| Mixing Oil and Water? Ethnography versus Experimental Psychology in the Study of Computer-Mediated Communication | | BIBK | PDF | 3-6 | |
| Andrew Monk; Bonnie Nardi; Nigel Gilbert; Marilyn Mantei; John McCarthy | |||
Keywords: Computer-medialed communication, Ethnography, Ethnomethodology, Experimental
methods, Anthropology, Cognitive psychology, Experimental psychology, Sociology | |||
| Preserving Knowledge in Design Projects: What Designers Need to Know | | BIBAK | PDF | 7-14 | |
| James D. Herbsleb; Eiji Kuwana | |||
| In order to inform the design of technology support and new procedural
methods for software design, we analyzed the content of real design meetings in
three organizations, focusing in particular on the questions the designers ask
of each other. We found that most questions concerned the project
requirements, particularly what the software was supposed to do and, somewhat
less frequently, scenarios of use. Questions about functions to be performed
by software components and how these functions were to be realized were also
fairly frequent. Rationales for design decisions were seldom asked about. The
implications of this research for design tools and methods are discussed. Keywords: Design tools, Design methods, Design rationale, User scenarios | |||
| From "Folklore" to "Living Design Memory" | | BIBAK | PDF | 15-22 | |
| Loren G. Terveen; Peter G. Selfridge; M. David Long | |||
| We identify an important type of software design knowledge that we call
community specific folklore and show problems with current approaches to
managing it. We built a tool that serves as a living design memory for a large
software development organization. The tool delivers knowledge to developers
effectively and is embedded in organizational practice to ensure that the
knowledge it contains evolves as necessary. This work illustrates important
lessons in building knowledge management systems, integrating novel technology
into organizational practice, and managing research-development partnerships. Keywords: Organizational interfaces, Organizational design, Knowledge representation,
Software productivity | |||
| WHERE Did You Put It? Issues in the Design and Use of a Group Memory | | BIBAK | PDF | 23-30 | |
| Lucy M. Berlin; Robin Jeffries; Vicki L. O'Day; Andreas Paepcke; Cathleen Wharton | |||
| Collaborating teams of knowledge workers need a common repository in which
to share information gathered by individuals or developed by the team. This is
difficult to achieve in practice, because individual information access
strategies break down with group information -- people can generally find
things that are on their own messy desks and file systems, but not on other
people's.
The design challenge in a group memory is thus to enable low-effort information sharing without reducing individuals' finding effectiveness. This paper presents the lessons from our design and initial use of a hypertext-based group memory, TeamInfo. We expose the serious cognitive obstacles to a shared information structure, discuss the uses and benefits we have experienced, address the effects of technology limitations, and highlight some unexpected social and work impacts of our group memory. Keywords: Collaborative work, Information sharing, Information search and retrieval,
Group memory, Group conventions | |||
| Facile 3D Direct Manipulation | | BIBAK | PDF | 31-36 | |
| Dan Venolia | |||
| An experimental 3D interface is described, including rendering acceleration
hardware, a 3D mouse, and 3D interaction techniques. A 3D cursor, controlled
by the augmented mouse, allows direct manipulation of 3D objects. Objects are
selected by placing the tip of the cursor inside. Objects can be moved in 3D,
or simultaneously moved and rotated using a technique called "tail-dragging." A
method called "snap-to" helps users align objects. The interface is designed
without using explicit modes or commands. Sounds accentuate the interaction.
Details of the implementation and informal user observations are described, as
well as topics for future work. Keywords: Interaction, Direct manipulation, Three dimensional graphics, Input devices,
Audio output | |||
| Fish Tank Virtual Reality | | BIBAK | PDF | 37-42 | |
| Colin Ware; Kevin Arthur; Kellogg S. Booth | |||
| The defining characteristics of what we call "Fish Tank Virtual Reality" are
a stereo image of a three dimensional (3D) scene viewed on a monitor using a
perspective projection coupled to the head position of the observer. We
discuss some of the relative merits of this mode of viewing as compared to head
mounted stereo displays. In addition, we report the experimental investigation
of the following variables: 1) whether or not the perspective view is coupled
to the actual viewpoint of the observer, 2) whether stereopsis is employed.
Experiment 1 involved the subjective comparison of pairs of viewing conditions
and the results suggest that head coupling may be more important than stereo in
yielding a strong impression of three dimensionality. Experiment 2 involved
subjects tracing a path from a leaf of a 3D tree to the correct root (there
were two trees intermeshed). The error rates ranged from 22% in the pictorial
display, to 1.3% in the head coupled stereo display. The error rates for
stereo alone and head coupling alone were 14.7% and 3.2% respectively. We
conclude that head coupling is probably more important than stereo in 3D
visualization and that head coupling and stereo combined provide an important
enhancement to monitor based computer graphics. Keywords: Virtual reality, Scientific visualization, Head coupled displays, Stereopsis | |||
| A Space Based Model for User Interaction in Shared Synthetic Environments | | BIBAK | PDF | 43-48 | |
| Lennart E. Fahlen; Olov Stahl; Charles Grant Brown; Christer Carlsson | |||
| In a distributed shared synthetic environment with provisions for high
quality 3D visualization and interaction, it is possible to implement a
powerful variant of a rooms/space metaphor based on the concept of presence or
proximity between participants in 3D space. This kind of model can be used as
an interface between the user and the computer, for overview and control of
applications, file systems, networks and other computer resources, as well as
for communication and collaboration with other users in the networked
environment. We model proximity with a geometric volume of the immediate
surroundings, the aura, of the participant's representation in the synthetic
environment. This proximity, or aura, is used to establish presence at
meetings, to establish communication channels and to provide interaction. Keywords: User interaction, 3D, Visualization, Communication, Distribution, Control,
Resource sharing, CSCW, Virtual reality | |||
| HCI in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University | | BIBA | PDF | 49-50 | |
| Bonnie E. John; James H. Morris | |||
| People use computers to accomplish tasks. Consequently, understanding human capabilities and tasks is as important to the design of computer systems as understanding computer technologies. The School of Computer Science (SCS) at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) has become home to an interdisciplinary community that performs research on HCI issues, develops systems using HCI methods of design and evaluation, and trains students in the theory and skills necessary to become HCI professionals. | |||
| Human Cognition Research Laboratory, The Open University (U.K.) | | BIB | PDF | 51-52 | |
| Marc Eisenstadt | |||
| The Integrated User-Support Environment (IN-USE) Group at USC/ISI | | BIBA | PDF | 53-54 | |
| Robert Neches; Peter Aberg; David Benjamin; Brian Harp; Liyi Hu; Ping Luo; Roberto Moriyon; Pedro Szekely | |||
| Integrated user support environments are individual and cooperative-work systems which allow their users to perform a large quantity of their daily work on-line, and which do so by providing access to a comprehensive set of tools that interact smoothly with each other and present a uniform interface to the users. The INtegrated User-Support Environments (IN-USE) Group is developing a framework for facilitating construction of such systems. The framework is oriented toward assisting users who must timeshare between multiple, highly information-intensive data analysis and problem solving tasks. Our fundamental goals are to help developers quickly assemble support environments that offer reasonable default appearance and behavior, and to make it easy to then customize those environments as needed. | |||
| MUSiC Video Analysis and Context Tools for Usability Measurement | | BIBAK | PDF | 55 | |
| Miles Macleod; Nigel Bevan | |||
| Analysis of interaction between users and a system, based on video-assisted
observation, can provide a highly informative and effective means of evaluating
usability. To obtain valid and reliable results, the people observed should be
representative users performing representative work tasks in appropriate
circumstances, and the analysis should be methodical. The MUSiC Performance
Measurement Method (PMM) -- developed at NPL as part of the ESPRIT Project
MUSiC: Metrics for Usability Standards in Computing -- provides a validated
method for making and analysing such video recordings to derive
performance-based usability metrics. PMM is supported by the DRUM software
tool which greatly speeds up analysis of video, and helps manage evaluations. Keywords: Usability evaluation, Metrics, Usability engineering, Observation, Video
analysis | |||
| ADEPT -- Advanced Environment for Prototyping with Task Models | | BIBA | PDF | 56 | |
| Peter Johnson; Stephanie Wilson; Panos Markopoulos; James Pycock | |||
| ADEPI is a novel design environment for prototyping user interfaces which allows the designer to construct an explicit model of the tasks that the user and computer will perform jointly. ADEPI incorporates task and user modelling components with a rapid prototyping user interface design tool to provide a user-task centred design environment. | |||
| Software for the Usability Lab: A Sampling of Current Tools | | BIBA | PDF | 57-60 | |
| Paul Weiler; Richard Cordes; Monty Hammontree; Derek Hoiem; Michael Thompson | |||
| This panel brings together usability professionals throughout the computer industry to demonstrate and discuss their usability lab software tools. These tools are specifically designed to improve the data collection and analysis process for usability labs. Their capabilities range from simple to complex and the panel will not only discuss the benefits of using the tools but also share the lessons learned during the design and development process. | |||
| Do Algorithm Animations Assist Learning? An Empirical Study and Analysis | | BIBAK | PDF | 61-66 | |
| John Stasko; Albert Badre; Clayton Lewis | |||
| Algorithm animations are dynamic graphical illustrations of computer
algorithms, and they are used as teaching aids to help explain how the
algorithms work. Although many people believe that algorithm animations are
useful this way, no empirical evidence has ever been presented supporting this
belief. We have conducted an empirical study of a priority queue algorithm
animation, and the study's results indicate that the animation only slightly
assisted student understanding. In this article, we analyze those results and
hypothesize why algorithm animations may not be as helpful as was initially
hoped. We also develop guidelines for making algorithm animations. Keywords: Software visualization, Algorithm animation, Empirical studies | |||
| Reducing the Variability of Programmers' Performance Through Explained Examples | | BIBAK | PDF | 67-73 | |
| David F. Redmiles | |||
| A software tool called EXPLAINER has been developed for helping programmers
perform new tasks by exploring previously worked-out examples. EXPLAINER is
based on cognitive principles of learning from examples and problem solving by
analogy. The interface is based on the principle of making examples accessible
through multiple presentation views and multiple representation perspectives.
Empirical evaluation has shown that programmers using EXPLAINER exhibit less
variability in their performance compared to programmers using a commercially
available, searchable on-line manual. These results are related to other
studies of programmers and to current methodologies in software engineering. Keywords: Software engineering, User interface, Knowledge representation, Semantic
networks, Learning, Analogy, Programming plans | |||
| Mental Representations of Programs by Novices and Experts | | BIBAK | PDF | 74-79 | |
| Vikki Fix; Susan Wiedenbeck; Jean Scholtz | |||
| This paper presents five abstract characteristics of the mental
representation of computer programs: hierarchical structure, explicit mapping
of code to goals, foundation on recognition of recurring patterns, connection
of knowledge, and grounding in the program text. An experiment is reported in
which expert and novice programmers studied a Pascal program for comprehension
and then answered a series of questions about it designed to show these
characteristics if they existed in the mental representations formed. Evidence
for all of the abstract characteristics was found in the mental representations
of expert programmers. Novices' representations generally lacked the
characteristics, but there was evidence that they had the beginnings, although
poorly developed, of such characteristics. Keywords: Program comprehension, Mental representation of programs | |||
| Touch-Typing with a Stylus | | BIBAK | PDF | 80-87 | |
| David Goldberg; Cate Richardson | |||
| One of the attractive features of keyboards is that they support novice as
well as expert users. Novice users enter text using "hunt-and-peck," experts
use touch-typing. Although it takes time to learn touch-typing, there is a
large payoff in faster operation.
In contrast to keyboards, pen-based computers have only a novice mode for text entry in which users print text to a character recognizer. An electronic pen (or stylus) would be more attractive as an input device if it supported expert users with some analogue of touch-typing. We present the design and preliminary analysis of an approach to stylus touch-typing using an alphabet of unistrokes, which are letters specially designed to be used with a stylus. Unistrokes have the following advantages over ordinary printing: they are faster to write, less prone to recognition error, and can be entered in an "eyes-free" manner that requires very little screen real estate. Keywords: Stylus, Electronic pen, Handwriting, Printing, Recognition, Text entry,
Pen-based computing, Shorthand | |||
| Half-QWERTY: A One-Handed Keyboard Facilitating Skill Transfer from QWERTY | | BIBAK | PDF | Web Page | 88-94 | |
| Edgar Matias; I. Scott MacKenzie; William Buxton | |||
| Half-QWERTY is a new one-handed typing technique, designed to facilitate the
transfer of two-handed typing skill to the one-handed condition. It is
performed on a standard keyboard, or a special half keyboard (with full-sized
keys). In an experiment using touch typists, hunt-and-peck typing speeds were
surpassed after 3-4 hours of practice. Subjects reached 50% of their
two-handed typing speed after about 8 hours. After 10 hours, all subjects
typed between 41% and 73% of their two-handed speed, ranging from 23.8 to 42.8
wpm. These results are important in providing access to disabled users, and
for the design of compact computers. They also bring into question previous
research claiming finger actions of one hand map to the other via spatial
congruence rather than mirror image. Keywords: Input devices, Input tasks, Human performance, One-handed keyboard, QWERTY,
Portable computers, Disabled users, Skill transfer | |||
| Incremental Recognition in Gesture-Based and Syntax-Directed Diagram Editors | | BIBAK | PDF | 95-100 | |
| Rui Zhao | |||
| Diagram editing is an attractive application of gestural interfaces and
pen-based computers which promise a new input paradigm where users communicate
with computers in diagram languages by using gestures. A key problem in
building gesture-based diagram editors is the recognition of handsketched
diagrams. Existing approaches concentrate either on gesture recognition or on
parsing visual languages, there has been a lack of integrated recognition
concepts. This paper presents novel concepts and techniques based on an
incremental paradigm of gesture recognition and a cooperative communication
between modules for pattern recognition and for diagram parsing. These
concepts and techniques have been used successfully to build several
experimental gesture-based and syntax-directed diagram editors. Keywords: Gestural interfaces, Pen-based computers, Diagram languages, Incremental
recognition, Diagram editors | |||
| Integrating Theoreticians' and Practitioners' Perspectives with Design Rationale | | BIBAK | PDF | 101-106 | |
| Victoria Bellotti | |||
| QOC design rationale represents argumentation about design alternatives and
assessments. It can be used to generate design spaces which capture and
integrate information from design discussions and diverse kinds of theoretical
analyses. Such design spaces highlight how different theoretical approaches
can work together to help solve design problems. This paper describes an
example of the generation of a multi-disciplinary QOC design space which shows
how designers' deliberations can be augmented with design contributions from a
combination of different theoretical HCI approaches. Keywords: Design rationale, Theoretical modelling, Multi-disciplinary integration,
Design | |||
| Management of Interface Design in HUMANOID | | BIBAK | PDF | 107-114 | |
| Ping Luo; Pedro Szekely; Robert Neches | |||
| Today's interface design tools either force designers to handle a tremendous
number of design details, or limit their control over design decisions.
Neither of these approaches taps the true strengths of either human designers
or computers in the design process. This paper presents a human-computer
collaborative system that uses a model-based approach for interface design to
help designers search the design space effectively and construct executable
specifications of application user interfaces. This human-in-the-loop
environment focuses human designers on decision making, and utilizes the
bookkeeping capabilities of computers for regular and tedious tasks. We
describe (a) the underlying modeling technique and an execution environment
that allows even incompletely-specified designs to be executed for evaluation
and testing purposes, and (b) a tool that decomposes high-level design goals
into the necessary implementation steps, and helps designers manage the myriad
of details that arise during design. Keywords: Interface-building tools and techniques, Design processes, Development tools
and methods, Rapid prototyping, Interface design representation | |||
| The Evolution of an Interface for Choreographers | | BIBAK | PDF | 115-122 | |
| Tom W. Calvert; Armin Bruderlin; Sang Mah; Thecla Schiphorst; Chris Welman | |||
| This paper describes the evolution of the interface to Life Forms, a
compositional tool for the creation of dance choreography, and highlights some
of the important lessons we have learned during a six year design and
implementation period. The lessons learned can be grouped into two categories:
1) Process, and 2) Architecture of the Interface. Our goal in developing a
tool for choreography has been to provide computer-based creative design
support for the conception and development of dance. The evolution was driven
by feedback from the choreographers and users who were members of the
development team, combined with our knowledge of current thinking on design and
composition. Although the interface evolved in a relatively unconstrained way,
the resulting system has many of the features that theoretical discussion in
human interface design has projected as necessary. The Life Forms interface
has evolved incrementally with one major discontinuity where adoption of a new
compositional primitive required a completely new version.
The choreography and composition of a dance is a complex synthesis task which has much in common with design. Thus, the lessons learned here are applicable to the development of interfaces to such applications as computer aided design. Keywords: Composition, Design, User interface, Dance, Complexity, Choreography, Human
animation | |||
| Human-Machine Perceptual Cooperation | | BIBAK | PDF | 123-130 | |
| Francis K. H. Quek; Michael C. Petro | |||
| The Human-Machine Perceptual Cooperation (HMPC) paradigm combines a human
operator's high level reasoning with machine perception to solve
spatio-perceptual intensive problems. HMPC defines two channels of
interaction: the focus of attention (FOA) by which the user directs the
attention of machine perception, and context. As the user moves the FOA across
a display via a pointing device, a smart cursor operates proactively on the
data, highlighting objects which satisfy the current context. The FOA permits
foveal emphasis, enabling the user to vary motor precision with image clutter.
HMPC provides for contexts at four levels of abstraction. This permits the
efficiency of the system to degrade gracefully as data quality worsens. We
describe a document analysis application to which HMPC is applied. In this
project, a human operator works with a machine to convert scanned raster maps
into vector format. Keywords: Human-computer interaction, Shared perception, Map conversion, Document
image analysis, Telerobotics | |||
| VideoMAP and VideoSpaceIcon: Tools for Anatomizing Video Content | | BIBAK | PDF | 131-136 | |
| Yoshinobu Tonomura; Akihito Akutsu; Kiyotaka Otsuji; Toru Sadakata | |||
| A new approach to interacting with stored video is proposed. The approach
utilizes VideoMAP and VideoSpaceIcon. VideoMAP is the interface that shows the
essential video features in an easy to perceive manner. VideoSpaceIcon
represents the temporal and spatial characteristics of a video shot as an
intuitive icon. A video indexing method supports both tools. These tools
allow the user's creativity to directly interact with the essential features of
each video by offering spatial and temporal clues. This paper introduces the
basic concept and describes prototype versions of the tools as implemented in a
video handling system. VideoMAP and VideoSpaceIcon are effective for video
handling functions such as video content analysis, video editing, and various
video applications which need an intuitive visual interface. Keywords: Video handling, Visual interface, Icon, Index, Image processing,
Visualization | |||
| Automatic Structure Visualization for Video Editing | | BIBAK | PDF | 137-141 | |
| Hirotada Ueda; Takafumi Miyatake; Shigeo Sumino; Akio Nagasaka | |||
| We developed intelligent functions for the automatic description of video
structure, and visualization methods for temporal-spatial video structures
obtained by these functions as well as for the functions. The functions offer
descriptions of cut separations, motion of the camera and filmed objects,
tracks and contour lines of objects, existence of objects, and periods of
existence. Furthermore, identical objects are automatically linked. Thus the
visualization methods supported by object-links allow users to freely browse
and directly manipulate the structure including descriptions and raw video
data. Keywords: Multimedia authoring, Video editing, Motion picture, Video structure,
Visualization, Image recognition | |||
| Agentsheets: A Tool for Building Domain-Oriented Visual Programming Environments | | BIBA | PDF | 142-143 | |
| Alex Repenning; Lennart E. Fahlen | |||
| Visual programming systems are supposed to simplify programming by capitalizing on innate human spatial reasoning skills. I argue that: (i) good visual programming environments should be oriented toward their application domains, and (ii) tools to build domain-oriented environments are needed because building such environments from scratch is very difficult. The demonstration illustrates how the visual programming system builder called Agentsheets addresses these issues and demonstrates several applications built using Agentsheets. | |||
| Mondrian: A Teachable Graphical Editor | | BIBAK | PDF | 144 | |
| Henry Lieberman; Staffan Romberger; Kerstin Severinson Eklundh | |||
| Mondrian is a object-oriented graphical editor that can learn new graphical
procedures through programming by demonstration. A user can demonstrate a
sequence of graphical editing commands on a concrete example to illustrate how
the new procedure should work. An interface agent records the steps of the
procedure in a symbolic form, using machine learning techniques, tracking
relationships between graphical objects and dependencies among the interface
operations. The agent generalizes a program that can then be used on
"analogous" examples. The generalization heuristics set it apart from
conventional "macros" that can only repeat an exact sequence of steps. The
system represents user-defined operations using pictorial "storyboards" of
examples. By bringing the power of procedural programming to easy-to-use
graphical interfaces, we hope to break down the "Berlin Wall" that currently
exists between computer users and computer programmers. Keywords: Programming by demonstration, Machine learning, Artificial intelligence,
Graphical editing, End-user programming, Direct-manipulation interfaces | |||
| Usability Measurement -- Its Practical Value to the Computer Industry | | BIBAK | PDF | 145-148 | |
| M. Maguire; A. Dillon; John Brooke; Johan van Gerven; Nigel Bevan; Anna Maria Paci; John Karat; Brian Shackel | |||
| This panel will consider the role of usability measurement in the design
process. It will address the time needed to perform usability evaluations and
compare this process with that of expert assessment. This topic will be
discussed in the industrial context of developing computer products within
strict timescales. However it will also be seen against the traditional
problem of needing to set usability goals and to measure their achievement if
usability is to be given the same priority as the more technical software
engineering objectives. Keywords: Usability measurement, Usability metrics, Usability evaluation, Industrial
practice | |||
| The Growth of Software Skill: A Longitudinal Look at Learning & Performance | | BIBAK | PDF | 149-156 | |
| Erik Nilsen; HeeSen Jong; Judith S. Olson; Kevin Biolsi; Henry Rueter; Sharon Mutter | |||
| This research follows a group of users over time (16 months) as they
progress from novice towards expert in their use of Lotus 1-2-3. Quantitative
and qualitative measures of performance are compared with expert users having
over three years of experience. The results indicate that the motor aspects of
performance are relatively stable over time, while improvement in the cognitive
components of the skill are dependent on aspects of the menu structure and how
many things must be retrieved from memory, among other things. These results
imply extensions to the Keystroke Level Model of skilled performance as well as
suggest ways to design the user interfaces so as to speed the acquisition of
expertise. Keywords: Models of the user, User-interface design issues, GOMS, Menu design | |||
| Embedding Computer-Based Critics in the Contexts of Design | | BIBAK | PDF | 157-164 | |
| Gerhard Fischer; Kumiyo Nakakoji; Jonathan Ostwald; Gerry Stahl; Tamara Sumner | |||
| Computational critiquing mechanisms provide an effective form of
computer-human interaction supporting the process of design. Critics embedded
in domain-oriented design environments can take advantage of additional
knowledge residing in these environments to provide less intrusive, more
relevant critiques. Three classes of embedded critics have been designed,
implemented, and studied: Generic critics use domain knowledge to detect
problematic situations in the design construction. Specific critics take
advantage of additional knowledge in the partial specification to detect
inconsistencies between the design construction and the design specification.
Interpretive critics are tied to perspective mechanisms that support designers
in examining their artifact from different viewpoints. Keywords: Generic critics, Specific critics, Interpretive critics, Design
environments, Specification, Construction, Domain orientation, Perspectives,
Critiquing systems | |||
| How to Aid Non-Experts | | BIBAK | PDF | 165-171 | |
| Mark Neerincx; Paul de Greef | |||
| Aiding functions may be added to a computer system, so that users with
insufficient knowledge can perform their tasks. The aiding should be
integrated into the task execution of such users. Empirical knowledge is
lacking about the conditions for successful aiding. We evaluated the on-line
help system of the statistical software package SPSS/PC. It appears that the
addition of help facilities to the system worsens the task performance and
learning of novices substantially. In our view, the addition of help is
harmful, because communication with the system is more complex as a result,
whereas the help hardly provides the task support that novices need.
De Greef et al. [5] provide two design principles that result in consistent communication and aiding in correspondence with users' needs: (i) the design of aiding functions is an integrated part of interface design and (ii) aiding is based upon an expert model of the users' task. We evaluated an interface for the statistical program HOMALS, which was designed according to these principles. As a consequence of the addition of aiding functions, non-expert users perform their tasks better and learn more. Keywords: Intelligent interfaces, Help, Task analysis, Design, Summative evaluation,
Usability testing | |||
| A Design Space for Multimodal Systems: Concurrent Processing and Data Fusion | | BIBAK | PDF | 172-178 | |
| Laurence Nigay; Joelle Coutaz | |||
| Multimodal interaction enables the user to employ different modalities such
as voice, gesture and typing for communicating with a computer. This paper
presents an analysis of the integration of multiple communication modalities
within an interactive system. To do so, a software engineering perspective is
adopted. First, the notion of "multimodal system" is clarified. We aim at
proving that two main features of a multimodal system are the concurrency of
processing and the fusion of input/output data. On the basis of these two
features, we then propose a design space and a method for classifying
multimodal systems. In the last section, we present a software architecture
model of multimodal systems which supports these two salient properties:
concurrency of processing and data fusion. Two multimodal systems developed in
our team, VoicePaint and NoteBook, are used to illustrate the discussion. Keywords: Modality, Multimodal interaction, Taxonomy, Design space, Software
architecture, Data fusion, Concurrency | |||
| VoiceNotes: A Speech Interface for a Hand-Held Voice Notetaker | | BIBAK | PDF | 179-186 | |
| Lisa J. Stifelman; Barry Arons; Chris Schmandt; Eric A. Hulteen | |||
| VoiceNotes is an application for a voice-controlled hand-held computer that
allows the creation, management, and retrieval of user-authored voice notes --
small segments of digitized speech containing thoughts, ideas, reminders, or
things to do. Iterative design and user testing helped to refine the initial
user interface design. VoiceNotes explores the problem of capturing and
retrieving spontaneous ideas, the use of speech as data, and the use of speech
input and output in the user interface for a hand-held computer without a
visual display. In addition, VoiceNotes serves as a step toward new uses of
voice technology and interfaces for future portable devices. Keywords: Speech interfaces, Speech recognition, Non-speech audio, Hand-held
computers, Speech as data | |||
| Communicative Facial Displays as a New Conversational Modality | | BIBAK | PDF | 187-193 | |
| Akikazu Takeuchi; Katashi Nagao | |||
| The human face is an independent communication channel that conveys
emotional and conversational signals encoded as facial displays. Facial
displays can be viewed as communicative signals that help coordinate
conversation. We are attempting to introduce facial displays into
computer-human interaction as a new modality. This will make the interaction
tighter and more efficient while lessening the cognitive load. As the first
step, a speech dialogue system was selected to investigate the power of
communicative facial displays. We analyzed the conversations between users and
the speech dialogue system, to which facial displays had been added. We found
that conversation with the system featuring facial displays was more successful
than that with a system without facial displays. Keywords: User interface design, Multimodal interfaces, Facial expression,
Conversational interfaces, Anthropomorphism | |||
| Sign Language Interfaces | | BIBAK | PDF | 194-197 | |
| Nancy Frishberg; Serena Corazza; Linda Day; Sherman Wilcox; Rolf Schulmeister | |||
| This panel will start to build the bridge between behavioral scientists who
know deaf communities worldwide, their languages and cultures, and experts in
technical disciplines relating to computers and human interfaces. Keywords: Sign languages, Natural language processing, Computer assisted language
learning, Multimedia, Intercultural issues in interface design, Gestural
representation, Deaf | |||
| Iterative Methodology and Designer Training in Human-Computer Interface Design | | BIBAK | PDF | 198-205 | |
| Gregg (Skip) Bailey | |||
| One of the most promising methods for user interface design is the iterative
design methodology. To this point only case study support for this method has
been given. There are still many unanswered questions about the effectiveness
of this method.
One difficulty encountered in user interface design is knowing what set of knowledge and skill the designer must possess to ensure good user interface design. Many different people have designed user interfaces for computer systems. These people came from a variety of backgrounds and viewpoints. Two of the most common groups involved in user interface design are human factors specialists and programmers. This study investigates these two issues. One factor in this study is the iterative design methodology. An empirical evaluation of this method was conducted. The strengths and weaknesses of this method are discussed. A second factor in this study is a comparison of human factors specialists and programmers in an actual user interface design task. The results of this study indicate that iterative design methodology can improve the usability of a product. The amount of the improvement may be constrained by the original design. This study also supports the use of human factors specialists in user interface design. A significant difference between designs produced by human factors specialists and programmers was found. Keywords: Iterative design methodology, User interface specialists, Programmers | |||
| A Mathematical Model of the Finding of Usability Problems | | BIBAK | PDF | 206-213 | |
| Jakob Nielsen; Thomas K. Landauer | |||
| For 11 studies, we find that the detection of usability problems as a
function of number of users tested or heuristic evaluators employed is well
modeled as a Poisson process. The model can be used to plan the amount of
evaluation required to achieve desired levels of thoroughness or benefits.
Results of early tests can provide estimates of the number of problems left to
be found and the number of additional evaluations needed to find a given
fraction. With quantitative evaluation costs and detection values, the model
can estimate the numbers of evaluations at which optimal cost/benefit ratios
are obtained and at which marginal utility vanishes. For a "medium" example,
we estimate that 16 evaluations would be worth their cost, with maximum
benefit/cost ratio at four. Keywords: Usability problems, Usability engineering, Poisson models, User testing,
Heuristic evaluation, Cost-benefit analysis, Iterative design | |||
| Estimating the Relative Usability of Two Interfaces: Heuristic, Formal, and Empirical Methods Compared | | BIBAK | PDF | 214-221 | |
| Jakob Nielsen; Victoria L. Phillips | |||
| Two alternative user interface designs were subjected to user testing to
measure user performance in a database query task. User performance was also
estimated heuristically in three different ways and by use of formal GOMS
modelling. The estimated values for absolute user performance had very high
variability, but estimates of the relative advantage of the fastest interface
were less variable. Choosing the fastest of the two designs would have a net
present value more than 1,000 times the cost of getting the estimates. A
software manager would make the correct choice every time in our case study if
decisions were based on at least three independent estimates. User testing was
4.9 times as expensive as the cheapest heuristic method but provided better
performance estimates. Keywords: Heuristic evaluation, Heuristic estimation, GOMS, User testing, Usability,
User performance, Absolute performance, Relative performance, Cost-benefit
estimates | |||
| An Evaluation of Earcons for Use in Auditory Human-Computer Interfaces | | BIBAK | PDF | 222-227 | |
| Stephen A. Brewster; Peter C. Wright; Alistair D. N. Edwards | |||
| An evaluation of earcons was carried out to see whether they are an
effective means of communicating information in sound. An initial experiment
showed that earcons were better than unstructured bursts of sound and that
musical timbres were more effective than simple tones. A second experiment was
then carried out which improved upon some of the weaknesses shown up in
Experiment 1 to give a significant improvement in recognition. From the
results of these experiments some guidelines were drawn up for use in the
creation of earcons. Earcons have been shown to be an effective method for
communicating information in a human-computer interface. Keywords: Auditory interfaces, Earcons, Sonification | |||
| Synthesizing Auditory Icons | | BIBAK | PDF | 228-235 | |
| William W. Gaver | |||
| Auditory icons add valuable functionality to computer interfaces,
particularly when they are parameterized to convey dimensional information.
They are difficult to create and manipulate, however, because they usually rely
on digital sampling techniques. This paper suggests that new synthesis
algorithms, controlled along dimensions of events rather than those of the
sounds themselves, may solve this problem. Several algorithms, developed from
research on auditory event perception, are described in enough detail here to
permit their implementation. They produce a variety of impact, bouncing,
breaking, scraping, and machine sounds. By controlling them with attributes of
relevant computer events, a wide range of parameterized auditory icons may be
created. Keywords: Interface techniques, Multimedia, Auditory interfaces, Sound | |||
| Computer Aided Conversation for Severely Physically Impaired Non-Speaking People | | BIBAK | PDF | 236-241 | |
| Norman Alm; John Todman; Leona Elder; A. F. Newell | |||
| This paper reports the development of a computer-aided conversation
prosthesis which is designed for severely physically impaired non-speaking
people. The research methodology was to model aspects of conversational
structure derived from the field of conversation analysis within a prototype
conversational prosthesis. The prototype was evaluated in empirical
investigations which also suggested successful strategies for carrying out
satisfying conversation using such a system. Two versions have been built and
tested, one using an able-bodied operator to test the feasibility of creating
conversation from prestored material, the second being used by a physically
impaired non-speaking operator. The prototype demonstrated the advantages of
this interface design in helping the user to carry out natural sounding and
satisfying conversations. Keywords: Human-computer interaction, User study, Interface design, User observation,
Dialogue design, Discourse analysis, User interfaces, Retrieval models, Search
process, Selection process, Disability, Speech synthesis | |||
| MicroCentre, Dundee: Ordinary and Extra-Ordinary HCI Research | | BIBA | PDF | 242-243 | |
| Alan F. Newell | |||
| The main feature of the MicroCentre research group is a concern for users with a very wide range of characteristics. In addition to main-stream HCI research, it contains the largest academic group in the world investigating the application of computer systems for disabled people, and has a particular interest in systems for people with communication impairment. | |||
| Human-Computer Interaction Research at Massey University, New Zealand | | BIB | PDF | 244-245 | |
| Mark Apperley; Chris Phillips | |||
| The MultiG Research Programme -- Distributed Multimedia Applications on Gigabit Networks | | BIBA | PDF | 246-247 | |
| Bjorn Pehrson; Yngve Sundblad | |||
| The MultiG research programme is an effort conducted in broad cooperation between academia and industry with public support. The main goals are to strengthen the academic infrastructure and industrial competitiveness, to integrate the major research sites in Sweden, and to demonstrate operating prototypes of novel applications and Gigabit networking concepts. The spirit of the program is similar to the spirit of the Gigabit research part of the US NREN effort. | |||
| Flexible, Active Support for Collaboration with ConversationBuilder | | BIBAK | PDF | 248 | |
| Simon M. Kaplan; William J. Tolone; Douglas P. Bogia; Theodore A. Phelps | |||
| We overview the ConversationBuilder system and its demonstration at INTERCHI
93. Keywords: Collaboration environment | |||
| A Groupware Engine Using UIMS Methodologies | | BIBAK | PDF | 249-250 | |
| Lever Wang | |||
| This paper presents a groupware engine running under Microsoft's Windows
developed using a User Interface Management System (UIMS). This groupware
engine will demonstrate some of the important groupware features such as
concurrency control, security, view control, and how these features are best
implemented using a UIMS. By demonstrating these features in a groupware
engine the advantages of applying the UIMS methodology will become self
evident, as well as, the need for such a methodology. Keywords: Groupware, Computer supported cooperative work, User interface management
system | |||
| User Involvement in the Design Process: Why, When and How? | | BIBAK | PDF | 251-254 | |
| Jared Spool; C. Dennis Allen; Don Ballman; Vivienne Begg; Harold H. Miller-Jacobs; Michael Muller; Jakob Nielsen | |||
| For years the CHI community has championed the importance of the user in
system development. As many of us develop systems, we find that the concept of
user involvement is not so easy to implement. Does one always strive to
involve the user in the design process? Are there situations when the users
should not be involved? What if the user is reluctant to change? How is user
involvement handled when the user claims to know all the answers and wants to
design the entire interface his or her way? What if the users, or even
potential users are not available? How can user involvement be accomplished
under these developmental restrictions?
User Involvement, therefore, may be a goal -- not a given, and how to effect user involvement is not as straight forward as the text books convey! To assist the process of user interface development, many techniques have been developed such as Heuristic Evaluation, Participatory Design, Cognitive Walk Throughs, Task Analysis and Rapid Prototyping. These techniques vary considerably in the extent of user involvement that they require. This panel will attempt to match the technique with the degree of user involvement that the developer is faced with or can achieve. The issues discussed in this session are important to the entire user interface community. Developers will be happy to hear that they are not alone; others have similar problems with users. They will learn which of the techniques are best suited for each development situation. Methodologists will gain greater insight into the breadth and depth of working with, and attempting to satisfy various types of users. They may be able to better refine the technologies we now have available to meet the needs of user interface developers. Keywords: Heuristic evaluation, Human factors, Participatory design, Rapid
prototyping, User interface evaluation/methodology, User involvement | |||
| Exploding the Interface: Experiences of a CSCW Network | | BIBAK | PDF | 255-262 | |
| John Bowers; Tom Rodden | |||
| The development of human computer interaction has been dominated by the
interface both as a design concept and as an artifact of computer systems.
However, recently researchers have been re-examining the role of the interface
in the user's interaction with the computer. This paper further examines the
notion of the interface in light of the experiences of the authors in
establishing a network to support cooperative work. The authors argue that the
concept of the single interface which provides a focus for interaction with a
computer system is no longer tenable and that richer conceptions of the
inter-relationships between users and computer systems are needed. Keywords: Cooperative systems, User interface models, Observational studies,
Organisational effects, CSCW | |||
| Searching for Unity among Diversity: Exploring the "Interface" Concept | | BIBAK | PDF | 263-268 | |
| Kari Kuutti; Liam J. Bannon | |||
| Despite widespread interest in the human-computer interaction (HCI) field,
there remains much debate as to appropriate conceptual frameworks for the
field, and even confusion surrounding the meaning of basic terms in the field.
HCI is seen by many as focusing on the design of interfaces to computer
systems, yet exactly what is implied by this focus on "interfaces" is unclear.
In this paper we show how a better understanding of what is meant by the
interface is possible via the concept of abstraction levels. We show how this
levels approach can clarify some ambiguities, and also how it can be related to
different phases in the evolution of the human-computer interaction field
itself. In this context, we are able to account for the recent interest in
activity theory as a possible alternative framework for HCI work, while
stressing the need for HCI research and design to consider each of the
separate, but related, levels. Keywords: Interface, User interface management systems, Abstraction levels, Activity
theory | |||
| The Cost Structure of Sensemaking | | BIBAK | PDF | 269-276 | |
| Daniel M. Russell; Mark J. Stefik; Peter Pirolli; Stuart K. Card | |||
| Making sense of a body of data is a common activity in any kind of analysis.
Sensemaking is the process of searching for a representation and encoding data
in that representation to answer task-specific questions. Different operations
during sensemaking require different cognitive and external resources.
Representations are chosen and changed to reduce the cost of operations in an
information processing task. The power of these representational shifts is
generally under-appreciated as is the relation between sensemaking and
information retrieval.
We analyze sensemaking tasks and develop a model of the cost structure of sensemaking. We discuss implications for the integrated design of user interfaces, representational tools, and information retrieval systems. Keywords: Sensemaking, Cost structure, Representation search, Representation shift,
Learning loop, Information access | |||
| Prototyping an Intelligent Agent through Wizard of Oz | | BIBAK | PDF | 277-284 | |
| David Maulsby; Saul Greenberg; Richard Mander | |||
| Turvy is a simulated prototype of an instructible agent. The user teaches
it by demonstrating actions and pointing at or talking about relevant data. We
formalized our assumptions about what could be implemented, then used the
Wizard of Oz to flesh out a design and observe users' reactions as they taught
several editing tasks. We found: a) all users invent a similar set of commands
to teach the agent; b) users learn the agent's language by copying its speech;
c) users teach simple tasks with ease and complex ones with reasonable effort;
and d) agents cannot expect users to point to or identify critical features
without prompting.
In conducting this rather complex simulation, we learned some lessons about using the Wizard of Oz to prototype intelligent agents: a) design of the simulation benefits greatly from prior implementation experience; b) the agent's behavior and dialog capabilities must be based on formal models; c) studies of verbal discourse lead directly to an implementable system; d) the designer benefits greatly by becoming the Wizard; and e) qualitative data is more valuable for answering global concerns, while quantitative data validates accounts and answers fine-grained questions. Keywords: Intelligent agent, Instructible system, Programming by demonstration, Wizard
of Oz, Prototyping | |||
| A Synergistic Approach to Specifying Simple Number Independent Layouts by Example | | BIBAK | PDF | 285-292 | |
| Scott E. Hudson; Chen-Ning Hsi | |||
| A grid-based technique to specify simple number independent layouts by
example is described. This technique was originally developed to support
layout specification for a parallel program visualization system but can be
applied to aid other simple graphical layout tasks as well. The technique
works by allowing the user to construct an example layout using a grid-based
interaction technique. This example can then be generalized into a layout
algorithm which can be applied to create layouts of any size. However, rather
than simply choosing the "best" generalization, the system described here takes
a synergistic approach. New examples from a set of alternative generalizations
are presented to the user so that they can guide and control the generalization
process. This provides more understanding and control of the generalization
process and typically allows a correct generalization to be constructed from
only one small example. Keywords: Layout specification, Programming by example, Grid-based layout,
Generalization, End-user customization | |||
| Marquise: Creating Complete User Interfaces by Demonstration | | BIBAK | PDF | 293-300 | |
| Brad A. Myers; Richard G. McDaniel; David S. Kosbie | |||
| Marquise is a new interactive tool that allows virtually all of the user
interfaces of graphical editors to be created by demonstration without
programming. A "graphical editor" allows the user to create and manipulate
graphical objects with a mouse. This is a very large class of programs and
includes drawing programs like MacDraw, graph layout editors like MacProject,
visual language editors, and many CAD/CAM programs. The primary innovation in
Marquise is to allow the designer to demonstrate the overall behavior of the
interface. To implement this, the Marquise framework contains knowledge about
palettes for creating and specifying properties of objects, and about
operations such as selecting, moving, and deleting objects. The interactive
tool uses the framework to allow the designer to demonstrate most of the end
user's actions without programming, which means that Marquise can be used by
non-programmers. Keywords: User interface software, User interface management systems, Interface
builders, Demonstrational interfaces, Garnet | |||
| LogoMedia: A Sound-Enhanced Programming Environment for Monitoring Program Behavior | | BIBAK | PDF | 301-302 | |
| Christopher J. DiGiano; Ronald M. Baecker; Russell N. Owen | |||
| Even for the programmer, computer software can be a mysterious black box.
But what if the programmer were able to give the box a good shake and listen to
things rattle inside? Are there tools like the doctor's stethoscope that can
help programmers listen to the heartbeat of their software? These are the
kinds of questions we decided to explore by building LogoMedia, a
sound-enhanced programming environment. LogoMedia supports the ability to
associate non-speech audio with program events while the code is being
developed. These associations cause subsequent test runs of the program to
generate and manipulate sounds which can aid in the comprehension and analysis
of the program's behavior. Keywords: Program auralization, Non-speech audio, Software visualization, Programming
environments | |||
| A Telewriting System on a LAN Using a Pen-Based Computer as the Terminal | | BIB | PDF | 303 | |
| Seiichi Higaki; Hiroshi Taninaka; Shinji Moriya | |||
| Heuristics in Real User Interfaces | | BIBAK | PDF | 304-307 | |
| Brad A. Myers; Richard Wolf; Kathy Potosnak; Chris Graham | |||
| It is the conventional wisdom in user interface design that direct
manipulation is best and that interfaces should be predictable. This tends to
argue against having a system "guess" or use heuristics or other AI approaches.
However, an increasing number of today's successful software products do use
heuristics in their interfaces. The heuristics are used to help guide the user
and to perform tasks that would be too difficult to specify by conventional
direct manipulation approaches. We believe that user interface designers will
increasingly need to consider using heuristic techniques in their interfaces.
This panel discusses a number of today's successful products using heuristics
and the important HCI design issues such as feedback. Keywords: Heuristics, Demonstrational interfaces, Artificial intelligence, Agents | |||
| Exploring the Applications of User-Expertise Assessment for Intelligent Interfaces | | BIBAK | PDF | 308-313 | |
| Michel C. Desmarais; Jiming Liu | |||
| An adaptive user interface relies, to a large extent, upon an adequate user
model (e.g., a representation of user-expertise). However, building a user
model may be a tedious and time consuming task that will render such an
interface unattractive to developers. We thus need an effective means of
inferring the user model at low cost. In this paper, we describe a technique
for automatically inferring a fine-grain model of a user's knowledge state
based on a small number of observations. With this approach, the domain of
knowledge to be evaluated is represented as a network of nodes (knowledge units
-- KU) and links (implications) induced from empirical user profiles. The user
knowledge state is specified as a set of weights attached to the knowledge
units that indicate the likelihood of mastery. These weights are updated every
time a knowledge unit is reassigned a new weight (e.g., by a
question-and-answer process). The updating scheme is based on the
Dempster-Shafer algorithm. A User Knowledge Assessment Tool (UKAT) that
employs this technique has been implemented. By way of simulations, we explore
an entropy-based method of choosing questions, and compare the results with a
random sampling method. The experimental results show that the proposed
knowledge assessment and questioning methods are useful and efficient in
inferring detailed models of user-expertise, but the entropy-based method can
induce a bias in some circumstances. Keywords: User-expertise assessment, Probabilistic reasoning, Evidence aggregation,
Entropy, Intelligent interfaces, Adaptive training systems, Knowledge spaces | |||
| Planning for Multiple Task Work -- An Analysis of a Medical Reception Worksystem | | BIBAK | PDF | 314-320 | |
| Becky Hill; John Long; Walter Smith; Andy Whitefield | |||
| This paper presents an investigation of interactive worksystem planning in
the multiple task work domain of medical reception. In an observational study
of a medical reception worksystem, three different types of plan were
identified: the task plan, the procedure plan and the activity plan. These
three types of plan were required for effective working in the domain of
medical reception, because of the many similar concurrent tasks, the frequency
of behaviour switching between tasks and the need for consistency within the
worksystem. It is proposed, therefore, that to design effective interactive
human-computer worksystems for the domain of medical reception (and possibly
for other work domains of a similar nature), the designer must specify the
three different types of plan and the relationships between them. The three
types of plan in medical reception are discussed in the context of design
issues such as the allocation of planning structures. Keywords: Medical reception, Planning and control, Multiple tasks | |||
| The Diary Study: A Workplace-Oriented Research Tool to Guide Laboratory Efforts | | BIBAK | PDF | 321-326 | |
| John Rieman | |||
| Methods for studying user behavior in HCI can be informally divided into two
approaches: experimental psychology in the laboratory and observations in the
workplace. The first approach has been faulted for providing results that have
little effect on system usability, while the second can often be accused of
yielding primarily anecdotal data that do not support general conclusions.
This paper describes two similar approaches in another field, the study of
animal behavior, and shows how they produce complementary results. To support
similar complementary interactions between research approaches in the HCI
field, the paper describes the diary study technique, a tool for research in
the workplace that achieves a relatively high standard of objectivity. A diary
study is reported that focuses on exploratory learning. Keywords: Diary studies, Methodologies, Participatory design, Situated cognition,
Exploratory learning | |||