).
Finished • Bachelor Project • December 2008
Thomas Pairitsch • Florian Winkler
A TEST SUITE FOR EVALUATIONS OF MENU SYSTEMS
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
Java SWING


Building on my earlier work on improving menu selection in
graphical user interfaces, this project aimed at integrating various
novel menu systems into a test application which could
be used to test and compare different menu systems.
The resulting »menu-test-suite« includes a baseline (standard)
menu and a set of non-standard menus:
• Bubbling Menu
(Tsandilas and schraefel) •
Adaptive Activation Area Menu
(Tanvir et al.) •
Force Field Menu
(from me) •
Jumping Menu
(from me) •
Square Menu
(from me and colleagues).
In later work with colleagues in New Zealand,
I also extended the »menu-test-suite« to include
so called Pie Menus
and used the suite to explore users' selection performance in radial menus.
The results were published in the International
Journal of Human-Computer Studies in 2012
(see my publication list).
Finished • Bachelor Project • November 2008
Nicole Traschitzger • Stefan Anderwald
TOUCH-TYPING
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
Java SWING • ATouch resistive touch panel


When the first iPhone appeared in 2007 the HCI-research community
were exited about the new interaction possibilities
its touch-display offered and a lot of reasearch efforts were invested in exploring
touch-based interactions such as, scrolling, pinching, and
tapping, on small touch-displays designed for mobile devices. But comparably
little work existed that had explored how well users can
using the 10-finger typing technique on a touch-display (which
does not provide much haptic feedback as a keyboard does).
Accordingly, in this project we used one of the first and early available touch panels (designed to be
mounted in front of a computer monitor, I believe we used a panel from
ATouch Technologies)
and developed a »touchable keyboard« to
test and measure peoples' touch-typing performance.
Unfortunately, the results never got published. We were a bit too late and others published their
results before us and so the »novelty« was lost…
Finished • Bachelor Project • September 2008
Bernhard Meixner
APPOINTMENT BROKER
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
PHP • MySQL


The outcome of this project was the web application »Termina«
with its functionality for supporting
the coordination and management of appointments among several users.
Its core functionality included support to negotiate (vote) among
participants about what time and day to meet, to invite new
participants to already scheduled meetings, to cancel or reschedule meetings,
to send out notifications about changes, and to send out reminders of upcoming meetings.
In short, pretty much like today's Doodle.
Finished • Master Project • March 2007
Manuela Graf
DIE DESKTOP-METAPHER –
EINE EMPIRISCHE STUDIE UND IMPLIKATIONEN
[In German, English title: The Desktop Metaphor – an Empirical Study and Implications]
[In German, English title: The Desktop Metaphor – an Empirical Study and Implications]
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
Java • Java 3D • SPSS


Inspired by early research work on 3D
visualizations (e.g., the
Data Mountain) and
by appearing frameworks used to create three-dimensional
visualizations for desktop applications, such as
Java 3D and the
Project Looking Glass,
in this thesis Manuela investigated whether and how such technology
could be used to develop a 3D-desktop environment that
supports the organization and
effective management of computer
files and application icons.
Diese Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Metapher
des Desktops. Durch die Entwicklung des
Xerox Alto begann eine neue Zeitrechnung im
Bereich des Personal Computings – die der
graphischen Benutzeroberfläche. Der Desktop wurde
zu einem der zentralen Punkte in vielen
Betriebssystemen. Zur Zeit der Verfassung dieser
Arbeit vollzogen sich weitere Änderungen
an den graphischen Benutzeroberflächen einiger
Betriebssysteme – die dritte Dimension hielt
Einzug. Bisher blieb die Metapher des Desktops von
diesen Änderungen verschont. Daher
stellen sich folgende Fragen: Wie kann die dritte
Dimension die Darstellung des Desktops
beeinflussen? Eignet sich 3D zur Entwicklung einer
vollkommen anderen Metapher?
Die Beantwortung dieser offenen Fragen setzt die Klärung
wesentlich wichtigeren Fragestellung
voraus. Dabei geht es um die Art der Verwendung
des zweidimensionalen Desktops.
Daher wurde im Rahmen dieser Arbeit eine empirische
Studie durchgeführt, die sich mit den
folgenden zwei Themenbereichen beschäftigt:
1) Persönliche Nutzung des Desktops, sowie
2) Evaluierung von Meinungen zu den neuen dreidimensionalen
Technologien in
den einzelnen graphischen Benutzeroberflächen.
54 Personen, hauptsächlich Benutzer des
Betriebssystems Windows, beantworteten in einem
persönlichen Interview Fragen zur Desktop-Nutzung.
Des Weiteren übermittelten diese
Personen Screenshots ihrer Desktops. Aus allen
Fragestellungen des Fragenkataloges wurde
das Thema der »Anordnungsstrategien von Icons« zur
weiteren Diskussion gewählt.
In Hinblick auf die Tatsache der vermehrten Einführung
von dreidimensionalen Darstellungsformen
auf graphischen Benutzeroberflächen, wurden
Strategien zur Anordnung von
Icons auf einem zukünftigen dreidimensionalen
Desktop diskutiert und ein
Proof-of-concept-Prototyp implementiert. Dieser
Prototyp soll zeigen, wie Icons unter Anwendung
der Anordnungsstrategien »Zeit« und »Häufigkeit
des Aufrufens«
in einem dreidimensionalen Raum platziert werden können.
Finished • Bachelor Project • March 2007
Hans-George Beyer • Mario Guggenberger • Alexander Müller
Pub2Web – A PUBLICATION MANAGEMENT APPLICATION
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
.NET • MySQL • XML


The outcome of this project was the desktop application
»Pub2Web« intended
for researchers that need to manage a
large number of scientific publications.
The core functionality
included:
- publication management (storing, changing, and deleting of publications and their attributes, e.g., title, authors, year, publisher, keywords),
- search functionality to search among stored publications,
- creating and storing a list of a subset of the stored publications as a reference list in various formats, such as bib, txt, and pdf, and
-
generating interactive websites from created
reference lists that allow the web-
user to search among the listed publications.
Finished • Master Project • November 2006
Jürgen Großmann
OPTIMIERUNG VON FENSTERMANIPULATIONSMECHANISMEN
[In German, English title: Optimized Window Manipulation Techniques]
[In German, English title: Optimized Window Manipulation Techniques]
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
Java • SPSS


In his work, Jürgen invented and implemented
several alternatives to
the standard window manipulation techniques
(e.g., dragging window borders and
clicking small buttons in the window corner) used for
resizing, minimizing, maximizing,
and moving application windows on
desktop computers.
Jürgen's techniques included the use of various
mouse gestures inside windows, moving the mouse cursor
across window borders, and swiping across the keyboard keys with
one hand. The new techniques were compared evaluated against the
standard techniques in two user experiments.
The results were later published in the proceedings of the OzCHI
conference in 2009 (see my publication list).
In dieser Arbeit wird die Interaktion mit Fenstern in
graphischen Benutzeroberflächen untersucht.
Das Ziel ist es, Wege zu finden um die Manipulation
von Fenstern effizienter zu gestalten. Dazu werden die heute zur
Verfügung stehenden Möglichkeiten analysiert,
die vom Verschieben von Fenstern
bis zum Umschalten zwischen Fenstern mit der Taskleiste oder Apple
Exposé reichen. Eine Einteilung dieser Aktionen in einzelne Bereiche
und die Untersuchung ihrer Entwicklung hat gezeigt, dass sich beim
Verschieben
von Fenstern und Ändern der Fenstergröße seit den Anfängen von
fensterbasierten Systemen nur wenig verfändert hat.
Aufgrund dieser nicht
vorhandenen Entwicklung wird der Fokus dieser Arbeit auf diese Operationen
gelegt. Um diese einfacher gestalten zu können, werden neue Interaktionsmethoden
untersucht, neue Steuerelemente entworfen und diese prototypisch
umgesetzt. Den Kern der Arbeit bilden zwei Experimente, die dazu
dienen, die implementierten Prototypen, die die Manipulation mit neuen
Interaktionsmethoden und Steuerelementen
ermöglichen, mit der Standardmethode
unter Verwendung der Zeigegeräte Maus und Touchpad zu vergleichen.
Im ersten Experiment werden Fenstermanipulationsaufgaben verwendet,
die mit einer Operation (in einem Schritt) lösbar sind. Hier erfolgt
die Auswertung getrennt nach Verschiebeoperationen und Operationen
zur Änderung der Fenstergröße.
Im zweiten Experiment werden hingegen
Aufgaben durchgeführt, bei denen Operationen zum Verschieben und zum
Ändern der Größe von Fenstern kombiniert werden müssen.
Diese Experimente
zeigten deutlich, dass bei den untersuchten
Fenstermanipulationsoperationen
Verbesserungspotential besteht. In beiden Experimenten war die
Standardmethode sowohl die langsamste Interaktionsmethode als auch sehr
fehleranfällig. Die fünf umgesetzten Prototypen
wiesen für die verwendeten
Arten von Operationen (Operationen zum Verschieben oder zum Ändern der
Größe des Fensters) und Zeigegeräte unterschiedlich
gute Ergebnisse auf. Sie
konnten jedoch in beiden Experimenten
Effizienzgewinne von teilweise über
50% verzeichnen. Dies wurde auch durch die Ergebnisse von direkt nach
den Benutzertests durchgeführten Befragungen nach
der subjektiven Meinung
über die Effizienz der einzelnen Prototypen bestätigt.
Finished • Bachelor Project • March 2005
Christian Harrer • Andreas Hold • Martina Schelander
INTERACTIONS FOR WHITE­BOARDS
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
Java • Mimio Interactive Whiteboard


The
Mimio Interactive Whiteboard
hardware can be easily mounted on any dry erase board (as commonly
found in classrooms or meeting rooms) and so enables digital
capturing and storage
of whatever is drawn or written with the accompanying pens.
In this project, we explored
ways how to extend the out-of-the-box Mimio
hardware and software to implement further functionality
and interactive features.
Finished • Bachelor Project • February 2004
Sibylle Kattnig • Andrea Obiltschnig • David Tschische
INTERACTIVE LEARNING COMPONENTS FOR MEDIA INFORMATICS
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
Java Applets


The outcome of this project was a set of interactive
learning components designed for first-semester
informatics students to help them understand
and learn fundamental concepts and techniques used in
computer science (e.g., Huffman coding, color histograms, and fractals).
Reflecting upon this project today, over 10 years later, the really
interesting thing with the project
was that it was part of a larger project in cooperation with four
other universities in Austria, called »MobiLearn«,
which was the first Austrian initiative aimed at
introducing a wireless infrastructure for learning
and knowledge transfer. The main and new idea was to
design digital learning materials
that students could access »anywhere and anytime«.
Accordingly, the interactive learning content we created back then
was designed for three different classes of end-user
devices:
- mobile phones (today we call the mobile phones used back then »feature phones«),
- PDAs (personal digital assistants, the precursor to our smartphones), and
- desktop or laptop computers.
Finished • Bachelor Project • June 2003
Jürgen Großmann • Matthias Missoni • Bernhard Reiterer
MOUSE CURSOR ADAPTATION USING FORCE FIELDS
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
Java Swing


In this project we implemented Java Swing classes
that can be used to enhance standard GUI components
– such as buttons, scrollbars, and text fields –
with what we called »invisible force fields« which attract
the screen cursor toward the components' center with the aim to
make manipulation and selection of small GUI
components faster and less error prone.
In several subsequent projects, we measured the effect
of such »invisible force fields« in various situations,
such as to make mouse operation easier for small children
(see my publication list),
or for adults to select very small screen targets
(see my publication list),
or to navigate hierarchical pull-down menus
(see my publication list).
Finished • Bachelor Project • November 2001
Stefan Ellersdorfer • Johannes Jabornig
VEVAL – SPECIFICATION FOR AN ONLINE SELF-ASSESSMENT TOOL
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
HTML • JavaScript


As a part of a larger project where we developed
a web-based virtual electronic
laboratory for electronic engineering students,
this bachelor project focused on the specification and initial implementation
of the accompanying self-assessment module for students where they could
test what they have learned in classes and could prepare themselves for upcoming exams.
Finished • Bachelor Project • July 2001
Britta Bierbaumer • Thomas Lessiak
3D WEB BOOKMARKS USING VRML
TECHNOLOGIES & TOOLS:
VRML • HTML


In this project the participating students and I set
out to learn VRML – the Virtual Reality Markup
Language (used back then to create 3-dimensional
looking web content).
Our goal was to use VRML to implement browser functionality
to display stored bookmarks as 3-dimensonal shapes.
We target our exploration on our university's web site and used the different
departments' web pages.
Looking at the stored screenshots of these old web pages
today is quite fun: what a great progress that has been made in
both technology and web-aesthetics during the
last 15 years!