| Scale Effects in Steering Law Tasks | | BIBAK | PDF | 1-8 | |
| Johnny Accot; Shumin Zhai | |||
| Interaction tasks on a computer screen can technically be scaled to a much
larger or much smaller sized input control area by adjusting the input device's
control gain or the control-display (C-D) ratio. However, human performance as
a function of movement scale is not a well concluded topic. This study
introduces a new task paradigm to study the scale effect in the framework of
the steering law. The results confirmed a U-shaped performance-scale function
and rejected straight-line or no-effect hypotheses in the literature. We found
a significant scale effect in path steering performance, although its impact
was less than that of the steering law's index of difficulty. We analyzed the
scale effects in two plausible causes: movement joints shift and motor
precision limitation. The theoretical implications of the scale effects to the
validity of the steering law, and the practical implications of input device
size and zooming functions are discussed in the paper. Keywords: C-D ratio, arm, control gain, device size, elbow, finger, hand, input
device, joints, limb, motor control, movement scale, steering law, wrist | |||
| Accuracy Measures for Evaluating Computer Pointing Devices | | BIBAK | PDF | 9-16 | |
| I. Scott MacKenzie; Tatu Kauppinen; Miika Silfverberg | |||
| In view of the difficulties in evaluating computer pointing devices across
different tasks within dynamic and complex systems, new performance measures
are needed. This paper proposes seven new accuracy measures to elicit
(sometimes subtle) differences among devices in precision pointing tasks. The
measures are target re-entry, task axis crossing, movement direction change,
orthogonal direction change, movement variability, movement error, and movement
offset. Unlike movement time, error rate, and throughput, which are based on a
single measurement per trial, the new measures capture aspects of movement
behaviour during a trial. The theoretical basis and computational techniques
for the measures are described, with examples given. An evaluation with four
pointing devices was conducted to validate the measures. A causal relationship
to pointing device efficiency (viz. throughput) was found, as was an ability to
discriminate among devices in situations where differences did not otherwise
appear. Implications for pointing device research are discussed. Keywords: computer pointing devices, cursor positioning tasks, performance evaluation,
performance measurement, cursor positioning tasks | |||
| Laser Pointer Interaction | | BIBAK | PDF | 17-22 | |
| Dan R. Olsen; Travis Nielsen | |||
| Group meetings and other non-desk situations require that people be able to
interact at a distance from a display surface. This paper describes a technique
using a laser pointer and a camera to accomplish just such interactions.
Calibration techniques are given to synchronize the display and camera
coordinates. A series of interactive techniques are described for navigation
and entry of numbers, times, dates, text, enumerations and lists of items. The
issues of hand jitter, detection error, slow sampling and latency are discussed
in each of the interactive techniques. Keywords: camera-based interaction, group interaction, laser pointer interaction | |||
| Listen Reader: An Electronically Augmented Paper-Based Book | | BIBAK | PDF | 23-29 | |
| Maribeth Back; Jonathan Cohen; Rich Gold; Steve Harrison; Scott Minneman | |||
| While predictions abound that electronic books will supplant traditional
paper-based books, many people bemoan the coming loss of the book as cultural
artifact. In this project we deliberately keep the affordances of paper books
while adding electronic augmentation. The Listen Reader combines the look and
feel of a real book - a beautiful binding, paper pages and printed images and
text - with the rich, evocative quality of a movie soundtrack. The book's
multi-layered interactive soundtrack consists of music and sound effects.
Electric field sensors located in the book binding sense the proximity of the
reader's hands and control audio parameters, while RFID tags embedded in each
page allow fast, robust page identification.
Three different Listen Readers were built as part of a six-month museum exhibit, with more than 350,000 visitors. This paper discusses design, implementation, and lessons learned through the iterative design process, observation, and visitor interviews. Keywords: RFID tags, audio books, augmented books, augmented reality, electronic
books, embedded tags, exhibits, gestural input, interactive audio, interactive
books, interactive museum, multimodal i/o, new genres, page detection, smart
documents, sound design | |||
| Exploiting Interactivity, Influence, Space and Time to Explore Non-Linear Drama in Virtual Worlds | | BIBAK | PDF | 30-37 | |
| Mike Craven; Ian Taylor; Adam Drozd; Jim Purbrick; Chris Greenhalgh; Steve Benford; Mike Fraser; John Bowers; Kai-Mikael Jaa-Aro; Bernd Lintermann; Michael Hoch | |||
| We present four contrasting interfaces to allow multiple viewers to explore
3D recordings of dramas in on-line virtual worlds. The first is an on-line
promenade performance to an audience of avatars. The second is a form of
immersive cinema, with multiple simultaneous viewpoints. The third is a
tabletop projection surface that allows viewers to select detailed views from a
bird's-eye overview. The fourth is a linear television broadcast created by a
director or editor. A comparison of these examples shows how a viewing audience
can exploit four general resources - interactivity, influence, space, and time
- to make sense of complex, non-linear virtual drama. These resources provide
interaction designers with a general framework for defining the relationship
between the audience and the 3D content. Keywords: entertainment applications, virtual reality | |||
| Orchestrating a Mixed Reality Performance | | BIBAK | PDF | 38-45 | |
| Boriana Koleva; Ian Taylor; Steve Benford; Mike Fraser; Chris Greenhalgh; Holger Schnadelbach; Dirk vom Lehn; Christian Heath; Ju Row-Farr; Matt Adams | |||
| A study of a professional touring mixed reality performance called Desert
Rain yields insights into how performers orchestrate players' engagement in an
interactive experience. Six players at a time journey through an extended
physical and virtual set. Each sees a virtual world projected onto a screen
made from a fine water spray. This acts as a traversable interface, supporting
the illusion that performers physically pass between real and virtual worlds.
Live and video-based observations of Desert Rain, coupled with interviews with
players and the production team, have revealed how the performers create
conditions for the willing suspension of disbelief, and how they monitor and
intervene in the players experience without breaking their engagement. This
involves carefully timed performances and "off-face" and "virtual"
interventions. In turn, these are supported by the ability to monitor players'
physical and virtual activity through asymmetric interfaces. Keywords: mixed reality, performance, traversable interfaces | |||
| Cookies and Web Browser Design: Toward Realizing Informed Consent Online | | BIBAK | PDF | 46-52 | |
| Lynette I. Millett; Batya Friedman; Edward Felten | |||
| We first provide criteria for assessing informed consent online. Then we
examine how cookie technology and Web browser designs have responded to
concerns about informed consent. Specifically, we document relevant design
changes in Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer over a 5-year period,
starting in 1995. Our retrospective analyses leads us to conclude that while
cookie technology has improved over time regarding informed consent, some
startling problems remain. We specify six of these problems and offer design
remedies. This work fits within the emerging field of Value-Sensitive Design. Keywords: Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Value-Sensitive Design, Web browsers,
World Wide Web, computer ethics, cookies, e-business, e-commerce, ethics, human
values, human-computer interaction, informed consent, interface design, locus
of control, online interactions, personalization, privacy, security, social
computing, social impact, tracking | |||
| Empirically Validated Web Page Design Metrics | | BIBAK | PDF | 53-60 | |
| Melody Y. Ivory; Rashmi R. Sinha; Marti A. Hearst | |||
| A quantitative analysis of a large collection of expert-rated web sites
reveals that page-level metrics can accurately predict if a site will be highly
rated. The analysis also provides empirical evidence that important metrics,
including page composition, page formatting, and overall page characteristics,
differ among web site categories such as education, community, living, and
finance. These results provide an empirical foundation for web site design
guidelines and also suggest which metrics can be most important for evaluation
via user studies. Keywords: Web site design, World Wide Web, automated usability evaluation, empirical
studies | |||
| What Makes Web Sites Credible?: A Report on a Large Quantitative Study | | BIBAK | PDF | 61-68 | |
| BJ Fogg; Jonathan Marshall; Othman Laraki; Alex Osipovich; Chris Varma; Nicholas Fang; Jyoti Paul; Akshay Rangnekar; John Shon; Preeti Swani; Marissa Treinen | |||
| The credibility of web sites is becoming an increasingly important area to
understand. To expand knowledge in this domain, we conducted an online study
that investigated how different elements of Web sites affect people's
perception of credibility. Over 1400 people participated in this study, both
from the U.S. and Europe, evaluating 51 different Web site elements. The data
showed which elements boost and which elements hurt perceptions of Web
credibility. Through analysis we found these elements fell into one of seven
factors. In order of impact, the five types of elements that increased
credibility perceptions were "real-world feel", "ease of use", "expertise",
"trustworthiness", and "tailoring". The two types of elements that hurt
credibility were "commercial implications and "amateurism". This large-scale
study lays the groundwork for further research into the elements that affect
Web credibility. The results also suggest implications for designing credible
Web sites. Keywords: Web design, World Wide Web, captology, credibility, expertise, online
research, trustworthiness, usability | |||
| Improving the Performance of the Cyberlink Mental Interface with "Yes / No Program" | | BIBAK | PDF | 69-76 | |
| Eamon Doherty; Gilbert Cockton; Chris Bloor; Dennis Benigno | |||
| We summarise the results of the first studies to investigate the Cyberlink
brain body interface as an assistive technology. Three phases of studies and a
contextual inquiry were performed with a range of users. A focus group was
formed from brain-injured users with locked-in syndrome who have no other
method of communication or control of a computer than the Cyberlink. Versions
of a Yes/No program were then created to allow communication and have achieved
some success with the focus group. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how
this program has been improved and what steps need to be taken to create
communication programs for persons with severe motor impairment. As a result of
our experiences, we have been able to develop a set of design guidelines for
brain-body interface operated Yes/No programs. These are presented and
justified on the basis of our experiences. We also raise some general issues
for assistive technologies of this nature. Keywords: assistive technology, cyberlink, locked in syndrome, mental interface,
Cyberlink | |||
| Responding to Subtle, Fleeting Changes in the User's Internal State | | BIBAK | PDF | 77-84 | |
| Wataru Tsukahara; Nigel Ward | |||
| In human-to-human interaction, people sometimes are able to pick up and
respond sensitively to the other's internal state as it shifts moment by moment
over the course of an exchange. To find out whether such an ability is
worthwhile for computer human interfaces, we built a semi-automated
tutoring-type spoken dialog system. The system inferred information about the
user's \scare{ephemeral emotions}, such as confidence, confusion, pleasure, and
dependency, from the prosody of his utterances and the context. It used this
information to select the most appropriate acknowledgement form at each moment.
In doing so the system was following some of the basic social conventions for
real-time interaction. Users rated the system with this ability more highly
than a version without. Keywords: Japanese, acknowledgements, ephemeral emotions, feedback, non-verbal,
prosody, real-time, responsive, social interaction, spoken dialog, tutoring | |||
| An "Independent Visual Background" Reduced Balance Disturbance Envoked by Visual Scene Motion: Implication for Alleviating Simulator Sickness | | BIBAK | PDF | 85-89 | |
| Henry Been-Lirn Duh; Donald E. Parker; Thomas A. Furness | |||
| Simulator sickness (SS) / virtual environment (VE) sickness is expected to
become increasingly troublesome as VE technology evolves [20]. Procedures to
alleviate SS / VE sickness have been of limited value [12]. This paper
investigated a possible procedure to reduce SS and VE sickness. Postural
disturbance was evoked by visual scene motion at different frequencies.
Differences in disturbance were examined as a function of simultaneous exposure
to an "independent visual background" (IVB). Eight subjects were tested at two
scene motion frequencies and three different IVB conditions using a
within-subjects design. An expected statistically significant interaction
between IVB condition and frequency was observed. For low frequency scene
movements, subjects exhibited less balance disturbance when the IVB was
presented. We suggest that an IVB may alleviate disturbance when conflicting
visual and inertial cues are likely to result in simulator or VE sickness. Keywords: Computing Milieux -Computers and Society - Public Policy Issues (K.4.1):
Computer-related health issues; Information Systems -Models and Principles -
User/Machine Systems (H.1.2); Computing Methodologies -Computer Graphics -
Three-Dimensional Graphics and Realism (I.3.7): Virtual reality; Information
Systems -Information Interfaces and Presentation - Multimedia Information
Systems (H.5.1): Artificial, augmented, and virtual realities; Design, Human
Factors, Measurement, Management, Performance, Theory; cybersickness,
self-motion perception, simulator sickness, virtual environments, virtual
reality | |||
| Layered Participatory Analysis: New Developments in the CARD Technique | | BIBAK | PDF | 90-97 | |
| Michael J. Muller | |||
| CARD (Collaborative Analysis of Requirements and Design) is an influential
technique for participatory design and participatory analysis that is in use on
three continents. This paper reviews three case studies that document the
development of a layered CARD approach, which distinguishes among the
following: (1) observable, formal components, (2) skill and craft, and (3)
interpretative description. The layered approach simplifies the CARD materials,
and moves the deliberately informal technique toward a more principled
analysis. Keywords: CARD, PANDA, participatory analysis, participatory design, work analysis | |||
| Building a Human Factors "Knowledge Shelf" as a Collaborative Information Tool for Designers | | BIBAK | PDF | 98-103 | |
| Brian H. Philips; Moin Rahman; Jari Jarvinen | |||
| Human factors professionals have long been challenged with finding an
effective way of communicating critical human factors design information to
product designers. The authors have created a tool called a "Knowledge Shelf"
for providing human factors information to designers in a very easy to use
manner. The Knowledge Shelf is an interactive virtual library of information on
human factors methodologies and data relevant to the specific product
development needs of designers. Available through the Motorola Intranet, the
Knowledge Shelf is designed to make human factors design information easily
accessible. Providing these types of information to designers positively
impacts the product development process, by facilitating more user-centered
design practices. Keywords: Information Systems -Information Interfaces and Presentation - Group and
Organization Interfaces (H.5.3); Information Systems -Information Interfaces
and Presentation - User Interfaces (H.5.2); Information Systems -Models and
Principles - User/Machine Systems (H.1.2); Computing Milieux -Management of
Computing and Information Systems - Project and People Management (K.6.1):
Systems analysis and design; Design, Human Factors, Management, Performance,
Theory; collaborative work, engineering, industrial design, information
sharing, knowledge shelf, product development | |||
| Global-Software Development Lifecycle: An Exploratory Study | | BIBAK | PDF | 104-111 | |
| Alvin W. Yeo | |||
| This study was conducted to explore the efficacy of the global-software
development lifecycle (global-SDLC), which comprises design, implementation and
usability evaluation phase. A spreadsheet was adapted using the global-SDLC
process to accommodate a number of cultures. The design and implementation
phases were efficacious. However, in the usability evaluation phase, the
usability evaluation techniques were only efficacious when participants, who
were experienced computer users and participants who were familiar with the
experimenter, were employed. Explanations, from cultural literature such as
Hofstede, are presented and implications of these findings on the usability
evaluation phase and the global-SDLC are also described. Keywords: Hoftede's cultural dimensions, global-software development,
internationalisation, localisation, usability evaluation | |||
| Ignoring Perfect Knowledge In-the-World for Imperfect Knowledge In-the-Head | | BIBAK | PDF | 112-119 | |
| Wayne D. Gray; Wai-Tat Fu | |||
| Memory can be internal or external - knowledge in-the-world or knowledge
in-the-head. Making needed information available in an interface may seem the
perfect alternative to relying on imperfect memory. However, the rational
analysis framework (Anderson, 1990) suggests that least-effort tradeoffs may
lead to imperfect performance even when perfect knowledge in-the-world is
readily available. The implications of rational analysis for interactive
behavior are investigated in two experiments. In experiment 1 we varied the
perceptual-motor effort of accessing knowledge in-the-world as well as the
cognitive effort of retrieving items from memory. In experiment 2 we replicated
one of the experiment 1 conditions to collect eye movement data. The results
suggest that milliseconds matter. Least-effort tradeoffs are adopted even when
the absolute difference in effort between a perceptual-motor versus a memory
strategy is small, and even when adopting a memory strategy results in a higher
error rate and lower performance. Keywords: cognitive least-effort, direct-manipulation interfaces, errors, eye
movements, eye tracking, interactive behavior, interface design, rational
analysis, satisficing | |||
| Predicting the Effects of In-Car Interfaces on Driver Behavior using a Cognitive Architecture | | BIBAK | PDF | 120-127 | |
| Dario D. Salvucci | |||
| When designing and evaluating in-car user interfaces for drivers, it is
essential to determine what effects these interfaces may have on driver
behavior and performance. This paper describes a novel approach to predicting
effects of in-car interfaces by modeling behavior in a cognitive architecture.
A cognitive architecture is a theoretical frame-work for building computational
models of cognition and performance. The proposed approach centers on
integrating a user model for the interface with an existing driver model that
accounts for basic aspects of driver behavior (e.g., steering and speed
control). By running the integrated model and having it interact with the
interface while driving, we can generate a priori predictions of the effects of
interface use on driver performance. The paper illustrates the approach by
comparing four representative dialing interfaces for an in-car, hands-free
cellular phone. It also presents an empirical study that validates several of
the qualitative and quantitative predictions of the model. Keywords: ACT-R, cellular phones, cognitive architectures, cognitive models, driving,
in-car interfaces | |||
| Towards Demystification of Direct Manipulation: Cognitive Modeling Charts the Gulf of Execution | | BIBAK | PDF | 128-135 | |
| David Kieras; David Meyer; James Ballas | |||
| Direct manipulation involves a large number of interacting psychological
mechanisms that make the performance of a given interface hard to predict on
intuitive or informal grounds. This paper applies cognitive modeling to explain
the subtle effects produced by using a keypad versus a touchscreen in a
performance-critical laboratory task. Keywords: cognitive modeling, direct manipulation | |||
| Visualization Components for Persistent Conversations | | BIBAK | PDF | 136-143 | |
| Marc A. Smith; Andrew T. Fiore | |||
| An appropriately designed interface to persistent, threaded conversations
could reinforce socially beneficial behavior by prominently featuring how
frequently and to what degree each user exhibits such behaviors. Based on the
data generated by the Netscan data-mining project [9], we have developed a set
of tools for illustrating the structure of discussion threads like those found
in Usenet newsgroups and the patterns of participation within the discussions.
We describe the benefits and challenges of integrating these tools into a
multi-faceted dashboard for navigating and reading discussions in social
cyberspaces like Usenet and related interaction media. Visualizations of the
structure of online discussions have applications for research into the
sociology of online groups as well as possible interface designs for their
members. Keywords: Usenet, asynchronous threaded discussions, newsgroup, persistent
conversation, social cybersapces, social cyberspaces, visualization | |||
| Time Aura: Interfaces for Pacing | | BIBAK | PDF | 144-151 | |
| Lena Mamykina; Elizabeth Mynatt; Michael A. Terry | |||
| Historically one of the visions for human-computer symbiosis has been to
augment human intelligence and extend people's cognitive abilities. In this
paper, we present two visually-based systems to enhance a person's ability to
flexibly control their pace while engaged in a cognitively demanding activity.
In these investigations, we explore pacing interfaces that minimize the
cognitive demands for assessing a current pace, provide ambient cues that can
be quickly interpreted without incurring significant interruption from the
current task, and place knowledge in the world to flexibly support different
pacing strategies. Evaluation of our pacing interfaces shows that technology
can successfully support pacing. Keywords: pacing, ubiquitous computing, visual interfaces | |||
| Doom as an Interface for Process Management | | BIBAK | PDF | 152-157 | |
| Dennis Chao | |||
| This paper explores a novel interface to a system administration task.
Instead of creating an interface de novo for the task, the author modified a
popular computer game, Doom, to perform useful work. The game was chosen for
its appeal to the target audience of system administrators. The implementation
described is not a mature application, but it illustrates important points
about user interfaces and our relationship with computers. The applications
relies on a computer game vernacular rather than the simulations of physical
reality found in typical navigable virtual environments. Using a computer game
vocabulary may broaden an application's audience by providing sn intuitive
environment for children and non-technical users. In addition, the application
highlights the adversarial relationships that exist in a computer and suggests
a new resource allocation scheme. Keywords: 3D user interfaces, Doom, Post-Modernism, cyberspace, first-person shooter,
games, metaphors, operating systems, vernacular, video games, visualization | |||
| Shall we Mix Synthetic Speech and Human Speech?: Impact on Users' Performance, Perception, and Attitude | | BIBAK | PDF | 158-165 | |
| Li Gong; Jennifer Lai | |||
| Because it is impractical to record human voice for ever-changing dynamic
content such as email messages and news, many commercial speech applications
use human speech for fixed prompts and synthetic speech (TTS) for the dynamic
content. However, this mixing approach may not be optimal from a consistency
perspective. A 2-condition between-group experiment (N = 24) was conducted to
compare two versions of a virtual-assistant interface (mixing human voice and
TTS vs. TTS-only). Users interacted with the virtual assistant to manage some
email and calendar tasks. Their task performance, self-perception of task
performance, and attitudinal responses were measured. Users interacting with
the TTS-only interface performed the task significantly better, while users
interacting with the mixed-voices interface thought they did better and had
more positive attitudinal responses. Explanations and design implications are
suggested. Keywords: Mixing Human Speech and Synthetic Speech, Consistency, Speech Applications,
Telephone-based Solution, Virtual Assistant, Email and Calendar | |||
| Effects of Spatial Audio on Memory, Comprehension, and Preference during Desktop Conferences | | BIBAK | PDF | 166-173 | |
| Jessica J. Baldis | |||
| An experiment was conducted to determine the effect of spatial audio on
memory, focal assurance, perceived comprehension and listener preferences
during desktop conferences. Nineteen participants listened to six,
pre-recorded, desktop conferences. Each conference was presented using either
non-spatial audio, co-located spatial audio, or scaled spatial audio, and
during half of the conferences, static visual representations of the conferees
were present. In the co-located condition, each conferees voice originated from
directly above their image on the screen, and in the scaled spatial audio
condition, the spatial separation between conferee voices was increased beyond
the visual separation. Results showed that spatial audio improved all measures,
increasing memory, focal assurance, and perceived comprehension. In addition,
participants preferred spatial audio to non-spatial audio. No strong
differences were found in the visual conditions, or between the co-located
spatial condition and the scaled spatial conditions. Keywords: 3D, audio, communication, comprehension, focal assurance, memory,
perception, sound, spatial, user preference | |||
| Quiet Calls: Talking Silently on Mobile Phones | | BIBAK | PDF | 174-181 | |
| Les Nelson; Sara Bly; Tomas Sokoler | |||
| Quiet Calls is a technology allowing mobile telephone users to respond to
telephone conversations without talking aloud. QC-Hold, a Quiet Calls
prototype, combines three buttons for responding to calls with a PDA/mobile
phone unit to silently send pre-recorded audio directly into the phone. This
permits a mixed-mode communication where callers in public settings use a quiet
means of communication, and other callers experience a voice telephone call. An
evaluation of QC-Hold shows that it is easily used and suggests ways in which
Quiet Calls offers a new form of communication, extending the choices offered
by synchronous phone calling and asynchronous voicemail. Keywords: Computer Systems Organization -Computer System Implementation -
Microcomputers (C.5.3): Portable devices (e.g., laptops, personal digital
assistants); Information Systems -Information Systems Applications -
Communications Applications (H.4.3); Information Systems -Information
Interfaces and Presentation - User Interfaces (H.5.2); Information Systems
-Models and Principles - User/Machine Systems (H.1.2); Design, Human Factors,
Languages, Measurement, Management, Performance, Theory; computer mediated
communication, hand-held devices, interaction design, mobile computing,
telecommunication | |||
| The Audio Notebook: Paper and Pen Interaction with Structured Speech | | BIBAK | PDF | 182-189 | |
| Lisa Stifelman; Barry Arons; Chris Schmandt | |||
| This paper addresses the problem that a listener experiences when attempting
to capture information presented during a lecture, meeting, or interview.
Listeners must divide their attention between the talker and their notetaking
activity. We propose a new device-the Audio Notebook-for taking notes and
interacting with a speech recording. The Audio Notebook is a combination of a
digital audio recorder and paper notebook, all in one device. Audio recordings
are structured using two techniques: user structuring based on notetaking
activity, and acoustic structuring based on a talker's changes in pitch,
pausing, and energy. A field study showed that the interaction techniques
enabled a range of usage styles, from detailed review to high speed skimming.
The study motivated the addition of phrase detection and topic suggestions to
improve access to the audio recordings. Through these audio interaction
techniques, the Audio Notebook defines a new approach for navigation in the
audio domain. Keywords: acoustic structuring, audio, paper, pen interaction, speech, speech as data,
speech interfaces, user structuring | |||
| Does Organisation by Similarity Assist Image Browsing? | | BIBAK | PDF | 190-197 | |
| Kerry Rodden; Wojciech Basalaj; David Sinclair; Kenneth Wood | |||
| In current systems for browsing image collections, users are presented with
sets of thumbnail images arranged in some default order on the screen. We are
investigating whether it benefits users to have sets of thumbnails arranged
according to their mutual similarity, so images that are alike are placed
together. There are, of course, many possible definitions of similarity: so far
we have explored measurements based on low-level visual features, and on the
textual captions assigned to the images. Here we describe two experiments, both
involving designers as the participants, examining whether similarity-based
arrangements of the candidate images are helpful for a picture selection task.
Firstly, the two types of similarity-based arrangement were informally
compared. Then, an arrangement based on visual similarity was more formally
compared with a control of a random arrangement. We believe this work should be
of interest to anyone designing a system that involves presenting sets of
images to users. Keywords: evaluation, image retrieval, information visualisation | |||
| Using Thumbnails to Search the Web | | BIBAK | PDF | 198-205 | |
| Allison Woodruff; Andrew Faulring; Ruth Rosenholtz; Julie Morrison; Peter Pirolli | |||
| We introduce a technique for creating novel, textually-enhanced thumbnails
of Web pages. These thumbnails combine the advantages of image thumbnails and
text summaries to provide consistent performance on a variety of tasks. We
conducted a study in which participants used three different types of summaries
(enhanced thumbnails, plain thumbnails, and text summaries) to search Web pages
to find several different types of information. Participants took an average of
67, 86, and 95 seconds to find the answer with enhanced thumbnails, plain
thumbnails, and text summaries, respectively. We found a strong effect of
question category. For some questions, text outperformed plain thumbnails,
while for other questions, plain thumbnails outperformed text. Enhanced
thumbnails (which combine the features of text summaries and plain thumbnails)
were more consistent than either text summaries or plain thumbnails, having for
all categories the best performance or performance that was statistically
indistinguishable from the best. Keywords: Web search task, thumbnails | |||
| On the Road and on the Web?: Comprehension of Synthetic and Human Speech While Driving | | BIBAK | PDF | 206-212 | |
| Jennifer Lai; Karen Cheng; Paul Green; Omer Tsimhoni | |||
| In this study 24 participants drove a simulator while listening to three
types of messages in both synthesized speech and recorded human speech. The
messages consisted of short navigation messages, medium length (approximately
100 words) email messages, and longer news stories (approximately 200 words).
After each message the participant was presented with a series of multiple
choice questions to measure comprehension of the message. Driving performance
was recorded. Findings show that for the low driving workload conditions in the
study, (cruise control, predictable two-lane road with no intersections,
invariant lead car) driving performance was not affected by listening to
messages. This was true for both the synthesized speech and natural speech.
Comprehension of messages in synthetic speech was significantly lower than for
recorded human speech for all message types. Keywords: comprehension, driving performance, driving simulator, speech synthesis,
text-to-speech | |||
| Accordion Summarization for End-Game Browsing on PDAs and Cellular Phones | | BIBAK | PDF | 213-220 | |
| Orkut Buyukkokten; Hector Garcia-Molina; Andreas Paepcke | |||
| We demonstrate a new browsing technique for devices with small displays such
as PDAs or cellular phones. We concentrate on end-game browsing, where the user
is close to or on the target page. We make browsing more efficient and easier
by Accordion Summarization. In this technique the Web page is first represented
as a short summary. The user can then drill down to discover relevant parts of
the page. If desired, keywords can be highlighted and exposed automatically. We
discuss our techniques, architecture, interface facilities, and the result of
user evaluations. We measured a 57% improvement in browsing speed and 75%
reduction in input effort. Keywords: HTML, PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), WAP, WML, WWW (World-Wide Web) | |||
| ConNexus to Awarenex: Extending Awareness to Mobile Users | | BIBAK | PDF | 221-228 | |
| John C. Tang; Nicole Yankelovich; James Begole; Max Van Kleek; Francis Li; Janak Bhalodia | |||
| We explored the use of awareness information to facilitate communication by
developing a series of prototypes. The ConNexus prototype integrates awareness
information, instant messaging, and other communication channels in an
interface that runs on a desktop computer. The Awarenex prototype extends that
functionality to wireless handheld devices, such as a Palm. A speech interface
also enables callers to make use of the awareness information over the
telephone. While the prototypes offer similar functionality, the interfaces
reflect the different design affordances and use context of each platform. We
discuss the design implications of providing awareness information on devices
with varying interface and network characteristics. Keywords: CSCW, awareness, computer-mediated communication, instant messaging, mobile
devices, wireless handhelds | |||
| Beyond Command Knowledge: Identifying and Teaching Strategic Knowledge for Using Complex Computer Applications | | BIBAK | PDF | 229-236 | |
| Suresh K. Bhavnani; Frederick Reif; Bonnie E. John | |||
| Despite experience, many users do not make efficient use of complex computer
applications. We argue that this is caused by a lack of strategic knowledge
that is difficult to acquire just by knowing how to use commands. To address
this problem, we present efficient and general strategies for using computer
applications, and identify the components of strategic knowledge required to
use them. We propose a framework for teaching strategic knowledge, and show how
we implemented it in a course for freshman students. In a controlled study, we
compared our approach to the traditional approach of just teaching commands.
The results show that efficient and general strategies can in fact be taught to
students of diverse backgrounds in a limited time without harming command
knowledge. The experiment also pinpointed those strategies that can be
automatically learned just from learning commands, and those that require more
practice than we provided. These results are important to universities and
companies that wish to foster more efficient use of complex computer
applications. Keywords: GOMS, instruction, strategies, training | |||
| Teachers as Simulation Programmers: Minimalist Learning and Reuse | | BIBAK | PDF | 237-244 | |
| Mary Beth Rosson; Cheryl D. Seals | |||
| Five public school teachers were observed during two self-study sessions
where they learned to use Visual AgenTalk (VAT). The first session emphasized
the basic visual programming skills, while the second introduced ways to reuse
existing simulations. Two versions of the reuse tutorial were developed, one
offering a concrete example world for reuse, and the second an abstract world.
During their learning and reuse sessions, the teachers thought out loud as they
worked, enabling a detailed analysis of their goals, reactions, problems, and
successes. After each session, the teachers also completed user reaction
questionnaires. Although all teachers succeeded in learning the basics of VAT,
they varied considerably in their reuse of the example simulations. It appears
that the simplified components of the abstract world supported reuse to a
greater degree than those of the concrete example world. Keywords: simulations, teacher education, visual programming | |||
| Locus of Feedback Control in Computer-Based Tutoring: Impact on Learning Rate, Achievement and Attitudes | | BIBAK | PDF | 245-252 | |
| Albert T. Corbett; John R. Anderson | |||
| Five public school teachers were observed during two self-study sessions
where they learned to use Visual AgenTalk (VAT). The first session emphasized
the basic visual programming skills, while the second introduced ways to reuse
existing simulations. Two versions of the reuse tutorial were developed, one
offering a concrete example world for reuse, and the second an abstract world.
During their learning and reuse sessions, the teachers thought out loud as they
worked, enabling a detailed analysis of their goals, reactions, problems, and
successes. After each session, the teachers also completed user reaction
questionnaires. Although all teachers succeeded in learning the basics of VAT,
they varied considerably in their reuse of the example simulations. It appears
that the simplified components of the abstract world supported reuse to a
greater degree than those of the concrete example world. Keywords: feedback in problem solving, instructional interface design, intelligent
tutoring systems, student modeling | |||
| Sensetable: A Wireless Object Tracking Platform for Tangible User Interfaces | | BIBAK | PDF | 253-260 | |
| James Patten; Hiroshi Ishii; Jim Hines; Gian Pangaro | |||
| In this paper we present a system that electromagnetically tracks the
positions and orientations of multiple wireless objects on a tabletop display
surface. The system offers two types of improvements over existing tracking
approaches such as computer vision. First, the system tracks objects quickly
and accurately without susceptibility to occlusion or changes in lighting
conditions. Second, the tracked objects have state that can be modified by
attaching physical dials and modifiers. The system can detect these changes in
real-time.
We present several new interaction techniques developed in the context of this system. Finally, we present two applications of the system: chemistry and system dynamics simulation. Keywords: augmented reality, interactive surface, object tracking, system dynamics,
tangible user interface, tangible user interface, two-handed manipulation | |||
| Surface Drawing: Creating Organic 3D Shapes with the Hand and Tangible Tools | | BIBAK | PDF | 261-268 | |
| Steven Schkolne; Michael Pruett; Peter Schroder | |||
| Surface Drawing is a system for creating organic 3D shapes in a manner which
supports the needs and interests of artists. This medium facilitates the early
stages of creative design which many 3D modeling programs neglect. Much like
traditional media such as line drawing and painting, Surface Drawing lets users
construct shapes through repeated marking. In our case, the hand is used to
mark 3D space in a semi-immersive virtual environment. The interface is
completed with tangible tools to edit and manipulate models. We introduce the
use of tongs to move and scale 3D shapes and demonstrate a magnet tool which is
comfortably held without restricting hand motion. We evaluated our system
through collaboration with artists and designers, exhibition before hundreds of
users, our own extensive exploration of the medium, and an informal user study.
Response was especially positive from users with an artistic background. Keywords: 3D modeling, artistic shape creation, design prototyping, fine art,
hand-based interface, repeated marking, semi-immersive environment, tangible
user interface | |||
| DataTiles: A Modular Platform for Mixed Physical and Graphical Interactions | | BIBAK | PDF | 269-276 | |
| Jun Rekimoto; Brygg Ullmer; Haruo Oba | |||
| The DataTiles system integrates the benefits of two major interaction
paradigms: graphical and physical user interfaces. Tagged transparent tiles are
used as modular construction units. These tiles are augmented by dynamic
graphical information when they are placed on a sensor-enhanced flat panel
display. They can be used independently or can be combined into more complex
configurations, similar to the way language can express complex concepts
through a sequence of simple words. In this paper, we discuss our design
principles for mixing physical and graphical interface techniques, and describe
the system architecture and example applications of the DataTiles system. Keywords: graphical user interfaces, interaction techniques, radio-frequency
identification tags, tangible user interfaces, visual language | |||
| Optimizing Search by Showing Results in Context | | BIBAK | PDF | 277-284 | |
| Susan Dumais; Edward Cutrell; Hao Chen | |||
| We developed and evaluated seven interfaces for integrating semantic
category information with Web search results. List interfaces were based on the
familiar ranked-listing of search results, sometimes augmented with a category
name for each result. Category interfaces also showed page titles and/or
category names, but re-organized the search results so that items in the same
category were grouped together visually. Our user studies show that all
Category interfaces were more effective than List interfaces even when lists
were augmented with category names for each result. The best category
performance was obtained when both category names and individual page titles
were presented. Either alone is better than a list presentation, but both
together provide the most effective means for allowing users to quickly
examining search results. These results provide a better understanding of the
perceptual and cognitive factors underlying the advantage of category groupings
and provide some practical guidance to Web search interface designers. Keywords: World Wide Web, focus-in-context, search, text categorization, usability,
user interface, user study | |||
| Robust Annotation Positioning in Digital Documents | | BIBAK | PDF | 285-292 | |
| A. J. Bernheim Brush; David Bargeron; Anoop Gupta; J. J. Cadiz | |||
| Increasingly, documents exist primarily in digital form. System designers
have recently focused on making it easier to read digital documents, with
annotation as an important new feature. But supporting annotation well is
difficult because digital documents are frequently modified, making it
challenging to correctly reposition annotations in modified versions. Few
systems have addressed this issue, and even fewer have approached the problem
from the users' point of view. This paper reports the results of two studies
examining user expectations for robust annotation positioning in modified
documents. We explore how users react to lost annotations, the relationship
between types of document modifications and user expectations, and whether
users pay attention to text surrounding their annotations. Our results could
contribute substantially to effective digital document annotation systems. Keywords: annotation, annotation system design, digital, documents, robust | |||
| Reading of Electronic Documents: The Usability of Linear, Fisheye, and Overview+Detail Interfaces | | BIBAK | PDF | 293-300 | |
| Kasper Hornbaek; Erik Frokjaer | |||
| Reading of electronic documents is becoming increasingly important as more
information is disseminated electronically. We present an experiment that
compares the usability of a linear, a fisheye, and an overview+detail interface
for electronic documents. Using these interfaces, 20 subjects wrote essays and
answered questions about scientific documents. Essays written using the
overview+detail interface received higher grades, while subjects using the
fisheye interface read documents faster. However, subjects used more time to
answer questions with the overview+detail interface. All but one subject
preferred the overview+detail interface. The most common interface in practical
use, the linear interface, is found to be inferior to the fisheye and
overview+detail interfaces regarding most aspects of usability. We recommend
using overview+detail interfaces for electronic documents, while fisheye
interfaces mainly should be considered for time-critical tasks. Keywords: electronic documents, information retrieval, information visualization,
reading activity, usability, user study | |||
| Eye Gaze Patterns in Conversations: There is More the Conversational Agents than Meets the Eyes | | BIBAK | PDF | 301-308 | |
| Roel Vertegaal; Robert Slagter; Gerrit van der Veer; Anton Nijholt | |||
| In multi-agent, multi-user environments, users as well as agents should have
a means of establishing who is talking to whom. In this paper, we present an
experiment aimed at evaluating whether gaze directional cues of users could be
used for this purpose. Using an eye tracker, we measured subject gaze at the
faces of conversational partners during four-person conversations. Results
indicate that when someone is listening or speaking to individuals, there is
indeed a high probability that the person looked at is the person listened
(p=88%) or spoken to (p=77%). We conclude that gaze is an excellent predictor
of conversational attention in multiparty conversations. As such, it may form a
reliable source of input for conversational systems that need to establish whom
the user is speaking or listening to. We implemented our findings in FRED, a
multi-agent conversational system that uses eye input to gauge which agent the
user is listening or speaking to. Keywords: attention-based interfaces, attentive agents, conversational attention,
gaze, multiparty communication, tracking | |||
| The Impact of Eye Gaze on Communication using Humanoid Avatars | | BIBAK | PDF | 309-316 | |
| Maia Garau; Mel Slater; Simon Bee; Martina Angela Sasse | |||
| In this paper we describe an experiment designed to investigate the
importance of eye gaze in humanoid avatars representing people engaged in
conversation. We compare responses to dyadic conversations in four mediated
conditions: video, audio-only, and two avatar conditions. The avatar conditions
differed only in their treatment of eye gaze. In the random-gaze condition the
avatars head and eye animations were unrelated to conversational flow. In the
informed-gaze condition, they were related to turn-taking during the
conversation. The head animations were tracked and the eye animations were
inferred from the audio stream. Our comparative analysis of 100 post-experiment
questionnaires showed that the random-gaze avatar did not improve on audio-only
communication. The informed-gaze avatar significantly outperformed the
random-gaze model and also outperformed audio-only on several response
measures. We conclude that an avatar whose gaze behaviour is related to the
conversation provides a marked improvement on an avatar that merely exhibits
liveliness. Keywords: avatars, gaze, collaborative virtual environments (CVEs), computer-mediated
communication (CMC), mediated communication, nonverbal behaviours | |||
| The Dynamics of Mass Online Marketplaces: A Case Study of an Online Auction | | BIBAK | PDF | 317-324 | |
| Jungpil Hahn | |||
| The Internet has dramatically changed how people sell and buy goods. In
recent years we have seen the emergence of electronic marketplaces that
leverage information technology to create more efficient markets such as online
auctions to bring together buyers and sellers with greater effectiveness at a
massive scale. Despite the growing interest and importance of such
marketplaces, our understanding of how the design of the marketplace affects
buyer and seller behavior at the individual level and the market effectiveness
at the aggregate level is still quite limited. This paper presents a detailed
case study of a currently operational massive scale online auction marketplace.
The main focus is to gain initial insights into the effects of the design of
the marketplace. The results of the study point to several important
considerations and implications not only for the design of online marketplaces
but also for the design of large-scale websites where effective locating of
information is key to user success. Keywords: electronic marketplaces, information overload, item display, market
navigation, market technostructure, massive scale online auctions, online
market design | |||
| Casablanca: Designing Social Communication Devices for the Home | | BIBAK | PDF | 325-332 | |
| Debby Hindus; Scott D. Mainwaring; Nicole Leduc; Anna Elisabeth Hagstrom; Oliver Bayley | |||
| The Casablanca project explored how media space concepts could be
incorporated into households and family life. This effort included prototypes
built for the researchers' own home use, field studies of households, and
consumer testing of design concepts. A number of previously unreported consumer
preferences and concerns were uncovered and incorporated into several original
prototypes, most notably ScanBoard and the Intentional Presence Lamp.
Casablanca also resulted in conclusions about designing household social
communication devices. Keywords: Computer-mediated communication, CMC, domestic technologies, residential
technologies, media spaces, audio spaces, shared whiteboards, awareness,
ambient displays, internet appliances, design guidelines, aesthetics,
consumers, homes, computer-human interaction. | |||
| Digital Family Portraits: Supporting Peace of Mind for Extended Family Members | | BIBAK | PDF | 333-340 | |
| Elizabeth D. Mynatt; Jim Rowan; Sarah Craighill; Annie Jacobs | |||
| A growing social problem in the U.S., and elsewhere, is supporting older
adults who want to continue living independently, as opposed to moving to an
institutional care setting. One key part of this complex problem is providing
awareness of senior adults day-to-day activities, promoting peace of mind for
extended family members. In this paper, we introduce the concept of a digital
family portrait that provides qualitative visualizations of a family members
daily life. Leveraging a familiar household object, the picture frame, our
design populates the frame with iconic imagery summarizing 28 days. In a final
implementation, the digital family portrait would gather information from
sensors in the home. Keywords: aging, awareness, home, light-weight interaction, ubiquitous computing,
visualization | |||
| Social Navigation of Food Recipes | | BIBAK | PDF | 341-348 | |
| Martin Svensson; Kristina Höök; Jarmo Laaksolahti; Annika Wærn | |||
| The term Social Navigation captures every-day behaviour used to find
information, people, and places - namely through watching, following, and
talking to people. We discuss how to design information spaces to allow for
social navigation. We applied our ideas in a recipe recommendation system. In a
follow-up user study, subjects state that social navigation adds value to the
service: it provides for social affordance, and it helps turning a space into a
social place. The study also reveals some unresolved design issues, such as the
snowball effect where more and more users follow each other down the wrong
path, and privacy issues. Keywords: awareness, online shopping, privacy, recommender system, social navigation | |||
| Chinese Input with Keyboard and Eye-Tracking: An Anatomical Study | | BIBAK | PDF | 349-356 | |
| Jingtao Wang; Shumin Zhai; Hui Su | |||
| Chinese input presents unique challenges to the field of human computer
interaction. This study provides an anatomical analysis of today's standard
Chinese input process, which is based on pinyin, a phonetic spelling system in
Roman characters. Through a combination of human performance modeling and
experimentation, our study decomposed the Chinese input process into sub-tasks
and found that choice reaction time and numeric keying, two component resulted
from the large number of homophones in Chinese, were the major usability
bottlenecks. Choice reaction alone took 36% of the total input time in our
experiment. Numeric keying for multiple candidates selection tends to take the
user's attention away from the computer visual screen. We designed and
implemented the EASE (Eye Assisted Selection and Entry) system to help
maintaining complete touch-typing experience without diverting visual
(spacebar) and implicit eye-tracking to replace the numeric keystrokes. Our
experiment showed that such a system could indeed work, even with today's
imperfec teye-tracking technology. Keywords: Chinese text input, chinese text input, eye-tracking, gaze, gaze-tracking,
gaze-tracking, multi-modal interface, performance modeling, pinyin input | |||
| Model for Unistroke Writing Time | | BIBAK | PDF | 357-364 | |
| Poika Isokoski | |||
| Unistrokes are a viable form of text input in pen-based user interfaces.
However, they are a very heterogeneous group of gestures the only common
feature being that all are drawn with a single stroke. Several unistroke
alphabets have been proposed including the original Unistrokes, Gaffiti,
Allegro, T-Cube and MDITIM. Comparing these methods usually requires a lengthy
study with many writers and even then the results are biased by the earlier
handwriting experience that the writers have. Therefore, a simple descriptive
model for predicting the writing time for an expert user on any given unistroke
alphabet thus enabling sounder argumentation on the properties of different
writing methods. Keywords: handwriting, modeling of motor performance, pen input | |||
| Text Input for Mobile Devices: Comparing Model Prediction to Actual Performance | | BIBAK | PDF | 365-371 | |
| Christina L. James; Kelly M. Reishcel | |||
| A study was conducted to obtain performance data for entering text on a
mobile phone in order to compare it to performance predictions based on two
different mathematical models. Speed data was obtained for two text input
methods, T9 Text Input and Multi-tap. While the direction of the results was
the same for both the performance data and both model predictions (with
predictive text entry being faster than Multi-tap text entry), the results for
all three differed in magnitude. Suggestions for this discrepancy are provided.
In addition, in order to help shape future models, additional results are
presented for both input methods to show how both accuracy and speed
performance varies based on user experience and text subject matter. Keywords: keypad input, mobile phones, mobile systems, performance modeling, text
entry | |||
| Better Home Shopping or New Democracy?: Evaluating Community Network Outcomes | | BIBAK | PDF | 372-379 | |
| John M. Carroll; Mary Beth Rosson | |||
| This is a perspective paper on community networks - socio-technical
infrastructure supporting villages, towns, and neighborhoods. Community
networking is well-established, world wide, and addresses critical societal
issues, such as the "crisis of community" and the sociality of the Internet.
However, community network projects have not emphasized evaluation. Relatively
little is known about the economic, social, and psychological consequences of
community networks for the individuals, groups, and communities served.
Evaluating community networks is a momentous mutual opportunity for the
development of CHI evaluation methodologies and for bringing technical CHI
expertise to bear on societal issues. Keywords: community networks, evaluation, social impact | |||
| Identity Construction Environments: Supporting a Virtual Therapeutic Community of Pediatric Patients Undergoing Dialysis | | BIBAK | PDF | 380-387 | |
| Marina U. Bers; Joseph Gonzalez-Heydrich; David Ray DeMaso | |||
| We describe a five-month pilot project conducted in the dialysis unit at
Boston's Children's Hospital. Pediatric patients with renal disease used the
Zora graphical multi-user environment while facing hemodialysis. Zora is an
identity construction environment specifically designed to help young people
explore issue of identity, while engaging in a participatory virtual community.
This paper presents the experience and evaluates the feasibility and safety of
using Zora in a hospital setting. It describes how Zora facilitated
explorations of identity and mutual patient support and interaction. Finally it
also presents design recommendations for future interventions of this kind.
More generally, this paper explores the potential of technology specifically
designed with therapeutic purposes to help patients cope with their illness. Keywords: dialysis, identity, multi-user virtual environment, pediatric patients,
storytelling, therapy, virtual communities | |||
| Geney: Designing a Collaborative Activity for the Palm Handheld Computer | | BIBAK | PDF | 388-395 | |
| Arman Danesh; Kori Inkpen; Felix Lau; Keith Shu; Kellogg Booth | |||
| This paper describes a project to explore issues surrounding the development
of a collaborative handheld educational application for children. A
user-centered, iterative design process was used to develop Geney, a
collaborative problem solving application to help children explore genetic
concepts using Palm handheld computers. The design methodology utilized
mock-ups of representative tasks and scenarios, pre-design meetings with
targets users, prototype development, and feedback sessions with target users.
The results of this work identify an effective way of utilizing handheld
computers for collaborative learning and provide important insights into the
design of handheld applications for children. This work also illustrates the
necessity of user-centered design when new user groups are targeted, especially
when novel user interface paradigms are employed that go beyond current
windows-based interfaces. Keywords: CSCL, CSCW, PDAs, children | |||
| Relational Agents: A Model and Implementation of Building User Trust | | BIBAK | PDF | 396-403 | |
| Timothy Bickmore; Justine Cassell | |||
| Building trust with users is crucial in a wide range of applications, such
as financial transactions, and some minimal degree of trust is required in all
applications to even initiate and maintain an interaction with a user. Humans
use a variety of relational conversational strategies, including small talk, to
establish trusting relationships with each other. We argue that such strategies
can also be used by interface agents, and that embodied conversational agents
are ideally suited for this task given the myriad cues available to them for
signaling trustworthiness. We describe a model of social dialogue, an
implementation in an embodied conversation agent, and an experiment in which
social dialogue was demonstrated to have an effect on trust, for users with a
disposition to be extroverts. Keywords: embodied conversational agent, natural language, personality, small talk,
social interface, trust | |||
| An Empirical Study of Human Web Assistants: Implications for User Support in Web Information Systems | | BIBAK | PDF | 404-411 | |
| Johan Aberg; Nahid Shahmehri | |||
| User support is an important element in reaching the goal of universal
usability for Web information systems. Recent developments indicate that human
involvement in user support is a step towards this goal. However, most such
efforts are currently being pursued on a purely intuitive basis. This,
empirical findings about the role of human assistants are important. In this
paper we present the findings from a field study of a general user support
model for Web information systems. We show that integrating human assistance
into Web systems is a way to provide efficient user support. Further, this
integration makes a Web site more fun to use and increases the user's trust in
the site. The support also improves the site atmosphere. Our findings are
summarised as recommendations and design guidelines for decision-makers and
developers Web systems. Keywords: Web information systems, attitude, design guidelines, efficiency, field
study, universal usability, user support | |||
| Social Presence in Web Surveys | | BIBAK | PDF | 412-417 | |
| Mick P. Couper; Roger Tourangeau; Darby M. Steiger | |||
| Social interface theory has widespread influence in the field of
human-computer interaction. The basic thesis is that humanizing cues in a
computer interface can engender responses from users similar to human-human
interaction. In contrast, the survey interviewing literature suggests that
computer administration of surveys on highly sensitive topics reduces or
eliminates social desirability effect, even when such humanizing features as
voice are used.
In attempting to reconcile these apparently contradictory findings, we varied features of the interface in a Web survey Keywords: Web surveys, social desirability, social interfaces | |||
| Exploring 3D Navigation: Combining Speed-COupled Flying with Orbiting | | BIBAK | PDF | 418-425 | |
| Desney S. Tan; George G. Robertson; Mary Czerwinski | |||
| We present a task-based taxonomy of navigation techniques for 3D virtual
environments, used to categorize existing techniques, drive exploration of the
design space, and inspire new techniques. We briefly discuss several new
techniques, and describe in detail one new techniques, Speed-coupled Flying
with Orbiting. This technique couples control of movement speed to camera
height and tilt, allowing users to seamlessly transition between local
environment-views and global overviews. Users can also orbit specific objects
for inspection. Results from two competitive user studies suggest users
performed better with Speed-coupled Flying with Orbiting over alternatives,
with performance also enhanced by a large display. Keywords: 3D virtual environments, egocentric navigation, interaction techniques, user
studies | |||
| Reaching Movements to Augmented and Graphic Objects in Virtual Environments | | BIBAK | PDF | 426-433 | |
| Andrea H. Mason; Masuma A. Walji; Elaine J. Lee; Christine L. MacKenzie | |||
| This work explores how the availability of visual and haptic feedback
affects and kinematics of reaching performance in a tabletop virtual
environment. Eight subjects performed reach-to-grasp movements toward target
objects of various sites in conditions where visual and haptic feedback were
either present or absent. It was found that movement time was slower when
visual feedback of the moving limb was not available. Further MT varied
systematically with target size when haptic feedback was available (i.e.
augmented targets), and thus followed Fitts' law. However, movement times were
constant regardless of target size when haptic feedback was removed. In depth
analysis of the reaching kinematics revealed that subjects spent longer
decelerating toward smaller targets in conditions where haptic feedback was
available. In contrast, deceleration time was constant when haptic feedback was
absent. These results suggest that visual feedback about the moving limb and
veridical haptic feedback about object contract are extremely important for
humans to effectively work in virtual environments. Keywords: Fitts' law, augmented reality, empirical data, haptic feedback, human
performance, interaction, interaction, kinematic data, object manipulation,
sensory information, sensory manipulation, visual feedback | |||
| 3D or Not 3D?: Evaluating the Effect of the Third Dimension in a Document Management System | | BIBAK | PDF | 434-441 | |
| Andy Cockburn; Bruce McKenzie | |||
| Several recent research systems have provided interactive three-dimensional
(3D) visualisations for supporting everyday work such as file and document
management. But what improvements do these 3D interfaces offer over their
traditional 2D counterparts? This paper describes the comparative evaluation of
two document management systems that differ only in the number of dimensions
used for displaying and interacting with the data. The 3D system is heavily
based on Robertson et al.'s Data Mountain, which supports users in storing,
organising and retrieving 'thumbnail' representations of documents such as
bookmarked Web-pages. Results show that our subjects were faster at storing and
retrieving pages in the display when using the 2D interface, but not
significantly so. As expected, retrieval times significantly increased as the
number of thumbnails increased. Despite the lack of significant differences
between the 2D and 3D interfaces, subjective assessments showed a significant
preference for the 3D interface. Keywords: 3D user interfaces, document management, information visualisation, spatial
memory | |||
| Automating Camera Management for Lecture Room Environments | | BIBAK | PDF | 442-449 | |
| Qiong Liu; Yong Rui; Anoop Gupta; J. J. Cadiz | |||
| Given rapid improvements in network infrastructure and streaming-media
technologies, a large number of corporations and universities are recording
lectures and making them available online for anytime, anywhere access.
However, producing high-quality lecture videos is still labor intensive and
expensive. Fortunately, recent technology advances are making it feasible to
build automated camera management systems to capture lectures. In this paper we
report on our design, implementation and study of such a system. Compared to
previous work-which has tended to be technology centric-we started with
interviews with professional video producers and used their knowledge and
expertise the create video production rules. We then targeted technology
components that allowed us to implement a substantial portion of these rules,
including the design of a virtual video director. The system's performance was
compared to that of a human operator via a user study. Results suggest that our
system's quality in close to that of a human-controlled system. In fat most
remote audience members could not tell if the video was produced by a computer
or a person. Keywords: automated camera management, sound source localization, speaker tracking,
video production rules, virtual video director | |||
| Viewing Meeting Captured by an Omni-Directional Camera | | BIBAK | PDF | 450-457 | |
| Yong Rui; Anoop Gupta; J. J. Cadiz | |||
| One vision of future technology is the ability to easily and inexpensively
capture any group meeting that occurs, store it, and make it available for
people to view anytime and anywhere on the network. One barrier to achieving
this vision has been the design of low-cost camera systems that can capture
important aspects of the meeting without needing a human camera operator. A
promising solution that has emerged recently is omni-directional cameras that
can capture a 360-degree video of the entire meeting.
The panoramic capability provided by these cameras raises both new opportunities and new issues for the interfaces provided for post-meeting viewers -- for example, do we show all meeting participants all the time or do we just show the person who is speaking, how much control do we provide to the end-user in selecting the view, and will providing this control distract them from their task. These are not just user interface issues, they also raise tradeoffs for the client-server systems used to deliver such content. They impact how much data needs to be stored on the disk, what computation can be done on the server vs. the client, and how much bandwidth is needed. We report on a prototype system built using an omni-directional camera and results from user studies of interface preferences expressed by viewers. Keywords: omni-directional camera systems, on-demand meeting watching | |||
| Partitioning Digital Worlds: Focal and Peripheral Awareness in Multiple Monitor Use | | BIBAK | PDF | 458-465 | |
| Jonathan Grudin | |||
| Software today does not help us partition our digital worlds effectively. We
must organize them ourselves. This field study of users of multiple monitors
examines how people with a lot of display space arrange information. Second
monitors are generally used for secondary activities related to principal
tasks, for peripheral awareness of information that is not the main focus, and
for easy access to resources. A second monitor improves efficiency in ways that
are difficult to measure yet can have substantial subjective benefit. The study
concludes with illustrations of shortcomings of today's systems and
applications: the way we work could be improved at relatively low cost. Keywords: awareness, displays, multiple monitors | |||
| Folk Computing: Revisiting Oral Tradition as a Scaffold for Co-Present Communities | | BIBAK | PDF | 466-473 | |
| Rick Borovoy; Brian Silverman; Tim Gorton; Matt Notowidigdo; Brian Knep; Mitchel Resnick; Jeff Klann | |||
| In this paper, we introduce Folk Computing: an approach for using technology
to support co-present community building inspired by the concept of folklore.
We also introduce a new technology, called "i-balls," whose design helped
fashion this approach. The design of the i-ball environment is explained in
terms of our effort to simultaneously preserve what works about folklore while
also using technology to expand its power as a medium for community building. Keywords: PDA, community, education, face-to-face, folklore, groupware, handheld,
mobile computing, social computing, ubiquitous computing | |||
| Designing Palaver Tree Online: Supporting Social Roles in a Community of Oral History | | BIBAK | PDF | 474-481 | |
| Jason B. Ellis; Amy S. Bruckman | |||
| As a more diverse population of users moves online, understanding how to
help those groups work together and leverage their diverse skills poses a
significant challenge for human-computer interaction. This paper presents a
case study of the design of an online community that supports kids interviewing
elders to build up a shared database of oral history. Two pilot studies with
existing technology are presented, and a software design based on those studies
is described, along with future work. This work shows the value of prototyping
with existing technology in order to uncover user needs in an onine
environment. Keywords: CSCL, children, online community, user-centered design | |||
| Classroom Collaboration in the Design of Tangible Interfaces for Storytelling | | BIBAK | PDF | 482-489 | |
| Danae Stanton; Victor Bayon; Helen Neale; Ahmed Ghali; Steve Benford; Sue Cobb; Rob Ingram; John Wilson; Tony Pridmore; Claire O'Malley | |||
| We describe the design of tangible interfaces to the KidPad collaborative
drawing tool. Our aims are to support the re-enactment of stories to audiences,
and integration within real classroom environments. A six-month iterative
design process, working with children and teachers in school, has produced the
"magic carpet", an interface that uses pressure mats and video-tracked and
barcoded physical props to navigate a story in KidPad. Reflecting on this
process, we propose four guidelines for the design of tangible interfaces for
the classroom. (1) Use physical size and physical props to encourage
collaboration. (2) Be aware of how different interfaces emphasize different
actions. (3) Be aware that superficial changes to the design can produce very
different physical interactions. (4) Focus on open low-tech technologies rather
than (over) polished products. Keywords: children, participatory design, storytelling, tangibles | |||
| Using Information Scent to Model User Information Needs and Actions and the Web | | BIBAK | PDF | 490-497 | |
| Ed H. Chi; Peter Pirolli; Kim Chen; James Pitkow | |||
| On the Web, users typically forage for information by navigating from page
to page along Web links. Their surfing patterns or actions are guided by their
information needs. Researchers need tools to explore the complex interactions
between user needs, user actions, and the structures and contents of the Web.
In this paper, we describe two computational methods for understanding the
relationship between user needs and user actions. First, for a particular
pattern of surfing, we seek to infer the associated information need. Second,
given an information need, and some pages as starting pints, we attempt to
predict the expected surfing patterns. The algorithms use a concept called
"information scent", which is the subjective sense of value and cost of
accessing a page based on perceptual cues. We present an empirical evaluation
of these two algorithms, and show their effectiveness. Keywords: World Wide Web, data mining, information foraging, information retrieval,
information scent, usability | |||
| Information Scent as a Driver of Web Behavior Graphs: Results of a Protocol Analysis Method for Web Usability | | BIBAK | PDF | 498-505 | |
| Stuart K. Card; Peter Pirolli; Mija Van Der Wege; Julie B. Morrison; Robert W. Reeder; Pamela K. Schraedley; Jenea Boshart | |||
| The purpose of this paper is to introduce a replicable WWW protocol analysis
methodology illustrated by application to data collected in the laboratory. The
methodology uses instrumentation to obtain detailed recordings of user actions
with a browser, caches Web pages encountered, and videotapes talk-aloud
protocols. We apply the current form of the method to the analysis of eight Web
protocols, visualizing the structure of the interaction and showing the strong
effect of information scent in determining the path followed. Keywords: Web behavior graph, Web usability, Weblogger, behavior graph, information
foraging, information scent, protocol analysis, web-eyemapper | |||
| Visual Information Foraging in a Focus + Context Visualization | | BIBAK | PDF | 506-513 | |
| Peter Pirolli; Stuart K. Card; Mija M. Van Der Wege | |||
| Eye tracking studies of the Hyperbolic Tree browser [10] suggest that visual
search in focus+context displays is highly affected by information scent (i.e.,
local cues, such as text summaries, used to assess and navigate toward distal
information sources). When users detected a strong information scent, they were
able to reach their goal faster with the Hyperbolic Tree browser than with a
conventional browser. When users detected a weak scent or no scent, users
exhibited less efficient search of areas with a high density of visual items.
In order to interpret these results we present an integration of the CODE
Theory of Visual Attention (CTVA) with information foraging theory. Development
of the CTVA-foraging theory could lead to deeper analysis of interaction with
visual displays of content, such as the World Wide Web or information
visualizations. Keywords: CODE theory of visual attention, focus+context, hyperbolic tree, information
foraging, information scent, information visualization, visual attention,
visual search | |||
| The Notification Collage: Posting Information to Public and Personal Displays | | BIBAK | PDF | 514-521 | |
| Saul Greenberg; Michael Rounding | |||
| The Notification Collage (NC) is a groupware system where distributed and
co-located colleagues comprising a small community post media elements onto a
real-time collaborative surface that all members can see. Akin to collages of
information found on public bulletin boards, NC randomly places incoming
elements onto this surface. People can post assorted media: live video from
desktop cameras; editable sticky notes; activity indicator; slide shows
displaying a series of digital photos, snapshots of a person's digital desktop,
and Web page thumbnails. User experiences show that NC becomes a rich resource
for awareness and collaboration. Community members indicate their presence to
others by posting live video. They regularly act on this information by
engaging in text and video conversations. Because all people can overhear
conversations, these become active opportunities to join in. People also post
items they believe will be interesting to others, such as desktop snapshots and
vacation photos. Finally, people use NC somewhat differently when it is
displayed on a large public screen than when it appears on a personal computer. Keywords: awareness, informal interaction, media spaces, messaging | |||
| Single Display Privacyware: Augmenting Public Displays with Private Information | | BIBAK | PDF | 522-529 | |
| Garth B. D. Shoemaker; Kori Inkpen | |||
| The research area of Single Display Groupware (SDG) confronts the standard
model of computing interaction, one user working on one computer, by
investigating how the best support groups of users interacting with a shared
display. One problem that has arisen in SDG research concerns access to private
information. Previously, private information could not be displayed on a shared
display, it could only be accessed on external devices, such as private
monitors or Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs). This paper discusses Single
Display Privacyware (SDP), an interaction technique that allows private
information to be shown within the context of a shared display. A description
of the hardware and software components of our prototype SDP system is given,
as are the results of a user study performed to investigate users interacting
in the environment. Conclusions concerning future research in the area of SDP
are discussed. Keywords: CSCW, awareness, collaboration, privacy, single display groupware, single
display privacyware (SDP) | |||
| Linking Public Spaces: Technical and Social Issues | | BIBAK | PDF | 530-537 | |
| Gavin Jancke; Gina Danielle Venolia; Jonathan Grudin; J. J. Cadiz; Anoop Gupta | |||
| Three public spaces frequency used by members of a single organization who
are distributed across different floors of two buildings were linked by
constantly-running video and audio connections. We discuss the design of the
system, including issues in providing low-latency, full-duplex audio-video
connectivity, ways to increase possibilities for interaction while addressing
privacy concerns, and the introduction of the system to the community. We
report on responses to the system and lessons learned, including unexpected
issues, such as creative decorations of the spaces and assertions by a vocal
minority of employees about the private nature of "public space." Keywords: informal communication, privacy, videoconferencing | |||