10-foot user interface

All you want to know about 10-foot user interface

This article is orphaned as few or no other articles link to it. Please help introduce links to this subject in articles on topics related to it. (December 2008)
LinuxMCE user interface

A 10-foot user interface is a software GUI (Graphical User Interface), (sometime also referred to as the "10-foot experience"), designed for display on a television (or similar sized large screen), with interaction using a regular television-style remote control.

"10 foot" refers to the fact that the GUI interface's elements—i.e. menus, buttons, text fonts, and so on—are theoretically large enough to easily read at a distance of 10 feet (approximately 3 metres) from the display., (which in this context is normally a television). To avoid distractions and to be clearer, 10 foot UIs also tend to be very simple and usually only have the core buttons that are required.

Typical examples of 10-foot user interfaces are media center software applications such as Front Row, LinuxMCE, Windows Media Center and XBMC Media Center interfaces.

Contents

Overview

Common setting for the 10-foot user interface is a home theater or living room with surround sound speaker setup. The distance between viewer and TV varies, but is typically 10 feet with a 42" or 47" display.

The "10 foot" is used to differentiate it from a desktop computer screen that is typically less than two feet from the viewer's eyes. Designed to be used by a handheld remote control, the 10-foot user interface has extra large buttons and menu text that are easily navigated.

This difference in distance has a huge impact on the interface design compared to typical desktop computer interaction when the user us sitting at a desk with a computer monitor, and using a mouse and keyboard (or perhaps a joystick device for computer games) which is sometimes referred to as a "2-foot user interface".

Common 10-foot user interface design guidelines

Here are a few design guidelines which should be considered when designing a 10-foot user interface compared to a 2-foot user interface.

  • Installation - The 10-foot experience places the display across the room from the user, and therefore anything that requires the user to physically interact with the interface forces the user to get up and cross the room.
  • User input - Support for a standard remote, which is the generally preferred input device. Make certain the user can control the menus via the primary game input device.
  • Display - Regardless of what the video output device is, at a range of 10 feet it's important that fonts and UI graphics are sized large enough for comfortable readability, (also note that antialiased fonts will generally offer better readability.
  • 'Size of UI elements - Avoid single-pixel thick horizontal lines or static UI elements with single-pixel detail as older televisions may simply not display fine detail, and even on the latest displays content will flicker when running on an interlaced display mode since a single row of pixels will be visible only half the time.

See also

References

External links

v • d • e
GUI widgets
Command input
Data input-output
Informational
Grouping
Navigational
Special windows
Related concepts
v • d • e
Window management topics
Techniques
Tiling Examples
Awesome  · dwm  · echinus  · Ion  · Wmii · Ratpoison · stumpwm · xmonad · Xerox Star · Windows 1.0 · GEM (2.0 and Later)
Stacking Examples
Compositing Examples
Systems with WMs
Components
Related Reading


 This technology-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10-foot_user_interface"

No comments have been added.



Your name:

City:

Country:

Your comments:

Security check *
(Please enter the number into adjoining box)

 

  • Ads

           
eXTReMe Tracker