| A Goal Satisfied: Rapid Journal Publication | | BIB | 3-6 | |
| Dan Diaper | |||
| Effect of Grading Schemes on Outcomes in Query Writing Experiments | | BIBAK | 7-12 | |
| Hock Chuan Chan; Kwok Kee Wei | |||
| There have been many experiments comparing query languages. Their findings
are difficult to combine as the experiments have used different settings and
procedures. Before a meta-analysis combining the experiments, it is proposed
that these differences be checked for any possible effect. The most important
measure of user performance in these experiments is query accuracy, which has
been determined using many different grading schemes. The different schemes
are therefore checked for possible effects on hypothesis rejection. These
grading schemes are applied to two sets of queries from two different
experiments. The outcomes are examined to identify any effects resulting from
the grading schemes. The results show that the experimental outcomes are
robust and immune to the grading schemes. Keywords: Human-computer interaction, Query languages, Grading schemes | |||
| Comparison of Input Devices in an ISEE Direct Timbre Manipulation Task | | BIBAK | 13-30 | |
| Roel Vertegaal; Barry Eaglestone | |||
| The representation and manipulation of sound within multimedia systems is an
important and currently under-researched area. The paper gives an overview of
the authors' work on the direct manipulation of audio information, and
describes a solution based upon the navigation of four-dimensional scaled
timbre spaces. Three hardware input devices were experimentally evaluated for
use in a timbre space navigation task: the Apple Standard Mouse, Gravis
Advanced Mousestick II joystick (absolute and relative) and the Nintendo Power
Glove. Results show that the usability of these devices significantly affected
the efficacy of the system, and that conventional low-cost, low-dimensional
devices provided better performance than the low-cost, multidimensional
dataglove. Keywords: Human-synthesizer interaction, Direct manipulation, Auditory perception | |||
| Structured Task Analysis: An Instantiation of the MUSE Method for Usability Engineering | | BIBAK | 31-50 | |
| Kee Yong Lim | |||
| The paper addresses the following criticisms of task analysis: its
requirement for an existing system; its focus on analysis rather than design;
its limited scope within the design cycle; its underspecification of the
application domain; and its inadequate documentation of design outputs. Such
criticisms constitute problems for the application of task analysis for design
specification (as opposed to design evaluation).
Solutions to these problems have emerged indirectly from the development of a structured method intended to rectify the typically late involvement of human factors in system development, e.g., only at the evaluation stage. The paper describes how task analysis has been extended, structured and incorporated explicitly throughout the design cycle in the MUSE method for usability engineering. Keywords: Human-computer interaction, Task analysis, Structured analysis and design
method | |||
| Intelligent Adaptive Assistance and its Automatic Generation | | BIBAK | 51-68 | |
| Harold Thimbleby; Mark Addison | |||
| Manuals and interactive help are tedious to provide, difficult to maintain,
and difficult to ensure that they remain correct, even for simple systems. The
result is a loss in product quality, felt particularly by users and designers
committed to long-term product development.
The paper shows that it is possible to systematically put a system specification and its documentation into exact correspondence. It follows that much previously manual work can be done automatically and with considerable advantages, including guaranteed correctness and completeness, as well as supporting powerful new features such as intelligent adaptive assistance. This paper shows how interactive assistance can be provided to answer 'how to?', 'why not?' and other questions. Keywords: Human-computer interaction, Help, User manuals | |||
| Requirements for Graphical User Interface Development Environments for Groupware | | BIBAK | 69-88 | |
| Reza Hazemi; Linda Macaulay | |||
| Most user interface designers are conversant with graphical user interface
(GUI) tools such as Motif and Presentation Manager which provide 'widgets' and
other facilities for building user interfaces. Such GUI tools were developed
primarily for building interfaces to single-user systems. The purpose of the
paper is to present the result of research into the requirements for GUI tools
for multi-user systems. Many of the requirements of single and multi-user GUIs
are the same, for example, usability and flexibility. A number of new widgets
are needed for multi-user GUIs, for example, shared scroll-bars and multi-user
telepointers. The requirements are divided into three groups based on three
sources of requirements: literature, user survey and widgets. Keywords: Human-computer interaction, Interfaces, Groupware | |||
| Delivering Cognitive Psychology to HCI: The Problems of Common Language and of Knowledge Transfer | | BIBA | 89-111 | |
| T. R. G. Green; S. P. Davies; D. J. Gilmore | |||
| Although cognitive psychology showed much initial promise, it has failed to make significant contributions to the study of human-computer interaction, which has led to a rejection of cognitivism in favour of situated action theory. The authors accept that the critique has much to offer, but reject the outright abandoning of cognitivism. Cognitive psychology needs a common language in which to describe interaction between people and artifacts: two examples of research in progress are described, one focused on events, the other on representations and the relationship between the information display and the conceptual model. Cognitive psychology also needs a better delivery method than the traditional research paper, and the idea is proposed of a vocabulary of 'cognitive dimensions', terms which can be meaningfully used by non-specialists (who will recognise familiar but uncrystallised concepts) and which can be used as indexes to the professional literature. These two components form a proposal for improving the effectiveness of cognitive psychology. The paper ends with the hope that mainstream cognitive psychology will broaden its area of enquiry. | |||
| An Analysis of User Interface Design Projects: Information Sources and Constraints in Design | | BIBAK | 112-116 | |
| M. M. Bekker; A. P. O. S. Vermeeren | |||
| To provide input for the development of user interface design support the
authors distributed questionnaires to people involved in the development of
user interfaces in The Netherlands. They studied the background and experience
of designers of user interfaces, the contexts in which they worked, the design
support they currently used and what new or improved design support they would
need. The results indicated two areas that require further study: how to
gather information about users and applications. When developing design
support for these areas it might be useful to take into account the finding
that designers work in a wide range of design practices, each with their own
constraints on interface design practice. Keywords: Human-computer interaction, Interface design, Design practice | |||
| The Identifiability of Auditory Icons for Use in Educational Software for Children | | BIBAK | 121-133 | |
| Julie A. Jacko | |||
| The research explored how subjects in grade 1 (6-7 years old) and grade 3
(8-9 years old) identify auditory icons that are commonly introduced in
educational software applications. The subjects were required to identify 37
auditory icons by specifying two dimensions: the object associated with
producing the sound and the action which could be causing the sound. It was
hypothesized that the ecological frequency versus relative uniqueness feature
would be more salient for third-graders. Thus, they would be better equipped
to identify the auditory cues than the first-graders. The results indicated
that the third-grade subjects were better equipped to identify auditory cues
based upon two dimensions of interest than the first-grade subjects. This
information is useful for interface designers incorporating auditory icons into
educational software for children at various developmental levels. Suggestions
for future research are provided. Keywords: Educational software, Auditory icons | |||
| Formal Framework and Necessary Properties of the Fusion of Input Modes in User Interfaces | | BIBAK | 134-161 | |
| G. Faconti; M. Bordegoni; K. Kansy; P. Trahanias; T. Rist; M. Wilson | |||
| Multiple input devices are increasingly used in user interfaces to make
human computer communication more efficient and effective. Interface designers
have not only to decide on which input modes should be supported, but also how
to fuse them into a single representation format that can be processed by the
underlying application system. Drawing appropriate decisions requires,
however, a sufficient understanding of the properties of fusion itself. While
others have informally characterized input fusion as a transformation between
information types, the purpose of the paper is to explore fusion by means of
formal process modelling. That is, fusion processes are defined in a formal
framework which supports proof of the existence of necessary properties
following directly from the process definitions. The presented approach can be
applied to analyse and compare fusion processes in existing systems, as well as
an aid for interface designers, who have to verify the behaviour of their
systems. Keywords: Multimodal interfaces, Fusion, Formal methods, Ambiguity | |||
| Cognitive and Educational Aspects of Desktop Videoconferencing (Part 1) | | BIB | 163-165 | |
| Terry Mayes; Sandra Foubister | |||
| The Role of the Face in Communication: Implications for Videophone Design | | BIBAK | 166-176 | |
| Vicki Bruce | |||
| The different uses made of information from the face in social interaction
are reviewed. Also considered are what image quality, resolution and synchrony
are likely to be needed in order for such information to be usable when
face-to-face interaction is achieved via video. It is argued that for most
uses which are made of facial information, dramatic reductions in spatial and
pixel resolution of images can be tolerated. However, temporal information is
likely to be much more crucial for communication efficiency. Keywords: Face perception, Video-mediated communication, Non-verbal communication | |||
| Comparison of Face-to-Face and Video-Mediated Interaction | | BIBAK | 177-192 | |
| Claire O'Malley; Steve Langton; Anne Anderson; Gwyneth Doherty-Sneddon; Vicki Bruce | |||
| A series of experiments are reported in which pairs of subjects performed a
collaborative task remotely and communicated either via video and audio links
or audio links only. Using the same task (the 'map task'), Boyle et al. (1994)
found clear benefits of seeing the face compared with audio-only co-present
interaction. Pairs who could see each other needed to say less to achieve the
same level of performance as pairs who could only hear each other. In contrast
to these findings, in all three experiments reported here, users of video links
produced longer and more interrupted dialogues than those who had audio links
only, although there were no differences in performance. Performance was
affected when the video links were of low bandwidth, resulting in transmission
delays. The drop in accuracy was correlated with a significant increase in
levels of interrupted speech. We also compared the structure of dialogues and
the use of gaze in high-quality video-mediated communication with those
produced in face-to-face co-present interactions. Results show that both
face-to-face and video-mediated speakers use visual cues to check for mutual
understanding. When they cannot see each other such checks need to be
conducted verbally, accounting for the length effect in dialogues. However,
despite using visual cues in the same way as face-to-face speakers, video does
not provide the same advantage of shorter and less interrupted dialogues. In
addition, users of video gaze far more overall than face-to-face speakers. We
suggest that when speakers are not physically co-present they are less
confident in general that they have mutual understanding, even though they can
see their interlocutors, and therefore over-compensate by increasing the level
of both verbal and nonverbal information. Keywords: Computer-supported cooperative work, Video-mediated communication, Video
conferencing | |||
| Impact of Video-Mediated Communication on Simulated Service Encounters | | BIBAK | 193-206 | |
| Anne H. Anderson; Alison Newlands; Jim Mullin; Anne Marie Fleming; Gwyneth Doherty-Sneddon; Jeroen Van der Velden | |||
| The results are reported of three studies of collaborative problem-solving
in a simulated travel agency where communication between travel agent and
customers is supported by a videolink and shared multimedia tools. The
video-mediated contexts (VMCs) were compared with face-to-face and audio-only
interactions in terms of the success of the task outcome, the process of
communication and decision making and user satisfaction. VMC did not deliver
the same benefits as face-to-face interactions. The possible reasons for this
are explored as well as the implications of the data for evaluation techniques. Keywords: Video-mediated communication, Computer-supported cooperative work, Dialogue
analysis | |||
| Videoconferencing in a Language Learning Application | | BIBAK | 207-217 | |
| Patrick McAndrew; Sandra P. Foubister; Terry Mayes | |||
| Can videoconferencing substitute for face-to-face contact sufficiently well
for collaborative task-based learning to take place at a distance? The paper
reports on the use of videoconferencing in the context of remote users'
learning of a foreign language. Video-mediated communication was placed at the
centre of an integrated system for the learning of business French, and
students used it in performing collaborative role-plays, leading to the joint
enactment of a communication task (such as the setting up of a subsidiary
company in the Nord Pas de Calais). Observations of the system in real use are
reported, and some positive conclusions are drawn about the potential role of
videoconferencing in language learning. Keywords: Collaborative task-based learning, Videoconferencing | |||
| Documenting the Design of Safety-Critical, User Interfaces | | BIBAK | 221-239 | |
| Chris Johnson | |||
| A number of techniques have been developed to map out the 'design space' of
interactive systems. For instance, design rationale notations represent the
various options that must be considered during interface development. Such
notations offer important benefits. For instance, they can be shown to
regulatory authorities to demonstrate that sufficient attention has been paid
to particular design issues. Unfortunately, these notations are semi-formal.
This leads to a number of weaknesses. They cannot be used to determine whether
criteria and options have been used consistently during the development of an
interactive system. Nor do they provide any procedures to determine whether
interface design decisions have indeed been guided by a rationale. These are
important limitations when regulatory authorities, such as the UK Health and
Safety Executive, expect designers to demonstrate the consistency and coherence
of their decisions. This paper addresses these problems and shows how decision
theory can be employed to support design rationale during the development of
human computer interfaces for safety-critical systems. Keywords: Safety-critical interfaces, Design rationale, Decision theory | |||
| Information Technology Support for Shared Task Performance within an Office Environment | | BIBAK | 241-252 | |
| S. R. Jones; P. J. Thomas | |||
| Professional efficacy is strongly influenced by the quality and quantity of
relevant and accessible information. This in turn is frequently dependent upon
interaction with colleagues. The paper describes an investigation into the use
of information and the ways in which individuals manage information in office
environments. The study was conducted to inform the development of devices
which support office-based information management, and looks in detail at the
information exchange and information management activities which take place
between managers and their personal assistants (PAs). The focus of the study
was to determine the extent to which these professionals share a common
understanding of frequently-performed and ubiquitous office tasks. As many
information and communication devices are intended to augment information
management and information exchange, it is suggested that understanding how
workers jointly perceive tasks will be useful in the design and development of
those devices. Initial findings of the study indicate that there is
considerable variation in the interpretation and understanding of a number of
everyday office activities, and that this should be reflected in the design of
devices which seek to incorporate facilities for information management and
exchange. Keywords: Interpersonal communication, Information management, Information exchange | |||
| Cognitive and Educational Aspects of Desktop Videoconferencing (Part 2) | | BIB | 253-254 | |
| Terry Mayes; Sandra Foubister | |||
| Evaluating Audio and Video Quality in Low-Cost Multimedia Conferencing Systems | | BIBAK | 255-275 | |
| Anna Watson; Martina Angela Sasse | |||
| Real-time audio and video transmission over shared packet networks, such as
the Internet, has become possible thanks to efficient data compression schemes
and the provision of high-speed networks. Low-cost multimedia conferencing
technology could benefit many users in different areas, such as remote
collaboration, distance education and health-care. It is likely that diverse
tasks performed by users in different application domains will require
different levels of audio and video quality. Established methods of rating
audio and video quality in the broadcast and telephony world cannot be applied
to digital, lower quality images and sound. The providers of networks and
services are looking to HCI to provide a means of assessing audio and video
quality. The paper describes two different approaches to assessing audio and
video of desktop conferencing systems -- a controlled experimental study and an
informal field trial. The advantages and disadvantages of both approaches for
providing task-specific quality assessment are discussed, and future work to
integrate lab-based and field trials into a valid and reliable assessment
approach is outlined. Keywords: Multimedia conferencing, Internet conferencing, Quality assessment methods | |||
| Informal Communication is about Sharing Objects in Media | | BIBAK | 277-283 | |
| Judith Ramsay; Alessandro Barabesi; Jenny Preece | |||
| The paper focuses upon informal communication over desktop
video-conferencing software. Evidence is presented in support of video
providing some form of shared perspective (otherwise known as the
'video-as-data' hypothesis) and questions are raised about users'
media-coupling activities in an informal context. It is anticipated that
further insight has been gained into the nature of informal mediated
communication, and consequently the requirements of supporting technologies. Keywords: Computer-mediated communication, Desktop video-conferencing, Media-coupling | |||
| Real-Time Interactivity on the SuperJANET Network | | BIBAK | 285-296 | |
| D. G. Jameson; M. Hobsley; P. O'Hanlon; S. Buckton | |||
| The experience of using the SuperJANET (ATM) asynchronous transfer mode
video network for teaching surgery to undergraduates is reported, and the
requirements for teaching and conferencing are contrasted. The network is used
to link six UK University Medical Schools to deliver an 18-session course three
times per year. Each session is designed to be a multimedia presentation
encouraging students to interact with each other and with the lecturer.
The paper is divided into three sections; the first describing the nature of the network, the second the discussing technical and pedagogical matters concerning interaction on the network, and the third drawing attention to the need to give special attention to audiovisual matters if the best quality of video and audio is to be achieved on the network. The signals originate in the teaching space in analogue format and on reaching the CODEC are digitised and passed over the distance network using ATM technology. This requires the collaboration of both the AV personnel with their expertise in analogue video, and the network support personnel to handle the digital signal transmission. The problems discussed include the handling of echo, which is induced as a result of the compression and decompression of the video signal, and the control of network switching of incoming video signals in the interaction between students and lecturers. Attention is also drawn to the differences between videoconferencing and video teaching. An example is described of how a site which is not part of the SuperJANET ATM video network is included in the collaborative teaching using a different technology. Finally there is a need to integrate the real-time teaching with self-learning, so network resources have been implemented to support both live teaching and CAL (computer aided learning). Changes have been made in the way teaching is carried out as a result of the feedback from both students and teachers. The solutions and changes are usually the results of compromise between what the teachers would prefer and the functionality of the network. The experience of television production has had a major impact on the way interactivity has been established in the network teaching environment. The control and monitoring of the audio and video signals, and the use of echo cancellers in multipoint network configurations is discussed. UKERNA has set up the Audio-Visual Consultancy to look into this matter. Keywords: Multimedia presentations, High performance networks, Real time interactivity | |||
| A Visual Approach to Versioning for Text Co-Authoring | | BIBAK | 299-310 | |
| Jose A. Pino | |||
| A way to present alternative pieces of text in multi-author documents is
discussed. It is called 'Stick-On' and allows an unlimited number of versions
of paragraphs, sentences, words or characters to be considered in the context
of the rest of the article. The device is well-suited for collaborative
co-authoring. A distributed system incorporating this tool is presented. Keywords: Human-computer interaction, Computer supported co-operative work,
Collaborative writing | |||
| Interaction of Screen Distances, Screen Letter Heights and Source Document Distances | | BIBAK | 311-322 | |
| Leah K. Hennings; Nong Ye | |||
| An experiment was conducted to investigate the main and interaction effects
of screen distances (600 mm and 900 mm), screen letter heights (for visual
angles of 16, 20, and 30 minutes of arc), and source document distances (same
as the screen distance and closer than the screen distance) on visual
performance and subjective preference in text proofreading tasks. Thirty
subjects in different age groups participated in the experiment. The
experimental results revealed that the subjects' performance improved from the
letter height of 16 minutes of arc to the letter height of 20 minutes of arc
for the 600 mm screen distance, but from 20 minutes of arc to 16 minutes of arc
for the 900 mm screen distance. The subjects generally preferred a screen
distance slightly higher than 600 mm, a letter height at the 22 minutes of arc,
and a small difference between the visual angle of screen letters and the
visual angle of source letters. Keywords: Ergonomics, Visual display units, Screen settings | |||
| Investigation of Voice and Text Output Modes with Abstraction in a Computer Interface | | BIBAK | 323-345 | |
| N. P. Archer; M. M. Head; J. P. Wollersheim; Y. Yuan | |||
| A human-computer interface is described, which was designed to study user
preferences and the effectiveness of output modes and levels of information
abstraction in a decision making environment. The interface was tested in an
exploratory study of an apartment selection problem. It was observed that text
plus voice was preferred over voice alone, but there was no significant
difference in preferences between text and voice or between text and text plus
voice. This indicates that adding text to voice output improves the perceived
acceptability of voice, but adding voice to text does not alter the perceived
acceptability of text. The text mode was most efficient in performing
information search, followed by voice mode and text plus voice mode in that
order. We observed inconsistencies between the users' perceived importance of
information attributes and the actual usage of these attributes, and
inconsistencies between the perceived importance of and the usage of
abstraction levels. We did not observe significant differences between users
with task domain experience and those which did not have domain experience, but
cognitive style did affect task performance. Our findings suggest that a user
interface should either provide flexible access at different abstraction
levels, or should organize information based on its perceived importance to the
user rather than its level of abstraction. Keywords: Interfaces, Output modes | |||
| Triadic Relationship between Doctor, Computer and Patient | | BIBAK | 347-363 | |
| Derek Scott; Ian N. Purves | |||
| Much has previously been said regarding dyadic relationships between
physician and patient, use of computers in the consulting room, and
human-computer interaction generally. The paper reviews major empirical
reports and places them within a triadic framework. A model is presented
suggesting that much of the dynamic interaction along any one of the 'three
sides of the triangle' is lost without consideration of how the third
component, the opposite apex, affects the otherwise two-way relationship. As
the use of micro-computers within general practice continues to increase, it
would appear important to consider all three interacting components when
investigating doctor-patient relationships. Keywords: Doctor-patient relationship, Computers in medicine | |||
| Towards a Practical Measure of Hypertext Usability | | BIBAK | 365-381 | |
| Pauline A. Smith | |||
| Disorientation or the sense of being 'lost' in an information space has long
been held as a major drawback of hypertext systems. However, the usability of
hypertext systems has been difficult to evaluate as the commonly used
human-computer interaction measures based on time and errors seem inappropriate
for hypertext systems which, by their nature, encourage exploration and
browsing. A set of measures are proposed for assessing the usability of
hypertext systems in terms of the efficiency with which users find information
in a hypertext system; the degree to which users become 'lost' in the
information space; and how confident they are in their ability to find relevant
information. In particular, various path measures are defined, from which
indicators and 'ratings' of users' lostness, efficiency and confidence when
using a hypertext system are derived. An initial experimental evaluation of
the measures is described in which observations were made of the 'success' of
the searches and of the routes which were taken by the users while carrying out
specified tasks. A discussion of the method by which the measures were
calibrated using both an attitudinal study and the verbal and video protocols
recorded as part of the experiment is presented. Results from an independent
experimental study are also briefly discussed. Finally, an analysis is offered
of the situations in which these measures may be appropriate. Keywords: Human-computer interaction, Hypertext, Usability | |||