I had touched upon user experience in one of my previous blogs without elaborating further on it. In this blog, I will talk specifically about gestures – a user experience that has been there for quite some time but seems to be gaining traction of late
Gesture programming has been there for quite some time now. We have seen them extensively used in video games where bodily motion is interpreted using various algorithms into machine understandable motion activity; it has been quite successful in that.
Of late we have seen gestures being adopted to other areas as well. One such sector where gestures can be put to practical use is in the retail space, specifically while buying commodities like shirts, jewels etc. We at Rare Mile implemented gestures for retail sector and here are some of our learnings.
- Business Case
Identify a business case that is will be fun for end users as well as enable them make a purchase decision without a need for any external human intervention. Not all scenarios might be easily implemented using gestures though.
- Right Flow
Identify the right flow that would meet the requirements. Look for what end users are really interested in while purchasing. Like in case of shirts – it would be brand, color, shirt size, shirt types etc. Combine these features to arrive at a flow that is intuitive and easy to navigate.
- Intuitive
Users need to enjoy the flow and not find it taxing to use. Keep gestures simple where normal hand movements should result in a specific action. Gestures like waving the hand from right to left and vice versa can be used to browse through products. Use simple and popular icons to navigate between different options.
- Distance and Position
Gestures are identified using specific devices that have their own limitations. Distance from the device makes a significant difference in identifying different gestures. Since users are of different height and can stand at different distances from the product, it becomes challenging to specifically identify some gestures. It is recommended to identify the optimal distance where the individuals should stand for the technology to work perfectly. Moreover there should not be other movements/disturbances since it will impact the device logic.
- Continuous improvement
Finally when the product is ready, roll it out on a small scale with preferred customers first to fine tune it.
For any queries, you can reach out to gestures@raremile.ca