Facilities

Overview

The Advanced Interface Design Lab is located within a larger developmental space (1303 B) 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

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 for monitoring the experimental space
Affectiva Q Sensor
Physiological Monitoring Setup for Intensive Care

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: