EASE OF USE

LOAD to NAVIGATE IN 3D / FWD & BACK / UP & DOWN

angled flat hand uses the motion of the fingers waved back and forth to indicate direction

Often it is unnecessary to press buttons in order to browse options; content can be dynamic and
auto-suggested in most cases.

- This gesture is universally acknowledged as a directional command.
- The direction in which the fingers move indicate the digital motion i.e. ceiling / floor for up / down.
- Care in design should be taken make differentiation with the gestural mirror opposites i.e. forward / backward.

MULTI-TASKING

REVEAL to ZOOM IN / ZOOM OUT / NAVIGATE BETWEEN

palm facing, fingers move between a wide open hand and an extended single unit

This is useful when multi-tasking, navigating between and doing more than two things at once.

- This gesture relies on common digital culture for "zoom"
- Used universally in gestural language to describe "getting bigger" or "getting smaller"
- Can be used for both < and > actions

URGENCY of MESSAGE

DITCH to DELETE / CANCEL / QUIT

palm facing, from an open hand, fingers are curled tightly into a fist in a singular movement

In emergency situations people are often panicked or disorientated, struggle to verbalise
or have to make quick decisions.

- This gesture is somewhat acknowledged as "to destroy"
- "to destroy" as an emotion can translate to "ditch" as a gestural command and to "delete" as a digital command
- A visual trigger / icon indicating "delete here" is encouraged, as is a feedback tone indicating the action has taken place.

UNIVERSAL MESSAGE

PALM to SELECT / NAVIGATE BETWEEN

hand moves from single finger pointing action to a cupping, palm up gesture

Useful when only visual instructions can be understood, i.e. participant does not share the language,is partially sighted or a child.

- The "point" gesture is universally acknowledged as "to choose between" and "to indicate preference"
- The "palm" gesture is universally acknowledged as "to hold something" which translates digitally to "select"
- In some cultures, the gesture of pointing is considered rude, while palming is considered degrading (i.e. begging)

UNIVERSAL MESSAGE

WAVE to ACTIVATE

palm facing, open hand moved from left to right in arc to closed hand

- "hallo!" as a gesture translates to "activate" as a digital command
- The "wave" gesture is universally acknowledged as "hallo!"
- The "wave" is an intuitive and natural response for "hallo!"
- Care in design should be taken to avoid confusion with it`s mirror opposite,"good-bye!"

Tests for each gesture were performed on a random mix of participants. Results are based on a group of 30 participants, divided into 3 age groups, ranging between 9 yrs old and 63 yrs old.

Participants were either verbally read or visually shown scenario's based in the near future and asked to imagine themselves using a gestural interface to complete an activity. For more information on using narrative techniques for lo-fi prototype testing please click here.

TEST 1 : Participant is invited to interact with a lo-fi gestural prototype, and asked a series of guided questions.
TEST 2 : Participant is asked what gesture they might create to do complete an activity.
TEST 3 : Participant is shown the hand gesture, asked to repeat perform it, and comment on what emotion it evokes ...

"We need to figure out which common gestures could work across a variety of devices and environments. It's time to step up and start making, to define and document a common set of movements and motions that could be used for initiating actions across a variety of platforms. We need to help create this shift, not just follow along behind the technology. And, if we wait, well, we'll simply find individual companies creating their own standards. And although there will always be custom solutions for particular problems and environments, standards would help." Dan Saffer (Designing Gestural Interfaces 2008)

Due to their very nature, prescriptive theories have a fairly general scope. While the theories of Masters of Gesture give guidelines for gestural design, the specifics on how to actually follow the guidelines is left up to the designer. The goal was to provide as complete as possible theories, by preposing clear guidelines and providing test results.

This is an opensource project proposal of a series of 5 natural and intuitive gestural hand movements for interactive interfaces designed in collaboration with sleight of hand magicians. Submitted by Crystal Campbell as the final MA project in Creative Practice for Narrative Environments to Central Saint Martins (London) 2009. Many thanks to Matthew Pike, Diogo Terroso and magician David Bonsall for your invaluable time, thoughts and creative magic that went towards this project. The exhibition would not be complete without the generous sponsorship of: