Facilities

Overview

The Advanced Interface Design Lab is located within a larger developmental space (EC4 Second Floor) shared by Human Factors faculty at the Systems Design Engineering Department. Additionally, a separate shared space is dedicated for conducting experiments with human participants. Our research involves extensive use of software and hardware equipment summarized below.

Hardware

Microsoft Hololens (donated by Microsoft Canada)
Oculus Rift
Wacom’s Cintiq 21UX Interactive Pen Display – A monitor with the capabilities of a pen-controlled tablet that allows you to draw directly on the screen
Cameras, headset for monitoring the experimental space
Affectiva Q Sensor
Physiological Monitoring Setup for Intensive Care
Ventilators and ICU equipment for health care studies

Software and Simulators

Software

A wide range of advanced software tools are used to design interfaces at AIDL. Some of the tools used at AIDL include:

Balsamiq – An easy to use tool for static wireframes and mockups that is very useful at the early stages of the design process.
Axure - The industry standard tool for interactive prototyping and wireframes, which we use as the complexity of the design increases and the interactions become more important.
Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator - We use these industry standard design tools to create high fidelity prototypes and eventually many of the graphics in the final product.
Phonegap - Many of our eHealth projects are created using this mobile app development tool.

Simulators

Simulators or scaled-world environments are useful in experiments that test the effects of interfaces and other factors on human performance. Simulators in the lab include: