A Low-Tech Methodology for Understanding User Needs and Preferences for User- Interface Design for Mixed Reality in a Dynamic Motion Context

This paper introduces a novel methodology for user interface prototyping of Mixed Reality applications for a dynamic motion context, namely race cycling. During lab sessions participants prototyped information provisioning in 3D-space. Their choices reflected a trade-off between cost to visual-field real estate and personal value of elected information. Information type, purpose, representation, location, size, and colour were analysed across participants. Participants preferred similar information positioning in the two investigated scenarios (descent, ascent) but included different types of information in each scenario. Heatmap visualisations revealed six preferred visual-field segments, highlighting the amount and types of information as well as segments kept empty. Balanced mock-ups of optimal layouts for descent and ascent are presented. Besides presenting a methodology for both data collection and processing – that is generally applicable by usability researchers both within and outside sports – this study provides specific insights for designers of user interfaces in road race cycling.