| Unleashed: Web Tablet Integration Into the Home | | BIBAK | PDF | 1-8 | |
| Anne McClard; Patricia Somers | |||
| To understand how web access from a portable tablet appliance changes the
way people use the Internet, MediaOne gave families pen-based tablet computers
with a wireless connection to our high-speed data network. We used ethnographic
and usability methods to understand how tablets would be integrated into
household activities and to define user requirements for such devices.
Participants viewed the tablet as conceptually different from a PC. The tablet
enabled a high degree of multitasking with household activities, yet flaws in
form and function affected use. Results suggest that correctly designed
portable Internet appliances will fill a special role in peoples' daily lives,
particularly if these devices share information with each other. They will
allow spontaneous access to information and communication anywhere. Keywords: Internet appliances, Pen-based computing, Hand-held computers, Ergonomics,
Ethnography Note: 967 KB | |||
| Predicting Text Entry Speed on Mobile Phones | | BIBAK | PDF | 9-16 | |
| Miika Silfverberg; I. Scott MacKenzie; Panu Korhonen | |||
| We present a model for predicting expert text entry rates for several input
methods on a 12-key mobile phone keypad. The model includes a movement
component based on Fitts' law and a linguistic component based on digraph, or
letter-pair, probabilities. Predictions are provided for one-handed thumb and
two-handed index finger input. For the traditional multi-press method or the
lesser-used two-key method, predicted expert rates vary from about 21 to 27
words per minute (wpm). The relatively new T9 method works with a
disambiguating algorithm and inputs each character with a single key press.
Predicted expert rates vary from 41 wpm for one-handed thumb input to 46 wpm
for two-handed index finger input. These figures are degraded somewhat
depending on the user's strategy in coping with less-than-perfect
disambiguation. Analyses of these strategies are presented. Keywords: Text entry, Mobile systems, Mobile phones, Keypad input, Human performance
modeling, Fitts' law, Digraph frequencies Note: 829 KB | |||
| Developing a Context-Aware Electronic Tourist Guide: Some Issues and Experiences | | BIBAK | PDF | 17-24 | |
| Keith Cheverst; Nigel Davies; Keith Mitchell; Adrian Friday; Christos Efstratiou | |||
| In this paper, we describe our experiences of developing and evaluating
GUIDE, an intelligent electronic tourist guide. The GUIDE system has been built
to overcome many of the limitations of the traditional information and
navigation tools available to city visitors. For example, group-based tours are
inherently inflexible with fixed starting times and fixed durations and (like
most guidebooks) are constrained by the need to satisfy the interests of the
majority rather than the specific interests of individuals. Following a period
of requirements capture, involving experts in the field of tourism, we
developed and installed a system for use by visitors to Lancaster. The system
combines mobile computing technologies with a wireless infrastructure to
present city visitors with information tailored to both their personal and
environmental contexts. In this paper we present an evaluation of GUIDE,
focusing on the quality of the visitor's experience when using the system. Keywords: Mobile computing, Context-awareness, Adaptive hypermedia, User interface
design, Evaluation Note: 1069 KB | |||
| Measuring the Allocation of Control in a 6 Degree-of-Freedom Docking Experiment | | BIBAK | PDF | 25-32 | |
| Maurice R. Masliah; Paul Milgram | |||
| Coordination definitions and metrics are reviewed from the motor control,
biomedical, and human factors literature. This paper presents an alternative
measurement called the M-metric, the product of the simultaneity and efficiency
of a trajectory, as a means of quantifying allocation of control within a
docking task. A 6 degree-of-freedom (DOF) longitudinal virtual docking task
experiment was conducted to address how control is allocated across six DOFs,
how allocation of control changes with extended practice, and if differences in
the allocation of control are input device dependent. The results show that
operators, rather than controlling all 6 DOFs equally, allocate their control
to the rotational and translational DOFs separately, and switch control between
the two groups. With practice, allocation of control within the translational
and rotational subsets increases at a faster rate than across all 6 DOFs
together. Keywords: Coordination, Interaction techniques, Allocation of control, Virtual docking
task, The M-metric, Evaluation methods, Motor control, Input devices, 6
degree-of-freedom control Note: 810 KB | |||
| Symmetric Bimanual Interaction | | BIBAK | PDF | 33-40 | |
| Ravin Balakrishnan; Ken Hinckley | |||
| We present experimental work that explores the factors governing symmetric
bimanual interaction in a two-handed task that requires the user to track a
pair of targets, one target with each hand. A symmetric bimanual task is a
two-handed task in which each hand is assigned an identical role. In this
context, we explore three main experimental factors. We vary the distance
between the pair of targets to track: as the targets become further apart,
visual diversion increases, forcing the user to divide attention between the
two targets. We also vary the demands of the task by using both a slow and a
fast tracking speed. Finally, we explore visual integration of sub-tasks: in
one condition, the two targets to track are connected by a line segment which
visually links the targets, while in the other condition there is no connecting
line. Our results indicate that all three experimental factors affect the
degree of parallelism, which we quantify using a new metric of bimanual
parallelism. However, differences in tracking error between the two hands are
affected only by the visual integration factor. Keywords: Two-handed input, Symmetric interaction, Guiard theory, Input, Interaction
techniques Note: 869 KB | |||
| Two-Handed Input Using a PDA and a Mouse | | BIBAK | PDF | 41-48 | |
| Brad A. Myers; Kin Pou Lie; Bo-Chieh Yang | |||
| We performed several experiments using a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) as
an input device in the non-dominant hand along with a mouse in the dominant
hand. A PDA is a small hand-held palm-size computer like a 3Com Palm Pilot or a
Windows CE device. These are becoming widely available and are easily connected
to a PC. Results of our experiments indicate that people can accurately and
quickly select among a small numbers of buttons on the PDA using the left hand
without looking, and that, as predicted, performance, does decrease as the
number of buttons increases. Homing times to move both hands between the
keyboard and devices are only about 10% to 15% slower than times to move a
single hand to the mouse, suggesting that acquiring two devices does not cause
a large penalty. In an application task, we found that scrolling web pages
using buttons or a scroller on the PDA matched the speed of using a mouse with
a conventional scroll bar, and beat the best two-handed times reported in an
earlier experiment. These results will help make two-handed interactions with
computers more widely available and more effective. Keywords: Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), Hand-held computers, Palm Pilot, Windows
CE, Two-handed input, Smart environments, Ubiquitous computing, Pebbles Note: 1107 KB | |||
| The Effects of Animated Characters on Anxiety, Task Performance, and Evaluations of User Interfaces | | BIBAK | PDF | 49-56 | |
| Raoul Rickenberg; Byron Reeves | |||
| Animated characters are common in user interfaces, but important questions
remain about whether characters work in all situations and for all users. This
experiment tested the effects of different character presentations on user
anxiety, task performance, and subjective evaluations of two commerce websites.
There were three character conditions (no character, a character that ignored
the user, and a character that closely monitored work on the website). Users
were separated into two groups that had different attitudes about accepting
help from others: people with control orientations that were external (users
thought that other people controlled their success) and those with internal
orientations (users thought they were in control). Results showed that the
effects of monitoring and individual differences' in thoughts about control
worked as they do in real life. Users felt more anxious when characters
monitored their website work and this effect was strongest for users with an
external control orientation. Monitoring characters also decreased task
performance, but increased trust in website content. Results are discussed in
terms of design considerations that maximize the positive influence of animated
agents. Keywords: Animated characters, Social agents, Social facilitation, Locus of control Note: 971 KB | |||
| Helper Agent: Designing an Assistant for Human-Human Interaction in a Virtual Meeting Space | | BIBAK | PDF | 57-64 | |
| Katherine Isbister; Hideyuki Nakanishi; Toru Ishida; Cliff Nass | |||
| This paper introduces a new application area for agents in the computer
interface: the support of human-human interaction. We discuss an interface
agent prototype that is designed to support human-human communication in
virtual environments. The prototype interacts with users strategically during
conversation, spending most of its time listening. The prototype mimics a party
host, trying to find a safe common topic for guests whose conversation has
lagged. We performed an experimental evaluation of the prototype's ability to
assist in cross-cultural conversations. We designed the prototype to introduce
safe or unsafe topics to conversation pairs, through a series of questions and
suggestions. The agent made positive contributions to participants' experience
of the conversation, influenced their perception of each other and of each
others' national group, and even seemed to effect their style of behavior. We
discuss the implications of our research for the design of social agents to
support human-human interaction. Keywords: Social interface agents, Human-human interaction, Virtual meeting place,
Cross-cultural communication Note: 895 KB | |||
| Agents to Assist in Finding Help | | BIBAK | PDF | 65-72 | |
| Adriana Vivacqua; Henry Lieberman | |||
| When a novice needs help, often the best solution is to find a human expert
who is capable of answering the novice's questions. But often, novices have
difficulty characterizing their own questions and expertise and finding
appropriate experts. Previous attempts to assist expertise location have
provided matchmaking services, but leave the task of classifying knowledge and
queries to be performed manually by the participants. We introduce Expert
Finder, an agent that automatically classifies both novice and expert knowledge
by autonomously analyzing documents created in the course of routine work.
Expert Finder works in the domain of Java programming, where it relates a
user's Java class usage to an independent domain model. User models are
automatically generated that allow accurate matching of query to expert without
either the novice or expert filling out skill questionnaires. Testing showed
that automatically generated profiles matched well with experts' own evaluation
of their skills, and we achieved a high rate of matching novice questions with
appropriate experts. Keywords: Expertise location, Agents, Matchmaking, Java, Help systems Note: 1322 KB | |||
| Lurker Demographics: Counting the Silent | | BIBAK | PDF | 73-80 | |
| Blair Nonnecke; Jenny Preece | |||
| As online groups grow in number and type, understanding lurking is becoming
increasingly important. Recent reports indicate that lurkers make up over 90%
of online groups, yet little is known about them. This paper presents a
demographic study of lurking in email-based discussion lists (DLs) with an
emphasis on health and software-support DLs. Four primary questions are
examined. One, how prevalent is lurking, and do health and software-support DLs
differ? Two, how do lurking levels vary as the definition is broadened from
zero posts in 12 weeks to 3 or fewer posts in 12 weeks? Three, is there a
relationship between lurking and the size of the DL, and four, is there a
relationship between lurking and traffic level? When lurking is defined as no
posts, the mean lurking level for all DLs is lower than the reported 90%.
Health-support DLs have on average significantly fewer lurkers (46%) than
software-support DLs (82%). Lurking varies widely ranging from 0 to 99%. The
relationships between lurking, group size and traffic are also examined. Keywords: Lurker, Lurking, Discussion list, Demographic, Newsgroup, BBS, Email,
Health-support, Traffic, Membership Note: 793 KB | |||
| Talking in Circles: Designing a Spatially-Grounded Audioconferencing Environment | | BIBAK | PDF | 81-88 | |
| Roy Rodenstein; Judith S. Donath | |||
| This paper presents Talking in Circles, a multimodal audioconferencing
environment whose novel design emphasizes spatial grounding with the aim of
supporting naturalistic group interaction behaviors. Participants communicate
primarily by speech and are represented as colored circles in a two-dimensional
space. Behaviors such as subgroup conversations and social navigation are
supported through circle mobility as mediated by the environment and the crowd
and distance-based attenuation of the audio. The circles serve as platforms for
the display of identity, presence and activity: graphics are synchronized to
participants' speech to aid in speech-source identification and participants
can sketch in their circle, allowing a pictorial and gestural channel to
complement the audio. We note user experiences through informal studies as well
as design challenges we have faced in the creation of a rich environment for
computer-mediated communication. Keywords: Computer-mediated communication, Audio, Speech, Drawing, Representation,
Media space, Interaction design, Multimodal interfaces, Multicast, Social
navigation, Gesture Note: 1250 KB | |||
| Jotmail: A Voicemail Interface that Enables You to See what was Said | | BIBAK | PDF | 89-96 | |
| Steve Whittaker; Richard Davis; Julia Hirschberg; Urs Muller | |||
| Voicemail is a pervasive, but under-researched tool for workplace
communication. Despite potential advantages of voicemail over email, current
phone-based voicemail UIs are highly problematic for users. We present a novel,
Web-based, voicemail interface, Jotmail. The design was based on data from
several studies of voicemail tasks and user strategies. The GUI has two main
elements: (a) personal annotations that serve as a visual analogue to
underlying speech; (b) automatically derived message header information. We
evaluated Jotmail in an 8-week field trial, where people used it as their only
means for accessing voicemail. Jotmail was successful in supporting most key
voicemail tasks, although users' electronic annotation and archiving behaviors
were different from our initial predictions. Our results argue for the utility
of a combination of annotation based indexing and automatically derived
information, as a general technique for accessing speech archives. Keywords: Voicemail, Annotation, Speech access, Note-taking, Asynchronous
communication, "Speech as data", Empirical evaluation Note: 928 KB | |||
| Instructional Interventions in Computer-Based Tutoring: Differential Impact on Learning Time and Accuracy | | BIBAK | PDF | 97-104 | |
| Albert Corbett; Holly Trask | |||
| We can reliably build "second generation" intelligent computer tutors that
are approximately half as effective as human tutors. This paper evaluates two
interface enhancements designed to improve the effectiveness of one successful
second generation tutor, the ACT Programming Tutor. One enhancement employs
animated feedback to make key data structure relationships salient. The second
enhancement employs subgoal scaffolding to support students in developing
simple programming plans. Both interventions were successful, but had very
different impacts on student effort required to achieve mastery in the tutor
environment and on subsequent posttest accuracy. These results represent a step
forward in closing the gap between computer tutors and human tutors. Keywords: Intelligent tutoring systems, Instructional interface design, Animation,
Plan scaffolding, Student modeling Note: 848 KB | |||
| Keystroke Level Analysis of Email Message Organization | | BIBAK | PDF | 105-112 | |
| Olle Balter | |||
| Organization of email messages takes an increasing amount of time for many
email users. Research has demonstrated that users develop very different
strategies to handle this organization. In this paper, the relationship between
the different organization strategies and the time necessary to use a certain
strategy is illustrated by a mathematical model based on keystroke-level
analysis. The model estimates time usage for archiving and retrieving email
messages for individual users. Besides explaining why users develop different
strategies to organize email messages, the model can also be used to advise
users individually when to start using folders, clean messages, learn the
search functionality, and using filters to store messages. Similar models could
assist evaluation of different interface designs where the number of items
increase with time. Keywords: Email, Model, User, Organisation of messages. Note: 789 KB | |||
| Using Naming Time to Evaluate Quality Predictors for Model Simplification | | BIBAK | PDF | 113-120 | |
| Benjamin Watson; Alinda Friedman; Aaron McGaffey | |||
| Model simplification researchers require quality heuristics to guide
simplification, and quality predictors to allow comparison of different
simplification algorithms. However, there has been little evaluation of these
heuristics or predictors. We present an evaluation of quality predictors. Our
standard of comparison is naming time, a well established measure of
recognition from cognitive psychology. Thirty participants named models of
familiar objects at three levels of simplification. Results confirm that naming
time is sensitive to model simplification. Correlations indicate that
view-dependent image quality predictors are most effective for drastic
simplifications, while view-independent three-dimensional predictors are better
for more moderate simplifications. Keywords: Model simplification, Simplification metrics, Image quality, Naming time,
Human vision Note: 900 KB | |||
| Interactive Textbook and Interactive Venn Diagram: Natural and Intuitive Interfaces on Augmented Desk System | | BIBAK | PDF | 121-128 | |
| Hideki Koike; Yoichi Sato; Yoshinori Kobayashi; Hiroaki Tobita; Motoki Kobayashi | |||
| This paper describes two interface prototypes which we have developed on our
augmented desk interface system, EnhancedDesk. The first application is
Interactive Textbook, which is aimed at providing an effective learning
environment. When a student opens a page which describes experiments or
simulations, Interactive Textbook automatically retrieves digital contents from
its database and projects them onto the desk. Interactive Textbook also allows
the student hands-on ability to interact with the digital contents. The second
application is the Interactive Venn Diagram, which is aimed at supporting
effective information retrieval. Instead of keywords, the system uses real
objects such as books or CDs as keys for retrieval. The system projects a
circle around each book; data corresponding the book are then retrieved and
projected inside the circle. By moving two or more circles so that the circles
intersect each other, the user can compose a Venn diagram interactively on the
desk. We also describe the new technologies introduced in EnhancedDesk which
enable us to implement these applications. Keywords: Augmented reality, Computer vision, Finger/hand recognition, Information
retrieval, Venn diagram, Education, Computer supported learning Note: 1262 KB | |||
| curlybot: Designing a New Class of Computational Toys | | BIBAK | PDF | 129-136 | |
| Phil Frei; Victor Su; Bakhtiar Mikhak; Hiroshi Ishii | |||
| We introduce an educational toy, called curlybot, as the basis for a new
class of toys aimed at children in their early stages of development -- ages
four and up. curlybot is an autonomous two-wheeled vehicle with embedded
electronics that can record how it has been moved on any flat surface and then
play back that motion accurately and repeatedly. Children can use curlybot to
develop intuitions for advanced mathematical and computational concepts, like
differential geometry, through play away from a traditional computer.
In our preliminary studies, we found that children learn to use curlybot quickly. They readily establish an affective and body syntonic connection with curlybot, because of its ability to remember all of the intricacies of their original gesture; every pause, acceleration, and even the shaking in their hand is recorded. Programming by example in this context makes the educational ideas implicit in the design of curlybot accessible to young children. Keywords: Education, Learning, Children, Tangible interface, Toy Note: 964 KB | |||
| HandSCAPE: A Vectorizing Tape Measure for On-Site Measuring Applications | | BIBAK | PDF | 137-144 | |
| Jay Lee; Victor Su; Sandia Ren; Hiroshi Ishii | |||
| We introduce HandSCAPE, an orientation-aware digital tape measure, as an
input device for digitizing field measurements, and visualizing the volume of
the resulting vectors with computer graphics. Using embedded
orientation-sensing hardware, HandSCAPE captures relevant vectors on each
linear measurements and transmits this data wirelessly to a remote computer in
real-time. To guide us in design, we have closely studied the intended users,
their tasks, and the physical workplaces to extract the needs from real worlds.
In this paper, we first describe the potential utility of HandSCAPE for three
on-site application areas: archeological surveys, interior design, and storage
space allocation. We then describe the overall system which includes
orientation sensing, vector calculation, and primitive modeling. With
exploratory usage results, we conclude our paper for interface design issues
and future developments. Keywords: Input device, Field measurement tool, On-site applications,
Orientation-aware, Physical interaction, Tangible interface Note: 1451 KB | |||
| Bringing Order to the Web: Automatically Categorizing Search Results | | BIBAK | PDF | 145-152 | |
| Hao Chen; Susan Dumais | |||
| We developed a user interface that organizes Web search results into
hierarchical categories. Text classification algorithms were used to
automatically classify arbitrary search results into an existing category
structure on-the-fly. A user study compared our new category interface with the
typical ranked list interface of search results. The study showed that the
category interface is superior both in objective and subjective measures.
Subjects liked the category interface much better than the list interface, and
they were 50% faster at finding information that was organized into categories.
Organizing search results allows users to focus on items in categories of
interest rather than having to browse through all the results sequentially. Keywords: User interface, World Wide Web, Search, User study, Text categorization,
Classification, Support vector machine Note: 977 KB | |||
| Enhancing a Digital Book with a Reading Recommender | | BIBAK | PDF | 153-160 | |
| Allison Woodruff; Rich Gossweiler; James Pitkow; Ed H. Chi; Stuart K. Card | |||
| Digital books can significantly enhance the reading experience, providing
many functions not available in printed books. In this paper we study a
particular augmentation of digital books that provides readers with customized
recommendations. We systematically explore the application of spreading
activation over text and citation data to generate useful recommendations. Our
findings reveal that for the tasks performed in our corpus, spreading
activation over text is more useful than citation data. Further, fusing text
and citation data via spreading activation results in the most useful
recommendations. The fused spreading activation techniques outperform
traditional text-based retrieval methods. Finally, we introduce a preliminary
user interface for the display of recommendations from these algorithms. Keywords: Spreading activation, Bibliometrics, Recommendations, Information
visualization, 3D book, Degree of interest Note: 1149 KB | |||
| The Scent of a Site: A System for Analyzing and Predicting Information Scent, Usage, and Usability of a Web Site | | BIBAK | PDF | 161-168 | |
| Ed H. Chi; Peter Pirolli; James Pitkow | |||
| Designers and researchers of users' interactions with the World Wide Web
need tools that permit the rapid exploration of hypotheses about complex
interactions of user goals, user behaviors, and Web site designs. We present an
architecture and system for the analysis and prediction of user behavior and
Web site usability. The system integrates research on human information
foraging theory, a reference model of information visualization and Web
data-mining techniques. The system also incorporates new methods of Web site
visualization (Dome Tree, Usage Based Layouts), a new predictive modeling
technique for Web site use (Web User Flow by Information Scent, WUFIS), and new
Web usability metrics. Keywords: Information foraging, Information scent, World Wide Web, Usability,
Information visualization, Data mining, Longest repeated subsequences, Dome
Tree, Usage-based layout Note: 1257 KB | |||
| Browsing Digital Video | | BIBAK | PDF | 169-176 | |
| Francis C. Li; Anoop Gupta; Elizabeth Sanocki; Li-wei He; Yong Rui | |||
| Video in digital format played on programmable devices presents
opportunities for significantly enhancing the user's viewing experience. For
example, time compression and pause removal can shorten the viewing time for a
video, textual and visual indices can allow personalized navigation through the
content, and random-access digital storage allows instantaneous seeks into the
content. To understand user behavior when such capabilities are available, we
built a software video browsing application that combines many such features.
We present results from a user study where users browsed video in six different
categories: classroom lectures, conference presentations, entertainment shows,
news, sports, and travel. Our results show that the most frequently used
features were time compression, pause removal, and navigation using shot
boundaries. Also, the behavior was different depending on the content type, and
we present a classification. Finally, the users found the browser to be very
useful. Two main reasons were: i) the ability to save time and ii) the feeling
of control over what content they watched. Keywords: Digital video, Video browsing, Video indexing, Time compression, Pause
removal, Next-generation video playback interfaces Note: 1498 KB | |||
| Comparing Presentation Summaries: Slides vs. Reading vs. Listening | | BIBAK | PDF | 177-184 | |
| Liwei He; Elizabeth Sanocki; Anoop Gupta; Jonathan Grudin | |||
| As more audio and video technical presentations go online, it becomes
imperative to give users effective summarization and skimming tools so that
they can find the presentation they want and browse through it quickly. In a
previous study, we reported three automated methods for generating audio-video
summaries and a user evaluation of those methods. An open question remained
about how well various text/image only techniques will compare to the
audio-video summarizations. This study attempts to fill that gap. This paper
reports a user study that compares four possible ways of allowing a user to
skim a presentation: 1) PowerPoint slides used by the speaker during the
presentation, 2) the text transcript created by professional transcribers from
the presentation, 3) the transcript with important points highlighted by the
speaker, and 4) a audio-video summary created by the speaker. Results show that
although some text-only conditions can match the audio-video summary, users
have a marginal preference for audio-video (ANOVA F=3.067, p=0.087).
Furthermore, different styles of slide-authoring (e.g., detailed vs. big-points
only) can have a big impact on their effectiveness as summaries, raising a
dilemma for some speakers in authoring for on-demand previewing versus that for
live audiences. Keywords: Video abstraction, Video summarization, Digital video library, Video
browsing, Video skim, Multimedia Note: 1036 KB | |||
| An Interactive Comic Book Presentation for Exploring Video | | BIBAK | PDF | 185-192 | |
| John Boreczky; Andreas Girgensohn; Gene Golovchinsky; Shingo Uchihashi | |||
| This paper presents a method for generating compact pictorial summarizations
of video. We developed a novel approach for selecting still images from a video
suitable for summarizing the video and for providing entry points into it.
Images are laid out in a compact, visually pleasing display reminiscent of a
comic book or Japanese manga. Users can explore the video by interacting with
the presented summary. Links from each keyframe start video playback and/or
present additional detail. Captions can be added to presentation frames to
include commentary or descriptions such as the minutes of a recorded meeting.
We conducted a study to compare variants of our summarization technique. The
study participants judged the manga summary to be significantly better than the
other two conditions with respect to their suitability for summaries and
navigation, and their visual appeal. Keywords: Video summarization, Video browsing, Keyframe extraction Note: 1581 KB | |||
| Face to Interface: Facial Affect in (Hu)man and Machine | | BIBAK | PDF | 193-200 | |
| Diane J. Schiano; Sheryl M. Ehrlich; Krisnawan Rahardja; Kyle Sheridan | |||
| Facial expression of emotion (or "facial affect") is rapidly becoming an
area of intense interest in the computer science and interaction design
communities. Ironically, this interest comes at a time when the classic
findings on perception of human facial affect are being challenged in the
psychological research literature, largely on methodological grounds. This
paper presents two studies on perception of facial affect. Experiment 1
provides new data on the recognition of human facial expressions, using
experimental methods and analyses designed to systematically address the
criticisms and help resolve this controversy. Experiment 2 is a user study on
affect in a prototype robot face; the results are compared to the human data of
Experiment 1. Together they provide a demonstration of how basic and more
applied research can mutually contribute to this rapidly developing field. Keywords: Affective computing, Facial affect, Facial expression of emotion, Affect,
Emotion, Face, Nonverbal communication Note: 885 KB | |||
| Hedonic and Ergonomic Quality Aspects Determine a Software's Appeal | | BIBAK | PDF | 201-208 | |
| Marc Hassenzahl; Axel Platz; Michael Burmester; Katrin Lehner | |||
| The present study examines the role of subjectively perceived ergonomic
quality (e.g. simplicity, controllability) and hedonic quality (e.g. novelty,
originality) of a software system in forming a judgement of appeal. A
hypothesised research model is presented. The two main research question are:
(1) Are ergonomic and hedonic quality subjectively different quality aspects
that can be independently perceived by the users? and (2) Is the judgement of
appeal formed by combining and weighting ergonomic and hedonic quality and
which weights are assigned?
The results suggest that both quality aspects can be independently perceived by users. Moreover, they almost equally contributed to the appeal of the tested software prototypes. A simple averaging model implies that both quality aspects will compensate each other. Limitations and practical implication of the results are discussed. Keywords: Perceived software quality, Emotional usability, Hedonic components, Joy of
use Note: 794 KB | |||
| Alternatives: Exploring Information Appliances through Conceptual Design Proposals | | BIBAK | PDF | 209-216 | |
| Bill Gaver; Heather Martin | |||
| As a way of mapping a design space for a project on information appliances,
we produced a workbook describing about twenty conceptual design proposals. On
the one hand, they serve as suggestions that digital devices might embody
values apart from those traditionally associated with functionality and
usefulness. On the other, they are examples of research through design,
balancing concreteness with openness to spur the imagination, and using
multiplicity to allow the emergence of a new design space. Here we describe
them both in terms of content and process, discussing first the values they
address and then how they were crafted to encourage a broad discussion with our
partners that could inform future stages of design. Keywords: Design research, Information appliances, Home, Conceptual design Note: 1213 KB | |||
| An Observational Study of How Objects Support Engineering Design Thinking and Communication: Implications for the Design of Tangible Media | | BIBAK | PDF | 217-224 | |
| Margot Brereton; Ben McGarry | |||
| There has been an increasing interest in objects within the HCI field
particularly with a view to designing tangible interfaces. However, little is
known about how people make sense of objects and how objects support thinking.
This paper presents a study of groups of engineers using physical objects to
prototype designs, and articulates the roles that physical objects play in
supporting their design thinking and communications. The study finds that
design thinking is heavily dependent upon physical objects, that designers are
active and opportunistic in seeking out physical props and that the
interpretation and use of an object depends heavily on the activity. The paper
discusses the trade-offs that designers make between speed and accuracy of
models, and specificity and generality in choice of representations.
Implications for design of tangible interfaces are discussed. Keywords: Tangible media, Augmented reality, Interaction design, Design thinking, User
models, Cognitive models. Note: 822 KB | |||
| Tagged Handles: Merging Discrete and Continuous Manual Control | | BIBAK | PDF | 225-232 | |
| Karon E. MacLean; Scott S. Snibbe; Golan Levin | |||
| Discrete and continuous modes of manual control are fundamentally different:
buttons select or change state, while handles persistently modulate an analog
parameter. User interfaces for many electronically aided tasks afford only one
of these modes when both are needed. We describe an integration of two kinds of
physical interfaces (tagged objects and force feedback) that enables seamless
execution of such multimodal tasks while applying the benefits of physicality;
and demonstrate application scenarios with conceptual and engineering
prototypes. Our emphasis is on sharing insights gained in a design case study,
including expert user reactions. Keywords: Discrete, Continuous, Haptic, Force feedback, Tagged object, Tangible, Tool,
Token, Container, Design process Note: 976 KB | |||
| Traversable Interfaces Between Real and Virtual Worlds | | BIBAK | PDF | 233-240 | |
| Boriana Koleva; Holger Schnadelbach; Steve Benford; Chris Greenhalgh | |||
| Traversable interfaces establish the illusion that virtual and physical
worlds are joined together and that users can physically cross from one to the
other. Our design for a traversable interface combines work on tele-embodiment,
mixed reality boundaries and virtual environments. It also exploits non-solid
projection surfaces, of which we describe four examples. Our design
accommodates the perspectives of users who traverse the interface and also
observers who are present in the connected physical and virtual worlds, an
important consideration for performance and entertainment applications. A
demonstrator supports encounters between members of our laboratory and remote
visitors. Keywords: Mixed reality, Virtual environments, Augmented reality, Tele-presence,
Tele-embodiment Note: 1105 KB | |||
| Tradeoffs in Displaying Peripheral Information | | BIBAK | PDF | 241-248 | |
| Paul P. Maglio; Christopher S. Campbell | |||
| Peripheral information is information that is not central to a person's
current task, but provides the person the opportunity to learn more, to do a
better job, or to keep track of less important tasks. Though peripheral
information displays are ubiquitous, they have been rarely studied. For
computer users, a common peripheral display is a scrolling text display that
provides announcements, sports scores, stock prices, or other news. In this
paper, we investigate how to design peripheral displays so that they provide
the most information while having the least impact on the user's performance on
the main task. We report a series of experiments on scrolling displays aimed at
examining tradeoffs between distraction of scrolling motion and memorability of
information displayed. Overall, we found that continuously scrolling displays
are more distracting than displays that start and stop, but information in both
is remembered equally well. These results are summarized in a set of design
recommendations. Keywords: Peripheral information, Dual-task tradeoffs, User interface design Note: 917 KB | |||
| The Impact of Fluid Documents on Reading and Browsing: An Observational Study | | BIBAK | PDF | 249-256 | |
| Polle T. Zellweger; Susan Harkness Regli; Jock D. Mackinlay; Bay-Wei Chang | |||
| Fluid Documents incorporate additional information into a page by adjusting
typography using interactive animation. One application is to support hypertext
browsing by providing glosses for link anchors. This paper describes an
observational study of the impact of Fluid Documents on reading and browsing.
The study involved six conditions that differ along several dimensions,
including the degree of typographic adjustment and the distance glosses are
placed from anchors. Six subjects read and answered questions about two
hypertext corpora while being monitored by an eyetracker. The eyetracking data
revealed no substantial differences in eye behavior between conditions. Gloss
placement was significant: subjects required less time to use nearby glosses.
Finally, the reaction to the conditions was highly varied, with several
conditions receiving both a best and worst rating on the subjective
questionnaires. These results suggest implications for the design of dynamic
reading environments. Keywords: Fluid user interfaces, Fluid documents, Focus+context, Hypertext navigation,
On-line reading, Eye tracking, Studies of dynamic user interfaces Note: 1077 KB | |||
| Effects of Contextual Navigation Aids on Browsing Diverse Web Systems | | BIBAK | PDF | 257-264 | |
| Joonah Park; Jinwoo Kim | |||
| In spite of the radical enhancement of web technologies, many users still
continue to experience severe difficulties in navigating web systems. One way
to reduce the navigation difficulties is to provide context information that
explains the current situation of users in the web systems. In this study, we
empirically examined the effects of two types of context information, namely,
structural and temporal context. In the experiment, we evaluated the
effectiveness of the contextual navigation aids in two different types of web
systems: an electronic commerce system and a content dissemination system. In
our experiment, subjects performed several browsing tasks and answered a set of
post-questionnaires. The results of the experiment reveal that the two types of
contextual navigation aids significantly improved the performance of browsing
tasks regardless of different web systems. Moreover, context information
changed the users' navigation patterns, and increased their subjective ease of
navigation. This study concludes with implications for understanding the users'
browsing patterns and for developing effective navigation systems. Keywords: Context information, Navigation, Web systems, Structure, Browsing, Hypertext Note: 811 KB | |||
| Interacting with Eye Movements in Virtual Environments | | BIBAK | PDF | 265-272 | |
| Vildan Tanriverdi; Robert J. K. Jacob | |||
| Eye movement-based interaction offers the potential of easy, natural, and
fast ways of interacting in virtual environments. However, there is little
empirical evidence about the advantages or disadvantages of this approach. We
developed a new interaction technique for eye movement interaction in a virtual
environment and compared it to more conventional 3-D pointing. We conducted an
experiment to compare performance, of the two interaction types and to assess
their impacts on spatial memory of subjects and to explore subjects'
satisfaction with the two types of interactions. We found that the eye
movement-based interaction was faster than pointing, especially for distant
objects. However, subjects' ability to recall spatial information was weaker in
the eye condition than the pointing one. Subjects reported equal satisfaction
with both types of interactions, despite the technology limitations of current
eye tracking equipment. Keywords: Eye movements, Eye tracking, Polhemus tracker, Virtual reality, Virtual
environments, Interaction techniques Note: 798 KB | |||
| Intelligent Gaze-Added Interfaces | | BIBAK | PDF | 273-280 | |
| Dario D. Salvucci; John R. Anderson | |||
| We discuss a novel type of interface, the intelligent gaze-added interface,
and describe the design and evaluation of a sample gaze-added operating-system
interface. Gaze-added interfaces, like current gaze-based systems, allow users
to execute commands using their eyes. However, while most gaze-based systems
replace the functionality of other inputs with that of gaze, gaze-added
interfaces simply add gaze functionality that the user can employ if and when
desired. Intelligent gaze-added interfaces utilize a probabilistic algorithm
and user model to interpret gaze focus and alleviate typical problems with
eye-tracking data. We extended a standard WIMP operating-system interface into
a new interface, IGO, that incorporates intelligent gaze-added input. In a user
study, we found that users quickly adapted to the new interface and utilized
gaze effectively both alone and with other inputs. Keywords: Gaze-added interfaces, Gaze-based interfaces, Intelligent interfaces, Eye
movements, User models Note: 888 KB | |||
| Evaluation of Eye Gaze Interaction | | BIBAK | PDF | 281-288 | |
| Linda E. Sibert; Robert J. K. Jacob | |||
| Eye gaze interaction can provide a convenient and natural addition to
user-computer dialogues. We have previously reported on our interaction
techniques using eye gaze [10]. While our techniques seemed useful in
demonstration, we now investigate their strengths and weaknesses in a
controlled setting. In this paper, we present two experiments that compare an
interaction technique we developed for object selection based on a where a
person is looking with the most commonly used selection method using a mouse.
We find that our eye gaze interaction technique is faster than selection with a
mouse. The results show that our algorithm, which makes use of knowledge about
how the eyes behave, preserves the natural quickness of the eye. Eye gaze
interaction is a reasonable addition to computer interaction and is convenient
in situations where it is important to use the hands for other tasks. It is
particularly beneficial for the larger screen workspaces and virtual
environments of the future, and it will become increasingly practical as eye
tracker technology matures. Keywords: Eye movements, Eye tracking, User interfaces, Interaction techniques Note: 882 KB | |||
| Enriching Buyers' Experiences: The SmartClient Approach | | BIBAK | PDF | 289-296 | |
| Pearl Pu; Boi Faltings | |||
| In electronic commerce, a satisfying buyer experience is a key competitive
element. We show new techniques for better adapting interaction with an
electronic catalog system to actual buying behavior. Our model replaces the
sequential separation of needs identification and product brokering with a
conversation in which both processes occur simultaneously. This conversation
supports the buyer in formulating his or her needs, and in deciding which
criteria to apply in selecting a product to buy. We have experimented with this
approach in the area of travel planning and developed a system called
SmartClient Travel which supports this process. It includes tools for need
identification, visualization of alternatives, and choosing the most suitable
one. We describe the system and its implementation, and report on user studies
showing its advantages for electronic catalogs. Keywords: eCommerce, On-line travel planning systems, Visual overview, Client-server
architecture, Constraint solver Note: 3733 KB | |||
| Quality is in the Eye of the Beholder: Meeting Users' Requirements for Internet Quality of Service | | BIBAK | PDF | 297-304 | |
| Anna Bouch; Allan Kuchinsky; Nina Bhatti | |||
| Growing usage and diversity of applications on the Internet makes Quality of
Service (QoS) increasingly critical [15]. To date, the majority of research on
QoS is systems oriented, focusing on traffic analysis, scheduling, and routing.
Relatively minor attention has been paid to user-level QoS issues. It is not
yet known how objective system quality relates to users' subjective perceptions
of quality. This paper presents the results of quantitative experiments that
establish a mapping between objective and perceived QoS in the context of
Internet commerce. We also conducted focus groups to determine how contextual
factors influence users' perceptions of QoS. We show that, while users'
perceptions of World Wide Web QoS are influenced by a number of contextual
factors, it is possible to correlate objective measures of QoS with subjective
judgements made by users, and therefore influence system design. We argue that
only by integrating users' requirements for QoS into system design can the
utility of the future Internet be maximized. Keywords: Internet, Quality of service, User perception Note: 843 KB | |||
| What Makes Internet Users Visit Cyber Stores Again? Key Design Factors for Customer Loyalty | | BIBAK | PDF | 305-312 | |
| Jungwon Lee; Jinwoo Kim; Jae Yun Moon | |||
| Retaining customer loyalty is crucial in electronic commerce because the
value of an Internet store is largely determined by the number of its loyal
customers. This paper proposes a multi-phased model of customer loyalty for
Internet shopping, which fully takes the characteristics of the Internet and
cyber shopping into consideration. In order to validate the model, we conducted
a web-based survey of the customers of various Internet stores, and the data
was processed using structural equation analysis. The results indicate that
several factors can effectively increase customer loyalty towards an Internet
store and that the relative importance of the identified factors varies
according to the level of involvement with the product purchased through the
store. We suggest several managerial implications in developing Internet stores
for higher customer loyalty based on these results. Keywords: Customer loyalty, Customer interface, Transaction cost, Trust, Involvement,
Internet shopping, Electronic commerce Note: 868 KB | |||
| Speak Out and Annoy Someone: Experience with Intelligent Kiosks | | BIBAK | PDF | 313-320 | |
| Andrew D. Christian; Brian L. Avery | |||
| An intelligent kiosk is a public information kiosk that senses the presence
of humans and communicates in a natural way. To examine issues of human-kiosk
interaction, we have built and deployed two versions of intelligent kiosks. The
first kiosk design combines machine vision to locate and track people in the
vicinity with an animated talking head that focuses on clients and talks to
them. The second kiosk design uses infrared and sonar sensors to sense clients
and multiple interacting agents to communicate with the client. The foremost
lessons learned from public trials include (1) people are attracted to an
animated face that watches them, (2) small mobile agents interact better with
kiosk content than a single fixed face, (3) speaker-independent speech
recognition is only useful in targeted applications, and (4) the quality of the
content on the kiosk strongly influences the client's evaluation of the quality
of the technology. Keywords: Public kiosk, Talking avatar, Speech recognition, Machine vision, User
interface design, Information display Note: 1172 KB | |||
| The Effect of Task Conditions on the Comprehensibility of Synthetic Speech | | BIBAK | PDF | 321-328 | |
| Jennifer Lai; David Wood; Michael Considine | |||
| A study was conducted with 78 subjects to evaluate the comprehensibility of
synthetic speech for various tasks ranging from short, simple e-mail messages
to longer news articles on mostly obscure topics. Comprehension accuracy for
each subject was measured for synthetic speech and for recorded human speech.
Half the subjects were allowed to take notes while listening, the other half
were not. Findings show that there was no significant difference in
comprehension of synthetic speech among the five different text-to-speech
engines used. Those subjects that did not take notes performed significantly
worse for all synthetic voice tasks when compared to recorded speech tasks.
Performance for synthetic speech in the non note-taking condition degraded as
the task got longer and more complex. When taking notes, subjects also did
significantly worse within the synthetic voice condition averaged across all
six tasks. However, average performance scores for the last three tasks in this
condition show comparable results for human and synthetic speech, reflective of
a training effect. Keywords: Text-to-speech, Synthetic speech, User study, Comprehension Note: 924 KB | |||
| Does Computer-Generated Speech Manifest Personality? An Experimental Test of Similarity-Attraction | | BIBAK | PDF | 329-336 | |
| Clifford Nass; Kwan Min Lee | |||
| This study examines whether people would interpret and respond to
paralinguistic personality cues in computer-generated speech in the same way as
they do human speech. Participants used a book-buying website and heard five
book reviews in a 2 (synthesized voice personality: extrovert vs. introvert) by
2 (participant personality: extrovert vs. introvert) balanced, between-subjects
experiment. Participants accurately recognized personality cues in TTS and
showed strong similarity-attraction effects. Although the content was the same
for all participants, when the personality of the computer voice matched their
own personality: 1) participants regarded the computer voice as more
attractive, credible, and informative; 2) the book review was evaluated more
positively; 3) the reviewer was more attractive and credible; and 4)
participants were more likely to buy the book. Match of user voice
characteristics with TTS had no effect, confirming the social nature of the
interaction. We discuss implications for HCI theory and design. Keywords: TTS (Text-to-Speech), CASA (Computers are social actors), Speech user
interfaces, Personality, Similarity-attraction effect Note: 849 KB | |||
| A Toolkit for Strategic Usability: Results from Workshops, Panels, and Surveys | | BIBAK | PDF | 337-344 | |
| Stephanie Rosenbaum; Janice Anne Rohn; Judee Humburg | |||
| This paper describes the organizational approaches and usability
methodologies considered by HCI professionals to increase the strategic impact
of usability research within companies. We collected the data from 134 HCI
professionals at three conferences: CHI 98, CHI 99, and the Usability
Professionals' Association 1999 conference. The results are the first steps
towards a toolkit for the usability community that can help HCI practitioners
learn from the experiences of others in similar situations. Keywords: Usability, Strategic usability, Corporate planning, Methodology, HCI
professionals, Organizational change Note: 858 KB | |||
| Measuring Usability: Are Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Satisfaction Really Correlated? | | BIBAK | PDF | 345-352 | |
| Erik Frokjaer; Morten Hertzum; Kasper Hornbaek | |||
| Usability comprises the aspects effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction.
The correlations between these aspects are not well understood for complex
tasks. We present data from an experiment where 87 subjects solved 20
information retrieval tasks concerning programming problems. The correlation
between efficiency, as indicated by task completion time, and effectiveness, as
indicated by quality of solution, was negligible. Generally, the correlations
among the usability aspects depend in a complex way on the application domain,
the user's experience, and the use context. Going through three years of CHI
Proceedings, we find that 11 out of 19 experimental studies involving complex
tasks account for only one or two aspects of usability. When these studies make
claims concerning overall usability, they rely on risky assumptions about
correlations between usability aspects. Unless domain specific studies suggest
otherwise, effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction should be considered
independent aspect of usability and all be included in usability testing. Keywords: Usability measures, Effectiveness, Efficiency, Satisfaction, Information
retrieval, Usability testing, User studies | |||
| The Streamlined Cognitive Walkthrough Method, Working Around Social Constraints Encountered in a Software Development Company | | BIBAK | PDF | 353-359 | |
| Rick Spencer | |||
| The cognitive walkthrough method described by Wharton et al. may be
difficult to apply in a large software development company because of social
constraints that exist in such companies. Managers, developers, and other team
members are pressured for time, tend to lapse into lengthy design discussions,
and are sometimes defensive about their user-interface designs. By enforcing
four ground rules, explicitly defusing defensiveness, and streamlining the
cognitive walkthrough method and data collection procedures, these social
constraints can be overcome, and useful, valid data can be obtained. This paper
describes a modified cognitive walkthrough process that accomplishes these
goals, and has been applied in a large software development company. Keywords: Cognitive walkthrough, Usability inspection Note: 691 KB | |||
| Visual Similarity of Pen Gestures | | BIBAK | PDF | 360-367 | |
| A. Chris Long; James A. Landay; Lawrence A. Rowe; Joseph Michiels | |||
| Pen-based user interfaces are becoming ever more popular. Gestures (i.e.,
marks made with a pen to invoke a command) are a valuable aspect of pen-based
UIs, but they also have drawbacks. The challenge in designing good gestures is
to make them easy for people to learn and remember. With the goal of better
gesture design, we performed a pair of experiments to determine why users find
gestures similar. From these experiments, we have derived a computational model
for predicting perceived gesture similarity that correlates 0.56 with
observation. We will incorporate the results of these experiments into a
gesture design tool, which will aid the pen-based UI designer in creating
gesture sets that are easier to learn and more memorable. Keywords: Pen-based user interfaces, Pen gestures, Multi-dimensional scaling,
Similarity, Perception Note: 950 KB | |||
| Providing Integrated Toolkit-Level Support for Ambiguity in Recognition-Based Interfaces | | BIBAK | PDF | 368-375 | |
| Jennifer Mankoff; Scott E. Hudson; Gregory D. Abowd | |||
| Interfaces based on recognition technologies are used extensively in both
the commercial and research worlds. But recognizers are still error-prone, and
this results in human performance problems, brittle dialogues, and other
barriers to acceptance and utility of recognition systems. Interface techniques
specialized to recognition systems can help reduce the burden of recognition
errors, but building these interfaces depends on knowledge about the ambiguity
inherent in recognition. We have extended a user interface toolkit in order to
model and to provide structured support for ambiguity at the input event level.
This makes it possible to build re-usable interface components for resolving
ambiguity and dealing with recognition errors. These interfaces can help to
reduce the negative effects of recognition errors. By providing these
components at a toolkit level, we make it easier for application writers to
provide good support for error handling. Further, with this robust support, we
are able to explore new types of interfaces for resolving a more varied range
of ambiguity. Keywords: Recognition-based interfaces, Ambiguous input, Toolkits, Input models,
Interaction techniques, Pen-based interfaces, Speech recognition, Recognition
errors. Note: 1142 KB | |||
| Programming and Enjoying Music with Your Eyes Closed | | BIBAK | PDF | 376-383 | |
| Steffen Pauws; Don Bouwhuis; Berry Eggen | |||
| Design and user evaluation of a multimodal interaction style for music
programming is described. User requirements were instant usability and optional
use of a visual display. The interaction style consists of a visual roller
metaphor. User control of the rollers proceeds by manipulating a force feedback
trackball. Tactual and auditory cues strengthen the roller impression and
support use without a visual display. The evaluation investigated task
performance and procedural learning when performing music programming tasks
with and without a visual display. No procedural instructions were provided.
Tasks could be completed successfully with and without a visual display, though
programming without a display needed more time to complete. Prior experience
with a visual display did not improve performance without a visual display.
When working without a display, procedures have to be acquired and remembered
explicitly, as more procedures were remembered after working without a visual
display. It is demonstrated that multimodality provides new ways to interact
with music. Keywords: Multimodal interaction, Nonvisual interaction, Interface design, User
evaluation, Interactive music system Note: 1039 KB | |||
| Presenting to Local and Remote Audiences: Design and Use of the TELEP System | | BIBAK | PDF | 384-391 | |
| Gavin Jancke; Jonathan Grudin; Anoop Gupta | |||
| The current generation of desktop computers and networks are bringing
streaming audio and video into widespread use. A small investment allows
presentations or lectures to be multicast, enabling passive viewing from
offices or rooms. We surveyed experienced viewers of multicast presentations
and designed a lightweight system that creates greater awareness in the
presentation room of remote viewers and allows remote viewers to interact with
each other and the speaker. We report on the design, use, and modification of
the system, and discuss design tradeoffs. Keywords: Tele-presentation, Streaming media Note: 1048 KB | |||
| Coming to the Wrong Decision Quickly: Why Awareness Tools Must be Matched with Appropriate Tasks | | BIBAK | PDF | 392-399 | |
| Alberto Espinosa; Jonathan Cadiz; Luis Rico-Gutierrez; Robert Kraut; William Scherlis; Glenn Lautenbacher | |||
| This paper presents an awareness tool designed to help distributed,
asynchronous groups solve problems quickly. Using a lab study, it was found
that groups that used the awareness tool tended to converge and agree upon a
solution more quickly. However, it was also found that individuals who did not
use the awareness tool got closer to the correct solution. Implications for the
design of awareness tools are discussed, with particular attention paid to the
importance of matching the features of an awareness tool with a workgroup's
tasks and goals. Keywords: Task awareness, Workgroups, Awareness devices, Computer-mediated
communication, Distributed work, Asynchronous work Note: 936 KB | |||
| Gaze Communication using Semantically Consistent Spaces | | BIBAK | PDF | 400-407 | |
| Michael J. Taylor; Simon M. Rowe | |||
| This paper presents a design for a user interface that supports improved
gaze communication in multi-point video conferencing. We set out to use
traditional computer displays to mediate the gaze of remote participants in a
realistic manner. Previous approaches typically assume immersive displays, and
use live video to animate avatars in a shared 3D virtual world. This shared
world is then rendered from the viewpoint of the appropriate avatar to yield
the required views of the virtual meeting. We show why such views of a shared
space do not convey gaze information realistically when using traditional
computer displays. We describe a new approach that uses a different arrangement
of the avatars for each participant in order to preserve the semantic
significance of gaze. We present a design process for arranging these avatars.
Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the new interface with
experimental results. Keywords: Gaze, Avatar, Animation, Virtual meeting, Videophones Note: 924 KB | |||
| Eye-Hand Co-Ordination with Force Feedback | | BIBAK | PDF | 408-414 | |
| Roland Arsenault; Colin Ware | |||
| The term Eye-hand co-ordination refers to hand movements controlled with
visual feedback and reinforced by hand contact with objects. A correct
perspective view of a virtual environment enables normal eye-hand co-ordination
skills to be applied. But is it necessary for rapid interaction with 3D
objects? A study of rapid hand movements is reported using an apparatus
designed so that the user can touch a virtual object in the same place where he
or she sees it. A Fitts tapping task is used to assess the effect of both
contact with virtual objects and real-time update of the centre of perspective
based on the user's actual eye position. A Polhemus tracker is used to measure
the user's head position and from this estimate their eye position. In half of
the conditions, head tracked perspective is employed so that visual feedback is
accurate while in the other half a fixed eye-position is assumed. A Phantom
force feedback device is used to make it possible to touch the targets in
selected conditions. Subjects were required to change their viewing position
periodically to assess the importance of correct perspective and of touching
the targets in maintaining eye-hand co-ordination, The results show that
accurate perspective improves performance by an average of 9% and contact
improves it a further 12%. A more detailed analysis shows the advantages of
head tracking to be greater for whole arm movements in comparison with
movements from the elbow. Keywords: 3d interfaces, Haptics, Interaction techniques, Force feedback, Virtual
reality Note: 803 KB | |||
| Putting the Feel in 'Look and Feel' | | BIBAK | PDF | 415-422 | |
| Ian Oakley; Marilyn Rose McGee; Stephen Brewster; Philip Gray | |||
| Haptic devices are now commercially available and thus touch has become a
potentially realistic solution to a variety of interaction design challenges.
We report on an investigation of the use of touch as a way of reducing visual
overload in the conventional desktop. In a two-phase study, we investigated the
use of the PHANTOM haptic device as a means of interacting with a conventional
graphical user interface. The first experiment compared the effects of four
different haptic augmentations on usability in a simple targeting task. The
second experiment involved a more ecologically-oriented searching and scrolling
task. Results indicated that the haptic effects did not improve users
performance in terms of task completion time. However, the number of errors
made was significantly reduced. Subjective workload measures showed that
participants perceived many aspects of workload as significantly less with
haptics. The results are described and the implications for the use of haptics
in user interface design are discussed. Keywords: Haptics, Force feedback, Multimodal interaction Note: 911 KB | |||
| Force-Feedback Improves Performance for Steering and Combined Steering-Targeting Tasks | | BIBAK | PDF | 423-429 | |
| Jack Tigh Dennerlein; David B. Martin; Christopher Hasser | |||
| The introduction of a force-feedback mouse, which provides high fidelity
tactile cues via force output, may represent a long-awaited technological
breakthrough in pointing device designs. However, there have been few studies
examining the benefits of force-feedback for the desktop computer human
interface. Ten adults performed eighty steering tasks, where the participants
moved the cursor through a small tunnel with varying indices of difficulty
using a conventional and force-feedback mouse. For the force-feedback
condition, the mouse displayed force that pulled the cursor to the center of
the tunnel. The tasks required both horizontal and vertical screen movements of
the cursor. Movement times were on average 52 percent faster during the
force-feedback condition when compared to the conventional mouse. Furthermore,
for the conventional mouse vertical movements required more time to complete
than horizontal screen movements. Another ten adults completed a combined
steering and targeting task, where the participants navigated through a tunnel
and then clicked a small box at the end of the tunnel. Again, force-feedback
improved times to complete the task. Although movement times were slower than
the pure steering task, the steering index of difficulty dominated the
steering-targeting relationship. These results further support that human
computer interfaces benefit from the additional sensory input of tactile cues
to the human user. Keywords: Mouse, Pointing device, Force-feedback, Haptic, Steering task, Targeting
task, Fitts' Law, Index of difficulty Note: 775 KB | |||
| Power Browser: Efficient Web Browsing for PDAs | | BIBAK | PDF | 430-437 | |
| Orkut Buyukkokten; Hector Garcia-Molina; Andreas Paepcke; Terry Winograd | |||
| We have designed and implemented new Web browsing facilities to support
effective navigation on Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) with limited
capabilities: low bandwidth, small display, and slow CPU. The implementation
supports wireless browsing from 3Corn's Palm Pilot. An HTTP proxy fetches web
pages on the client's behalf and dynamically generates summary views to be
transmitted to the client. These summaries represent both the link structure
and contents of a set of web pages, using information about link importance. We
discuss the architecture, user interface facilities, and the results of
comparative performance evaluations. We measured a 45% gain in browsing speed,
and a 42% reduction in required pen movements. Keywords: Web, browser, PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), PalmPilot, Wireless, HTTP,
Proxy Note: 970 KB | |||
| A Diary Study of Information Capture in Working Life | | BIBAK | PDF | 438-445 | |
| Barry A. T. Brown; Abigail J. Sellen; Kenton P. O'Hara | |||
| Despite the increasing number of new devices entering the market allowing
the capture or recording of information (whether it be marks on paper, scene,
sound or moving images), there has been little study of when and why people
want to do these kinds of activities. In an effort to systematically explore
design requirements for new kinds of information capture devices, we devised a
diary study of 22 individuals in a range of different jobs. The data were used
to construct a taxonomy as a framework for design and analysis. Design
implications are drawn from the framework and applied to the design of digital
cameras and hand held scanners. Keywords: Information capture, Appliances, Digital cameras, Voice recorders, Scanners,
Diary study, PDAs, Document use Note: 1136 KB | |||
| Instrumental Interaction: An Interaction Model for Designing Post-WIMP User Interfaces | | BIBAK | PDF | 446-453 | |
| Michel Beaudouin-Lafon | |||
| This article introduces a new interaction model called Instrumental
Interaction that extends and generalizes the principles of direct manipulation.
It covers existing interaction styles, including traditional WIMP interfaces,
as well as new interaction styles such as two-handed input and augmented
reality. It defines a design space for new interaction techniques and a set of
properties for comparing them. Instrumental Interaction describes graphical
user interfaces in terms of domain objects and interaction instruments.
Interaction between users and domain objects is mediated by interaction
instruments, similar to the tools and instruments we use in the real world to
interact with physical objects. The article presents the model, applies it to
describe and compare a number of interaction techniques, and shows how it was
used to create a new interface for searching and replacing text. Keywords: Interaction model, WIMP interfaces, Direct manipulation, Post-WIMP
interfaces, Instrumental interaction Note: 966 KB | |||
| Anchored Conversations: Chatting in the Context of a Document | | BIBAK | PDF | 454-461 | |
| Elizabeth F. Churchill; Jonathan Trevor; Sara Bly; Les Nelson; Davor Cubranic | |||
| This paper describes an application-independent tool called Anchored
Conversations that brings together text-based conversations and documents. The
design of Anchored Conversations is based on our observations of the use of
documents and text chats in collaborative settings. We observed that chat
spaces support work conversations, but they do not allow the close integration
of conversations with work documents that can be seen when people are working
together face-to-face. Anchored Conversations directly addresses this problem
by allowing text chats to be anchored into documents. Anchored Conversations
also facilitates document sharing; accepting an invitation to an anchored
conversation results in the document being automatically uploaded. In addition,
Anchored Conversations provides support for review, catch-up and asynchronous
communications through a database. In this paper we describe motivating
fieldwork, the design of Anchored Conversations, a scenario of use, and some
preliminary results from a user study. Keywords: Text-based chat, Sticky chats, Collaboration, Conversations, CSCW, Shared
documents, Synchronous communication, Asynchronous communication Note: 1171 KB | |||
| The Social Life of Small Graphical Chat Spaces | | BIBAK | PDF | 462-469 | |
| Marc A. Smith; Shelly D. Farnham; Steven M. Drucker | |||
| This paper provides a unique quantitative analysis of the social dynamics of
three chat rooms in the Microsoft V-Chat graphical chat system. Survey and
behavioral data were used to study user experience and activity. 150 V-Chat
participants completed a web-based survey, and data logs were collected from
three V-Chat rooms over the course of 119 days. This data illustrates the usage
patterns of graphical chat systems, and highlights the ways physical proxemics
are translated into social interactions in online environments. V-Chat
participants actively used gestures, avatars, and movement as part of their
social interactions. Analyses of clustering patterns and movement data show
that avatars were used to provide nonverbal cues similar to those found in
face-to-face interactions. However, use of some graphical features, in
particular gestures, declined as users became more experienced with the system.
These findings have implications for the design and study of online interactive
environments. Keywords: Avatars, Computer mediated communication, Empirical analysis, Graphical
chat, Log file analysis, Online community, Proxemics, Social cyberspace, Social
interfaces, Virtual community Note: 959 KB | |||
| The Effect of Communication Modality on Cooperation in Online Environments | | BIBAK | PDF | 470-477 | |
| Carlos Jensen; Shelly D. Farnham; Steven M. Drucker; Peter Kollock | |||
| One of the most robust findings in the sociological literature is the
positive effect of communication on cooperation and trust. When individuals are
able to communicate, cooperation increases significantly. How does the choice
of communication modality influence this effect? We adapt the social dilemma
research paradigm to quantitatively analyze different modes of communication.
Using this method, we compare four forms of communication: no communication,
text-chat, text-to-speech, and voice. We found statistically significant
differences between different forms of communication, with the voice condition
resulting in the highest levels of cooperation. Our results highlight the
importance of striving towards the use of more immediate forms of communication
in online environments, especially where trust and cooperation are essential.
In addition, our research demonstrates the applicability of the social dilemma
paradigm in testing the extent to which communication modalities promote the
development of trust and cooperation. Keywords: Computer mediated communication, Online interaction, Social interfaces,
Collaboration, Social dilemma, CSCW Note: 907 KB | |||
| Using a Large Projection Screen as an Alternative to Head-Mounted Displays for Virtual Environments | | BIBAK | PDF | 478-485 | |
| Emilee Patrick; Dennis Cosgrove; Aleksandra Slavkovic; Jennifer Ann Rode; Thom Verratti; Greg Chiselko | |||
| Head-mounted displays for virtual environments facilitate an immersive
experience that seems more real than an experience provided by a desk-top
monitor [18]; however, the cost of head-mounted displays can prohibit their
use. An empirical study was conducted investigating differences in spatial
knowledge learned for a virtual environment presented in three viewing
conditions: head-mounted display, large projection screen, and desk-top
monitor. Participants in each condition were asked to reproduce their cognitive
map of a virtual environment, which had been developed during individual
exploration of the environment along a predetermined course. Error scores were
calculated, indicating the degree to which each participant's map differed from
the actual layout of the virtual environment. No statistically significant
difference was found between the head-mounted display and large projection
screen conditions. An implication of this result is that a large projection
screen may be an effective, inexpensive substitute for a head-mounted display. Keywords: Experiment, Virtual reality, Spatial knowledge, Field of view, Cognitive
map, Head-mounted display, Projection screen, monitor Note: 1073 KB | |||
| Alice: Lessons Learned from Building a 3D System for Novices | | BIBAK | PDF | 486-493 | |
| Matthew Conway; Steve Audia; Tommy Burnette; Dennis Cosgrove; Kevin Christiansen | |||
| We present lessons learned from developing Alice, a 3D graphics programming
environment designed for undergraduates with no 3D graphics or programming
experience. Alice is a Windows 95/NT tool for describing the time-based and
interactive behavior of 3D objects, not a CAD tool for creating object
geometry. Our observations and conclusions come from formal and informal
observations of hundreds of users. Primary results include the use of
LOGO-style egocentric coordinate systems, the use of arbitrary objects as
lightweight coordinate systems, the launching of implicit threads of execution,
extensive function overloading for a small set of commands, the careful choice
of command names, and the ubiquitous use of animation and undo. Keywords: Interactive 3D graphics, Animation authoring tools Note: 1005 KB | |||
| The Task Gallery: A 3D Window Manager | | BIBAK | PDF | 494-501 | |
| George Robertson; Maarten van Dantzich; Daniel Robbins; Mary Czerwinski; Ken Hinckley; Kirsten Risden; David Thiel; Vadim Gorokhovsky | |||
| The Task Gallery is a window manager that uses interactive 3D graphics to
provide direct support for task management and document comparison, lacking
from many systems implementing the desktop metaphor. User tasks appear as
artwork hung on the walls of a virtual art gallery, with the selected task on a
stage. Multiple documents can be selected and displayed side-by-side using 3D
space to provide uniform and intuitive scaling. The Task Gallery hosts any
Windows application, using a novel redirection mechanism that routes input and
output between the 3D environment and unmodified 2D Windows applications. User
studies suggest that the Task Gallery helps with task management, is enjoyable
to use, and that the 3D metaphor evokes spatial memory and cognition. Keywords: Window managers, 3D user interfaces, Spatial cognition, Spatial memory Note: 1158 KB | |||
| A Comparison of Tools for Building GOMS Models | | BIBAK | PDF | 502-509 | |
| Lynn K. Baumeister; Bonnie E. John; Michael D. Byrne | |||
| We compare three tools for creating GOMS models, QGOMS [2], CATHCI [17] and
GLEAN3 [12], along several dimensions. We examine the representation and
available constructs in each tool, the qualitative and quantitative design
information provided, the support for building cognitively plausible models,
and pragmatics about using each tool (e.g., how easy it is to modify a model).
While each tool has its strengths, they all reave something to be desired as a
practical UI design tool. Keywords: Tool support for evaluation, GOMS Note: 1000 KB | |||
| DENIM: Finding a Tighter Fit between Tools and Practice for Web Site Design | | BIBAK | PDF | 510-517 | |
| James Lin; Mark W. Newman; Jason I. Hong; James A. Landay | |||
| Through a study of web site design practice, we observed that web site
designers design sites at different levels of refinement -- site map,
storyboard, and individual page -- and that designers sketch at all levels
during the early stages of design. However, existing web design tools do not
support these tasks very well. Informed by these observations, we created
DENIM, a system that helps web site designers in the early stages of design.
DENIM supports sketching input, allows design at different refinement levels,
and unifies the levels through zooming. We performed an informal evaluation
with seven professional designers and found that they reacted positively to the
concept and were interested in using such a system in their work. Keywords: Web design, Zooming User Interface (ZUI), Sketching, Informal, Pen-based
computers, Rapid prototyping Note: 1129 KB | |||
| Tool Support for Cooperative Object-Oriented Design: Gesture Based Modelling on an Electronic Whiteboard | | BIBAK | PDF | 518-525 | |
| Christian Heide Damm; Klaus Marius Hansen; Michael Thomsen | |||
| Modeling is important in object-oriented software development. Although a
number of Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools are available, and
even though some are technically advanced, few developers use them. This paper
describes our attempt to examine the requirements needed to provide tool
support for the development process, and describes and evaluates a tool,
Knight, which has been developed based on these requirements. The tool is based
on a direct, whiteboard-like interaction achieved using gesture input on a
large electronic whiteboard. So far the evaluations have been successful and
the tool shows the potential of greatly enhancing current support for
object-oriented modeling. Keywords: Gesture input, Electronic whiteboards, Cooperative design, Object-oriented
modeling, User study, CASE tools Note: 1019 KB | |||
| The Cubic Mouse: A New Device for Three-Dimensional Input | | BIBAK | PDF | 526-531 | |
| Bernd Frohlich; John Plate | |||
| We have developed a new input device that allows users to intuitively
specify three-dimensional coordinates in graphics applications. The device
consists of a cube-shaped box with three perpendicular rods passing through the
center and buttons on the top for additional control. The rods represent the X,
Y, and Z axes of a given coordinate system. Pushing and pulling the rods
specifies constrained motion along the corresponding axes. Embedded within the
device is a six degree of freedom tracking sensor, which allows the rods to be
continually aligned with a coordinate system located in a virtual world. We
have integrated the device into two visualization prototypes for crash
engineers and geologists from oil and gas companies. In these systems the Cubic
Mouse controls the position and orientation of a virtual model and the rods
move three orthogonal cutting or slicing planes through the model. We have
evaluated the device with experts from these domains, who were enthusiastic
about its ease of use. Keywords: User interface hardware, Two-handed interaction, Virtual reality Note: 975 KB | |||
| The Role of Contextual Haptic and Visual Constraints on Object Manipulation in Virtual Environments | | BIBAK | PDF | 532-539 | |
| Yanqing Wang; Christine L. MacKenzie | |||
| An experiment was conducted to investigate the role of surrounding haptic
and visual information on object manipulation in a virtual environment. The
contextual haptic constraints were implemented with a physical table and the
contextual visual constraints included a checkerboard background ("virtual
table"). It was found that the contextual haptic constraints (the physical
table surface) dramatically increased object manipulation speed, but slightly
reduced spatial accuracy, compared to free space. The contextual visual
constraints (presence of the checkerboard) actually showed detrimental effects
on both object manipulation speed and accuracy. Implications of these findings
for human-computer interaction design are discussed. Keywords: Human performance, Virtual reality, Visual information, Haptic information,
3D, Docking, Controls and displays, Task context, Force feedback, Graphic
interface, Degrees of freedom, Augmented environment Note: 711 KB | |||
| Non-Isomorphic 3D Rotational Techniques | | BIBAK | PDF | 540-547 | |
| Ivan Poupyrev; Suzanne Weghorst; Sidney Fels | |||
| This paper demonstrates how non-isomorphic rotational mappings and
interaction techniques can be designed and used to build effective spatial 3D
user interfaces. In this paper, we develop a mathematical framework allowing us
to design non-isomorphic 3D rotational mappings and techniques, investigate
their usability properties, and evaluate their user performance
characteristics. The results suggest that non-isomorphic rotational mappings
can be an effective tool in building high-quality manipulation dialogs in 3D
interfaces, allowing our subjects to accomplish experimental tasks 13% faster
without a statistically detectable loss in accuracy. The current paper will
help interface designers to use non-isomorphic rotational mappings effectively. Keywords: 6DOF input devices, Interactive 3D rotations, 3D user interfaces,
Interaction techniques, Motor control Note: 1072 KB | |||
| Joking, Storytelling, Artsharing, Expressing Affection: A Field Trial of How Children and their Social Network Communicate with Digital Images in Leisure Time | | BIBAK | PDF | 548-555 | |
| Ann Makela; Verena Giller; Manfred Tscheligi; Reinhard Sefelin | |||
| Increasing use of mobile phones in leisure and communication with digital
images are important and current issues in the field of telecommunications.
However, little is known about how images would be used in leisure related
communication. According to our experience field trials are the best way of
studying it. In this paper, we describe a field-trial case study of leisure
related communication with digital images. Moreover, we discuss the advantages
of conducting field trials as part of product concept design process. Keywords: Product concept design, Field trial, Prototypes, Wireless communication,
Digital images, Children, Family, Leisure Note: 930 KB | |||
| Designing Storytelling Technologies to Encouraging Collaboration between Young Children | | BIBAK | PDF | 556-563 | |
| Steve Benford; Benjamin B. Bederson; Karl-Petter Akesson; Victor Bayon; Allison Druin; Par Hansson; Juan Pablo Hourcade; Rob Ingram; Helen Neale; Claire O'Malley; Kristian T. Simsarian; Danae Stanton; Yngve Sundblad; Gustav Taxen | |||
| We describe the iterative design of two collaborative storytelling
technologies for young children, KidPad and the Klump. We focus on the idea of
designing interfaces to subtly encourage collaboration so that children are
invited to discover the added benefits of working together. This idea has been
motivated by our experiences of using early versions of our technologies in
schools in Sweden and the UK. We compare the approach of encouraging
collaboration with other approaches to synchronizing shared interfaces. We
describe how we have revised the technologies to encourage collaboration and to
reflect design suggestions made by the children themselves. Keywords: Children, Single Display Groupware (SDG), Computer Supported Cooperative
Work (CSCW), Education, Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) Note: 1016 KB | |||
| Storytelling with Digital Photographs | | BIBAK | PDF | 564-571 | |
| Marko Balabanovic; Lonny L. Chu; Gregory J. Wolff | |||
| Photographs play a central role in many types of informal storytelling. This
paper describes an easy-to-use device that enables digital photos to be used in
a manner similar to print photos for sharing personal stories. A portable form
factor Combined with a novel interface supports local sharing like a
conventional photo album as well as recording of stories that can be sent to
distant friends and relatives. User tests validate the design and reveal that
people alternate between "photo-driven" and "story-driven" strategies when
telling stories about their photos. Keywords: Digital storytelling, Multimedia organization, Digital photography, Browsing Note: 1098 KB | |||