Brotate and Tribike: Designing Smartphone Control for Cycling

Abstract

The more people commute by bicycle, the higher is the number of cyclists using their smartphones while cycling and compromising traffic safety. We have designed, implemented and evaluated two prototypes for smartphone control devices that do not require the cyclists to remove their hands from the handlebars-the threebutton device Tribike and the rotation-controlled Brotate. The devices were the result of a user-centred design process where we identified the key features needed for a on-bike smartphone control device. We evaluated the devices in a biking exercise with 19 participants, where users completed a series of common smartphone tasks. The study showed that Brotate allowed for significantly more lateral control of the bicycle and both devices reduced the cognitive load required to use the smartphone. Our work contributes insights into designing interfaces for cycling. CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centered computing → Interactive systems and tools.

VeloCity: Using Voice Assistants for Cyclists to Provide Traffic Reports

“…This, as well as the above strategy, however, require removing one's hands from the handlebar. In response to this disadvantage, Woźniak et al [48] created custom handlebar controllers. These feature buttons as well as moving parts to interact with the most common smartphone features like accepting a phone call or play/pause music.…”

“…This leads to increased risk for cyclists who use these services and applications. We thus see the need for more user-specific solutions for cyclists [48] which take their movement and inhibition on interaction with hands and feet into account. Therefore, in this section, we will discuss five guidelines we identified in our study when it comes to designing VUIs for cyclists to provide traffic reports.…”

Provotyping Accountability: Exploring Smartphone Use in the Home through Design

“…Smartphone use may include making phone calls, sending and receiving text messages or emails, browsing the internet, using social media, taking pictures and videos, playing games, listening to music, and accessing various tools and apps. While there is a longstanding HCI research tradition that engages with improving design and evaluation efforts that facilitate the creation of desirable and personal user experiences for the smartphone [43,50,92], recent research finds that people are increasingly concerned about smartphone use and its impact on social relationships [9,18]. The home has, in particular, become a contentious site for people's smartphone use in the presence of others [60].…”

MTBalance

“…Previous studies in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) explored the use of technology during everyday [41] or at-home [21] cycling. Past research efforts explored solutions for increasing cyclist safety [25], navigating city environments [8] and controlling mobile devices [57] when cycling. Even though these interactive technologies are useful in a regular cycling context, we note that MTB requires a different type of technological support.…”