This guideline accommodates for users to interact with interactive surfaces regardless of their previous experience with such devices.

Description

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In an automotive showroom, there will be no time for visitor to spend several hours learning how a device or interaction works - in contrast to when buying a new piece of technology for your home. This means that the learning curve of all interactions available in a showroom must be very low so that everything is understood the very first time someone enters the showroom. An interface placed in a showroom that is not understood within seconds risk annoying people, making them feel stupid or deciding to leave. This is very applicable on interactive surfaces as they are devices not many people have experience with. Having an interface that makes people curious, interested in interacting and is easy to understand is therefore crucial when integrating an interactive surface in a showroom environment.

Guidelines

Build the system on the users’ mental models

• Build upon key interaction patterns and interface principles that are intuitive to users and that they use on other devices in their everyday life. Do not reinvent the wheel.

Invite the user to interact

• Make the user interface indicate that it is waiting for users to interact with it. It should be very simple for users to understand how to start the interaction and begin exploring the content.