| The Discipline of HCI | | BIB | 3-5 | |
| Dan Diaper | |||
| Task Analysis, Systems Analysis and Design: Symbiosis or Synthesis? | | BIBAK | 6-12 | |
| Alistair Sutcliffe | |||
| The relationship between methods for systems development that have
originated from work in human-computer interaction (HCI) and in software
engineering are examined using a classificatory framework of the system life
cycle and the development issues are addressed. Software engineering methods
tackle few HCI issues and would benefit from the addition of HCI principles and
techniques. It is contended that two groups of HCI methods can be identified,
task/organisation and cognitive task analysis; both of which should be
integrated with structured system development methods to improve system
usability. To encourage their practice, HCI methods need to be integrated with
software engineering and to offer more prescriptive design advice. Keywords: Task analysis, Structured design, Integrated methods, Organisation analysis,
Cognitive analysis | |||
| Embedded User Models - Where Next? | | BIBAK | 13-30 | |
| Rod Rivers | |||
| User models can be embedded into a wide range of computer applications to
enhance the quality of the user interface. The development of embedded user
models (EUMs) draws on research in cognitive science and systems engineering
and should be of interest to designers of user interfaces and researchers in
human-computer interaction. This paper consolidates ideas about EUMs formed in
the course of four projects funded under the British Government's Alvey
Programme on advanced information technology. It discusses the relationship
between user models, knowledge representation, human inference and
instructional strategies, and presents views about the current state of the art
in precompetitive research systems, its limitations and possible future
directions for work. Keywords: User models, Intelligent interfaces, Intelligent tutoring systems, Knowledge
representation, Computer-based training, Cognitive modelling | |||
| People Interact Through Computers Not With Them | | BIBAK | 31-38 | |
| T. J. M. Bench-Capon; A. M. McEnery | |||
| A view of human-human interaction is presented and its implications for
human-computer interaction discussed. Two propositions are advanced. The
first is that interaction with computer systems is properly seen as mediated
discourse, more akin to reading books and notices than interpersonal dialogues.
The second proposition is a consequence of this, namely that unconstrained
natural language is unlikely to provide an ideal form of interface. Keywords: Natural language, Human-computer interaction, User models, Pragmatics | |||
| Interacting WITH Computers | | BIBAK | 39-42 | |
| Judith Barlow; Roy Rada; Dan Diaper | |||
| In contrast with the claims of Bench-Capon and McEnery (1989), this paper
argues that users of computer systems will find it more profitable to model the
computer system than to model its programmers. However, Bench-Capon and
McEnery's views about the limitations of natural language for interacting with
computers are supported. Keywords: User models, Human-computer interaction, Natural Language | |||
| Lean Cuisine: A Low-Fat Notation for Menus | | BIBAK | 43-68 | |
| M. D. Apperley; R. Spence | |||
| The specification, design, implementation and control of highly interactive
direct manipulation dialogues is of increasing interest. However, existing
techniques fall well short of the goal of isolating the design of the dialogue
from the detail of its implementation. This paper closely analyses the
structural characteristics of menu systems, a major component of such
dialogues, and arising from this analysis proposes a new diagrammatic approach
to their description. This approach is shown to be able to completely specify
the details and behaviour of a system of menus from an external point of view.
The parallels between this notation and the recently defined class of automata,
Event-Response Systems, are discussed, demonstrating the potential for a direct
implementation of an interface from this description. Further, it is suggested
that the notation could be extended to cover all aspects of direct manipulation
interaction. Keywords: Dialogue design, Design notation, Menu dialogues, Menu syntax, Dialogue
control | |||
| Explanatory Dialogues | | BIBAK | 69-92 | |
| Alison Cawsey | |||
| Explanations are important in many areas of human-computer interaction. In
help systems, tutoring systems and within expert system, lengthy explanations
of some topic or justifications of some reasoning process may be required. If
a long explanation is given, there is good chance that at some point the user
will 'lose track', and fail to grasp the main content of the explanation.
There has therefore been recent emphasis on generating explanations and textual
descriptions that are tailored to the knowledge and goals of the particular
user. However, there is no guarantee that such a model will be accurate. By
allowing interactions with the user within the explanation this no longer
becomes crucial. Then, if users are confused in the middle of an explanation
they can interrupt and seek clarification, and the system may provide explicit
checks on the user's understanding.
Therefore this paper presents an approach to explanation generation based on the assumption that explanations must both use and track a model of what the user knows, and also involve interactions with the user. The framework is based on sociolinguistic studies of human-human interaction as well as artificial intelligence work on explanation, text planning, tutoring and user modelling. It has been implemented and used for generating tutorial explanatory dialogues in electronics. Keywords: Explanation, Dialogue, Artificial intelligence, Intelligent tutoring
systems, Help systems, Discourse structure | |||
| Moral Judgements in Designing Better Systems | | BIBAK | 93-104 | |
| David J. Pullinger | |||
| A framework is presented for considering the areas in which computing and
ethics relate. The framework examines five areas: the ethics of conduct and
practice among computer professionals; the consequences of computerisation that
may lead to acts which may be considered subjects of ethical enquiry; moral
problems that are highlighted by computing, but are not particular to it;
aspects of computing that lead to moral questions; and ways in which computing
changes the practice of ethics itself. This provides a basis both for
examining why it is difficult for members of the professional computer
societies to engage in ethics and for arguing the particular role that HCI
could have in engaging in ethical enquiry. Keywords: Ethics, Morals, Human-computer interaction, Social implications, Social
responsibility | |||
| Icons at the Interface: Their Usefulness | | BIBAK | 105-117 | |
| Yvonne Rogers | |||
| Iconic interfacing is now widespread. Increasing aspects of the system
functionality -- including objects, options, operations, states and messages --
are being represented at the interface in this pictorial form. Against this
zeitgeist, this paper sets out to discuss how useful icons really are and
whether they live up to their expectations. A classification of the function
and form of icons is outlined together with a proposal of the way in which a
simple grammar of icon forms which maps onto the underlying system structure
can be developed. Finally theoretical issues are discussed in the way in which
information from icon-based displays is used when performing a task at the
interface. Keywords: User interface design, Icons, Pictorial representation, Symbol systems,
Visual memory | |||
| Who's Joking? The Information System at Play | | BIBAK | 118-128 | |
| Jacqueline G. Ord | |||
| While studying cultural aspects of the installation of a computerized
messaging system, at least one terminal was seen to be used mainly for playful
purposes during the first three months after installation. The convivial
messages produced comprise an unusual kind of data, since until the advent of
electronic systems, such exchanges were rarely presented in writing (publicly,
at least). They are explored within a framework which distinguishes between
formal and convivial types of exchange on the one hand, and written and spoken
exchanges on the other. The messages arise spontaneously out of people
experimenting with a new medium. Their existence raises questions about the
relations between electronic technology and formal and convivial modes of
organisation, and it is suggested that serious attention should be paid to
convivial modes of organisation in designing and implementing electronic
messaging systems. Keywords: Culture, Electronic messaging, Organisation, Play | |||
| A Formal Structure for Automatic Icons | | BIBAK | 131-140 | |
| Kim Fairchild; Greg Meredith; Alan Wexelblat | |||
| The paper presents a formal structure for describing icons and their
relations to objects. Icons are mappings from icon space, which deals with
representational properties, to object space, which deals with computational
objects. The nature of this mapping is formally described. An extension
called automatic icons is proposed. The automatic-icon model subsumes
currently-used static and animated icons and gives powerful and flexible new
tools we call automatic icons. Some applications of automatic icons, and a
tool built by the authors to help system designers create automatic icons, are
described. The processes outlined in this paper are the subject of a pending
patent. Keywords: User interface design, Icons, Automatic icons, Formal structure | |||
| Human Factors in Expert System Design: Can Lessons in the Promotion of Methods be Learned from Commercial DP? | | BIBAK | 141-158 | |
| Clive Bright; Ann Innman; Rob Stammers | |||
| The way that human factors methods and information are presented to
designers of expert systems is extremely important if such methods are to be
widely adopted. The nature of human factors knowledge makes such presentation
problematic. The problems are somewhat analogous to those encountered in the
promotion of 'structured development standards' within the commercial data
processing environment. In commercial DP, structured development standards are
promoted on the basis that increased development costs incurred at an early
stage can be offset by reduced maintenance and enhancement costs later on.
Within human factors, the user-centred design approach to expert system
development is promoted on the basis that it will increase the likelihood of
producing 'useful' and 'usable' systems. In neither DP nor human factors, can
tangible benefits of adopting more rigorous methods be provided. Both,
however, appeal, to some extent, to the 'common sense' of the system
developers. By comparing the two fields the paper assesses whether human
factors specialists might learn from their DP counterparts when attempting to
promote the adoption of appropriate methods. One feature of DP structured
development standards which is pertinent to human factors is that of
'tailorability'. The paper discusses the suggestion that the adoption of the
human factors methods will largely depend on the way that such methods can be
tailored to meet the requirements of expert system development in industrial
and commercial environments. An analysis of these requirements, through a
series of case studies, is being conducted, and this work is briefly described. Keywords: Human factors, Expert systems, User-centred design, Commercial DP,
Development standards, Structured methods | |||
| Inductive Analysis Applied to the Evaluation of a CAL Tutorial | | BIBAK | 159-170 | |
| A. Brooks; P. Vezza | |||
| A human-computer interaction experiment is reported in which subjects used a
CAL (computer-aided learning) tutorial to solve four problems about housing
benefit regulations. The results are analysed inductively, with the analysis
expedited by the use of inductive rule learning techniques. The results of the
inductive analysis were unavailable at the time. Traditional statistics were
used in the comparative evaluation of the CAL tutorial. Consequently a useful
insight into the advantages of inductive analysis was provided and it is
suggested that such an analysis might be of use for any HCI experiment. By way
of a benchmark test, the result of applying inductive rule learning to Fisher's
data is presented. Keywords: Rule induction, Experiment, CAL, StrathTutor, Housing benefit regulations | |||
| Computer Technology and Knowledge Workers: A Pilot Study of Job Impact | | BIBAK | 171-182 | |
| Kathleen Foley Curley | |||
| There is general agreement that the rapid spread of computing technology to
'end-users' across a variety of occupations will have profound impact on the
future working life of almost every individual. There is however much
disagreement on what the nature of that impact will be. During a pilot study
on end-user computing we conducted in-depth interviews with 12 'knowledge
workers' about the impact of computer technology on their jobs and their
working life. One objective of the research was to get a clearer understanding
of how people individually feel about their jobs and their use of computers.
From their experiences and drawing on the research of others, the author
identifies four job impacts. These are not meant to be an exhaustive list, but
rather frame the range and quality of impact as the people who work with the
technology have described it. Two of these impacts seem to be unique to
information or 'intellectual technologies' that support knowledge workers,
while two appear to be more universal themes of technological change.
Identifying these dominant impacts provides a more focused picture of how
individuals are currently coping with the infusion of computer technology and
at the same time what they speculate about the future of working life in an
information-intensive age. Keywords: Computer technology, Jobs, Job demands, Job influences | |||
| Human Factors of Journal Usage and Design of Electronic Texts | | BIBAK | 183-189 | |
| Andrew Dillon; John Richardson; Cliff McKnight | |||
| The paper reports on a study of journal usage amongst human factors
researchers. The aim of the study was to shed light on how journals are used
with a view of making recommendations about the development of a full-text,
searchable database that would support such usage. The results indicate that
levels of usage vary over time, the range of journals covered is small and
readers overlook a large proportion of the contents of articles. Furthermore,
three reading strategies are observed which indicate that the presentation of
journal articles is not ideally suited to their uses. The implications of
these findings for developing suitable computer-based applications are
discussed. Keywords: Electronic text, Journal usage, Hypertext, Reading from screens and paper,
Text manipulation, Reading strategies | |||
| The Personal Browser: A Tool for Directed Navigation in Hypertext Systems | | BIBAK | 190-196 | |
| Andrew Monk | |||
| In most hypertext applications there will be occasions where the user knows
the location of the information being sought because that location has been
visited regularly in the past. This directed navigation can be distinguished
from exploratory navigation where the user cannot specify precisely where the
information might be within the hypertext system. Directed navigation can be
facilitated by providing a personal browser which lists and gives direct access
to frequently visited locations selected by the user.
Different ways in which this could be implemented are discussed including facilities for automating the addition of new buttons to the personal browser. An appendix provides the code needed to program a demonstration withing HyperCard. This monitors the number of times each card in the stack is visited and asks whether a button should be added after a card has been visited some criterion number of times. Keywords: Hypertext, Browsing, Navigation | |||
| 'Working-to-Rules': A Case of Taylor-Made Expert Systems | | BIBAK | 197-219 | |
| Peter Holden | |||
| Taylorism popularised the view that through the fragmentation of manual
tasks into specialised, repeatable constituent activities, and the removal of
tacit knowledge and discernment from the shopfloor worker, there would be
significant increases in productivity. Where Taylorism mechanised and
downgraded manual tasks, this paper argues that a similar 'machine-centred'
approach towards the development of expert systems will degrade the
characteristics of human knowledge through an emphasis upon the automation of
expertise. In order to move away from an automation focus, it is necessary to
move towards systems which augment rather than replace the qualities of human
tacit knowledge. Problem identification is a critical first stage in the
development lifecycle because it is here where the decision to enhance or
replace expertise is made. It is a process of understanding the problem from a
number of perspectives; however, the emphasis under Taylorism is upon the
technical dimension, with a disregard for organisational and human factors
which are the central factors in the identification process. The
multiple-perspective concept embraces the technical, organisational and
personal perspectives in a wider framework of enquiry. It should help those
responsible for introducing expert systems into an organisation to recognise
the limitations of a purely technical perspective and to choose the right
combination of elements to match the specific needs of the organisation. Keywords: Taylorism, Expert systems, Development framework, Scientific management,
Technical perspective, Multiple-perspective | |||
| Modelling Devices and Modelling Speakers | | BIBAK | 220-224 | |
| T. J. M. Bench-Capon; A. M. McEnery | |||
| The roles played in an illocutionary act by models of the means of
communication and the communicator are distinguished, and qualitative
differences between the models appropriate in the two cases identified.
Applied to human-computer interaction, that means that a user must have models
of the computer both as a communications device and a communications medium,
and of the system author as interlocutor. Keywords: Speech acts, Illocutionary acts, User models, Human-computer interaction | |||
| Shaping User Input: A Strategy for Natural Language Dialogue Design | | BIBAK | 227-244 | |
| Martin D. Ringle; Richard Halstead-Nussloch | |||
| Traditional approaches to natural language dialogue interface design have
adopted ordinary human-human conversation as the model for online
human-computer interaction. The attempt to deal with all the subtleties of
natural dialogues, such as topic focus, coherence, ellipsis, pronominal
reference, etc. has resulted in prototype systems that are enormously complex
and computationally expensive.
In a series of experiments, we explored ways of minimizing the processing burden of a dialogue system by channeling user input towards a more tractable, though still natural, form of English-language questions. Through linking a pair of terminals, we presented subjects with two different dialogue styles as a framework for online help in the domain of word-processing. The first dialogue style involved ordinary conversational format. The second style involved a simulation of an automated dialogue system, including apparent processing restrictions and 'system process messages' to inform the subject of the steps taken by the system during query analysis. In both cases human tutors played the role of the help system. After each dialogue session, subjects were interviewed to determine their assessments of the naturalness and usability of the dialogue interface. We found that user input became more tractable to parsing and query analysis as the dialogue style became more formalized, yet the subjective assessment of naturalness and usability remained fairly constant. This suggests that techniques for channeling user input in a dialogue system may be effectively employed to reduce processing demands without compromising the benefits of a natural language interface. Theoretically, this data lends support to the hypothesis that unrestricted human-human conversation is not the most appropriate model for the design of human-computer dialogue interfaces. Keywords: User interfaces, Dialogues, Natural language | |||
| A Knowledge-Based System with Audio-Visual Aids | | BIBAK | 245-258 | |
| Koichi Tabata; Shigeo Sugimoto | |||
| A Knowledge-based System with Audio-Visual Aids (KS/AV) is presented. KS/AV
is a knowledge-based system that has multiple types of knowledge represented
not only in symbols but in audio-visual (AV) images, and it provides an
environment for human-machine communication through AV media. We define a
predicate logic based on objects for knowledge representation in KS/AV. It is
a first order predicate logic in which every individual is regarded as an
object. All of the individuals including AV images are regarded as objects.
Their definitions are based on the class concepts of Smalltalk-80. AV image
objects presented in this paper include not only simple video and graphic
images, but also composite images that consist of several component images.
This paper presents the KS/AV system developed on a small computer system with
various AV equipment. As a case study, we developed a reading advisory system
for children on KS/AV, which communicates with children through AV images and
gives their favourite picture books. Keywords: Knowledge-based system, Predicate logic based on objects, Logic oriented
knowledge representation, Object oriented knowledge representation,
Audio-visual images, Image-based human-machine communication | |||
| Interacting with Electronic Mail Can be a Dream or a Nightmare: A User's Point View | | BIBAK | 259-272 | |
| Nava Pliskin | |||
| Diffusion of electronic mail (e-mail) is not yet universal. So far, e-mail
has been implemented successfully within organisations, but its implementation
for communications between organisations has been rather limited. This
situation is surprising, given the great potential of e-mail for
interorganisational communication. E-mail encounters from a user's point of
view, reviewed in this paper, suggest that users of BITNET, one of the
predominant e-mail networks in the academic world, face difficulties while
interacting with e-mail. These include addressing difficulties, unreliability
issues, medium limitations, and interface problems. BITNET is just one of many
interorganisational networks and may not be representative. Still, e-mail
technology is unlikely to survive if human engineering and reliability are not
uniformly satisfactory across all e-mail systems. Poorly engineered e-mail
systems frustrate not only their users, but also users of other networks
because of gateways between the networks. Therefore, e-mail users might resort
to other communication media like facsimile or the telephone, and abandon
e-mail altogether.
For e-mail to be competitive in the communication arena, an interdisciplinary effort should be directed toward standardisation of features like better addressing conventions, international user directories, uniform user interfaces, and sophisticated management of e-mail messages. Keywords: E-mail, User interface, Reliability, Communication media | |||
| The Application of Metaphor, Analogy, and Conceptual Models in Computer Systems | | BIBAK | 273-283 | |
| Lucy Anne Wozny | |||
| People using computer systems naturally relate what they are experiencing to
what they already know. This general cognitive process can be classified into
metaphoric, analogical, and modelling processes. Metaphor, a term applied
often to today's computer systems, is the process of representing the computer
system with objects and events from a noncomputer domain, such as the popular
desktop metaphor. Analogy is a comparison between objects or events that serve
the same purpose but have different representations. Models are
representations of the abstract conceptual structure of a computer system.
This paper outlines the differences between these three processes and applies
them to the computer domain. Implications for computer systems design are also
discussed. Keywords: Cognitive science, Computer models, Metaphors, Analogies, Conceptual models | |||
| Exploiting Convergence to Improve Natural Language Understanding | | BIBAK | 284-298 | |
| R. G. Leiser | |||
| Convergence is the phenomenon in human dialogue whereby participants adopt
characteristics of each other's speech. Communicants are unaware of this
occurring. If it were possible to invoke such a phenomenon in a natural
language interface it would provide a means of keeping user inputs within the
range of lexical and syntactic coverage of the system, while keeping the
dialogue 'natural' in the sense of requiring no more conscious effort in
observing conventions of format than human-human dialogue.
A 'Wizard of Oz' study was conducted to test the feasibility of this technique. Subjects were required to type queries into what they thought was a natural language database querying system. On completion of input the system presented a paraphrase for confirmation by subjects before presenting the answer. The paraphrases were constructed using particular terms and syntactic structures. Subjects began to use these terms and structures spontaneously in subsequent queries. Observation of convergence in human-computer dialogue suggests that the technique can be incorporated in user interfaces to improve communication. The implementation issues for natural language dialogue are discussed, and other applications of the technique in HCI are outlined. Keywords: Natural language, Dialogues, User interfaces, Convergence | |||
| The User Interface in a Hypertext, Multiwindow Program Browser | | BIBAK | 299-337 | |
| Richard H. C. Seabrook; Ben Shneiderman | |||
| The program browsing problem is discused, with particular emphasis on a
multiple-window user interface and its implications for recording acquired
knowledge, navigation, and attention-tracking. Hypertext systems are
considered as an implementation of browsing techniques for nonprogram text. A
classification scheme for text-viewing systems is offered, and then browsing is
discussed as a nonintrusive, static technique for program study.
Multiple techniques are synthesised into a coherent plan for a multiwindow program study tool, based on theories of program browsing and the use of hypertext. A text system, HYBROW, emerged from the plan for studying the application of several hypertext multiple-window techniques to program browsing, especially window replacement. HYBROW is a hypertext, multiple-window program browser. This generic tool is applicable to any source language, although certain aspects of the preprocessing and the hierarchical browser presentation are specific to the C language. The tool permits opening an arbitrary number of text windows into an arbitrary number of files, rapid window switching, multiple-window search, placemarking, automatic screen organisation, and services for the creation, maintenance and production of study notes. An informal usability study was conducted. Keywords: User interfaces, Windowing systems, Hypertext, Browsing systems | |||
| The Individual 'Working-to-Rules': Reducing Determinism in Taylor-Made Expert Systems | | BIBAK | 338-342 | |
| J. A. Shelton | |||
| Holden (1989) suggested that Taylorist scientific management principles,
based upon machine-like models of man, may influence the development and
application of expert systems. While Holden's work is a major contribution to
the debate on the effects of technology on employment, it is argued that a
similar deterministic and mechanistic image of the users of expert systems is
implicit in his paper. In addition, this commentary also addresses some of the
related issues concerning autonomous expert systems. Keywords: Taylorism, Expert systems, Scientific management | |||