| User-centered design, activity-centered design, and goal-directed design: a review of three methods for designing web applications | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 1-8 | |
| Ashley Williams | |||
| When conducting research with users in order to design web applications, the
practitioner has a variety of methods from which to choose. This paper examines
three such methods'User-Centered Design (UCD), Goal-Directed Design (GDD), and
Activity-Centered Design (ACD)'in terms of their foundations, processes, and
deliverables. Keywords: ACD, GDD, IA, UCD, activity centered design, content strategy, contextual
inquiry, goal directed design, information architecture, interaction design,
interface design, personas, usability, user centered design, user experience,
user interface, web design | |||
| Enhancing user interface design patterns with design rationale structures | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 9-16 | |
| Jordan Janeiro; Simone Diniz Junqueira Barbosa; Thomas Springer; Alexander Schill | |||
| User interface design and development activities are typically costly and,
despite many research efforts, still lack adequate support tools to make them
more efficient. The use of guidelines and principles have been mostly replaced
by the use of user interface design patterns, collected in libraries that aim
to encompass both general and domain-specific user interface design knowledge.
However, such patterns are represented mostly in natural language and other
representations that cannot be easily computed. This paper presents an approach
to represent user interface design patterns in a knowledge base which, by
bringing together semi-structured user interface design patterns and design
rationale models, can help designers to search, compare, and reuse proven
design solutions in their projects. Keywords: argumentation model, design rationale, information retrieval, knowledge
base, semantic match, user interface design patterns | |||
| <Methods>Experience Design</Methods> | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 17-22 | |
| Liza Potts; Gerianne Bartocci | |||
| In this paper, we trace and historicize two of the most common contextual
research methods: Participant Observation and Contextual Inquiry. In doing so,
we describe how these methods have evolved, describe the need for these methods
to support Experience Design research, and make the case for interdisciplinary
collaboration through clarifying these practices. Keywords: contextual inquiry, design research, ethnography, experience design, field
research methods, methods, participatory observation, usability, user
experience | |||
| Acoustic interaction design through "audemes": experiences with the blind | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 23-28 | |
| Mexhid Ferati; Steve Mannheimer; Davide Bolchini | |||
| This paper presents and discusses design decisions for an acoustic
edutainment application for blind users called AEDIN (Acoustic EDutainment
INterface), comprising audio elements used as navigational and thematic
landmarks in touch-screen computers. We tested designs with blind and visually
impaired teenagers. Preliminary results demonstrated the efficacy of AEDIN as
an easy-to-learn and memorize architecture, and a potentially fun interface.
The paper illustrates the lessons learned from the design and evaluation
experience and contextually outlines new research directions for aural
communication design. Keywords: acoustic, audeme, aural communication, aural design, blind and visually
impaired, children, interface, sound, touch-screen | |||
| Facilita: reading assistance for low-literacy readers | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 29-36 | |
| Willian Massami Watanabe; Arnaldo Candido Junior; Vinícius Rodriguez Uzêda; Renata Pontin de Mattos Fortes; Thiago Alexandre Salgueiro Pardo; Sandra Maria Aluísio | |||
| Texts are the media content primarily available on Web sites and
applications. However, this heavy use of texts creates an accessibility barrier
to those who cannot read fluently in their mother tongue due to both text
length and linguistic complexity. To offer an accessible alternative to these
readers, shorter and simplified versions of text content should be provided.
Taking that into consideration, this paper introduces Facilita, an assistive
technology to help lower-literacy users to understand the text content of Web
applications. Facilita generates an accessible content from Web pages
automatically, using summarization and simplification techniques. It is also
important to consider interface design requirements, since Facilita's target
audience (the functionally illiterate) is often classified as computer
illiterate as well. Thus, interaction and user interface design were developed
considering the limitations and skills of the functionally illiterate. Keywords: summarization, textual simplification, usability, user centered design, web
accessibility | |||
| The transition from web content accessibility guidelines 1.0 to 2.0: what this means for evaluation and repair | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 37-44 | |
| Grace Mbipom; Simon Harper | |||
| Recently, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) upgraded its Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) from version 1.0 to 2.0. WCAG 2.0 further
encourages the design of accessible Web content, and has been put in place to
address the limitations of the earlier version, WCAG 1.0. The new development
requires that updates be made accordingly. One of the areas affected by the
transition is automated Web content accessibility evaluation and repair. Since
most Accessibility Evaluation and Repair Tools (AERTs) depend on guidelines to
make suggestions about potential accessibility barriers and proffer repair
solutions, existing tools have to be modified to accommodate the changes WCAG
2.0 brings. In particular, more techniques for performing automated Web content
accessibility evaluation and repair are desirable. The heterogeneous nature of
Web content which AERTs assess, calls for techniques of cross-disciplinary
origin. In this paper, we discuss the implications of the transition for
automated evaluation and repair. In addition, we present a meta-review of
relevant techniques from related disciplines for the purpose of informing
research that surrounds testing and repair techniques employed by AERTs. Keywords: WCAG 1.0 and 2.0, automated testing, evaluation tools | |||
| A framework for adaptive communication design | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 45-50 | |
| Matthew J. Bell; Colin H. C. Machin | |||
| Designers often strive to meet the requirements of the "average user."
Unfortunately even if they manage to achieve their goal, this mythical user
does not exist resulting in a gap between each actual user and the technology
they receive. As technology cannot be designed for every individual it needs to
be adaptable for as many people as possible.
A framework has been developed to identify similarities between user-groups and the assistive technology they use, with the aim of catering for different users with minimum alteration to the technology. The framework takes a holistic view and can be used to describe either a person or a technology, initially focusing on six sections (Cognition, Senses, Output, General Health, Mobility and Context) identified using the model of a human body. The sections are then compared to identify patterns and areas of importance. Using each of the sections of the framework separately provides a complete picture of a technology or user allowing better profiling, improving accessibility. Bringing the framework together by comparing the sections against each other allows the design team to better understand the dynamics of the technology or user and the potential for communication using different media and mechanisms. Keywords: accessibility, adaptability, usability | |||
| Outstanding teachers and ICT | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 51-58 | |
| Aristidis Protopsaltis; Andy Goodwyn; Carol L. Fuller | |||
| This paper presents evidence about expertise in teaching and the use of ICT
(Information Communication Technology) to communicate information. Fifty four
(54) expert teachers and teaching assistants from infant, primary and secondary
schools participated in the study. Participants were nominated by their peers
as 'outstanding' in their practice. Semi-structured interviews were conducted,
exploring what technology experts have adapted to produce highly effective
practice. The current study discusses the results of the demographic data, the
technologies expert practitioners use in their teaching and their reasons for
using these technologies. Keywords: ICT, expert teaching, information processing, learning, technology | |||
| Multidisciplinarity and 21st century communication design | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 59-66 | |
| Brad Mehlenbacher | |||
| This paper addresses recent calls for the importance of multidisciplinary
research and action in communication design. The impetus for multidisciplinary
perspectives toward communication design is technological change, rapid
developments in work products and processes, and the perception that emerging
issues in the workplace demand additional competencies and knowledge.
Terminology related to multidisciplinarity, such as disciplinarity,
cross-disciplinarity, interdisciplinarity, and transdisciplinarity, is defined.
Since ACM SIGDOC members are distributed across academic and nonacademic fields
and institutions, the focus will be on discipline as epistemology and as
language with the goal of explicating common frameworks and terminology for
better articulating communication design and work. Keywords: communication, cross-disciplinary, design, education, interdisciplinary,
multidisciplinary, transdisciplinary, work | |||
| Developing heuristics for the semiotics inspection of websites | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 67-72 | |
| Davide Bolchini; Rupa Chatterji; Marco Speroni | |||
| The usability of web communication depends on design decisions made along a
number of dimensions. These include content, information architecture,
navigation, graphics and the design of the interface signs (e.g. labels,
command affordances and icons), that we generally call semiotics. Although
there is awareness of the importance of the quality of these specific elements
to ensure usability, existing usability evaluation methods fail to provide
designers with inspection principles to specifically assess the semiotics
aspects for web interfaces. This experience report illustrates and discusses
the development of an initial set of heuristics and procedural tools aimed at
guiding the semiotics inspection of large, information-intensive websites, as a
separate concern from the other design dimensions, extensively covered in the
usability literature. The semiotics heuristics defined represent a
complementary toolkit to the existing usability methods. Keywords: evaluation method, heuristics, ontologies, semiotics, signs, usability
evaluation, usability inspection, websites | |||
| Evaluating the communication design of branded websites: a value-based framework | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 73-80 | |
| Davide Bolchini; Tao Yang; Franca Garzotto | |||
| The quality of web communication depends on several factors. One of these,
besides usability, is the effectiveness by which the intended brand values are
actually conveyed to the users. Leveraging existing research in web branding
communication, design and requirements engineering, we propose a systematic
framework for evaluating the short-term communication impact of large,
information-intensive branded websites. The communication impact is empirically
investigated by eliciting and modeling the brand values that the website tries
to convey and assessing whether and how much they are perceived by the intended
target users. Results from two case studies show that simple and readable
indicators can be constructed to identify flaws in the communication of the
brand values and support designers and stakeholders to devise precise
strategies to improve the design accordingly. Keywords: brand value, communication impact, evaluation, methodological framework,
website design | |||
| Design of communication in multimodal web interfaces | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 81-88 | |
| Americo Talarico Neto; Renata Pontin de Mattos Fortes; Alessandro Rubim Assis; Júnia Coutinho Anacleto | |||
| In this paper we present our considerations for the design, development and
evaluation of Web multimodal interfaces using as example the analysis and the
results of three Case Studies. Two usability methods were applied in these Case
Studies as part of our approach for Web multimodal interfaces design. The
objective is to smooth the progress of the design activities provided by the
Multimodal Web Approach (MMWA) recovering Design Rationale from previous
projects and improving the usability and user experience in the multimodal
interaction. From the experience got performing three case studies with the
MMWA, we derive a general framework for design of communication in Web
Multimodal Interfaces. Keywords: multimodal interfaces design, multimodal web approach | |||
| Semantic transparency in user assistance systems | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 89-96 | |
| Andrea E. Kohlhase; Michael Kohlhase | |||
| In this paper we analyze the problem of "situating explanations" in user
assistance systems. We introduce semantic transparency as a user interface
property that enables giving appropriate help. We explicate this notion in
document player applications found in office suites, for example. Moreover, we
show how semantic transparency can be strengthened when the underlying software
is complemented by a semantic ally system. The approach consists in
illustrating existing software semantically. We present some semantic
extensions of office applications as examples. We also describe how the
semantic transparency approach allows the exploitation of new interactions for
user assistance systems. Keywords: interaction, semantic transparency, user assistance, user interface | |||
| The micro-structure of use of help | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 97-104 | |
| David G. Novick; Oscar D. Andrade; Nathaniel Bean | |||
| To see whether, from the user's standpoint, muddling through with
trial-and-error exploration of the interface actually works as well as
consulting help, we analyzed video recordings of 14 subjects using Microsoft
Publisher. We segmented their attempts at accomplishing four tasks into
episodes, lasting from a few seconds to a few minutes, using four
problem-solving approaches: help, recall, and trial-and-error. The subjects'
overall rates of success with trial-and-error were higher than with help. We
present trends of use of the approaches across the four tasks, review the
apparent causes of success and failure when using the approaches, and develop
an affordance-knowledge model that helps to explain people's preference for
muddling through over using help. We conclude by discussing the model's
implications for developers of systems and writers of help. Keywords: affordance, documentation, help systems | |||
| Synchronous online help support with visual instruction aids for workflow-based MVC web applications | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 105-114 | |
| Marcel Karam; Maha Abou Ibrahim | |||
| Existing web-based help systems that provide interactive real-time
assistance to end-users exhibit considerable limitations. Some of these
limitations are related to the presence of invasive features in these systems,
the asynchronous activities between the end-user and the technical support
staff during a task-related help session, and the application-specific nature
of these systems. The latter limitation in particular restricts the portability
of these web-based help systems to other web applications. Despite advances in
web development paradigms such as the workflow-based Model View Controller
(MVC), and key technology ingredients such as synchronous web annotation
services, we have not found any work that combines these technologies to
address the above mentioned limitations. In this work we have designed and
implemented a web-based help system as an abstract layer that can be seamlessly
integrated with the architectural layers of any web application that is
instantiated using the workflow-based MVC development paradigm. This layer uses
the use cases of the instantiated application to ensure that task-related
activities are synchronized during a help session. Our web-based help system
also includes features to deliver instructive aids to end-users in the form of
visual web annotations. In this paper we describe, using an example, the design
and implementation of our system, discuss its limitations, and recommend
directions for future work. Keywords: synchronous online help support, visual web annotation | |||
| Progressional awareness: designing a co-authoring tool to support the planning process | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 115-118 | |
| Ilaria Liccardi; Hugh C. Davis; Su White | |||
| Effective planning is essential to any collaborative activity. However, in
practice, the co-authoring process can become derailed from an initial plan of
action due to unforeseen circumstances. To be effective, the process must be
capable of adapting in ways that are efficient and avoid conflict.
We analyze the experiences of users involved in fifteen separate group writing projects, specifically examining the role of planning within the collaborative process, the techniques used and the problems that may arise. From this, we propose the concept of progressional awareness related to the planning process, and propose novel user interface designs that may help to avoid common problems. Keywords: co-authoring, planning activity, progressional awareness | |||
| User's issues in crossmedia applications | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 119-126 | |
| João Soares de Oliveira Neto; Nicolas Roussel; Lucia V. L. Filgueiras | |||
| Technology allows users to interact with a wide variety of information and
services. However, more and more users need to integrate complementary content
to previously accessed information. Crossmedia applications combine different
information pieces, which are stored in different media, as a continuous story.
Our study selects the particular case of combining printed material and
internet resources for the purpose of delivering complementary information to
users. Our investigation conducts a workshop with users composed of a
scenario-driven interview and a talk-aloud protocol. This experiment reveals
the behavior and difficulties of users when they are combining digital and
non-digital media to gather complementary information. In addition, some
recommendation is suggested focused on the improvement of the user's experience
in crossmedia application that should be considered by designers. Keywords: crossmedia application, digital medium, non-digital medium, scenario-driven
interview, think-aloud protocol, user's behavior | |||
| Using sound to understand software architecture | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 127-134 | |
| Lewis I. Berman; Keith B. Gallagher | |||
| Use of non-speech sound can facilitate the understanding of a software
program. Non-speech sound has been shown to be useful in dynamic program
comprehension, that is, understanding the dynamic behavior of a program. We
have developed a sonification scheme to describe static software entities in
Java programs, and we show that it is useful in static program comprehension,
notably concerning low-level architecture. The scheme is implemented via a tool
in which an Eclipse IDE is integrated with a CSound synthesis engine. The tool
is intended for use by sighted software developers in a static browsing/editing
environment.
A validation study of the concept has been performed via one-on-one sessions with experienced software developers. Preliminary results indicate that software developers are easily able to learn and recognize sonified characteristics of software entities and their relationships by listening to sequences of mapped sound constructs. Identification of specific entities is more problematic. Developers have indicated that they would find the tool useful during both exploration and more focused programming activities. Their additional perceptions have been collected using grounded qualitative means. Keywords: architecture, auditory display, comprehension, eclipse, multimodal,
non-visual representations, program comprehension, software architecture,
sonification | |||
| Modeling task experience in user assistance systems | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 135-142 | |
| Andrea E. Kohlhase; Michael Kohlhase | |||
| One of the major issues for user assistance systems consists of "providing
help at an appropriate level". In this paper we analyze the problem of modeling
task experience -- a prerequisite for provisioning adequate help. In contrast
to level-based approaches we propose an ontology-based model, which allows
fine-grained modeling of task experience using the concepts of the task domain
as granules. The model is semantic in the sense that it allows to take
advantage of the relations between concepts to provide novel semantic services
and interactions. We present the SACHS (Semantic Annotations for a Controlling
Help System, a semantic help system for a spreadsheet-based financial
controlling system) software as an exemplary application of the proposed task
experience model. Keywords: spreadsheets, task experience, user assistance | |||
| The macro-structure of use of help | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 143-150 | |
| Oscar D. Andrade; Nathaniel Bean; David G. Novick | |||
| Users of help systems often complain that they do not find them useful;
while they still use help at least occasionally, they resort to other
problem-solving strategies. In this paper, we analyze audiovisual recordings of
people using a computer application, to identify (1) transition patterns among
problem-solving approaches, and (2) the frequency of these transitions. Our
analysis indicates that people switch frequently between consulting help and
exploring the interface. Switching between problem-solving approaches appears
to be an effective way of succeeding in tasks. Applications and their help
systems can be better designed to support users who switch between help and
non-help approaches to solving problems. Keywords: documentation, help systems, problem-solving | |||
| Experience report: modularization -- the new paradigm for the information engineer | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 151-154 | |
| Katherine Haramundanis | |||
| To improve the accuracy and consistency of customer and support
documentation, corporations over the past two decades or more have made a
concerted effort to make possible and improve the modularization of corporate
source materials. With adequate and up-to-date training, a functional
content-management system, and well-supported writing tools, significant
cost-reductions can be achieved. The writer, in this new environment, must deal
with a completely new mental model and work process to create their deliverable
materials, and with a paradigm shift that directly affects their day-to-day
work. The writer accustomed to full control and ownership of a document can
look forward to a fully team-oriented approach that provides for the ultimate
reader the full realization of the best of all possible worlds. Design of any
communication is much more a collaborative process than an exercise in creating
text to insert in an outline. This author has experienced this change in
process at first hand in decades of writing experience in the computer
industry. Keywords: design of communication, development process, information design,
technology, translation, writing standards | |||
| Rhetorical models for computational systems: an interdisciplinary approach to reusable, tailorable medical information | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 155-162 | |
| Ashley R. Kelly; Allan McDougall; Nike Abbott | |||
| This paper aims to bring rhetorical scholarship to the field of Natural
Language Processing (NLP) and further its inclusion in health communication
studies. Much work in NLP relies upon statical machine learning techniques,
which, while valuable, are still limited in their abilities. Rhetorical theory,
the study of suasions, offers a new paradigm for NLP research and development.
In this pilot study, we use rhetorical theory as an analytic approach to
modeling discourse patterns in a highly tailor corpus of texts. Along with our
findings, we argue that rhetorical theory and analysis can further the creation
of both tailored documentation and computationally-generated texts. Keywords: health communication, rhetorical theory, tailoring | |||
| Providing culturally contextualized metadata to promote sharing and reuse of learning object | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 163-170 | |
| David Buzatto; Junia Coutinho Anacleto; Ana Luiza Dias | |||
| This paper presents some proposals to formalize the creation of Learning
Objects (LO) that define rules concerned to the content organization and/or the
set of metadata used to describe and to document the LOs. This paper presents
Cognitor (COGNItive strategies-based EdiTOR), a common-sense aided framework
for a certain Pattern Language that aims to help educators create and
contextualize e-Learning content as hyper documents, considering cognitive,
pedagogical and cultural issues, packaging the LOs according to SCORM (Sharable
Content Object Reference Model) standard, the most known and probably most used
standard for LO creation. The LOs created by Cognitor are intended to be easy
to share and reuse, mainly because Cognitor helps editors fill out the LO
metadata using concepts that are culturally contextualized on the main target
learner's culture through suggestions coming from a common sense knowledge base
that are used to support filling in specific metadata fields. Keywords: SCORM, common sense, framework, learning object, metadata, reuse | |||
| Information relationships: the source of useful and usable content | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 171-178 | |
| Michael J. Albers | |||
| Effective communication requires more than what the content says and how
it's formatted and instead requires focusing on the interrelationships between
information elements and how those interrelationships fit together to help a
person understand the situation. The design presented to readers must be an
integrated presentation that supports achieving their goals within their
situational context. For an integrated presentation to help people find and use
content, it must provide the cross-references and interconnections between
different information elements to form the highly interconnected structures
that typify most complex problems. Unfortunately, this integrated presentation
varies between each audience group and normally involves connections between
information elements which have little in common with a conventional
information hierarchy or architecture. Keywords: human-centered design, information design, information relationships,
technical communication | |||
| What's informatics at Indiana University? | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 179-180 | |
| James Shea | |||
| This Indiana University School of Informatics was the first of its kind in
the United States (2000). It includes programs in Bloomington and at IUPUI in
Indianapolis. The School has developed a unique undergraduate curriculum that
allows students to combine an interest in information technology and computing
with another academic discipline of their choice. The School offers the
first-ever PhD in Informatics as well as a number of professional masters
degree programs. The School's faculty represent a range of disciplines and
specialties which provides a wide range of research opportunities. Keywords: bioinformatics, chemical informatics, computing, human-computer
interaction/design, informatics, media arts and science, security | |||
| Design charrettes as pedagogical method in a multimedia design course | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 181-186 | |
| Richard L. Edwards | |||
| Communication design students working in new media or digital media fields
require training in the design process to create powerful and professional
projects. However, even though collaborative design work is common in media
industries, many graduate courses are not structured to allow collaborative
work in the classroom. In this paper, I present design charrettes as a
pedagogical method that stimulates and supports collaborative student design
work. Design charrettes are intense periods of design activity most commonly
associated with architectural and environmental studies. I have adapted design
charrettes in order to achieve particular learning outcomes in multimedia
design courses. This paper is a theoretical reflection on using charrettes to
teach the design process. The pedagogy behind my use of charrettes is informed
by socio-cognitive learning theories. In my multimedia design courses, graduate
students participate in charrette activities to experience the design process,
to collaborate in project-based design activities, to seek a range of solutions
to design problems, and to gain mastery of design research techniques. Keywords: charrette, collaboration, creativity, design, design research, learning | |||
| A systematic methodology to use LEGO bricks in web communication design | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 187-192 | |
| Lorenzo Cantoni; Elena Marchiori; Marco Faré; Luca Botturi; Davide Bolchini | |||
| This experience report presents a case study and the lessons learned from
using Real Time Web (RTW) in the design of a corporate website. RTW is an
innovative methodology to effectively elicit and plastically represent
requirements in the design process of a web application. RTW adopts a playful
approach to collaboratively elicit requirements and strategic web design
issues, and extends the experience of LEGO Serious Play (LSP), a team
collaboration methodology. The basic tenet of LSP is that LEGO bricks are
simple to use and provide ready-made, powerful and multi-purpose symbolic
pieces, known to most people and used in different cultures. RTW exploits this
potential to elicit communication requirements, create a share vision for
high-level design, and build team commitment. Keywords: cruise industry, etourism, informal interactions, lego bricks, requirements
analysis, web applications | |||
| Web communication and interaction modeling using model-driven development | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 193-198 | |
| Thiago Jabur Bittar; Renata P. M. Fortes; Luanna Lopes Lobato; Willian M. Watanabe | |||
| During the development of web-based applications, communication and
interaction issues have become even more important, due to the variety of user
types that can work together. In this paper we describe the adoption of
Model-Driven Development (MDD) approach to support a feasible way to help
developers to take into account the issues, regarding to the Web users variety.
In general, a good design of the interactions and communication issues implies
in high cost and time consuming tasks, and requires that developers be flexible
and rapidly change the conception of the interfaces. The meta-models approach
presented in this paper aims to map interaction and communication requirements
in a practical and useful way during the web application development. Keywords: MDD, communication, interaction, model-driven development, web | |||
| Lessons from trying to develop a robust documentation exemplar | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 199-204 | |
| Lynn Robert Carter; Andreas Karatsolis | |||
| Software system documentation has been an integral part of the development
process since the first efforts to design and implement large and robust
systems. However, the focus of this documentation typically has been limited to
the production of discrete artifacts, despite the richness of data and genres
that surround it. Efforts to develop a robust documentation exemplar -- Della
-- have not been completely successful, mainly because the provided
documentation was largely ignored by many students for simpler but less
effective alternate designs. This paper will present, in addition to the
lessons learned from the Della project, some insights into the direction
software system documentation now should be taking in support of large and
long-lived systems. Keywords: architecture, design, documentation, maintenance, reengineering,
representation, requirements, structure, usage | |||
| Probing the use of charts and graphs in technical documentation through analysis and pragmatic collaboration | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 205-212 | |
| Challen Pride-Thorne; Steve Murphy; Sandra Seenauth | |||
| A continuous priority for technical writers is to increase user
comprehension of concepts and statistical information in technical
documentation. Improvements in the written language such as consistent
terminology, use of an established writing style, accurate indexing, advanced
search capabilities, and so on, address some of the user pain points. The
complexities of certain topics do not always translate well into writing;
therefore, there is a need for other aids such as information graphics to
assist with visualization and to increase the efficacy of information
communication [1]. The benefits of information graphics in documentation and
learning modules are well documented by the works of Levin and Pane [2, 3]. The
conclusion is simple according to Davison, Pane, and Bertrancourt: if graphics
are crafted correctly with the intent to enhance understanding then the quality
of the documentation will improve and ultimately enrich the user experience and
comprehension [4, 5, 6].
With this sage advice, one might expect implementation to be straightforward, perhaps even easy. This is unfortunately not the case. Careful consideration is necessary to construct an information graphic. Many questions may arise during the process, such as how many graphics, and which type, are needed, and where best to insert them in order to convey the concept clearly. Some information graphics, such as charts and graphs, require further thought since their visual representation is derived from data. In this case, the challenge lies in shaping the data into what is truly useful for users' comprehension, and in skillfully rendering the graphics with sound design principles. This paper presents the authors' recent experiences in collaborative design of charts and graphs, and demonstrates that the responsibility of communicating effectively should not lie on one person's shoulders alone, but rather on all development and documentation professionals who bring their collective expertise to fruition in a partnership. Keywords: charts, documentation, globalization, graphic design, graphs, information
graphics, technical writer, translation | |||
| Practice theory & the foundations of digital document encoding | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 213-220 | |
| Paul Scifleet; Susan P. Williams | |||
| Designing digital documents in complex, changing information environments
presents a number of challenges for both academics and practitioners. In
particular, a number of contradictory views about the nature of digital
documents raise questions about what factors shape the task of document
encoding. To date there have been few studies that explore the relationship
between human document encoders and the documents they produce, where the
process of documentation embedded in encoding is the focus. In this paper we
argue that to support and improve the processes of digital document development
it is essential that we gain a clearer understanding of context and the
situated, inter-subjective nature of human engagement in documentary practice.
We present a methodology for understanding such documentary practices, which
considers digital representation through the lens of practice theory and
presents a conceptual framework for understanding the complex and changing
dimensions of document encoding that are challenging both research and
practice. Keywords: documentary practice, information management, methodology, practice theory | |||
| Enhancing research into usable privacy and security | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 221-226 | |
| Colin Birge | |||
| Researchers in technical communication and information design have important
contributions to make to the field of usable privacy and security, also called
user-centered security or trust user experience (TUX). I give some background
on the usable privacy and security research field and literature, and suggest
three example problems that may yield interesting results to SIGDOC
researchers. Keywords: privacy, privacy policies, trust, trust user experience, usable privacy and
security, usable security, user-centered security | |||
| Experience report: issues in comparing gene function annotation in text | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 227-232 | |
| Youngik Yang; Sun Kim | |||
| Annotating function of genes accurately is one of the most important tasks
in molecular biology and medical sciences. The new sequencing technology,
called the next generation sequencing technology, made sequencing the whole
genomes possible with a fraction of cost of sequencing by using the traditional
sequencing technology. As a result, the amount of sequence data has been
growing very rapidly, but the computational method for gene function annotation
is yet to be fully developed. Thus annotation of gene function is a serious
bottleneck to achieving the high-throughput genome projects. The most commonly
used gene annotation technique is to transfer annotation of genes based on the
sequence similarity; annotation of top-ranked genes in terms of sequence
similarity is simply transferred to the function of a target gene. However,
this sequence-similarity based gene function annotation is often incorrect. As
a result, genome projects still rely on expensive, error-prone,
labor-intensive, manual process. Combining annotation and sequence similarity
can improve the accuracy of gene function annotation significantly. We have
been developing a computational method for comparing gene annotation in text.
In this paper, we will discuss issues in comparing genome annotation in a text
format. To compute textual similarity, we used cosine similarity. Since cosine
similarity is effective only after preprocessing with textual variations, we
used commonly used text preprocessing techniques such as removing stop words
and stemming as well as gene annotation specific preprocessing such as handling
synonyms and gene symbols using databases of biology terminologies such as
BioThesaurus and MeSH. In experiments with annotations of a number of bacterial
genomes, our method was able to handle many difficult cases (syntactically
different but semantically equivalent gene function annotations) correctly. Keywords: cosine similarity, genome annotation, text comparison | |||
| Automatically identifying relations in privacy policies | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 233-238 | |
| John W. Stamey; Ryan A. Rossi | |||
| E-commerce privacy policies tend to consist of many ambiguities in language
that protects companies more than the customers. Types of ambiguities found are
currently divided into four patterns: mitigation (downplaying frequency),
enhancement (emphasizing nonessential qualities), obfuscation (hedging claims
and obscuring causality), and omission (removing agents). A number of phrases
have been identified as creating ambiguities within these four categories. When
a customer accepts the terms and conditions of a privacy policy, words and
phrases (from the category of mitigation) such as "occasionally" or "from time
to time" actually give the e-commerce vendor permission to send as many
spamming email offers as they deem necessary. Our study uses techniques based
on Latent Semantic Analysis to discover the underlying semantic relations
between words in privacy policies. Additional potential ambiguities and other
word relations are found automatically. Words are clustered according to their
topic in privacy policies using principal directions. This provides us with a
ranking of the most significant words from each clustered topic as well as a
ranking of the privacy policy topics. We also extract a signature that forms
the basis of a typical privacy policy. These results lead to the design of a
system used to analyze privacy policies called Hermes. Given an arbitrary
privacy policy our system provides a list of the potential ambiguities along
with a score that represents the similarity to a typical privacy policy. Keywords: ambiguities, latent relations, privacy policies | |||
| Documenting software systems with views VI: lessons learned from 15 years of research & practice | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 239-244 | |
| Scott Tilley | |||
| A "view" is a form of graphical documentation representing some aspect of a
software system. Views can be an important aid in helping to understand
large-scale applications, and can be automatically produced through reverse
engineering. This paper summarizes our findings and lessons learned related to
documenting software systems with views from numerous projects spanning 15
years of research and practice (1992-2007). These findings have continued
relevancy for modern software development and technical communication alike. Keywords: UML, XML, graphical documentation, program understanding, reverse
engineering, views, visualization | |||
| Confounding definitions: using a continuum to understand interactivity | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 245-250 | |
| Katie Retzinger | |||
| The term interactivity is used in many disciplines, including communication,
professional/technical writing, new media, computer science, and marketing to
describe a specific feature of different types of texts. However, little
consensus has been achieved as to what interactivity actually is or can be.
Using and categorizing definitions of interactivity from the fields of new
media, computer science, communication, and advertising in order to begin to
conceptualize interactivity, this paper will argue that rather than coming up
with a single definition of interactivity that can be used in multiple
disciplines, interactivity should be conceptualized along a continuum. By
conceptualizing the term interactivity along a continuum, practitioners and
instructors can be better able to use the term interactivity more productively,
which can help practitioners and instructors who create or who teach others how
to create interactive documents have a more generally agreed upon meaning that
will further the ability to produce texts appropriate for an audience, purpose,
and context. Keywords: active, continuum, control, interaction, interactivity, passive, time,
user-to-documents, user-to-system, user-to-user | |||
| Accounting for affective responses in video games | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 251-256 | |
| Dave Jones | |||
| Recent scholarship in games suggests that communications design can offer a
more critical approach to understanding and developing meaningful player
experiences. In this paper, I analyze such experiences by examining the
usability of The Arcade Wire: Airport Security in relation to its rhetorical
aims as a game. Synthesizing two models for games analysis, I can develop a new
model to more fully account for affective responses in player experience.
Furthermore, the model itself can be reconfigured to examine different
gamespaces that configure different relationships among their structural and
phenomenlogical elements. Keywords: affect, experience, game design, proprioception, usability | |||
| Web 2.0 proclivity: understanding how personal use influences organizational adoption | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 257-264 | |
| Jeff Cummings; Anne P. Massey; V. Ramesh | |||
| Web 2.0 represents a major shift in how individuals communicate and
collaborate with others. While many of these technologies have been used for
public, social interactions (e.g., Wikipedia and YouTube), organizations are
just beginning to explore their use in day-to-day operations. Due to relatively
recent introduction and public popularity, Web 2.0 has led to a resurgent focus
on how organizations can once again leverage technology within the organization
for virtual and mass collaboration. In this paper, we explore some of the key
questions facing organizations with regard to Web 2.0 implementation and
adoption. We develop a model of "Web 2.0 Proclivity", defined as an
individual's propensity to use Web 2.0 tools within the organization. Our model
and set of associated hypotheses focuses on understanding an employee's
internal Web 2.0 content behaviors based on non-work, personal use behaviors.
To test our model and hypotheses, survey-based data was collected from a global
engine design and manufacturing company. Our results show that Web 2.0
Proclivity is positively influenced by an employee's external behaviors and
that differences exist across both functional departments and employee work
roles. We discuss the research implications of our findings as well as how our
findings and model of Web 2.0 Proclivity can be used to help guide
organizational practice. Keywords: survey research, technology adoption, web 2.0, web proclivity | |||
| Context information exchange and sharing in a peer-to-peer community: a video annotation scenario | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 265-272 | |
| Roberto, Jr. Fagá; Bruno C. Furtado; Felipe Maximino; Renan G. Cattelan; Maria da Graça C. Pimentel | |||
| The literature reports many efforts toward supporting video annotation. In
this paper, we present a peer-to-peer model for the exchange of context
information and user annotations over video. The Context-Aware Peer-to-Peer
Architecture (CAPPA) exploits the automatic capture of the user-interaction
with personal devices, employs ontologies to store context information, and
uses the context information to organize users in P2P groups for the
collaborative exchange of information. We present our proposed model by
discussing a prototype system, called CAPPA Service (CAPPAS), which allows
users to create and to join peer-to-peer groups using Web-based social
communities. Using CAPPAS, users are able to create multimodal annotations
while watching videos. The service deploys a capture mode which can be adapted
according to the context information collected from the P2P network. CAPPAS
customization features include the adaptation of its graphical interfaces
according to context information, and the automatic suggestion of text
completion during annotation. Keywords: CSCW, P2P, collaborative annotations, context, interactive digital tv | |||
| Did you put it on the wiki?: information sharing through wikis in interdisciplinary design collaboration | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 273-280 | |
| Ammy Jiranida Phuwanartnurak | |||
| Interdisciplinary design is challenging, in large measure, because of the
difficulty in communicating and coordinating across disciplines. Team members
from different disciplines may view and solve the same problem from different
perspectives, with their own unique method and language, which may create
barriers to information sharing. Wikis, in particular, have gained popularity
as a collaborative tool and have been claimed to support collaboration and
information sharing. Despite the increasing use of wikis in design projects,
there has been little research attention to how wikis are actually used by
design teams. This paper describes a field study of two interdisciplinary
design teams, seeking to discover how wikis support information sharing in
software development projects. The study provides empirical evidence on the use
of wikis in interdisciplinary design work, which will be used to develop
guidelines on the effective use of wikis to support interdisciplinary design
collaboration. Keywords: information sharing, interdisciplinary design, wiki, wiki log | |||
| The collaborative construction of "fact" on Wikipedia | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 281-288 | |
| Jason Swarts | |||
| For years Wikipedia has come to symbolize the potential of Web 2.0 for
harnessing the power of mass collaboration and collective intelligence. As
wikis continue to develop and move into streams of cultural, social, academic,
and enterprise work activity, it is appropriate to consider how collective
intelligence emerges from mass collaboration. Collective intelligence can take
many forms -- this paper examines one, the emergence of stable facts on
Wikipedia. More specifically, this paper examines ways of participating that
lead to the creation of facts. This research will show how we can be more
effective consumers, producers, and managers of wiki information by
understanding how collaboration shapes facts. Keywords: fact creation, participation, power and negotiation, wiki, wikipedia | |||
| "edit this page": the socio-technological infrastructure of a wikipedia article | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 289-296 | |
| Shaun P. Slattery | |||
| Networked environments, such as wikis, are commonly used to support work,
including the collaborative authoring of information and "fact-building." In
networked environments, the activity of fact-building is mediated not only by
the technological features of the interface, but also by the social conventions
of the community it supports. This paper examines the social and technological
features of a Wikipedia article in order to understand how these features help
mediate the activity of fact-building and highlights the need for communication
designers to consider the goals and needs of the communities for which they
design. Keywords: activity theory, infrastructure, wiki, wikipedia | |||
| Backchannel persistence and collaborative meaning-making | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 297-304 | |
| Brian McNely | |||
| Digital backchannel communication has become an increasingly important area
of study for researchers and practitioners in several fields. From the
emergence of wifi-enabled Internet Relay Chat (IRC) to contemporary instances
of microblogging and SMS messaging, the role of digital backchannels in
enabling collaborative affordances has received much recent attention. As
backchannel communication continues to become more prevalent at professional
conferences, in educational curricula, and in organizational settings, robust
frameworks for understanding the role of backchannel environments in
collaborative meaning-making are needed. Drawing upon cultural-historical
activity theory and actor network theory, this paper explores the development
of backchannel persistence through microblogging platforms, and suggests an
approach to studying the collaborative affordances of backchannel communication
by focusing on the related concepts of mobilization and recursive writing
collaboration. Keywords: backchannel, microblogging, mobilization, persistence, recursion, twitter | |||
| Visualizing patterns of knowledge work in organizations: a workshop | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 305-306 | |
| Mark Zachry; Clay Spinuzzi; William Hart-Davidson | |||
| This workshop explores an approach to creating meaningful accounts of
knowledge work in organizations. The approach includes data collection,
analysis, and visualization techniques. Keywords: activity networks, activity systems, communicative event models, genre
ecologies, knowledge work, sociotechnical graphs | |||
| Mapping genre fields | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 307-308 | |
| David M. Christensen; Jennifer deWinter; Ryan M. Moeller; Lee M. Sherlock | |||
| This workshop will introduce the components and methodology of genre field
analysis and engage participants in mapping genre fields in which they are
currently immersed. Keywords: agent, dialectic, genre field analysis, play theory | |||
| 7th international workshop on graphical documentation: documenting SOA-based systems | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 309-310 | |
| Scott Tilley; Stephany Bellomo | |||
| Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a way of designing, developing,
deploying, and managing enterprise systems when business needs and technical
solutions are closely aligned. SOA-based systems can be so large and complex,
so the role of documentation as a means of conveying information about them is
very important. Unfortunately, there is currently little concrete guidance
available on how to do so effectively. This workshop will explore the current
state-of-the-art and state-of-the-practice in documenting SOA-based systems.
The goal is to learn from past experience in documenting other
software-intensive systems, including the use of graphical documentation
techniques relying on the Unified Modeling Language (UML), but taking into
account the unique features and challenges inherent in SOA-based systems (e.g.,
properly documenting issues related to governance). This workshop is the 7th in
a series of events exploring graphical documentation in the context of aiding
system understanding. Keywords: SOA, UML, graphical documentation | |||
| Understanding how people use publicly available online services for work | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 311-312 | |
| Toni Ferro; Katie Derthick; Jonathan T. Morgan; Elly Searle; Mark Zachry | |||
| How are knowledge workers integrating web-based tools into their work? Where
do they spend their time while online at work? Reporting the results of an
annual national survey of knowledge workers, this poster offers insight into
the current state of distributed knowledge work. Keywords: collaboration, online services, survey, web 2.0 | |||
| Using user-centered design to discover motivation and priorities in an established online community | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 313-314 | |
| Elly Searle; Katie Derthick; Toni Ferro; Jonathan T. Morgan; Mark Zachry | |||
| This poster presents our work using a face-to-face user-centered design
method to inform the design of a reputation visualization for an established
online community. The benefits of conducting an offline group session with
online community members included insights into motivation and priorities, an
understanding of community norms, and a member check on previous findings. Keywords: online communities, user-centered design | |||
| Formalization and community investment in wikipedia's regulating texts: the role of essays | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 315-316 | |
| Jonathan T. Morgan; Katie Derthick; Toni Ferro; Elly Searle; Mark Zachry; Travis Kriplean | |||
| This poster presents ongoing research on how discursive and editing
behaviors are regulated on Wikipedia by means of documented rules and
practices. Our analysis focuses on three types of collaboratively-created
policy document (policies, guidelines and essays), that have been formalized to
different degrees and represent different degrees of community investment. We
employ a content analysis methodology to explore how these regulating texts
differ according to a) the aspects of editor behavior, content standards and
community principles that they address, and b) how they are used by Wikipedians
engaged in 'talk' page discussions to inform, persuade and coordinate with one
another. Keywords: computer-mediated communication, computer-supported cooperative work,
sociotechnical systems, wikis | |||