Cameras are increasingly software-dominated, but their user interfaces and underlying concepts can make them difficult to use. I will research whether applying conceptual design principles to digital camera interfaces can improve their usability. I will identify and analyze the core concepts of camera software. Based on literature reviews, design heuristic evaluations, and conceptual analyses of camera features, I will design and develop prototype camera interface designs and conduct user testing to compare the usability of the current and proposed designs.

I have enjoyed learning about conceptual software design in 6.170 (Software Studio) and while working on a UROP project in my lab. I wish to combine my interdisciplinary research interests and start creating a scholarly body of work that I can present to other researchers. I hope that the insights from this project can be applied to other consumer electronics devices and devices whose user experience might currently make them difficult to learn.