I've been struggling to define NUI clearly for my own benefit and the benefit of everyone else - both NUI practitioners and those new to the term. It seems to be me that the term has gone undefined far too long. After a couple of other attempts this week I've finally settled on a definition with which I'm very comfortable.In fact, I'm so confident in this definition that I've put it into the Natural User Interface entry on the Wikipedia. I encourage everyone interested in NUI to use it. It's a definition that is concise and easy to understand. Here it is:
A Natural User Interface is a human-computer interface that models interactions between people and the natural environment.
There are couple of aspects to this definition that are important.
- NUI is a form of HCI. Its important that we make that explicit.
- NUI models natural interactions. That means it leverages and uses as a template the interactions people have with each other (e.g. speech and gestures).
- NUI also models interactions between people and the natural environment (e.g. water and rocks) as opposed to their artificial environment (e.g. computers and cars.).
UPDATE January 23, 2010
An anonymous contributor has removed my edit to the wikipedia which means that at least one person doesn't agree with my definition. I could go and put my definition back in but that would probably result in a wikipedia pissing match where we just go back and forth doing and undoing my changes. That won't be productive. Instead I would like to see this discussion, as well as others like the Ron George OCGM discussion, move to a more appropriate forum. Perhaps as mailing list. Suggestions are welcome.
11 comments:
I like your definition, but I think it is missing one important aspect of these new interfaces.
In the past humans go into the computer's domain in order to communicate with them. That is, we look at the screens, and use the keyboard or mice to input things. The big revolution with these new interfaces, to me, appears to be that they are now coming into our domain to communicate with us. The mud interface or the little blocks were good examples of how the communication has flip-flopped.
Perhaps something like:
"A Natural User Interface is a computer-human interface that interacts with people in their own natural environment"
would emphasis this a bit more?
Just a thought :-)
Paul.
I like your definition too. But i think the term you proposed in your last post "...appropriate to the context of the interaction." describes the situation more exactly.
Allthough its shorter and may be more complex to understand, i think its better.
On the other hand a shorter term is easier to transport and read and everything... if put on wikipedia the three aspekts you mentioned must be placed there too.
Hey, I got a few emails pointing me to this post so I thought I would come over and comment.
First, I appreciate your passion in the subject, but let me give you some feedback about why your definition will not work.
Why do you need to make it clear that its a member of HCI? That makes no sense. Can an animal use a NUI? Of course right? Its a perfect use for a NUI because it requires the least amount of learning. Limiting it to human and to computers is not needed.
Why does a NUI have to be a computer? Most NUIs today are various objects that may or may not be a computer. Is "The Clapper" lamp a computer? No, but it is definitely a NUI.
Why does it model the environment? Why does the environment have to be natural? What does my environment have to do with how I am going to interact with an interface? If you say that it mimics the environment, I would say that you are selling it short.
Having it model the natural environment puts limitations on the use of it. How does "The Clapper" lamp model the environment? When I clap my hands the environment does not react.
I like this post. Keep it up. I appreciate you putting your ideas out there for all to see, it promotes critical thinking and that we all need.
@Paul W. Homer
Hi Paul,
Good to hear from you. I see what you mean. It seems like computers are becoming a part of our environment. They are no longer a place you go to. I'm not sure, however, that change in how we interact with computer is an aspect of NUI. After all, most people would say that multi-touch is NUI, yet with multi-touch you still have to go to the screen to interact. So in that case it doesn't seem to apply. Also, something like Project Natal requires that you be in a specific location to use it and I would define Natal as NUI.
@Matthias
You are right. I should have included the additional points I made in the blog on the Wikipedia entry. Someone has removed my edits so I hesitate to go back and put them back because a Wikipedia pissing match isn't going to help this budding industry. What we need is an open discussion to be productive.
I would love it if there was an place where we could discuss this. I would suggest nuigroup.org but they are focused on DIY large multi-touch surfaces and not, it seems to me, NUI in general.
The conversation could continue here on my blog but I think a blog is kind of a poor medium for a discussion of this kind. In addition, I'm sure people would prefer that the discussion take place somewhere more neutral like an open mailing list.
@Ron George
Hi Ron,
Thanks for commenting. I hope all is well. While I agree that the "clapper" is an example of a Natural Interaction, I don't think it should be considered a Natural User Interface. Let me explain.
In my opinion NUI is a kind of Natural Interaction, but Natural Interaction is much broader including both human-computer interfaces as well as interactions with non-computing devices such as the clapper.
It's my opinion that NUI, in order to be well understood, needs to be restricted in its definition otherwise the term becomes so general as to be useless. The clapper is an example of a Natural Interaction - a term used by Don Norman in "The Future of Everyday Things". It's a great term and while NUI is a type of Natural Interaction its a specific kind of Natural Interaction; specific to human-computer interfaces.
The term "natural environment", as used in my definition of NUI, is important because it differentiates the kinds of interactions we typically associate with everyday things from technological interactions. I think that is important in order to narrow the definition otherwise you could say, as I pointed out in my previous post, that the keyboard is a NUI because its natural for those who know how to use it.
What would be most productive is if folks like yourself could take an active role in defining the term by suggesting definitions. I would love to see how you and others define NUI. For the most part the term is undefined and there is little or no agreement on what exactly qualifies as a NUI. A vague definition is not going to be useful to NUI practitioners. Hopefully, someone will point you to this comment so you can respond.
Richard
Hi Richard,
To me NUI is about making interfaces that are as intuitive as possible through the use of inherent interaction. In my mind a perfect NUI isn't learned, it's just used. You look at it and know exactly what it's for and how to use it, like a cup or a hammer. So I guess in my way of thinking the environment isn't necessarily what's natural, the interaction is. So maybe instead of saying "it's an interface that models interactions between people and the natural environment", we might say that NUI attempts to make an interface as intuitive as possible by modeling natural human-object interaction through the use of visceral actions, such as gestures. I’m certainly no expert on the subject so perhaps I’m way off, just enjoyed the post and figured I’d weigh in.
Chad
Great post Richard and the replies so far have been fantastic. Ron, I think you bring up some fantastic points.
I think that if we wanted to make this a true discussion, then you really have to break this into smaller parts first. Based on Ron's comment, we have an initial breakdown of what we consider to be a UI I think. Based on Ron's comment, the clapper would be a UI (a NUI), but based on Richard's comments a UI (more specifically a NUI) is confined to a computer interface.
So I think before you deem what is 'natural' it's first important to define what you consider a UI to be. Maybe defining has been so hard because we're trying to define 'natural' and 'ui' at the same time while there isn't a meeting of the minds with natural nor ui in this instance.
Sorry I haven't exactly added much substance; i'll see if I can bring something more substantive after some more thought. :)
I'd really be interested in hearing from those that are working on a wide array of things that could be considered NUIs to see what they have to say. I have a feeling that varying fields may have varying definitions.
@Seth
You are absolutely right! We need to agree what a UI, or at least what kind of UI we are talking about, before we can define NUI. I'm on vacation now but I'll try to stay in the loop if this conversation picks up again - if it move to a new forum please be kind enough to alert me. I'm spending time in the Jungles of Costa Rica and Internet access is pretty spotty.
All the best,
Richard
I was thinking about it a little bit and I figured that "multi-touch", at least one its own is really just an extension of basic touchscreen technology, which having been around for a long time is the normal UI for computers.
If I'm playing with a PC, and I'm touching its monitor, it's only a minor difference if I am using only one point of contact or multiple.
On the other hand, there is something different about these smaller devices like the iPhone or the iPad. They are finding their way into our lives in an increasingly ubiquitous manner. That is, the more "natural" they become, the less we are aware that they are machine interfaces.
In that sense the line between the traditional and the newer interfaces blurs as we need less and less technical context in order to use the device. We always need some sort of 'domain' context, that is, we need to know what we are trying to ultimately do, and how to get it done, but all that annoying and difficult 'technical mumbo jumbo' recedes into the background when the computer comes to us, instead of the other way around.
Just a bit of rambling :-)
Paul.
Hi Richard,
I've continued the conversation about defining the natural user interface over at my blog:
http://nui.joshland.org/2010/03/what-is-natural-user-interface-book.html
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