| Intelligent User Interfaces | | BIBAK | PDF | 3-10 | |
| William E. Hefley; Dianne Murray | |||
| We consider the significant work in both the human-computer interaction and
artificial intelligence fields in the area of intelligent interfaces, placing
into a structure the disparate strands of research work. We treat design and
implementation issues, covering the relationship between user interface
management systems (UIMS) architectures and interface design, and providing
schematic architectures for building intelligent systems. We discuss such work
in its historical context and suggest that UIMS architectures be used as a
basis for constructing intelligent interfaces. Keywords: Intelligent interfaces, Intelligent user interfaces, User models, User
interface management systems, Adaptive intelligent interface systems | |||
| The Future of Intelligent Interfaces? Not Just "How?", But "What?" and "Why?" | | BIBA | PDF | 13-17 | |
| Ernest Edmonds | |||
| The paper argues that the future development of intelligent interfaces
depends as much upon understanding the scope and purpose of their intelligent
behaviour as upon developing the mechanisms that operate them. It reviews the
different ways in which an interface can be intelligent, what it can be
intelligent about, for what purpose and under whose control. The dimensions of
intelligence include data to human action, command syntax to organizational
context and reduce error to become rich.
We know the solution, but what's the problem? | |||
| The Price of Flexibility | | BIBA | PDF | 19-25 | |
| David D. Woods | |||
| Flexibility and customizability are central to the perceived advantages of the growth in technological powers. But this and other vectors of technological change, when used clumsily, create new burdens and complexities for beleaguered human practitioners responsible for achieving goals within some field of activity. "Intelligent interfaces" are sometimes seen as a solution to the growing demands of highly technological and highly automated fields of activity. However, data from a variety of sources indicates that a technology driven approach to the development of intelligent interfaces is likely to provide the illusion of assistance while creating a new layer of burdens and complexities. What distinguishes technological flexibilities that are used to increase the range of practitioner adaptive response to the variability resident in the field of activity from technological flexibilities that simply create new burdens on the practitioner especially at high tempo, high criticality periods? | |||
| Knowledge-Based Design of Graphical Responses | | BIBAK | PDF | 29-36 | |
| Helen Chappel; Michael Wilson | |||
| Articulate graphics systems choose the most effective form of presentation
of data rather than being tools forcing users to design graphics themselves.
An architecture for a graphic response designer is proposed which clearly
separates the graphical design knowledge from knowledge of the user, current
task, application and dialogue context which are required to tailor responses.
Without this division the graphic response designer cannot be a portable module
and will duplicate resources available elsewhere in an intelligent interface.
Graphical design rules derived from design practice are described as well as
the method for integrating these with the supporting knowledge. An example
intelligent interface incorporating a graphic response designer in conjunction
with natural language output is described. The problems of updating the
graphic design knowledge and evaluating the demonstrator are considered. Keywords: Articulate graphics, Intelligent interfaces, User modelling, Automatic
graphic presentation | |||
| Supporting Interactivity in Automated 3D Illustrations | | BIBAK | PDF | 37-44 | |
| Doree Duncan Seligmann; Steven Feiner | |||
| An interactive intent-based illustration is a picture designed to satisfy an
input communicative intent, and which can be interactively redesigned as it is
viewed. We describe how the architecture of IBIS (Intent-Based Illustration
System) automates the design of 3D interactive intent-based illustrations. The
types of interaction that IBIS supports include changes in the world, as
objects move and otherwise change state; changes in the communicative intent,
as modified by the user or other programs; queries, in which the user can
request additional information; and self-evaluation, in which other programs
can request IBIS to analyze various properties of the illustration, such as how
well an illustration's communicative intent is satisfied or which graphical
techniques it uses. We show how IBIS's design process and rule base make
possible these forms of interaction. Keywords: Intelligent user interfaces, Generation of nonverbal media, Automatic
presentation, Explanation, Knowledge-based graphics | |||
| Some Aspects of the User Interface of a Knowledge Based Beautifier for Drawings | | BIBAK | PDF | 45-52 | |
| Dieter Bolz | |||
| Automatic beautification of drawings is a technically interesting problem.
Equally attractive is the problem of how such a service can be presented at the
user interface of a graphics editor, and, conversely, how to restrict the
functionality to what is presentable. We have implemented a (semi-) automatic
beautifier for drawings as an extension to a conventional graphics editor. In
this report, we present a close look at the current implementation of the
beautifier's user interface and give an overview of further research
activities. Keywords: Knowledge based systems, Critique, Beautifying | |||
| Intelligent Mediation: An Architecture for the Real-Time Allocation of Interface Resources | | BIBAK | PDF | 55-61 | |
| Russell Ovans; William S. Havens | |||
| Operator interfaces to supervisory-control systems are often highly complex,
cumbersome to extract information from, and overwhelmingly verbose in the face
of abnormal operating conditions. An oft-cited solution is to replace the
conventional operator interface with an intelligent interface; one that
mediates control system output to present the operator with intelligently
formatted information. While an appealing idea, the question of how to do this
remains unanswered: intelligent presentation of control system data is a
difficult problem. The task is complex because it requires the real-time
allocation of limited interface resources. An expert system architecture and
methodology -- called intelligent mediation -- for the real-time allocation of
limited interface resources is proposed as a solution to this problem. Keywords: Supervisory control, Constraint logic programming, Knowledge-based interface
design, Automatic presentation architectures | |||
| Knowledgeable Development Environments Using Shared Design Models | | BIBAK | PDF | 63-70 | |
| Robert Neches; Jim Foley; Pedro Szekely; Piyawadee Sukaviriya; Ping Luo; Srdjan Kovacevic; Scott Hudson | |||
| We describe MASTERMIND, a step toward our vision of a knowledge-based
design-time and run-time environment in which human-computer interfaces
development is centered around an all-encompassing design model. The
MASTERMIND approach is intended to provide integration and continuity across
the entire life cycle of the user interface. In addition, it facilitates
higher quality work within each phase of the life cycle. MASTERMIND is an open
framework, in which the design knowledge base allows multiple tools to come
into play and makes knowledge created by each tool accessible to the others. Keywords: Models, Collaboration, Design, Development | |||
| The Study of Models of Intelligent Interfaces | | BIBAK | PDF | 71-78 | |
| Angel R. Puerta | |||
| Researchers in the field of intelligent interfaces have concentrated on
building architectures, and have placed little emphasis on defining appropriate
models. As a result, this research area is not well defined. L-CID is a model
of an intelligent interface that establishes the knowledge requirements for,
determines the functionality of, and creates a definition for an intelligent
interface. In addition to modeling knowledge-based user interaction, L-CID
allows two important functions commonly overlooked in models of intelligent
interfaces: (1) self-adaptation, and (2) user-interface management. Examples
of implementations of L-CID for each of these functions are presented. Keywords: Intelligent-interface modeling, Self-adaptation, User-interface management,
Machine learning | |||
| A Learning Interface Agent for Scheduling Meetings | | BIBAK | PDF | 81-88 | |
| Robyn Kozierok; Pattie Maes | |||
| This paper describes a Learning Interface Agent for a meeting scheduling
application. The agent employs Machine Learning techniques to customize itself
to the user's personal scheduling rules and preferences by observing the user's
actions and receiving direct user-feedback. Our approach provides the user
with sophisticated control over the gradual delegation of scheduling tasks to
the agent, as a trust relationship is built. We report upon an experiment in
which a collection of such assistants became gradually more helpful to their
users through the use of memory-based and reinforcement learning. The
experimental data reported upon demonstrate that the learning approach to
building intelligent interface agents is a very promising one which has several
advantages over more standard approaches. Keywords: Interface agents, Learning interface agents, Machine learning, Personal
assistants, Software agents | |||
| Plan Recognition for Context Sensitive Help | | BIBAK | PDF | 89-96 | |
| Klaus-Jurgen Quast | |||
| In this paper we describe a technique for modeling action plans by
multilayered symbolic nets. The nets are used as a signal conductive system by
a newly developed inference component in order to recognize the modeled action
plans. Using spreading activation releases the knowledge base designer from
handling interrupts which can disturb a recognition process. Since the
inference process can be stopped, continued and backed up without completely
reseting and recomputing the inference status, this technique can be used to
model UNDOs. The inference component generates an action history which stores
recognized executions of actions and subactions on each level. This history
can be evaluated by other components. We describe an application for an EXCEL
help system to offer the user a selection of help topics sensitive to his or
her task handling. The Evaluator analyses the computed history in order to
determine crucial usage problems and detect suboptimal task executions which
occur using an application program. Keywords: Modeling action plans, Recognition of action plans, Spreading activation
inference, History of plan executions, Context sensitive help | |||
| The Role of Built-in Knowledge in Adaptive Interface Systems | | BIBAK | PDF | 97-104 | |
| Daniel Crow; Barbara Smith | |||
| We discuss the construction of task-oriented interfaces and argue that they
must adapt themselves to each individual user's behaviour. Because of the
variation between users, it is impracticable to attempt to build in a priori
assumptions about the user. We present an adaptive interface system,
DB_Habits, which shows that it is possible, however, to incorporate knowledge
about the underlying system, and which uses this to recognise repeated
sequences of commands issued by the user which represent the user's
higher-level tasks. DB_Habits uses the command sequences found, to collaborate
with the user in achieving the user's tasks and is malleable i.e. can be easily
adapted by the user to support their tasks. We present results showing the
effect of incorporating simple command syntax knowledge on the performance of
the system. Keywords: Adaptive user interfaces, Task-oriented interfaces, User variation, Pattern
recognition, User modelling | |||
| Supporting Adaptive Interfaces in a Knowledge-Based User Interface Environment | | BIBAK | PDF | 107-113 | |
| Piyawadee "Noi" Sukaviriya; James D. Foley | |||
| Developing an adaptive interface requires a user interface that can be
adapted, a user model, and an adaptation strategy. Research on adaptive
interfaces in the past suffered from a lack of supporting tools which allow an
interface to be easily created and modified. Also, adding adaptivity to a user
interface so far has not been supported by any user interface systems or
environments.
In this paper, we present an overview of a knowledge base model of the User Interface Design Environment (UIDE). UIDE uses the knowledge of an application to support the run-time execution of the application's interface and provides various kinds of automatic help. We present how the knowledge model can be used as a basic construct of a user model. Finally, we present adaptive interface and adaptive help behaviors that can be extended to the current UIDE architecture utilizing the user model. These behaviors are options from which an application designer can choose for an application interface. Keywords: User interface design environment, User model, Adaptive interface, Adaptive
help | |||
| Developing Adaptive Systems to Fit Individual Aptitudes | | BIBAK | PDF | 115-121 | |
| David Benyon; Dianne Murray | |||
| We focus on designing systems which can adapt to individual differences in
personality and cognitive style. To do so, we need to identify individual
cognitive and personalily characteristics, validate them and discover
appropriate design solutions to deal with such differences. These factors are
long-term and relatively stable individual aptitudes and therefore are
difficult for humans to change. We believe that it is exactly these sort of
differences with which adaptive systems should concern themselves. We describe
how we have approached identification of these characteristics and describe how
they were incorporated in an operational, though functionally quite simple
system. Keywords: Adaptive interfaces, User models, Individual differences | |||
| An Adaptive Environment for the User Interface of Excel | | BIBAK | PDF | 123-130 | |
| Christoph G. Thomas; Mette Krogsoeter | |||
| Software systems developed in recent years are becoming increasingly
powerful, but in most cases they tend to abandon the user to deal with the
complexity of the system alone. There is an immense need for systems with
individual, context-sensitive support. In this paper, we discuss the
development of such a support system with special focus on the user interface.
We describe the extension of an existing and complex program, Excel, to an
adaptive and customizable system. This extension is called Flexcel and has
been implemented and evaluated.
The primary aim of this extension is to provide a convenient environment for adapting Excel's user interface to particular users and their current tasks. For example, it allows the user to define new menu entries for actions that are frequently needed and normally require a tedious dialog step. Flexcel also analyzes the user's interaction style and presents adaptation suggestions. A critique component supports the user in his problem solving and learning activities related to the adaptability of Flexcel's user interface. Keywords: Adaptivity, Customizable, Critique, Knowledge bases, Usage profile | |||
| Development of the INRS ATIS System | | BIBAK | PDF | 133-140 | |
| Changwen Yang; Douglas O'Shaughnessy | |||
| We are establishing a dialogue-by-voice system which is a spoken language
interface to the Official Airline Guide (OAG) Database for the general public
to book air tickets directly with computer databases (including over the
telephone). It consists of an ATIS (Air Travel Information System) natural
language system, an automatic SQL (Standard Query Language) generator, a speech
recognizer, a speech synthesizer, a text generator, an N-best algorithm and an
N-best interface.
This paper describes our successfully developed modules: (1) ATIS natural language system which can process not only an isolated imperative, question, assertion, but also a complete booking scenario; (2) an automatic SQL generator which has been connected to the ATIS natural language system to realize generic public transactions with a computer database through natural language sentences; (3) an N-best interface which guarantees that the ATIS natural language system will accept N sentence candidates sent from the speech recognizer. Keywords: Natural language processing, Spoken language system, Syntax, Semantics,
Pragmatics | |||
| Commenting on Action: Continuous Linguistic Feedback Generation | | BIBAK | PDF | 141-148 | |
| Wim Claassen; Edwin Bos; Carla Huls; Koenraad De Smedt | |||
| Action mode interfaces, in which users achieve their goals by manipulating
representations, suffer from some fundamental disadvantages. In this paper, we
present a working prototype of a system called Continuous Linguistic Feedback
Generator (CLFG), a facility that addresses the major disadvantages. CLFG
generates natural language descriptions of the actions the user is performing.
These descriptions are presented in both the visual and audio channels. The
knowledge sources and algorithm that enable CLFG to provide relevant and
concise information are described in detail. Keywords: Natural language generation, Multimodal interfaces, Action mode | |||
| Knowledge Bases for User Guidance in Information Seeking Dialogues | | BIBAK | PDF | 149-156 | |
| Anne Tissen | |||
| Information seeking activities are inherently interactive processes.
Modeling the interaction gives the chance to build flexible interfaces, which
are adaptable to the user's tasks and goals, but at the risk of loosing
orientation in the information space. We propose to guide the information
seeking process by a structured dialogue control. Applying a case-based
approach, we employ cases of previous successful dialogues, which are adaptable
to the new problem situation, for guiding and controlling an information
seeking dialogue. It has become evident that flexible dialogue behavior of
interface systems can be achieved only if background knowledge is modelled in
the system explicitly. We present several knowledge bases about dialogue
structure, the user's tasks and goals, and the system's knowledge about the
domain and how they fit together during the ongoing process. Our approach is
implemented in a prototype of a case-based dialogue manager (CADI), applied in
the MERIT interface system to the CORDIS databases. Keywords: Modeling techniques for interface design, User guidance, Case-based dialogue
manager, Information retrieval | |||
| Explanation Facilities and Interactive Systems | | BIBAK | PDF | 159-166 | |
| Hilary Johnson; Peter Johnson | |||
| Our main research aim is to improve the provision of explanation facilities
in information systems generally, and to identify what is meant by
"explanation". This paper reports research which identifies both the strengths
and weaknesses of current research and shows how to overcome those weaknesses.
We are also concerned with both present and future uses of explanation in
information systems and the role of explanation in a broad range of interactive
applications. Keywords: Explanation, Explanation theories, Task-based explanation, Task knowledge
structures (TKS) | |||
| Providing Opportunistic Enrichment in Customized On-Line Assistance | | BIBAK | PDF | 167-174 | |
| Ursula Wolz | |||
| Regardless of the sophistication of an intelligent interface, a user must
develop expertise in using it. This requires that the interface include the
ability to both respond informatively to users questions and opportunistically
enrich user expertise. If the interface is not able to take the initiative in
providing enrichment, then the user must decide when and how to learn more
about the system. This paper presents a solution to the problem of how to
provide opportunistic enrichment. An interface called GENIE that answers user
queries through natural language generation techniques is presented. In
answering users' questions, GENIE is able to provide enrichment in the
following forms. It can introduce new material. It can clarify distinctions
between a method (plan) for doing a task that is the focus of the query and one
that is not. It can also elucidate misconceptions that are not the focus of
the query. Keywords: Automated assistance, Intelligent computer assisted instruction, User
modeling, Natural language generation | |||
| Generating Explanations in Context | | BIBAK | PDF | 175-182 | |
| Giuseppe Carenini; Johanna D. Moore | |||
| If user interfaces are to reap the benefits of natural language interaction,
they must be endowed with the properties that make human natural language
interaction so effective. Human-human explanation is an inherently incremental
and interactive process. New information must be highlighted and related to
what has already been presented. In this paper, we describe the explanation
component of a medical information-giving system. We describe the
architectural features that enable this component to generate subsequent
explanations that take into account the context created by its prior
utterances. Keywords: Explanation, Dialogue management, Tutoring systems, Natural language
processing | |||
| Cognitive Task Analysis, Interface Design, and Technical Troubleshooting | | BIBAK | PDF | 185-191 | |
| Linda S. Steinberg; Drew H. Gitomer | |||
| We propose a model of interface design that makes use of two interdependent
levels of cognitive analysis: 1) the study of the criterion task through an
analysis of expert/novice differences and; 2) the application of a GOMS
analysis to a working interface design. We review this dual analysis in the
context of HYDRIVE, a video-disc based intelligent tutoring system designed to
facilitate the development of troubleshooting skills for aircraft hydraulics
systems. The initial cognitive task analysis enabled the identification of
critical troubleshooting skills and troubleshooting procedures. We find,
though, that even with an in-depth initial cognitive task analysis, the GOMS
interface analysis resulted in significant and beneficial design changes. Keywords: Cognitive task analysis, Hydraulics maintenance, Intelligent tutoring
system, Interface design, Troubleshooting | |||
| Wizard of Oz Studies -- Why and How | | BIBAK | PDF | 193-200 | |
| Nils Dahlback; Arne Jonsson; Lars Ahrenberg | |||
| We discuss current approaches to the development of natural-language
dialogue systems, and claim that they do not sufficiently consider the unique
qualities of man-machine interaction as distinct from general human discourse.
We conclude that empirical studies of this unique communication situation is
required for the development of user-friendly interactive systems. One way of
achieving this is through the use of so-called Wizard of Oz studies. We
describe our work in this area. The focus is on the practical execution of the
studies and the methodological conclusions that we have drawn on the basis of
our experience. While the focus is on natural language interfaces, the methods
used and the conclusions drawn from the results obtained are of relevance also
to other kinds of intelligent interfaces. Keywords: Design and evaluation, Dialogue, Natural language interfaces | |||
| Towards Automatic Evaluation of Multimodal User Interfaces | | BIBAK | PDF | 201-208 | |
| Sandrine Balbo; Joelle Coutaz; Daniel Salber | |||
| The evaluation of the usability and the learnability of a computer system
may be performed with predictive models during the design phase. It may be
done on the executable code as well by observing the user in action. In this
case, data collected in vivo must be processed. Our goal is to provide a
software support for performing this difficult task.
This article presents an early analysis and experience towards the automatic evaluation of multimodal user interfaces. With this end in view, a generic Wizard of Oz platform has been designed to allow the observation and the automatic recording of subjects' behavior while interacting with a multimodal interface. We then show how recorded data can be analyzed to detect behavioral patterns, and how deviations of such patterns from a data flow-oriented task model can be exploited by a software usability critic. Keywords: Capture of behavioral data, Multimodal user interface, Wizard of Oz, User
interface evaluation techniques | |||
| A Prototype Intelligent User Interface for Real-Time Supervisory Control Systems | | BIBAK | PDF | 211-214 | |
| Iain M. Begg; Joe Gnocato; Wendy E. Moore | |||
| This poster describes a prototype intelligent user interface for real-time
control systems. The prototype combines advanced computer graphics
visualization technology with expert systems and human factors engineering to
produce an Intelligent Graphic Interface for operators of real-time supervisory
control systems, such as those used in telecommunications network management,
power distribution and industrial process control. We describe the project,
domains, architecture and implementation of the first proof-of-concept
prototypes. Keywords: Intelligent user interface, Intelligent mediation, Real-time control,
Network management, Power systems | |||
| Reducing User Effort in Collaboration Support | | BIBAK | PDF | 215-218 | |
| Andy Cockburn; Harold Thimbleby | |||
| The value of electronic mail as a medium for collaborative and coordinated
work can be enhanced by relating messages to conversations. While some
groupware systems have offered such facilities, their ability to assess
conversational context is dependent on explicit user action and the use of
specific systems by all collaborators.
This paper describes Mona, a novel conversation based email platform. Mona provides a hypertext representation of conversational context without requiring any additional effort from the user or the use of specific email systems by other collaborators. Mona's lack of requirements and independence is made possible by inferring conversational context with heuristics using information inherently transferred in all email communications. Mona's heuristics are described, as are its mechanisms for personalising conversation views. Keywords: Email, Free guidance, Conversational context, Heuristics, Mona (a CSCW
system) | |||
| The Automation of Helpdesks | | BIBAK | PDF | 219-222 | |
| L. M. Coventry; T. B. Kane | |||
| Helpdesks are becoming increasingly more important in large organisations.
These organisations may be commercial or academic. However, management of such
helpdesks is becoming increasingly more difficult as the amount of knowledge
that must be acquired and maintained by the advisor becomes rapidly
unmanageable. The sources of information are highly distributed and the
domains are becoming larger. No one person can be an expert in all necessary
domains. Many attempts are being made to increase the effectiveness of these
helpdesks. The solution may lie in an intelligent assistant for the advisor.
This paper describes such a system. The advisors remain central to the
process. They may train the system and their ability to communicate
effectively with a variety of users, each with different experience and
knowledge, modes of learning and information requirements cannot be replicated
by a software system. However, an intelligent system can help the advisor to
maintain their knowledge, acquiring knowledge from a variety of sources and
assisting in the diagnosis of problems. The advisor formulates queries from
users for the system, receives the information from the system and communicates
this in a manner appropriate to the user who had the initial problem. Keywords: Agents, Blackboard architecture, Advisory system, Interface, Answer filters | |||
| Experimental Results on User Knowledge Assessment with an Evidential Reasoning Methodology | | BIBA | PDF | 223-226 | |
| Michel C. Desmarais; Jiming Liu | |||
| User modeling is a crucial element of intelligent interfaces. This paper presents some preliminary results on a method for the assessment of user knowledge. Knowledge of an individual is modeled as a subset of a global set of knowledge units (KU). The KUs are interrelated among each other through implication relations, indicating that certain KUs are prerequisite to others. The structure of implications is induced algorithmically through an induction procedure utilizing empirical data on the knowledge state of a number of subjects. It is thereafter used in a knowledge assessment process based on the Dempster-Shafer evidential reasoning methodology. The preliminary results demonstrate that our approach can successfully assess knowledge by randomly sampling KUs in a knowledge state and infer which KUs are known and unknown. | |||
| Adaptive Function Allocation by Intelligent Interfaces | | BIBAK | PDF | 227-229 | |
| P. A. Hancock; M. H. Chignell | |||
| Intelligent interfaces act as translational intermediaries between humans
and machines while themselves representing a third component in the
human-interface-machine triad. They seek to maximize the collaborative
capabilities of human and machine through the communication of mutual queries
and actions in symbols best suited to the respective entity involved. This
triad is directed to the achievement of a range of external goals. Attainment
of such goals is best served by the enhancement of mutual adaptive capability
of the individual components of the human-interface-machine triad and of the
triad itself as a supraordinate unit. Within collective action, the question
of who does what, when and with whom is best seen as a problem in adaptive
allocation. This question is itself a subset of the general problem of
function allocation which is arguably the foundation of human-machine
interaction. This work advocates modular customization of the intelligent
interface as a solution to the impasse that derives from previous and failed
descriptive approaches to the allocation question. Keywords: Task allocation, Intelligent interface | |||
| Inferring Complex Plans | | BIBAK | PDF | 231-234 | |
| Kristina Höök; Jussi Karlgren; Annika Wærn | |||
| We examine the need for plan inference in intelligent help mechanisms. We
argue that previous approaches have drawbacks that need to be overcome to make
plan inference useful. Firstly, plans have to be inferred -- not extracted
from the users' help requests. Secondly, the plans inferred must be more than
a single goal or solitary user command. Keywords: Plan inference, Interactive help systems, Configuration problem | |||
| An Ecological Man-Machine Interface for Temporal Visualization | | BIBAK | PDF | 235-238 | |
| Lars Peter Jensen; Peter Koch | |||
| This paper concerns the design of man-machine systems, especially the
interface between man and machine (MMI).
Three different models of human information processing are used to extract theoretical guidelines for designing MMI's to support human mental activity. The models, all developed by Professor Jens Rasmussen Denmark, are: Skill-, Rule- and Knowledgebased behaviour, Abstraction hierarchies and Decision ladder. Based on the extracted guidelines for ecological man machine interface a new viewport for both overview and detailed information is developed: The Spider display. The display is presented and explained and a link to the 3 models is made showing that the Spider display can be used as a tool for the system designer attempting to design an ecological display, which match the operator's way of thinking and acting. Keywords: Interface-building tools and techniques, User modelling techniques for
ecological interface design | |||
| Cooperative Support for Distributed Supervisory Control: Requirements, Issues, and an Example from Mission Operations | | BIBAK | PDF | 239-242 | |
| Patricia M. Jones | |||
| The term distributed supervisory control emphasizes that supervisory control
is commonly conducted by teams of human operators. This paper focuses on
issues in distributed supervisory control, particularly with regard to
providing cooperative problem solving tools, and provides an example real-world
application. Keywords: Supervisory control, Activity management, Computer-supported cooperative
work | |||
| A User-Centered Approach to Adaptive Interfaces | | BIBAK | PDF | 243-245 | |
| Thomas Kuhme | |||
| An adaptive user interface is supposed to adapt itself to the
characteristics of an individual user. It is widely accepted that such an
adaptation requires the interface to maintain a user model embedded in the
system. In this article an inspectable user model is proposed which gives the
user an insight into adaptation strategies and underlying assumptions. It
supports the user in adapting the interface and serves as an instrument for
controlling automatic adaptations. The inspectable user model plays a central
role in a user-centered approach to adaptive user interfaces.
This approach, called Computer-Aided Adaptation (CAA), focuses on enabling users to express their needs and preferences more effectively. It aims to provide a better transparency of the adaptation process and underlying user modeling mechanisms. The user model is expected to provide the means for an implicit adaptation. And finally, the adaptation process itself should be made adaptive due to the users' individual prerequisites concerning adaptation. The ideas presented in this paper are the basis of a CAA environment being under development. Keywords: Adaptive user interfaces, User modeling | |||
| Adjusting the Presentation of Forms to Users' Behavior | | BIBAK | PDF | 247-249 | |
| Uwe Malinowski | |||
| This poster presents an approach to make form-based interfaces easier to
use. The presentation of forms is adapted to the individual user's behavior.
Color and highlighting of items are adjusted with respect to the time of last
change of the item and the usually used item value compared to the currently
used value. By this means complex forms can be used effectively, as the user
will be able to identify relevant information at first glance. It is discussed
what information about users' behavior has to be represented in a user model in
order to provide for adaptation. Keywords: Intelligent user interfaces, User modelling, Adaptive systems | |||
| Issues in Practical Application of an Adaptive Interface | | BIBAK | PDF | 251-254 | |
| Beth Meyer; K. C. Burgess Yakemovic; Michael Harris | |||
| The authors have been developing a prototype system for installation in an
operational business environment. During the development, a number of issues
have been encountered. These include:
* constraints arising from placing prototypes in operational environments
* lack of guidelines for selecting types of adaptation
* difficulty determining adaptation criteria
* difficulty obtaining necessary data from users
* lack of guidelines for making information display decisions
* problems in testing 'real world' interfaces
These issues are not readily solved with more sophisticated adaptation
algorithms; rather, they point out the need for collecting more information
from attempts to bring intelligent interfaces to complex business environments. Keywords: Adaptive interfaces, Prototypes, Commercial applications, Development issues | |||
| Focus in Graphical User Interfaces | | BIBAK | PDF | 255-257 | |
| Manuel A. Perez; John L. Sibert | |||
| Focus in natural language processing is used to keep track of the
attentional space of the participants in the dialogue. Graphical interfaces
have still to benefit from the use of this level of communication. We discuss
a graphical interface counter part called a focus space. Focus spaces can be
used to combine multiple interaction styles (e.g. natural language with
graphical pointing). We describe how a specific theory of discourse structure
and focus space can be applied to graphical interfaces. The attentional space
is maintained automatically by the system, and can be used by the software
under program control. An example is provided showing how the attentional
space can be used. Keywords: Focus, Discourse structure, Graphical user interfaces | |||
| Creating Intelligent User Interfaces Using Prototyping and Knowledge Based Support Technologies -- The Rapid Prototyping Tool MacEMSIG -- | | BIBAK | PDF | 259-262 | |
| Stephan Romahn; Annette Kaster | |||
| The rapid prototyping tool MacEMSIG supports the designer of user interfaces
with extensive interactive editors, so the graphical layout creation process is
simple and easy. Since the interface layout is assembled completely separated
from the application system, the interface can be iteratively modified as well
as linked to either system simulations or real systems. MacEMSIG has a runtime
environment that allows realtime operations with the application system where
user activity can be recorded. The data may be used for empirical interface
analysis or for on-line user support. MacEMSIG aids in the creation of various
operation concepts, such as integrated, system-oriented and task-oriented
designs. Knowledge-based systems can be used to assist the user to perform the
task. The simulation of the Airbus Flight Management System and an user
interface to a real system are presented as examples. Keywords: Human-machine systems, User interface design, Artificial intelligence,
Knowledge-engineering, Simulation | |||
| A User Interface for the Electronic Encyclopedia Exploratorium | | BIBAK | PDF | 263-267 | |
| Michael Salisbury; Alan Borning | |||
| The Electronic Encyclopedia Exploratorium (E{cubed}) is a vision of a future
computer system -- a kind of electronic "How Things Work" book. Typical
articles in E{cubed} will describe such mechanisms as compression
refrigerators, engines, telescopes, and mechanical linkages. Each article will
provide simulations, three-dimensional animated graphics that the user can
manipulate, laboratory areas that allow a user to modify the device or
experiment with related artifacts, and a facility for asking questions and
receiving customized, computer-generated English-language explanations. During
the past year we have implemented an initial prototype of an article on
refrigerators and are currently implementing a more sophisticated second
version. In this short paper we focus on the user interfaces for these
prototypes. Keywords: "How things work" articles, Simulations, Animation, Laboratory areas,
Refrigerators | |||
| Programming with Characters | | BIBA | PDF | 269-272 | |
| Mike Travers; Marc Davis | |||
| Programs are hard to build, and even harder to understand after they are built. We lack intuitive interfaces for visualizing and manipulating many parts of programs and the ways in which these parts interact. Constraint systems have addressed these problems. We generalize some of the notions inherent in constraint systems to agent-based systems, and explore the use of animated characters as interface representations of agents. In particular, conflict detection and resolution is dramatized by the use of characters and their emotions. The history of their interactions is presented as a narrative using video and storyboard techniques. Building programs out of agents and enabling users to manipulate program parts by interacting with simple animated characters can aid relatively unskilled users in understanding and modifying complex systems. | |||