SmartControllerJS: A JavaScript library to turn smartphones into controllers for web-based interactive experiments

TL;DR

SmartControllerJS is a JavaScript library that enables quick and cost-effective creation of web-based interactive experiments controlled via smartphones, facilitating rapid design, scaling, and user testing.

Contribution

It introduces a novel, easy-to-use framework for connecting smartphones to web applications for interactive experiments, with tools for connection monitoring and user feedback integration.

Findings

Successful implementation of smartphone-controlled web experiments.

Positive user feedback on ease of use and acceptability.

Demonstrated scalability and minimal costs for interactive experiments.

Abstract

We introduce SmartControllerJS, a new JavaScript library for fast, cost-effective designing of web applications controlled via everyday smartphones. At its core, SmartControllerJS establishes a connection between two webpages, one page running on a desktop browser and the other on the user's smartphone. The smartphone webpage loads a controller interface allowing users to control a web application running on their computer's browser. The SmartControllerJS framework enables fast iteration loops when designing interactive user experiments because it has minimal friction and allows for scaling, while having no running costs. We first describe how this library is built, how it can be used, and provide interactive examples. We then present two games designed for public screens along with results from user studies evaluating acceptability and ease of use. Finally, we implement a custom controller based on user feedback and introduce connection monitoring tools. We believe SmartControllerJS can accelerate the design of interactive experiments for researchers in Human-Computer Interaction, and be a useful tool for educational projects. All our code is available at https://github.com/SmartControllerJS and links to all demos can be found in Table I. To explore our demos, we recommend reading this work on a desktop computer with your smartphone in hand.