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The Focus-Metaphor combines aspects of design theory, cognition psychology and educational theory as well as general aspects of usability. The design of the Focus-Metaphor intends to create a focus+context visualisation providing the user with a minimalist but task-centred choice of contextual elements.
The theory behind the Focus-Metaphor aims to enable the development of dynamic and personalisable interfaces which resemble the principle of cortical connectivity and its importance for cognitive functions (Fuster 1998) within the visual design and its underlying structure.
“... learning and the acquisition of memory are based on the synaptic linkage of elementary cortical representations” (Fuster 1998)
“The focus-metaphor aims to support learning processes through basing its visual representation on cognition psychological principles” (Laqua 2003).
A novel information structure is used to manage interdependences and visualisation of content elements.
In the Focus-Metaphor approach, the element of most interest for the user - the “primary focus” (Laqua 2003) - is presented in the middle of the screen having the largest dimensions. Other relevant elements, which are also of interest for the user and which are in context to the ‘focused’ element, are dynamically grouped and arranged around the primary focus element. These elements represent the “secondary focus”.
Whereas the in this project developed prototype only models the elements of primary and secondary focus, the concept of the Focus-Metaphor also includes elements in a “peripheral focus”. This third hierarchy would show elements which may not be in context of the primary focus, but still are essential for a fluent and effective interaction of the user with the system (e.g. functions like search, news, contact).
The notion of naming elements that are displayed in the second visual hierarchy (and grouped around the primary focus) “elements of secondary focus” rather than e.g. “elements of primary context” aims to stress the importance of these elements. Due to the minimalist visualization, they are in immediate focus, when the user wants to navigate. It is also this role of representing the navigational framework for the interface that makes these elements and “getting the context right” so crucial.
Sven Laqua, Nnamdi Ogbechie and M. Angela Sasse (2007) Contextualizing the Blogosphere: A Comparison of Traditional and Novel User Interfaces for the Web. To be presented at HCI 2007, 3-7 Sept. 2007, Lancaster, UK.
Sven Laqua, Shane Udaraka Bandara and M. Angela Sasse (2007) GazeSpace: Eye Gaze Controlled Content Spaces. To be presented at HCI 2007, 3-7 Sept. 2007, Lancaster, UK.
Sven Laqua (2006) Social Construction of Personalisable Content Interfaces. Presented at Human-Centred Technology Postgraduate Workshop, 11-12 September, Brighton, UK.
Sven Laqua, Gemini Patel and Angela M. Sasse (2006) Personalised Focus-Metaphor Interfaces: An Eye Tracking Study on User Confusion. In Proceedings of Mensch und Computer 2006 , 3-6 September, Gelsenkirchen, Germany. (German Chapter of ACM)
Sven Laqua and Paul Brna (2005) The Focus-Metaphor Approach: A Novel Concept for the Design of Adaptive and User-Centric Interfaces. In Proceedings of Interact'05, 12-16 Sep, Rome
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