| Grasping Reality Through Illusion -- Interactive Graphics Serving Science | | BIBAK | 1-11 | |
| Frederick P., Jr. Brooks | |||
| I treat three related subjects: virtual-worlds research -- the construction
of real-time 3-D illusions by computer graphics; some observations about
interfaces to virtual worlds; and the coming application of virtual-worlds
techniques to the enhancement of scientific computing.
We need to design generalized interfaces for visualizing, exploring, and steering scientific computations. Our interfaces must be direct-manipulation, not command-string; interactive, not batch; 3-D not 2-D; multisensory, not just visual. We need generalized research results for 3-D interactive interfaces. More is known than gets reported, because of a reluctance to share "unproven" results. I propose a shells-of-certainty model for such knowledge. Keywords: Interactive techniques, Three-dimensional graphics, Realism, Human factors,
Simulation and modeling | |||
| Exploratory Evaluation of a Planar Foot-Operated Cursor-Positioning Device | | BIBAK | 13-18 | |
| Glenn Pearson; Mark Weiser | |||
| The use of feet instead of hands to perform workstation cursor-positioning
and related functions has been the subject of an on-going investigation. In
the exploratory study reported here, a particular foot-operated device, the
planar slide mole, was assessed against a mouse in a target-selection task.
The study showed that novices can learn to select fairly small targets using a
mole; for a target size of 1/8" square, the response time equaled that of the
mouse when keyboard homing time was taken into account. Keywords: Cursor positioning, Haptic input devices, Motor interface devices,
Workstation peripherals, Response time evaluation, Target selection,
Handicapped aids | |||
| An Improved Automatic Lipreading System to Enhance Speech Recognition | | BIBAK | 19-25 | |
| Eric Petajan; Bradford Bischoff; David Bodoff; N. Michael Brooke | |||
| Current acoustic speech recognition technology performs well with very small
vocabularies in noise or with large vocabularies in very low noise. Accurate
acoustic speech recognition in noise with vocabularies over 100 words has yet
to be achieved. Humans frequently lipread the visible facial speech
articulations to enhance speech recognition, especially when the acoustic
signal is degraded by noise or hearing impairment. Automatic lipreading has
been found to improve significantly acoustic speech recognition and could be
advantageous in noisy environments such as offices, aircraft and factories.
An improved version of a previously described automatic lipreading system has been developed which uses vector quantization, dynamic time warping, and a new heuristic distance measure. This paper presents visual speech recognition results from multiple speakers under optimal conditions. Results from combined acoustic and visual speech recognition are also presented which show significantly improved performance compared to the acoustic recognition system alone. Keywords: Lipreading, Speech recognition, Vision | |||
| Improving the Accuracy of Touch Screens: An Experimental Evaluation of Three Strategies | | BIBAK | 27-32 | |
| Richard L. Potter; Linda J. Weldon; Ben Shneiderman | |||
| A study comparing the speed, accuracy, and user satisfaction of three
different touch screen strategies was performed. The purpose of the experiment
was to evaluate the merits of the more intricate touch strategies that are
possible on touch screens that return a continuous stream of touch data. The
results showed that a touch strategy providing continuous feedback until a
selection was confirmed had fewer errors than other touch strategies. The
implications of the results for touch screens containing small, densely-packed
targets were discussed. Keywords: Touch screens, Empirical studies, User interface, Human-computer interaction | |||
| Perspectives on Algorithm Animation | | BIBAK | 33-38 | |
| Marc H. Brown | |||
| Systems for animating algorithms have received considerable interest of late
as effective means for understanding computer programs. Thus far, nothing has
been reported in the literature concerning nature of the displays nor to what
extent displays can be created automatically. This paper addresses these two
issues. The first part presents a taxonomy of displays prevalent in algorithm
animation systems; the second part uses the taxonomy to analyze those types of
displays that can and cannot be created automatically from unmodified source
code. Keywords: Program visualization, Visual programming, Graphical programming, Algorithm
animation, BALSA | |||
| A Graphical Programming Language Interface for an Intelligent Lisp Tutor | | BIBAK | 39-44 | |
| Brian J. Reiser; Patricia Friedmann; Jody Gevins; Daniel Y. Kimberg; Michael Ranney; Antonio Romero | |||
| We describe an intelligent tutor for programming embedded in a graphical
programming language. The tutor monitors students' problem solving and
provides feedback and guidance. Explanations are generated from the content of
the ideal model's problem solving rules. The graphical interface is designed
to facilitate the acquisition of causal models of programming. Students work
in a medium that corresponds to their planning operations. The interface
enables forward and backward chaining, thus conveying the structure of the
planning more effectively than a text-based interface. The interface also
provides a graphical record of the solution history and current goals. Keywords: Intelligent tutoring system, Visual programming, Intelligent interfaces | |||
| Users' Preferences among Different Techniques for Displaying the Evaluation of LISP Functions in an Interactive Debugger | | BIBAK | 45-50 | |
| Joseph M. Hary; Lori A. Cohan; Michael J. Darnell | |||
| Two experiments investigated various techniques for displaying the
evaluation of LISP functions in an interactive debugger. The studies examined
three techniques of highlighting the flow of evaluation in a LISP function and
two display formats for displaying LISP function information. The subjects in
both experiments included highly experienced LISP programmers and occasional
LISP users with moderate to little LISP experience. The dependent measure was
the subjects' preference rating for each display technique. The results showed
that occasional LISP users preferred range highlighting, an interlaced display
of evaluation results, and a simultaneous display of called functions.
However, expert LISP programmers had no differential preferences for
highlighting techniques. Keywords: Debugging, Artificial intelligence, LISP, Expert systems | |||
| Retrieval Systems for the Information Seeker: Can the Role of the Intermediary be Automated? | | BIBA | 51-53 | |
| Christine L. Borgman; Nicholas J. Belkin; W. Bruce Croft; Michael E. Lesk; Thomas K. Landauer | |||
| The introduction of automated information retrieval (IR) systems was met with great enthusiasm and predictions that manual literature searching soon would be replaced. Three decades later, IR systems have not progressed to the stage where any but the dedicated few can operate them without a highly skilled human intermediary acting as interface between user and system. In the interim, we have learned that the retrieval process is extremely complex both in terms of understanding people and their communication and in terms of understanding scientific information and technical vocabulary. Experiments with new techniques suggest to many the possibility of eliminating the human intermediary, either in large part or altogether; others would argue that the retrieval problems are too complex to be resolved for more than highly restricted domains. The possibility of eliminating the human intermediary is of current research interest to the several disciplines that are represented on this panel. | |||
| Transferring Skills from Training to the Actual Work Situation: The Role of Task Application Knowledge, Action Styles and Job Decision Latitude | | BIBAK | 55-60 | |
| Patricia Von Papstein; Michael Frese | |||
| In a field study (29 engineers), the transfer from expertise acquired in
training to software use at work was shown to be mediated by task application
knowledge (i.e. knowledge used to connect skills learned in training with tasks
at work). Moreover, person variables like setting long range goals and
developing detailed plans and an organizational variable like job decision
latitude (i.e. how much freedom do workers have to do their work) influenced
the transfer process. People with high goal orientation and planfulness and
with high job decision latitude showed a higher transfer. Keywords: User training, Skill transfer, Task application knowledge, Action styles,
Job decision latitude Note: Psychological models of user learning and performance and
Sociology of system implantation and use. | |||
| A Case Study of CSCW in a Dispersed Organization | | BIBA | 61-66 | |
| R. P. Carasik; C. E. Grantham | |||
| Pacific Bell conducted a trial of The Coordinator, a tool for computer-supported cooperative work. The trial group had diverse job functions and was dispersed across a variety of geographical locations and computing environments. The trial attempted to both measure the effectiveness of The Coordinator as a communications tool and to evaluate the speech act communications paradigm on which it is based. Only the first of these two goals was realized. Changes in subjects' cognition were assessed using a series of semantic differential scales. One negative cognitive shift was supported by the data. However, the anecdotal evidence was far more negative, suggesting that the experimental methodology be enhanced to include measurement of affective dimensions of group dynamics. Implementation and support for cooperative work systems were found to be more difficult than anticipated. The test group was not convinced that The Coordinator offered functionality that was worth the effort involved in learning to use the product. An improved interface, more flexible terminology, and better implementation support is needed for successful installation of The Coordinator, or similar products. | |||
| A Knowledge-Based User Interface Management System | | BIBAK | 67-72 | |
| James Foley; Christina Gibbs; Won Chul Kim; Srdjan Kovacevic | |||
| A knowledge base which defines a user-computer interface is described. The
knowledge base serves as input to a user interface management system, which
implements the user interface. However, the knowledge base represents user
interface design knowledge at a level of abstraction higher than is typical of
user interface management systems. In particular, it represents objects,
actions, attributes of objects, an object class hierarchy, and pre-and
post-conditions on the actions. The knowledge base can be algorithmically
transformed into a number of functionally equivalent interfaces, each of which
is slightly different from the original interface. The transformed interface
definition can be input to the UIMS, providing a way to quickly experiment with
a family of related interfaces. Keywords: User interface design tool, User interface management system, Expert system,
Knowledge base | |||
| A Grammar-Based Approach to the Automatic Generation of User-Interface Dialogues | | BIBAK | 73-78 | |
| Michael L. Scott; Sue-Ken Yap | |||
| An effective user interface requires a dialogue layer that can handle
multiple threads of interaction simultaneously. We propose a notation for
specifying dialogues based on context-free attributed grammars with two
extensions: fork operators for specifying sub-dialogues and context attributes
for dispatching tokens. The notation is useful both as a means of
communicating the behavior of the dialogue layer to designers and as input to a
dialogue compiler that generates program code. In this paper we explain the
motivation for our work and provide practical examples of the use of fork and
context. In addition, we outline algorithms for parsing and for generating
parser tables Keywords: User interfaces, Human factors, Interaction techniques, Grammers, Parsing | |||
| Dealing with Diversity: Approaches to Individual Differences in Human-Computer Interaction | | BIBA | 79-81 | |
| Dennis E. Egan; Louis M. Gomez; Kathy McKeown; Elliot Soloway; Brian J. Reiser; Catherine R. Marshall | |||
| Developers and behavioral scientists concerned with human-computer interaction need to learn more about problems caused by user differences, and prospects for dealing with diverse user populations. This panel is intended to heighten the awareness of CHI'88 conferees to recent research documenting user differences, experimental approaches to user-sensitive interface design, and the implications of user differences for system developers. | |||
| The Design of Auditory Interfaces for Visually Disabled Users | | BIBAK | 83-88 | |
| Alistair D. N. Edwards | |||
| Recent developments in the design of human-machine interfaces have resulted
in interfaces which make access to computer-based equipment more difficult for
visually disabled people. The aim of this project was to explore whether it is
possible to adapt such interfaces so as to make them usable by people who
cannot see a screen. The approach adopted was based upon two principles: the
replacement of visual interface entities by auditory analogues and
appropriately constraining the resultant interface. Two forms of sound were
used to embody the auditory interface: musical tones and synthetic speech. In
order to test the principles a word processing program was implemented which
demonstrated that a visual program might be adapted to be accessed through such
an interface. Keywords: Visual disability, Adaptation, Interface design, Auditory interface,
Macintosh | |||
| Multifunctional Cursor for Direct Manipulation User Interfaces | | BIBAK | 89-94 | |
| Michael J. Muller | |||
| The multifunctional cursor (MC) is a technique for representing multiple
operations in direct manipulation user interfaces. Icons for each of several
simultaneously-available operations are overlaid into the cursor image. The MC
improves user interface practice by removing syntactic inconsistencies, by
reducing cognitive load, and by providing support for repeated operations. Keywords: Direct manipulation, Cursor, Syntax, Cognitive load, Repeated operations | |||
| An Empirical Comparison of Pie vs. Linear Menus | | BIBAK | 95-100 | |
| Jack Callahan; Don Hopkins; Mark Weiser; Ben Shneiderman | |||
| Menus are largely formatted in a linear fashion listing items from the top
to bottom of the screen or window. Pull down menus are a common example of
this format. Bitmapped computer displays, however, allow greater freedom in
the placement, font, and general presentation of menus. A pie menu is a format
where the items are placed along the circumference of a circle at equal radial
distances from the center. Pie menus gain over traditional linear menus by
reducing target seek time, lowering error rates by fixing the distance factor
and increasing the target size in Fitts' Law, minimizing the drift distance
after target selection, and are, in general, subjectively equivalent to the
linear style. Keywords: Menus, User interface, Empirical studies, Directional selection | |||
| Color-Coding Categories in Menus | | BIBAK | 101-106 | |
| James E. McDonald; Mark E. Molander; Ronald W. Noel | |||
| Categorical menu layouts are currently designed according to conventions and
opinions, rather than by employing format techniques. In this paper we
describe a formal methodology for categorically organizing menus. We go on to
show how color-coding can be applied to these layouts either to emphasize
organization or to provide additional information. The results of a controlled
study comparing layouts based on frequency of co-occurrence and similarity show
that the formal menu-layout methodology is effective. However, the use of
color-coding to identify categories is not supported. Potential reasons for
this failure are discussed. Keywords: Menu layout, Color-coding, Interface design methodology | |||
| Transfer Between Menu Systems | | BIBAK | 107-112 | |
| Peter W. Foltz; Susan E. Davies; Peter G. Polson; David E. Kieras | |||
| This paper investigates whether changes in the user/computer dialogue
structure will affect the performance of users who are familiar with an earlier
version of the product. Quantitative predictions using the Kieras and Polson
(1985) production system model were derived to test whether changing the
lexical attributes and structure of a popular menu-driven word-processor would
permit transfer of existing knowledge of the word-processor to a new version.
The results show that changes to the dialogue structure of the menu-system are
not detrimental, while changes to the lexical attributes of the menus will
hinder user performance. Keywords: Production system modeling, Transfer of training, Menu systems | |||
| Computer-Supported Cooperative Work: Breakthroughs for User Acceptance | | BIB | 113-114 | |
| Irene Greif; John Seely Brown; Esther Dyson; Mitch Kapor; Thomas Malone | |||
| The Data Model is the Heart of Interface Design | | BIBAK | 115-120 | |
| Robert Akscyn; Elise Yoder; Donald McCracken | |||
| For the past six years, we have been developing a commercial hypermedia
system (KMS) based on our previous research with the ZOG system at Carnegie
Mellon University. Our experience with ZOG and KMS has convinced us that the
data model underlying an interactive system is more important than the user
interface in shaping the overall system. In the paper, we show how the KMS
data model has influenced important aspects of the user interface. In
particular, we show how the properties of KMS frames -- their spatial nature,
breadth-first view, homogeneity, small size, etc. -- affect the nature of the
KMS user interface. Keywords: Conceptual data model, User interface, Hypertext, Hypermedia | |||
| Navigating Integrated Facilities: Initiating and Terminating Interaction Sequences | | BIBAK | 121-126 | |
| Philip Barnard; Allan MacLean; Michael Wilson | |||
| Human performance data are reported for two dialogue conventions involving
menu interactions with integrated facilities. Users prepared material for
overhead foils in a six session experiment. An initiation style of dialogue in
a flexible menu hierarchy was compared with a strict hierarchy involving
explicit termination of dialogue sequences. Although tasks could be performed
in the same number of steps with either interface, initiation had greater time
and transaction costs than termination. The results are discussed in relation
to the trade-offs that need to be considered in designing for navigational
flexibility and to requirements for modeling user behavior. Keywords: Menu navigation, Dialogue design, Performance trade-offs, User-model
requirements | |||
| Pictures and Category Labels as Navigational Aids for Catalog Browsing | | BIBAK | 127-132 | |
| Carmen Egido; John Patterson | |||
| We describe two experiments that compare the relative utility of pictures,
labels, and the combination of both as navigational aids for computerized
catalog browsing. The results point to the usefulness of example pictures as
search aids in the context of menu traversal through hierarchically structured
pictorial databases. We take this outcome to be a reflection of the
disambiguating role that pictures can play for verbal category labels. Keywords: Pictorial databases, Catalog browsing, Menu traversal, Search aids, Menu
category representation | |||
| Video: Data for Studying Human-Computer Interaction | | BIB | 133-137 | |
| Wendy E. Mackay; Raymonde Guindon; Marilyn M. Mantei; Lucy Suchman; Deborah G. Tatar | |||
| Choosing Between Methods: Analysing the User's Decision Space in Terms of Schemas and Linear Models | | BIBAK | 139-143 | |
| Richard M. Young; Allan MacLean | |||
| We offer an account of how users choose between alternative methods which
take different times to accomplish the same task. Users offered a choice
between two methods do not necessarily pick the faster. We argue that users
reduce the complexity of the decision space by applying a 'simple compensation
schema' acquired from everyday experience. Linear models of performance time
enable us to predict how users will view the situation in terms of this schema,
and how accurate assessment of the optimal choices within the schema-based
assimilations can result in an apparent bias in favour of one method. Keywords: User models, Approximate models, Heuristics, Method choice, Linear models,
Data entry, User preferences | |||
| A General User Modelling Facility | | BIBAK | 145-150 | |
| Robert Kass; Tim Finin | |||
| An important component of adaptable interactive systems is the ability to
model the system's users. Previous systems have relied on user models tailored
to the particular needs of that system alone. This paper presents the notion
of a general user model, and describes some of our research on building a
general user modelling facility that could be used by a variety of
applications. This work focuses on the representation, maintenance, and
acquisition issues of modelling long-term beliefs of the user, and describes a
general facility for accomplishing these tasks. Keywords: User modelling, Model acquisition, Default reasoning, Stereotype,
Cooperative behavior | |||
| Misconceived Misconceptions? | | BIBAK | 151-156 | |
| Michael E. J. Masson; William C. Hill; Joyce Conner; Raymonde Guindon | |||
| Detailed user activity scripts from two previous studies of novice users
working at a command language or a direct representation interface were
submitted to independent expert judges for the justified ascription of
misconceptions. Our initial hypothesis was that behavioral evidence for such
misconceptions comes about as a result of well-articulated hypothetical
reasoning. Although the evidence we obtained supports this view, it also
suggests that for the direct representation case some activity normally
attributed to misconceptions is non-reasoned in nature and governed by inherent
powers of the representation. Keywords: Mental model, Misconception, User activity script | |||
| Integrating Human Factors and Software Development | | BIBA | 157-159 | |
| Jonathan Grudin; John Carroll; Susan Ehrlich; Mike Grisham; Harry Hersh; Patricia Seybold | |||
| Approaches to integrating human factors or user interface knowledge and expertise with software development are still exploratory and evolving. The human-computer interface provides a broader range of user interface challenges than earlier technology, but human factors is only now starting to be widely recognized as a distinct discipline requiring integration with system development. Devoting human and computer resources to user interface enhancement has been considered a luxury, and in many places still is, but the falling cost of computational power and the growing user resistance to poor interfaces, as well as a rising need for product differentiation in the marketplace, insure that human factors will become a necessity where it has not already. The need to develop organizational approaches to support the integration of human factors or user interface expertise with product development is thus a relatively new concern. The integration problems that have been identified include some that are shared with more established support activities such as technical writing, and others that are particular to human factors or result from the relative unfamiliarity of the discipline. | |||
| Groupware: Interface Design for Meetings | | BIB | 161-163 | |
| Marilyn Mantei; Lucy Suchman; Gerardine DeSanctis; Lynda Applegate; Sirkka Jarvenpaa | |||
| A New Conceptual Model for Interactive User Recovery and Command Reuse Facilities | | BIBAK | 165-170 | |
| Yiya Yang | |||
| This paper generalises approaches to modelling an undo facility for
interactive systems into a comprehensive user recovery and command reuse
facility. It separates different undoing actions into distinct undoing
functions and incorporates redoing capability in a more general command reuse
capacity. Four adequacy criteria for such a facility are proposed and a
general model is developed to meet these requirements. Partial, patterned and
repetitive undoing and redoing actions are allowed on simple, complex and meta
commands. The model subsumes the functionality of prior models. Keywords: Interactive system, Undo, Recovery, Command reuse, Conceptual model | |||
| How Users Repeat Their Actions on Computers: Principles for Design of History Mechanisms | | BIBAK | 171-178 | |
| Saul Greenberg; Ian H. Witten | |||
| Several striking characteristics of how often people repeat their actions on
interactive systems are abstracted from usage data gleaned from many users of
different classes over a period of months. Reformulated as empirically-based
general principles, these provide design guidelines for history mechanisms
specifically and modern user interfaces generally. Particular attention is
paid to the repetition of command lines, and to the probability distribution of
the next line given a sequential "history list" of previous ones. Several ways
are examined of conditioning this distribution to enhance predictive power. A
brief case study of actual use of a widely-used history system is also
included. Keywords: Command-based systems, Command reuse, History mechanisms, Human-computer
interaction, Design principles | |||
| Planning for Advising | | BIBAK | 179-184 | |
| Jean McKendree; Jay Zaback | |||
| Effective advice depends on knowledge of the plans and goals of the person
requiring help. Planning advice must be at a cognitively appropriate level for
the user. HICCUPS, a dynamic planning system for a direct manipulation
statistics program, is based on an ideal user model. Plans are generated from
goals inferred from explicit goal statements from the user, knowledge about the
statistics program, and the recent interactions with the interface. This
exploitation of environmental information and inherent domain structure to
restrict the amount of search and inferencing is a vital part of intelligent
reasoning which is both fast and effective. Keywords: Advising, Cognitive modeling, Planning | |||
| Justified Advice: A Semi-Naturalistic Study of Advisory Strategies | | BIBAK | 185-190 | |
| William C. Hill; James R. Miller | |||
| "Wizard of Oz" techniques were used to observe the interaction between users
of a statistical package and a human playing the role of an simulated
intelligent advisory system. The results emphasized the complexities of the
advisory process. More than half of the clients' requests sought help on
planning actions toward achieving task goals. Further, protocols collected
from the advisor while advice was given revealed the importance of constructing
models of the user's current and past interaction with the application, and of
addressing the high-level goals that underlie clients' explicit questions. The
relevance of these findings to the development of intelligent advisory systems
is discussed. Keywords: Advice, Wizard of Oz, Intelligent interface, Help, Collaboration | |||
| How to Interface to Advisory Systems? Users Request Help with a Very Simple Language | | BIBAK | 191-196 | |
| Raymonde Guindon | |||
| Advisory system can be very powerful general tools for users. Formal query
languages, menus, and direct manipulation interfaces might not suffice to
access advisory systems' full functionality. The capabilities of natural
language interfaces could be required. Unfortunately, natural language
interfaces are not meeting the needs yet. Wide syntactic coverage is often
traded off against handling ungrammatical sentences. However, this study shows
that users request help with a very simple and restricted English,
characteristic of unplanned or of child language. Moreover, users' utterances
are frequently ungrammatical. It is argued that the simple syntax and the
ungrammaticalities are determined by features intrinsic to advisory systems:
users request help by typing to perform another primary task under real-time
production constraints. Because of intrinsic performance constraints, users
naturally resort to earlier and simpler forms of syntax. Natural language
interfaces to advisory systems need not cover a wide variety of syntactic
constructions but they must emphasize robust parsing. Keywords: Natural language interfaces, Advisory systems, Habitability, Real-time
production constraints, Simple syntax | |||
| UIMSs: Threat or Menace? | | BIB | 197-200 | |
| Jarrett Rosenberg; Ralph Hill; Jim Miller; Andrew Schulert; David Shewmake | |||
| Designing Keybindings to be Easy to Learn and Resistant to Forgetting Even When the Set of Commands is Large | | BIBAK | 201-206 | |
| Neff Walker; Judith Reitman Olson | |||
| We formulated a set of rules for producing key-commands that are
alternatives for activating commands with a mouse from a menu. Because
software is getting increasingly complex, it was important that the rules cover
a wide variety of commands. The rules combined verb-modifier-object order and
mnemonic abbreviations for the words in each slot. Our keybindings were shown
not only to cover a wide set, but to be far easier to learn than EMACS (a
common keybinding set) and a more robust form with respect to negative
interference from prior and post-learning of another set. Keywords: Command language design, Transfer of training, Keybindings, EMACs | |||
| Effects of Interface Design Upon User Productivity | | BIBAK | 207-212 | |
| Wayne A. Bailey; Stephen T. Knox; Eugene F. Lynch | |||
| Eight subjects experienced in the use of both 7000 and 11000 series
oscilloscopes performed four typical tasks with each scope. The 7000 interface
is a dedicated physical control system, while the 11000 system employs icons,
pop-up menus, assignable controls, and a touch panel. On each trial the task
time and measurement accuracy were recorded. Each experimental session was
video recorded and verbal protocols were collected. These allowed
decomposition of the subjects' behaviors into categories that would account for
performance differences between the two scopes. A 77% performance difference
is explained in terms of the cognitive factors of strategy selections and
recall of operational details. Keywords: Cognitive factors, Strategy, Verbal data, Protocols, Productivity,
Performance, Oscilloscope, Behavioral encoding, Think-aloud, Interface
assessment | |||
| Development of an Instrument Measuring User Satisfaction of the Human-Computer Interface | | BIBAK | Technical Report | PDF format | QUIS Home Page | 213-218 | |
| John P. Chin; Virginia A. Diehl; Kent L. Norman | |||
| This study is a part of a research effort to develop the Questionnaire for
User Interface Satisfaction (QUIS). Participants, 150 PC user group members,
rated familiar software products. Two pairs of software categories were
compared: 1) software that was liked and disliked, and 2) a standard command
line system (CLS) and a menu driven application (MDA). The reliability of the
questionnaire was high, Cronbach's alpha=.94 The overall reaction ratings
yielded significantly higher ratings for liked software and MDA over disliked
software and a CLS, respectively. Frequent and sophisticated PC users rated
MDA more satisfying, powerful and flexible than CLS. Future applications of
the QUIS on computers are discussed. Keywords: User satisfaction, User interface questionnaire, Design tool | |||
| Public Law 99-506, "Section 508" Electronic Equipment Accessibility for Disabled Workers | | BIB | 219-222 | |
| Richard E. Ladner; Francis A. McDonough; William Roth; Lawrence A. Scadden; Gregg C. Vanderheiden | |||
| A Critical Assessment of Hypertext Systems | | BIB | 223-227 | |
| Gerhard Fischer; Stephen A. Weyer; William P. Jones; Alan C. Kay; Walter Kintsch; Randall H. Trigg | |||
| Multimodal Response Planning: An Adaptive Rule Based Approach | | BIBAK | 229-234 | |
| Robert A., Jr. Gargan; Joseph W. Sullivan; Sherman W. Tyler | |||
| This paper describes the architecture and prototype of a system which
dynamically determines how to present information to a user. The system
utilizes a rule based approach to select one or more modalities for presenting
information. Next the system determines one or more techniques to present the
information within each of the previously selected modalities. This system
also adapts to individual users providing flexibility not found in traditional
presentation systems. Finally, models are used for storing knowledge about the
user resulting in a system which can be easily enhanced as new data is obtained
and can adapt to the needs of its users. Keywords: Artificial intelligence, Intelligent interfaces, Graphic presentation,
Multimode presentation, Planning, User modeling | |||
| SAUCI: A Knowledge-Based Interface Architecture | | BIBAK | 235-240 | |
| Sherman W. Tyler | |||
| Most current approaches to the design of the human-computer interface result
in systems that are difficult for users to master. This can be attributed to
the absence of several key features, including: interface modularity;
adaptability to the individual user; direct support of user intentions; and an
intelligent advising capability. An architecture for the interface which
facilitates the attainment of these four criteria is proposed. The
architecture relies upon production system rules and various kinds of knowledge
bases to tailor the user-computer dialogue to the ongoing context of the
interaction. A prototype of this architecture has been implemented in LOOPS
for interfacing to the UNIX system, and has been shown to enhance substantially
the performance of novice users of the system. Keywords: Intelligent interfaces, Adaptive interfaces, User modeling | |||
| Task-Oriented Parsing - A Diagnostic Method to be Used by Adaptive Systems | | BIBAK | 241-247 | |
| H. U. Hoppe | |||
| In order to be able to show context-dependent responses to the user's actual
needs, adaptive systems have to be provided with models of possible task
contexts. Existing methods for the representation of tasks in HCI are
insufficient for this purpose as they do not support task-oriented parsing
(i.e. analysing the input stream in terms of higher level task units). This
paper presents a Prolog implementation of a task-oriented parser (+ generator)
based on a grammar notation called LEXITAS. As an application, an online coach
for a UNIX-like file management system is described. Further applications,
such as automated macro detection from given interaction protocols, are
discussed. Keywords: Task & interaction analysis, Interaction languages & notations, Interface
design tools & techniques, Adaptive systems | |||
| Making Interactive Graphics Accessible: Comparison of Approaches | | BIBA | 249 | |
| Gary Olson; Alan Borning; Andy DiSessa; Clayton Lewis; Bruce Sherwood; Randall Smith | |||
| The participants have all created systems designed to make it easier to build interactive graphics applications such as animated physics demonstrations: Borning, ThingLab; DiSessa, BOXER; Lewis, NoPumpG; Sherwood, CMU Tutor; Smith, Alternate Reality Kit. These systems represent a wide variety of technical approaches, including spreadsheet extensions, object-oriented programming, constraint management, and procedural languages. In preparation for the panel, the panelists have exchanged problems selected to demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of their systems, and each has undertaken to solve all of the problems. Based on this experience the panelists will discuss general issues raised by the problems, the advantages and limitations of their systems, and what suggestions can be made about the value of particular approaches to making interactive graphics accessible to a wide audience. | |||
| Plan-Based Representations of Pascal and Fortran Code | | BIBAK | 251-256 | |
| Chiung-Chen Yu; Scott P. Robertson | |||
| The first step in program modification is comprehension. Several
researchers argue that programmers utilize plan-based representations when
composing or comprehending code. In this study we tested the psychological
validity of this proposal and examined the nature of plan-based program
representations. Experienced programmers were asked to segment code and sort
programs. The segmenting data showed that programmers agree on the major
components of a program and that these components are defined by goals in a
plan representation. Pascal and FORTRAN programs that employ the same plan
structure were segmented into similar components. Program sorting data also
showed clustering into plan groups. However task related dimensions are also
important parts of program representations. Keywords: Software psychology, Program comprehension, Planning, Program representation | |||
| Providing the Requisite Knowledge Via Software Documentation | | BIBAK | 257-261 | |
| Jeannine Pinto; Elliot Soloway | |||
| Software documentation should be useful to the programmer trying to
understand a program. The key in that sentence was the word should: by and
large documentation has a very bad reputation. We have been working on trying
to improve documentation, in order that it may realize its potential. In this
case study, we examine a programmer's use of documentation constructed along
some specific guidelines. These guidelines, developed from our previous
studies of documentation, are intended to help programmers draw causal
connections between non-contiguous portions of programming plans in the
program. This documentation appears to be helpful to a particular class of
programmers, i.e., those who come to a program without the requisite background
knowledge. Keywords: Program documentation, Cognitive analysis, Plan-based understanding,
Delocalized plans | |||
| Control of Cognitive Processes During Software Design: What Tools Are Needed? | | BIBAK | 263-268 | |
| Raymonde Guindon; Bill Curtis | |||
| A verbal protocol study of professional software designers has revealed
three design process control strategies. At least one of them, the generation
of opportunistic solutions at different levels of detail accompanied by problem
domain modeling, had not been observed in previous empirical studies nor had
been acknowledged in the software engineering practices. Specific breakdowns
(difficulties) were associated with the different design process control
strategies. Software tools should be provided to designers to alleviate these
breakdowns. Parts of a cognitive model of software design, based on
distributed control from specialists such as design schemas, design heuristics,
and design methods, are presented to account for the observed control
strategies. Keywords: Software design, Software design process, Control strategies, Breakdowns,
Opportunistic design | |||
| Travels Around a Learning Support Environment: Rambling, Orienteering or Touring? | | BIBAK | 269-273 | |
| Nick Hammond; Lesley Allinson | |||
| The traditionally separate application areas supported by database systems
and instructional systems are merging in the area of learning support
environments (LSEs). We discuss the provision of tools in LSEs for navigating
around large knowledge bases. The optimal form of navigation will depend on
the nature of the user and of the learning requirements, and thus a variety of
tools must be provided. We propose the use of a travel holiday metaphor as a
means for structuring a set of navigation tools and illustrate its use in a
system for teaching non-formal fields of knowledge. Keywords: Computer-based learning, Hypertext, Navigation, Metaphor | |||
| Palenque: An Interactive Multimedia Digital Video Interactive Prototype for Children | | BIBAK | 275-279 | |
| Kathleen S. Wilson | |||
| The Palenque interactive multimedia digital video interactive prototype is
based on themes, locations, and characters from "The Second Voyage of the Mimi"
television show, which is being produced at Bank Street College. In the TV
show, a cast of scientists and children explore the Yucatan's ancient Maya
ruins and are introduced to the science of archeology. The Palenque prototype
incorporates this theme to the extent that the user's experience is based on a
virtual travel exploration of an ancient Maya site, Palenque, and on the
perusal of a multimedia Palenque Museum database. One of our goals was to
create a visually interesting database environment in which information in many
formats could be browsed through spatially and thematically by children. In
addition, we experimented with icon and window-based interface conventions that
would make navigation around the video environment motivating and
comprehensible for young users. Keywords: Digital video interactive, Optical disc, CD-ROM, Multimedia database, Human
interface, Discovery learning, Interactive videodisc, Spatial cognition,
Surrogate travel | |||
| Using Latent Semantic Analysis to Improve Access to Textual Information | | BIBA | 281-285 | |
| Susan T. Dumais; George W. Furnas; Thomas K. Landauer; Scott Deerwester; Richard Harshman | |||
| This paper describes a new approach for dealing with the vocabulary problem in human-computer interaction. Most approaches to retrieving textual materials depend on a lexical match between words in users' requests and those in or assigned to database objects. Because of the tremendous diversity in the words people use to describe the same object, lexical matching methods are necessarily incomplete and imprecise. The latent semantic indexing approach tries to overcome these problems by automatically organizing text objects into a semantic structure more appropriate for matching user requests. This is done by taking advantage of implicit higher-order structure in the association of terms with text objects. The particular technique used in singular-value decomposition, in which a large term by text-object matrix is decomposed into a set of about 50 to 150 orthogonal factors from which the original matrix can be approximated by linear combination. Terms and objects are represented by 50 to 150 dimensional vectors and matched against user queries in this "semantic" space. Initial tests find this completely automatic method widely applicable and a promising way to improve users' access to many kinds of textual materials, or to objects and services for which textual descriptions are available. | |||
| Online Help System: Design and Implementation Issues | | BIBAK | 287-288 | |
| Greg Kearsley; Robert L. Campbell; Jay Elkerton; Wallace Judd; Jan Walker | |||
| This panel session examines major issues in the design and implementation of
online help systems. Keywords: Helps, User interface, Software design | |||
| Summary of the CHI'88 Doctoral Consortium | | BIBA | 289-290 | |
| Judith Reitman Olson | |||
| Fifteen Ph.D. students who are doing their dissertation research in topics
in Human-Computer Interaction were selected from a pool of 42 applicants to
spend a day and a half prior to the beginning of CHI'88 to discuss their
research in a Doctoral Consortium. The consortium provides the opportunity for
students
* to discuss their research at a time when wide feedback can be most
beneficial, * to learn of the breadth that contemporary research in Human Computer Interaction takes, * to acquire new methods for investigating aspects of their research questions and those related to them, * to get both research and professional advice from seasoned researchers in the field from both academic and industrial bases, both in the US and abroad, * and to develop a cohort group of colleagues. | |||