User Interfaces

User interfaces represent one of the key success factors to the adoption of a software application or an integrated hardware and software solution. The success of devices like the iPhone have largely built upon the overall smooth interaction experience.

At Charonite, we are continously developing new better interfaces for web-based applications that make applications responsive enough to provide realtime interfaces to components like traffic cameras, RFID sensors and barriers. Interactive data dashboards and drilldown charts and reports enable users to explore data in an intuitive manner. The initial back and forth between the development team and our customers now generally includes lots of hand-drawn sketches and UML use cases and interaction diagrams & swimlanes, followed by more polished designs using rapid mockup tools and actual working prototypes that are rapidly deployed online to obtain more meaningful feedback from the end users themselves.

For projects involving hardware integration, like our range of parking kiosk solutions and PDA based software, the design constraints involved in a keyboardless touch screen based interface (requiring large buttons and easy to read large text fonts) and a small PDA interface (which requires fitting in information on a limited size display in an easy to use manner) have been formalised into a set of UI guidelines and templates that guide developers in creating intuitive solutions.

We've found this TED presentation by Pranav Mistry on SixthSense technology to be particularly interesting:

http://www.ted.com/talks/pranav_mistry_the_thrilling_potential_of_sixthsense_technology.html?awesm=on.ted.com_7X

The future of human computing interfaces seems to be oriented towards gesture based computing. At Charonite, we are currently researching ways of integrating gesture based computing using Wii hardware, allowing for fast exploration of 3D environments that can be utilised in future traffic management applications and possibly allow for better ways of interacting with large datasets. We are also looking at using the XBox Natal interface when it becomes available. Our research and development teams are always on the lookout for interesting emerging technologies and skilled talent in the field. Drop us an email on jobs@charonite.com if you're interested in joining our team.