Title
Evaluating interface designs for user-system interaction media in buildings
Abstract
Occupant control actions in a building (i.e., user interactions with environmental systems for heating, cooling, ventilation, lighting, etc.) can significantly affect both indoor climate in and the environmental performance of buildings. Nonetheless, relatively few systematic (long-term and high-resolution) efforts have been made to observe and analyze the means and patterns of such user-system interactions with building systems. Specifically, the necessary requirements for the design and testing of hardware and software systems for user-system interfaces have not been formulated in a rigorous and reliable manner. This paper includes an exploration of the requirements and functionalities of user interfaces for building systems in sentient buildings. We first compare a number of commercial user-interface products for building control systems. Thereby, we consider three dimensions (information types, control options, and hardware) and seven criteria (functional coverage, environmental information feedback, intuitiveness, mobility, network, input, and output). We then present the results of an experiment, in which 40 participants examined and evaluated a selected number of user interfaces for buildings' control systems, mainly in view of their first impressions, user-interface layout design, and as well as ease of learning. The outcome of these studies are expected to serve as the starting point for developing a new generation of user-interface models to promote higher levels of connectivity between occupants and sentient environments.
Year
DOI
Venue
2008
10.1016/j.aei.2008.06.004
Advanced Engineering Informatics
Keywords
Field
DocType
environmental performance,occupant control action,control option,commercial user-interface product,user-system interaction media,environmental system,environmental controls,user interface,control system,interface design,sentient building,environmental information feedback,user interaction,sentient buildings,software systems,mobile network,high resolution,three dimensions,interactive media
User system interaction,First impression (psychology),Page layout,Systems engineering,Software system,Information feedback,Human–computer interaction,Engineering,Control system,Building science,User interface
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
22
4
Advanced Engineering Informatics
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
1
0.40
4
Authors
2
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Szucheng Chien110.73
ardeshir mahdavi254.86