Multimodal Interaction Design to Help TikTok Users Manage De Quervain's Tenosynovitis Symptoms

Abstract

Between 2012 and 2020, the number of smartphone users worldwide grew at an annualized rate of 30%. The number of smartphone users reached 3.6 billion in 2020, accounting for almost half of the world's population. Intelligent devices have gradually evolved into an indispensable aspect of people's social and work lives. Unfortunately, users may also experience substantial health risks when they enjoy the dividends provided by technology. In this regard, as the current conventional method of human-phone interaction, touch interaction dramatically reduces the interaction costs of intelligent devices for users. Users can perform many functions by pointing and swiping on the screen, but this convenience also includes side effects, such as hand disorders caused by finger overuse. Currently, there is an increase in the number of mobile phone users, as well as an increase in intelligent device functionalities and the development of mobile phone scenes and use time. These advancements have, in turn, led to the design trend of larger mobile phone screens causing increases in the finger movement area. These so-called 'advancements' raise the question of how mobile phone users can adapt to the aforementioned developments and avoid the risk of excessive digit use. While touch interaction is the primary interactive method, how can designers introduce more human-phone interaction methods to reduce the risk of mobile phone users suffering from symptoms of hand disorder?This design project is based on the short video playback software TikTok. It mainly utilizes the user-centered design process and user experience design method to propose four new user input methods apart from touch interaction: swivelling, approaching the proximity sensor, ring and little finger touching, and custom voice commands. The designer utilizes the existing user interface of TikTok as a sample and inserts multimodal interaction choice interfaces, custom voice command interfaces, and others.