| Long-Term Interaction: Learning the 4 Rs | | BIBAK | HTML | 169-170 | |
| Alan Dix; Devina Ramduny; Julie Wilkinson | |||
| In long-term interaction (over minutes, hours, or days) the tight cycle of
action and feedback is broken. People have to remember that they have to do
things, that other people should do things and why things happen when they do.
This paper describes some results of a study into long-term processes
associated with the running of the HCI'95 conference. The focus is on the
events which trigger the occurrence of activities. However, during the study
we also discovered a recurrent pattern of activities and triggers we have
called the 4Rs. For a longer report see [2]. Keywords: Interruptions, Reminders, Events, Workflow | |||
| Walking the Walk is Doing the Work: Flexible Interaction Management in Video-Supported Cooperative Work | | BIBAK | HTML | 171-172 | |
| Steinar Kristoffersen; Tom Rodden | |||
| This paper considers the effects of video-based communication systems on
individual, local mobility in the everyday, practical 'space' of work.
Previous academic research emphasises how video can extend and enhance space.
We found, doing a focused ethnography, that video, in a trade-off between
'real' and 'virtual' mobility, restricted the use of personal, workaday,
physical space. Issues thus raised for design of video-based systems are:
physical mobility in workaday space during sessions; modal and temporal
switching between different means of communication; individual work during
collective activities; and, alternating between tasks as part of articulating
the work. Keywords: Video, Communication, Multimedia, Space, Mobility | |||
| Office Monitor | | BIBAK | HTML | 173-174 | |
| Nicole Yankelovich; Cynthia D. McLain | |||
| The Office Monitor is a walk-up speech system in an office setting. We
present strategies developed to address design issues which emerged during a
pre-design study. A follow-up user study showed that although effective, these
strategies were inadequate; therefore, we propose design modifications. Keywords: Conversational interaction, Speech interface design, Office automation | |||
| Visual Access for 3D Data | | BIBAK | HTML | 175-176 | |
| David J. Cowperthwaite; M. Sheelagh; T. Carpendale; F. David Fracchia | |||
| We describe a novel solution to the problem of occlusion in viewing
three-dimensional data. A distortion function is used to clear a line of sight
to previously obscured interior elements. Keywords: Distortion viewing, 3D interaction | |||
| An Interface Strategy for Promoting Reflective Cognition in Children | | BIBAK | 177-178 | |
| Kamran Sedighian; Maria M. Klawe | |||
| We present a strategy for interface design in mathematical computer games.
Our goal is to encourage children to consciously think about the underlying
mathematical concepts while playing. We believe our strategy and our
experiences leading to its formulation can provide useful insights for the
design of educational software in general. Keywords: Representation, Reflective cognition, Children, Education, Mathematical
computer games | |||
| Design Issues Involving Entertainment Click-Ons | | BIBAK | HTML | 179-180 | |
| Douglas Super; Marvin Westrom; Maria Klawe | |||
| Preliminary results and methodology is reported for the effectiveness of
entertainment click-ons in edutainment software. Indices for findability,
popularity and effectiveness are discussed. School and home use data were
obtained from log files built for Counting on Frank, a CD-ROM math adventure
for ages 8-12 published by EA Kids in late 1994. Keywords: Click-ons, Edutainment, Interface design, Log files, Games, Mathematics,
Children, Motivation | |||
| Children's Collaboration Styles in a Newtonian MicroWorld | | BIBAK | HTML | 181-182 | |
| Andy Cockburn; Saul Greenberg | |||
| TurboTurtle is a animated multi-user microworld that children use to explore
concepts in Newtonian physics. It is a groupware system where students, each
on their own computer, can simultaneous control the microworld and gesture in a
shared view. Observations of pairs of young children using TurboTurtle
highlight extremes in collaboration styles, from conflict to smooth
interaction. Keywords: Computer supported collaborative learning, Microworlds | |||
| ASK Jasper: Performance Support for Students | | BIBAK | HTML | 183-184 | |
| Ray Bareiss; Susan M. Williams | |||
| This paper describes ASK Jasper, a hypermedia performance support system
that provides a structured work environment and in-context help and advice to
students as they learn the concepts and skills of empirical geometry through
solving a complex design problem. Keywords: Educational applications, Performance support, Hypermedia | |||
| Designing Pedagogical Screen Savers | | BIBAK | HTML | 185-186 | |
| Chris DiGiano; Michael Eisenberg | |||
| The burgeoning complexity of professional application software -- the
proliferation of interface options, available functionality, and end-user
languages -- has resulted in the need to think creatively about ways in which
such software may be made more learnable. This paper describes one promising
technique -- the pedagogical screen saver -- whose purpose is to introduce
users to application functionality, entertainingly and unobtrusively, during
the program's "idle time." We describe a running prototype of such a screen
saver for a programmable charting application. Keywords: Screen savers, Programmable applications, Software design, Chart'n'Art | |||
| Using Cognitive Dimensions in the Classroom as a Discussion Tool for Visual Language Design | | BIBAK | HTML | 187-188 | |
| Nicholas P. Wilde | |||
| Green's cognitive dimensions framework has been put forth as a defined
vocabulary for discussing HCI design [3]. To be a useful discussion tool, we
must agree on common definitions of the cognitive dimensions, and the
dimensions need to be such that an educated user would be able to apply them
correctly and consistently. I report on using the cognitive dimensions
framework as a tool for discussion in a graduate level class on visual
programming languages, and the class's experience applying the framework. Keywords: Cognitive dimensions, Visual languages, Design and evaluation techniques | |||
| The Usability of Scribble Matching | | BIBAK | HTML | 189-190 | |
| David Frohlich; Richard Hull | |||
| Scribble matching is a facility developed for pen-computers which allows
users to search electronic ink. Here we report our first user evaluation of
scribble matching in a scribble phonebook application. 12 users each retrieved
40 phone numbers using combinations of scribble look-up, text look-up and
manual browsing. Scribble look-up was preferred to the other two methods
despite problems in remembering original handwritten labels in the phonebook. Keywords: Pen, Handwriting, Retrieval, Usability | |||
| What Architects See in Their Sketches: Implications for Design Tools | | BIBAK | HTML | 191-192 | |
| Masaki Suwa; Barbara Tversky | |||
| Freehand sketches are essential for crystallizing ideas in the early stages
of design. Through the act of putting ideas down on paper and inspecting them,
designers see new relations and features that suggest ways to refine and revise
their ideas. We claim that seeing different types of information in sketches
is the driving force in revising design ideas. Our retrospective protocol
analysis revealed that sketches make apparent to designers not only perceptual
features but also inherently non-visual functional relations, allowing them to
extract function from perception in sketches. This has implications for ways
that future sketching tools can stimulate designers to come up with creative
ideas. Keywords: Design sketch, Sketching tools, Architectural design, Protocol analysis,
Creativity | |||
| Sketching Storyboards to Illustrate Interface Behaviors | | BIBAK | HTML | 193-194 | |
| James A. Landay; Brad A. Myers | |||
| Current user interface construction tools make it difficult for a user
interface designer to illustrate the behavior of an interface. These tools
focus on specifying widgets and manipulating details such as colors. They can
show what the interface will look like, but make it hard to show what it will
do. For these reasons, designers prefer to sketch early interface ideas on
paper. We have developed a tool called SILK that allows designers to quickly
sketch an interface electronically. Unlike paper sketches, this electronic
sketch is interactive. The designer can illustrate behaviors by sketching
storyboards, which specify how the screen should change in response to user
actions. Keywords: Gestures, Design, Sketching, Interaction techniques, SILK | |||
| EtchaPad -- Disposable Sketch Based Interfaces | | BIBAK | 195-196 | |
| Jonathan Meyer | |||
| This paper describes a paradigm in which the user creates simple drawings or
'sketches' of user interfaces and then interacts directly with those sketches.
It introduces EtchaPad, a system utilizing this technology to implement a
drawing package. Several EtchaPad widget types are described, including
buttons, sliders, and compound widgets. Keywords: User interfaces, Zoomable interfaces, Sketching, Interaction techniques,
Pad++, Pen based computing | |||
| Considerations for Electronic Idea-Creation Tools | | BIBAK | HTML | 197-198 | |
| I. M. Verstijnen; R. Stuyver; J. M. Hennessey; C. C. van Leeuwen; R. Hamel | |||
| Recent research into the psychology of paper-and-pencil sketching reveals
two ongoing interacting processes during a creative process. The first of
these processes can easily be performed in mental imagery and hence is not
supported by sketching, the second is hard to perform before the mental eye,
and hence is supported by sketching. It is argued that, in order to be
intuitive, electronic sketching tools must meet the requirements of firstly not
impeding the first of the two processes and secondly support and enhance the
second process. Keywords: CAD-tools, Paper & pencil sketching, Creativity, Discovery | |||
| Augmenting Real-World Objects: A Paper-Based Audio Notebook | | BIBAK | HTML | 199-200 | |
| Lisa J. Stifelman | |||
| The Audio Notebook allows a user to capture and access an audio recording of
a lecture or meeting in conjunction with notes written on paper. The audio
recording is synchronized with the user's handwritten notes and page turns. As
a user flips through physical pages of notes, the audio scans to the start of
each page. Audio is also accessed by pointing with a pen to a location in the
notes or using an audio scrollbar. A small observational study of users in
real settings was performed. The prototype did not interfere with the user's
normal interactions yet gave reassurance that key ideas could be accessed
later. In future work, automatic segmentation of the recorded speech using
acoustic cues will be combined with user activity to structure the audio. Keywords: Speech interfaces, Speech as data | |||
| Task Elaboration or Label Following: An Empirical Study of Representation in Human-Computer Interaction | | BIBAK | HTML | 201-202 | |
| Robert B. Terwilliger; Peter G. Polson | |||
| A study measured the time experienced Macintosh users took to create a graph
from pre-existing data, including the assignment of variables to axes in a
dialog box. The study revealed that the task took less time when the items in
the dialog box were labeled in terms of one problem representation, even when
the instructions were written in terms of another. The Kitajima and Polson
model explains this as resulting from the problem representation being
elaborated with task-specific schemata during the instruction comprehension
process. Keywords: Empirical studies, Cognitive models | |||
| When Using the Tool Interferes with Doing the Task | | BIBAK | HTML | 203-204 | |
| Susan S. Kirschenbaum; Wayne D. Gray; Brian D. Ehret; Sheryl L. Miller | |||
| How much time the user spends working on a task versus fiddling with the
tool is an important aspect of usability. The concept of the ratio and
distribution of tool-only operations to total operations is proposed to capture
this aspect. Keywords: Problem space, Submarines, Usability | |||
| Supporting Awareness of Others in Groupware (Suite Summary) | | BIB | HTML | 205 | |
| Carl Gutwin; Saul Greenberg; Mark Roseman | |||
| Peepholes: Low Cost Awareness of One's Community | | BIBAK | HTML | 206-207 | |
| Saul Greenberg | |||
| In distributed communities, media spaces supply people with an awareness of
who is around by displaying video or periodic snapshots of common areas and
offices. This in turn facilitates casual interaction. Peepholes is a low cost
alternative. Instead of video, iconic presence indicators show the
availability of people in a virtual community. If people are absent, a user
can 'ambush' them by asking the system to announce their return. When
interaction is desired, people can easily contact one another because
communication software is just a button-press away. Keywords: Groupware, Contact facilitation, Awareness, Coordination | |||
| Workspace Awareness for Groupware | | BIBAK | HTML | 208-209 | |
| Carl Gutwin; Saul Greenberg | |||
| Shared physical workspaces allow people to maintain up-to-the minute
knowledge about others' interaction with the workspace. This knowledge is
workspace awareness, part of the glue that allows groups to collaborate
effectively. In this paper, we present the concept of workspace awareness as a
key for groupware systems that wish to support the fluid interaction evident in
face-to-face collaboration. We discuss why workspace awareness is difficult to
support in groupware systems, and then present a conceptual framework that
groupware designers can use as a starting point for thinking about and
supporting awareness. Keywords: Workspace awareness, Groupware, CSCW | |||
| Workspace Awareness Support with Radar Views | | BIBAK | HTML | 210-211 | |
| Carl Gutwin; Saul Greenberg; Mark Roseman | |||
| Real-time groupware systems often let each participant control their own
view into a shared workspace. This strategy can reduce awareness about where
and how others are interacting with the document or the workspace artifacts.
We have designed a number of awareness widgets to help people regain this
awareness. In this paper we present several radar views that provide awareness
information on top of a global overview of the workspace. Our displays give
lightweight access to information about others' locations and activities,
providing for richer person-to-person interaction in groupware systems. Keywords: Radar views, Widgets, Workspace awareness | |||
| A Fisheye Text Editor for Relaxed-WYSIWIS Groupware | | BIBAK | HTML | 212-213 | |
| Saul Greenberg | |||
| Participants in a real-time groupware conference require a sense of
awareness about other people's interactions within a large shared workspace.
Fisheye views can afford this awareness by assigning a focal point to each
participant. The fisheye effect around these multiple focal points provides
peripheral awareness by showing people's location in the global context, and by
magnifying the area around their work to highlight interaction details. An
adjustable magnification function lets people customize the awareness
information to fit their collaboration needs. A fisheye text editor
illustrates how this can be accomplished. Keywords: Groupware, Fisheye views, Awareness, Visualization | |||
| A Usability Study of Workspace Awareness Widgets | | BIBAK | HTML | 214-215 | |
| Carl Gutwin; Mark Roseman | |||
| Groupware systems that use large shared workspaces generally provide only
limited awareness information about other collaborators in the workspace. We
are designing a set of groupware widgets to provide this missing information.
This paper describes a usability study of a number of such widgets. The study
has both validated our intuitions about the need for workspace awareness
information, and revealed the strengths and weaknesses of several current
designs. Keywords: Groupware, CSCW, Awareness, Usability | |||
| Models of Work Practice: Can they Support the Analysis of System Designs? (Suite Summary) | | BIB | PS | 216 | |
| William Newman | |||
| Designing for User Acceptance using Analysis Techniques based on Responsibility Modelling | | BIBAK | PS | 217-218 | |
| Richard Harper; William Newman | |||
| An initial hurdle encountered by new information systems is user acceptance,
and many systems fail this test at great cost to customers and developers. We
have investigated methods, based on models of users' responsibilities, for
assessing a system's likelihood of acceptance or rejection. We describe an
instance of testing a design heuristic based on responsibility modelling. Keywords: Analytical models, Responsibilities, Design heuristics | |||
| Agenda Benders: Modelling the Disruptions Caused by Technology Failures in the Workplace | | BIBAK | PS | 219-220 | |
| Margery Eldridge; William Newman | |||
| There is a need to understand the impact of technology failures on work. In
the studies reported here, subjects' plans at the start of each day were
compared with their eventual accomplishments, and failures to carry out plans
were investigated. A number of sources of disruption were identified; they
included technology failures, which had a particular tendency to act as "agenda
benders," preventing the completion of important activities. Keywords: Diary studies, Productivity, Usability, Technology failures | |||
| Modelling Last-Minute Authoring: Does Technology Add Value or Encourage Tinkering? | | BIBAK | PS | 221-222 | |
| William Newman; Margery Eldridge; Richard Harper | |||
| To measure the productivity gained from computer-based authoring systems,
account must be taken of changes in the way the work is organised. An analysis
of economists' authoring work, based on diary studies, suggests that much of
this is performed at the last minute, just in time to meet deadlines. Benefits
gained from word processing appear to be offset by authors' tendency to tinker
with documents up to the last minute. Keywords: Documents, Authoring, Diary studies | |||
| Supporting Doctor-Patient Interaction: Using a Surrogate Application as a Basis for Evaluation | | BIBAK | PS | 223-224 | |
| Alex Dennis; William Newman | |||
| Interactive systems to support experts in consultation with clients, such as
systems for general practitioners (GPs), need to be tested under realistic
conditions. However this presents risks to the client, and hence a similar but
less risk-prone "surrogate" application may be chosen. We describe an attempt
to conduct a comparative evaluation of three technologies for GP support by
applying them to careers counselling as a surrogate. While the task appeared
to be adequately supported, we were unable to measure the impact of the
technologies on conversational turntaking. We make some suggestions on how to
avoid this problem in future experiments of this kind. Keywords: Medical information systems, Expert-client interaction, Evaluation | |||
| Moving Motion Metaphors | | BIBAK | HTML | 225-226 | |
| Colin Ware | |||
| A class of visual metaphors is introduced in which simple animation conveys
meaning about motion metaphorically. Antecedents in the form of static
metaphors for visually conveying motion are discussed, followed by two examples
of moving motion metaphors. The second is an integral part of a new heads-up
flying interface for navigating 3D environments. Some concluding remarks are
made concerning the practical uses of moving motion metaphors. Keywords: Metaphors, 3D interaction | |||
| Effectiveness of Spatial Level of Detail Degradation in the Periphery of Head-Mounted Displays | | BIBAK | HTML | 227-228 | |
| Benjamin Watson; Neff Walker; Larry F. Hodges | |||
| Many researchers have proposed degradation of peripheral visual detail as a
technique that can both improve frame rates in virtual environments systems,
and minimize perceptual impact. A user study was performed to evaluate the
effectiveness of this technique when used with head-mounted displays. Primary
dependent measures were search time on correctly performed trials and
percentage of all trials performed incorrectly. Results showed that a
substantial amount of peripheral detail can be eliminated before user
performance is impacted. The performance impact of peripheral detail
degradation will vary greatly with task difficulty, although it should be
useful even in the most taxing environments. Keywords: Immersive virtual environments, Virtual reality, Level of detail,
Head-mounted displays, Usability, Search | |||
| Getting a Grasp on Virtual Reality | | BIBAK | HTML | 229-230 | |
| Richard J. Aldridge; Karen Carr; Rupert England; John F. Meech; Tony Solomonides | |||
| This paper describes the development and initial evaluation of a novel
system for providing force-feedback to a user's' hand in a virtual environment.
The development addresses the problem of providing simple (robust and low cost)
but effective sensory cues to assist a user in grasping virtual objects. The
approach is to provide approximate but distinctive 'solidity' feedback, which
together with visual cues creates the sensation of having grasped an object.
The initial evaluations indicate that user response is very favourable. Keywords: Evaluation, Input devices, Interaction technology, Touch and force feedback,
Virtual reality | |||
| Fast Haptic Textures | | BIBAK | 231-232 | |
| Juhani O. Siira; Dinesh K. Pai | |||
| We present a fast algorithm for generating haptic texture for simulations of
virtual environments. The method is based on surface roughness analysis and is
usable on a variety of force feedback haptic interfaces. Keywords: Haptic, Stochastic, Texture | |||
| Vection with Large Screen 3D Imagery | | BIBAK | HTML | 233-234 | |
| Kathy Lowther; Colin Ware | |||
| Vection is the illusory impression of self motion that can be obtained when
an observer views a large screen display containing a rotating or translating
pattern. To aid in our construction of an interactive large screen interface
to virtual 3D environments, we conducted studies to determine the factors which
induce a sense of vection. We found that having a foreground frame and a
stereo display increased vection. If subjects moved when the display was being
observed then vection decreased. However, if the perspective was coupled to
their head position while they moved then vection was restored. Keywords: Vection, Virtual environments | |||
| High Fidelity for Immersive Displays | | BIBAK | HTML | 235-236 | |
| Gernot Schaufler; Tomasz Mazuryk; Dieter Schmalstieg | |||
| Head-tracked immersive displays suffer from lag and non-uniform frame rates.
A novel rendering architecture is proposed that combines head prediction with
dynamic impostors for 3-D image correction and achieves bounded frame rates and
significantly reduced lag. Keywords: Virtual reality, Head tracking, Immersion, Lag, Prediction, Uniform frame
rates, Impostors | |||
| Electronic Mail Previews Using Non-Speech Audio | | BIBAK | HTML | 237-238 | |
| Scott E. Hudson; Ian Smith | |||
| Conventional (visual) glances give a quick overview of the overall
properties of an object. An audio glance presents a similar overview aurally
rather than visually. This paper describes an audio glance for electronic mail
messages. This dynamically constructed non-speech sound is designed to
summarize the important properties of a message into a concise sound so that
one may quickly preview a set of email messages to determine their important
properties. This allows the user to make a quick assessment of, for example,
the existence of messages from particular users or groups, or of responses to a
recent message of importance. Along with the audio glance technique we present
a "flash card" interface which provides very rapid access to the glance. Keywords: Non-speech audio, Audio icons, Audio glances, Email, Flash card interfaces | |||
| Grassroots: Providing a Uniform Framework for Communicating, Sharing Information, and Organizing People | | BIBAK | HTML | 239-240 | |
| Kenichi Kamiya; Martin Roscheisen; Terry Winograd | |||
| People currently use a disparate set of systems such as e-mail, newsgroups,
hypermail, shared Web hotlists, hierarchical indexes, etc. for activities which
often cut across the boundaries implicit in each of these systems. Grassroots
is a system that provides a uniform user-conceptual model to functionalities
currently found in such systems, while not requiring people to give up other
systems. It is designed to co-exist with and leverage from existing systems.
A prototype implementation has been completed based on a Web http proxy. Keywords: Activity-level interface integration, E-mail, Newsgroups | |||
| The Telephony Customer Interface: Five Perspectives on Problems and Solutions (Suite Summary) | | BIBA | HTML | 241 | |
| John Chin; Gregory Tatchell | |||
| Collectively, this suite of five papers illustrate the diverse set of issues
that should be addressed to formulate a strategic path towards resolving
existing and growing usability problems found in telecommunications.
Specifically, there are three main thrusts applied in developing profitable and
competitive new services:
1) identifying sources of usability problems
2) exploring potential design solutions that address current and future user
needs 3) implementing prototypes to assess the feasibility of design concepts. | |||
| Problems with the Existing Telephony Customer Interface: The Pending Eclipse of Touch-Tone and Dial-Tone | | BIBAK | HTML | 242-243 | |
| Gregory R. Tatchell | |||
| The existing telephony customer interface is based on the input of commands
to the telephone system via the touch tone pad of a standard telephone set.
The services activated by these commands are hard to learn, easy to forget and
confusing because of this restrictive user interface. A solution to ease of
use problems (and the 30 others associated with the existing touch-tone
telephony interface) requires a new interface. The success of the graphical
user interface in the PC industry suggests the following question for the
telephone industry: "Is it possible to achieve the same quantum increase in
ease-of-use with the customer interface in the telephony industry as was
achieved in the PC industry?" This and four associated mini-papers explore
both the problems that exist and solutions that can be considered. Keywords: Phone-based interfaces, Intelligent agents, Personal agents, Voice
recognition | |||
| Making a Simple Interface Complex: Interactions among Telephone Features | | BIBA | HTML | 244-245 | |
| Nancy Griffeth | |||
| Without features, the telephone interface is simple and can easily be taught to a child, but the proliferation of telephone features makes the telephone's behavior hard for an adult to understand. The difficulty arises not just from the need to learn several ways of using the telephone, but also from the interactions among features, which can cause each feature to behave differently in the presence of other features. In this paper, we describe some of the problems feature interactions present to telephone users, and discuss their extent. | |||
| From Interactions to Interfaces: Butlers, Job Descriptions and Personal Agents | | BIBK | HTML | 246-247 | |
| Dave Darville; David Hignett | |||
Keywords: Communication services, Personal assistants, Interactions, Personal agents | |||
| Personality Trait Attributions to Voice Mail User Interfaces | | BIBAK | HTML | 248-249 | |
| John P. Chin | |||
| The present study assesses user perceptions of current voice mail systems
and identifies desirable traits that should be incorporated in future
agent-based products. Both novices and experts ascribed similar personality
traits to voice mail user interfaces: practical, intelligent, courteous,
efficient, straight-forward, sophisticated, methodical, progressive and alert.
Surprisingly, significantly more experts desired a more imaginative personality
than novices. Moreover, 20% of the experts did not associate imaginative with
voice mail systems tested. The results suggest that future voice mail user
interface for experts should project an imaginative quality. Keywords: Phone-based interfaces, Voice mail, Personality, Agents | |||
| Technical Considerations in the Design of an Intelligent Agent Using Automated Speech Recognition (ASR) | | BIBAK | 250-251 | |
| Don Xiangdong Cai; Kenneth Chan | |||
| The objective of this paper is to discuss the impacts of the ASR technology
on the design of an intelligent agent. Using ASR as the primary User Interface
(UI) technology, the intelligent agent defines the fifth generation telephone
customer interface which solves the problems with the touch-tone interface of
the existing telephony services. To identify issues and search for solutions
of the design of an intelligent agent, a prototype to demonstrate the concepts
of the design was developed and used for customer researches. Based on our
research and experiences, the technical issues identified and suggestions are
presented in this paper. Keywords: Agents, Interface design, Prototyping, Voice recognition, Network &
Communication | |||
| Animation in a Demonstrational Interface Builder | | BIBAK | 252-253 | |
| Gene L. Fisher; Hsin-Hui Sung; Suzanne H. Nguyen; Thang D. Nguyen | |||
| This paper describes the integration of animation capabilities into a
demonstrational interface builder. Basic interface behavior is defined using a
technique called stimulus-response demonstration. To support animation, a
number of new primitives have been added to specify paths, animated sprites,
and timing control. These new capabilities have been smoothly integrated with
the stimulus/response mechanism to provide high-level animation control. This
integration permits animations to be manipulated in a number of useful and
interesting ways. Keywords: Animation, Demonstrational interfaces, Interface builders, User interface
management systems | |||
| Early Prototyping Based on Executable Task Models (PostScript) | | BIBAK | PS | 254-255 | |
| Birgit Bomsdorf; Gerd Szwillus | |||
| Research has shown the great importance of task models for the design of
human-computer interfaces. In this paper we develop a task model enriched with
more complex relations between tasks. This model can be executed and dependent
on the abstraction level of the development process graphical representations
or early ideas of screen layout can be attached to it. With this technique,
prototypes can be used very early in the design process, improving the
capabilities to evaluate the model. Keywords: Task model, Executable task model, Temporal relations, Prototyping,
User-interface design | |||
| Models that Shape Design | | BIBA | HTML | 256 | |
| Peter Johnson | |||
| Modelling is a common ground for both research and practice in human computer interaction. For example, various human factors models are used to evaluate the quality and efficiency of interactive systems. Similarly, system designers employ a range of modelling techniques in the analysis, construction and development of interactive systems. This suite of papers considers some examples of the various classes of models that form an important part of HCI. | |||
| Towards a Framework of Design Models | | BIBA | HTML | 257-258 | |
| Mathilde Bekker; Stephanie Wilson | |||
| This paper presents a framework for examining design models (e.g. task models, dialogue models) and their usage in the design process (e.g. elicitation, evaluation). The framework provides a basis for describing design methods in terms of the models they incorporate, for exploring the common ground between methods and for analysing studies of design in practice. The ideas are exemplified in a discussion of the use of task models in three design methods. Keywords Design methods, models, design support, task models. | |||
| Task Model Support for Cooperative Analysis | | BIBAK | HTML | 259-260 | |
| Eamonn J. O'Neill | |||
| Software usability is a function of how well the software supports the
user's situated tasks, so it is important for the software developer to acquire
a sound knowledge of the user's roles, tasks and working environment. The
research reported here assumes that the user is a primary source of such
knowledge and examines how this knowledge may feed directly into the software
developer's understanding through user-developer cooperation in analysis and
modelling. This short paper briefly reports on the use of task models as
representations to support cooperative analysis and concludes that task models
provide a useful common ground for user-developer communication and
cooperation. Keywords: Cooperative analysis, Task modelling | |||
| Predictive Evaluation Using Task Knowledge Structures | | BIBAK | HTML | 261-262 | |
| Fraser Hamilton | |||
| Task Knowledge Structures (TKS) are models of users' domain tasks. These
TKS models are being utilised within the design process to facilitate design
generation and early evaluation of interactive systems. By understanding the
knowledge users possess of their domain, we believe that we can support
designers in generating designs in a principled manner. Often it may be
desirable to change the ways in which users perform their tasks, e.g. to
improve task efficiency. However, in changing the nature of users' tasks it is
possible to introduce learning problems. We are attempting to produce a
framework for predicting what difficulties users might have in using the new
system by comparing the knowledge they currently have about their domain to the
knowledge required to interact effectively with a system designed to support
their goals in that domain. Keywords: Models, Conceptual design, TKS, Prediction, Evaluation | |||
| Beyond Task Analysis: Exploiting Task Models in Application Implementation | | BIBAK | HTML | 263-264 | |
| Michael J. Smith; Eamonn J. O'Neill | |||
| This paper briefly reports how task models may be exploited in software
development beyond early analysis and specifically within application
implementation. We describe three ways in which task models have been used
directly to support application implementation and briefly touch upon how such
use impacts upon the usability of the resulting application. Keywords: Task models, Application implementation, Workflow | |||
| Continuous and Explicit Dialogue Modelling | | BIBAK | HTML | 265-266 | |
| Thomas Elwert | |||
| Dialogue modelling represents an important stage in the User Interface (UI)
development process. Existing UI development methodologies do not reflect
sufficiently this importance by including an explicit dialogue model which
covers all levels of dialogue modelling and uses a uniform notation. The paper
argues the need for an explicit dialogue model and its continuous development
to improve the homogeneity of the entire UI development process. Further, the
paper outlines such a model-based approach which supports continuous and
explicit dialogue modelling. Keywords: Human-computer interaction, User interface design, Dialogue model, Graphical
dialogue notation | |||
| Negotiating User-Initiated Cancellation and Interruption Requests | | BIBAK | HTML | 267-268 | |
| Manuel A. Perez-Quinones; John L. Sibert | |||
| Interruptions and cancellations are important parts of a user interface, yet
they are treated as special cases in user interface design and notations. In
an effort to build a dialogue notation that allows for effective definition of
these commands or user turns, we present a behavioral definition of
interruptions and cancellations. We show several examples of how our
definition accounts for different forms of behavior. The behavioral
definitions provided here are a step towards providing better support for the
definition and implementation of these turns. Keywords: Cancellations, Interruptions, Human-computer dialogues | |||
| An Interface Design Tool Based on Explicit Task Models | | BIBAK | HTML | 269-270 | |
| Tom Hinrichs; Ray Bareiss; Lawrence Birnbaum; Gregg Collins | |||
| Producing high-quality, comprehensible human interfaces is a difficult,
labor-intensive process that requires experience and judgment. In this paper,
we describe an approach to assisting this process by using explicit models of
the user's task to drive the interface design and to serve as a functional
component of the interface itself. The task model helps to ensure that the
resulting interface directly and transparently supports the user in performing
his task, and serves as a scaffolding for providing in-context help and advice.
By crafting a library of standardized, reusable tasks and interface constructs,
we believe it is possible to capture some of the design expertise and to
amortize much of the labor required for building effective user interfaces. Keywords: Model-based interface design tools, Task analysis | |||
| GroupWeb: A WWW Browser as Real Time Groupware | | BIBAK | HTML | 271-272 | |
| Saul Greenberg; Mark Roseman | |||
| GroupWeb is a browser that allows group members to visually share and
navigate World Wide Web pages in real time. Its groupware features include
document and view slaving for synchronizing information sharing, telepointers
for enacting gestures, and relaxed "what you see is what I see" views to handle
display differences. A groupware text editor lets groups create and attach
annotations to pages. An immediate application of GroupWeb is as a
presentation tool for real time distance education and conferencing. Keywords: Word wide web, Groupware, Shared visual workspaces | |||
| Do-I-Care: A Collaborative Web Agent | | BIBAK | HTML | 273-274 | |
| Brian Starr; Mark S. Ackerman; Michael Pazzani | |||
| Social filtering and collaborative resource discovery mechanisms often fail
because of the extra burden, even tiny, placed on the user. This work proposes
an innovative World Wide Web agent that uses a model of collaboration that
leverages the natural incentives for individual users to easily provide for
collaborative work. Keywords: Computer-supported cooperative work, CSCW, Social filtering, Collaboration,
World Wide Web | |||
| TeamRooms: Groupware for Shared Electronic Spaces | | BIBAK | HTML | 275-276 | |
| Mark Roseman; Saul Greenberg | |||
| Teams whose members are in close physical proximity often rely on team rooms
to serve both as meeting places and repositories of the documents and artifacts
that support the team's projects. TeamRooms is a prototype groupware system
designed to fill the role of a team room for groups whose members can work both
co-located and at a distance. Facilities in TeamRooms allow team members to
collaborate either in real-time or asynchronously, and to customize their
shared electronic space to suit their needs. Keywords: Groupware, CSCW, Shared electronic spaces | |||
| Guidelines for Designing Usable World Wide Web Pages | | BIBAK | HTML | 277-278 | |
| Jose A. Borges; Israel Morales; Nestor J. Rodriguez | |||
| The proliferation of World Wide Web pages with poor usability is a serious
problem because these pages waste user time, discourage exploration and could
be responsible for a large amount of unnecessary traffic on the Internet. To
alleviate this problem, we are proposing a set of simple guidelines for
designing usable Web pages. The guidelines were compiled from a heuristic
evaluation of existing Web sites. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the
usability of home pages designed with the proposed guidelines. The experiment
demonstrated that designers of Web pages can improve the usability of home
pages by applying these guidelines. Keywords: Usability testing, Interaction design, World Wide Web, WWW pages design | |||
| Creating User Manuals for Use in Collaborative Design | | BIBAK | HTML | 279-280 | |
| Harold Thimbleby | |||
| User manuals are usually written by technical authors after the design of
the device has been committed for production. If the manual's review leads to
insight into the design, it is too late. Meanwhile, if the design is modified,
the manual may be inaccurate. This paper describes an example language for
creating accurate and complete manuals from formal specifications. We show how
it can be used to improve part of the Flight Crew Operating Manual for the
Airbus A320 fly-by-wire airplane. The technique is easy to implement, can be
generalised to other domains, and contributes to concurrent engineering
practice -- increasing common ground between engineers, users and HCI
practitioners. Keywords: User manuals, Formal specification, Concurrent engineering | |||
| Creating Image Context Using Image Trees | | BIBAK | HTML | 281-282 | |
| Erik Wistrand | |||
| Presenting artwork such as paintings, graphics and other images over
networks creates several problems, including loss of context, loss of image
resolution and bandwidth rate problems. This paper presents a method,
ImageTrees, for displaying images which attempts to solve these problems.
Applications may be WWW applications, or other media where image resolution and
bandwidth problems arise. Keywords: Visualization, ImageTree, Dynamic layout, Image display, Image context, Art,
WWW | |||
| Engineering Ethnography in the Home | | BIBAK | HTML | 283-284 | |
| Michael Mateas; Tony Salvador; Jean Scholtz; Doug Sorensen | |||
| To inform the design and development of domestic computing systems, we
performed a pilot ethnographic study of the home. The resulting model of
domestic activity shows that the implicit design assumptions of the personal
computer are inappropriate for the home. Our model suggests that small,
integrated, computational appliances are a more appropriate domestic technology
than the monolithic PC. Keywords: Ethnography, Home computing, Ubiquitous computing | |||
| Visualisation of Entrenched User Preferences | | BIBAK | 285-286 | |
| Judy Kay; Richard C. Thomas | |||
| A group of 63 students has been studied during three years of editor use.
We have examined their long term evolution and here report the variation with
accumulated experience in preference between two file-write commands. It is
clear that while about 75% of students fixed their preferences early, about 25%
did not. We present a clear example of spontaneous, long-term changes by
individuals which collectively fit a pattern. Keywords: Editors, Long term field studies, Temporal aspects of usability,
Visualisation of behaviour | |||
| Adaptive Agents and Personality Change: Complimentary versus Similarity as Forms of Adaptation | | BIBAK | HTML | 287-288 | |
| Youngme Moon; Clifford I. Nass | |||
| The idea that computer agents should be adaptive is a well-accepted tenet in
the software industry. The concept of adaptivity is rarely defined in explicit
terms, however. On the one hand, adaptivity could mean change in the direction
of similarity; on the other hand, an agent could adapt in the direction of
complementarity. The question for software developers is, Which type of
adaptivity -- similarity or complementarity -- does the user prefer? To
investigate this question, a laboratory experiment was conducted (N=88).
Results indicate that, consistent with the gain-loss literature in the field of
social psychology, subjects preferred interacting with a computer that became
similar to themselves over time. Keywords: Adaptivity, Agents, Complementarity, Personality, Similarity, Social
psychology | |||
| The Representation of Agents: Anthropomorphism, Agency, and Intelligence | | BIBAK | HTML | 289-290 | |
| William Joseph King; Jun Ohya | |||
| Agents have become a predominant area of research and development in human
interfaces. A major issue in the development of these agents is how to
represent them and their activities to the user. Anthropomorphic forms have
been suggested, since they provide a great degree of subtlety and afford social
interaction. However, these forms may be problematic since they may be
inherently interpretted as having a high degree of agency and intelligence. An
experiment is presented which supports these contentions. Keywords: Agents, Anthropomorphism, Facial expression, User interface design | |||
| Using Force Feedback to Enhance Human Performance in Graphical User Interfaces | | BIBAK | HTML | 291-292 | |
| Louis Rosenberg; Scott Brave | |||
| This project uses a force feedback joystick to enhance user interaction with
standard graphical user interface paradigms. While typical joystick and mouse
devices are input-only, force feedback controllers allow physical sensations to
be reflected to a user. Tasks that require users to position a cursor on a
given target can be enhanced by applying physical forces to the user that aid
in targeting. For example, an attractive force field implemented at the
location of a graphical icon can greatly facilitate target acquisition and
selection of the icon. It has been shown that force feedback can enhance a
users ability to perform basic functions within graphical user interfaces. Keywords: Force feedback, Haptic interface, Manual performance | |||
| Cyberguide: Prototyping Context-Aware Mobile Applications | | BIBAK | HTML | 293-294 | |
| Sue Long; Dietmar Aust; Gregory Abowd; Chris Atkeson | |||
| We are interested in prototyping future computing environments. In this
paper, we present the Cyberguide project, which is building prototypes of
handheld, intelligent tour guides that provide information to a tourist based
on knowledge of position and orientation. We will describe features of
existing Cyberguide prototypes and discuss important research issues that have
emerged in context-aware applications development in a mobile environment. Keywords: Mobile computing, Ubiquitous computing, Location-aware applications,
Newton/PDA | |||
| Flying Fingers: A Tool for Three-Dimensional Shared Workspace | | BIBAK | HTML | 295-296 | |
| Akira Sakai | |||
| This paper describes Flying Fingers, which is a tool designed for remote
collaboration, such as reviewing mock-ups generated in CAD system between
designers in remote places. Flying Fingers can potentially be controlled by
two-dimensional pointing devices such as mice, because it employs a spherical
coordinate system. Moreover, it can be implemented using narrow bandwidth
communication. Keywords: CSCW, Shared workspace, Spherical coordinates, WYSIWIS | |||
| SportScope: A User-Centered Design for Baseball Fans | | BIBAK | HTML | 297-298 | |
| David S. Cortright | |||
| The 1995 Apple Design Project asked students to design a system that would
bridge the gulf between the physical and virtual worlds. SportScope, a system
which augments the user's experience at a professional baseball game, was
designed for this project. A binocular-like video scope is the centerpiece of
the design, enabling baseball fans to obtain up-to-the-minute information from
objects within the stadium environment (such as players and billboards) using a
simple point-and-shoot camera metaphor. Users provided feedback on the design
at all stages of the design process and participated in prototype testing. Keywords: User interface design, Consumer product design, Usability testing,
Hardware/software integration, User-centered design, Apple design project,
Baseball | |||
| Auditory Illusions for Audio Feedback | | BIBAK | HTML | 299-300 | |
| Michel Beaudouin-Lafon; Stephane Conversy | |||
| Sheppard-Risset tones are sounds that seem to go up (or down) indefinitely.
We have designed an "elevator" sound based on this auditory illusion and have
implemented it in the ENO audio system. The sound is synthesized in real-time
and can be controlled in real-time through high-level parameters. We have used
this sound for audio feedback when scrolling and for monitoring the progress of
long system operations. Keywords: Non-speech audio, Auditory icons, Auditory illusions, Feedback, Notification | |||
| Stretch Button Scrollbar | | BIBAK | HTML | 301-302 | |
| Daniel J. Smith; Robert A. Henning | |||
| Previous research has examined the use of a scrollbar for item selection in
very large lists. This report presents an alternative design based on an
understanding of the action capabilities and perceptual feedback. Experimental
results show substantial performance benefits when using the Stretch Button
scrollbar compared to other designs. Keywords: Scrollbar, Widget, Selection technology, Action/perception based control,
Dynamic system | |||
| Finding the Cut of the Wrong Trousers: Fast Video Search Using Automatic Storyboard Generation | | BIBAK | HTML | 303-304 | |
| Peter J. Macer; Peter J. Thomas; Nouhman Chalabi; John F. Meech | |||
| The development of high capacity storage media and moving image file format
standards (e.g. MPEG-2) have improved the quality of digital video and provided
the possibility of enhanced digital video browsing techniques. This paper
describes an approach to search and navigation in video databases which
automatically identifies shots in a video sequence to present a single frame
from each shot that best represents the shot as a whole. Using the approach a
storyboard is generated which can be either visually scanned by the user, or
searched using automatic techniques such as query-by-visual-example (QVE). Keywords: Visual search, Digital video, Video database, Query-by-visual-example,
Information management | |||
| Homer: A Pattern Discovery Support System | | BIBAK | HTML | 305-306 | |
| Garett Dworman | |||
| Traditional research in information retrieval concentrates on retrieving
documents. This paper introduces the idea that valuable information exists
within a document collection as thematic patterns that can be found without
looking at individual documents in the collection. This information is
valuable in its own right and as an aid to the IR process, and is often not
contained in any of the collection's documents. This paper introduces a
pattern discovery support system, Homer, which aids users' search for patterns
and some compelling anecdotal evidence. Keywords: Information retrieval, Pattern discovery | |||
| User Interface Evaluation in an Iterative Design Process: A Comparison of Three Techniques | | BIBAK | HTML | 307-308 | |
| Pamela Savage | |||
| This paper compares the results of three different user interface evaluation
techniques: expert reviews, user reviews, and interactive usability testing.
Results from these techniques were obtained during the iterative design of a
graphical user interface for an interactive multimedia messaging application.
User reviews resulted in significantly more redesign of the user interface
(UI), however, they also involved the most expense and effort to conduct.
Expert review feedback tended to identify areas that required further user
testing. A comparison of these techniques and the user interface design
changes resulting from their feedback is discussed. The relative benefits and
limitations of the techniques are addressed within the framework of an
iterative design process. Keywords: Usability inspections, Usability testing, User interface evaluation,
Iterative design | |||
| Don't Use a Product's Developers for Icon Testing | | BIBAK | HTML | 309-310 | |
| Julie B. Holloway; John H. Bailey | |||
| This study compared the results of 10 software developers and 10 university
students for icon recognition and preferences. There were 54 icons and 15
concepts, and each concept had two to four representative icons. First,
participants attempted to match each icon with one of the 15 product concepts.
Next, the participants were asked to pick the best icon from the ones
specifically designed to represent each concept. The students correctly
recognized more icons (M = 34.7) than the developers (M = 27.8), t(18) = 2.1, p
< .05. The icons recognized most often by students and developers were
different for two concepts, and the icons preferred most often by students and
developers were different for four concepts. We believe that the data support
the hypothesis that using product developers rather than representative users
can result in incorrect decisions in icon usage. Keywords: Icon, Developer, Student, User, Recognition, Usability, Preference | |||
| Visualizing Efficiency: A Technique to Help Designers Judge Interface Efficiency | | BIBAK | 311-312 | |
| Andrew Sears | |||
| Efficiency is an important issue to consider when designing user interfaces.
However, several small studies indicate that interface designers and evaluators
are not particularly good at judging the efficiency of simple single screen
interfaces. This paper introduces a visualization technique that allows
designers to judge efficiency of an interface layout and reports on a pilot
study that demonstrates the potential of this technique. Keywords: Efficiency, Visualization, Evaluation | |||
| Working with Marketing | | BIBAK | HTML | 313-314 | |
| Mike Atyeo; Charanjit Sidhu; Gerry Cole; Simon Robinson | |||
| This paper describes our experiences in BT working with Marketing on a
number of recently released and forthcoming telecommunications products. We
believe that usability professionals will find it increasingly important to
work with marketing professionals, and we provide practical advice for those
who do so. Keywords: Human factors, Marketing, Focus groups, Telecommunications | |||