| Collaborative design: Managing task interdependencies and multiple perspectives | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 1-20 | |
| Francoise Detienne | |||
| This paper focuses on two characteristics of collaborative design with
respect to cooperative work: the importance of work interdependencies linked to
the nature of design problems; and the fundamental function of design
cooperative work arrangement, which is the confrontation and combination of
perspectives. These two intrinsic characteristics of the design work stress
specific cooperative processes: coordination processes in order to manage task
interdependencies, establishment of common ground and negotiation mechanisms in
order to manage the integration of multiple perspectives in design. Keywords: Collaborative design; Teamwork; Grounding; Coordination; Distant work;
Awareness; Negotiation | |||
| Awareness and teamwork in computer-supported collaborations | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 21-46 | |
| John M. Carroll; Mary Beth Rosson; Gregorio Convertino; Craig H. Ganoe | |||
| A contemporary approach to describing and theorizing about joint human
endeavor is to posit 'knowledge in common' as a basis for awareness and
coordination. Recent analysis has identified weaknesses in this approach even
as it is typically employed in relatively simple task contexts. We suggest that
in realistically complex circumstances, people share activities and not merely
concepts. We describe a framework for understanding joint endeavor in terms of
four facets of activity awareness: common ground, communities of practice,
social capital, and human development. We illustrate the sort of analysis we
favor with a scenario from emergency management, and consider implications and
future directions for system design and empirical methods. Keywords: Activity awareness; Awareness; Collaboration; CSCW; Teamwork | |||
| User Needs Analysis and requirements engineering: Theory and practice | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 47-70 | |
| Gitte Lindgaard; Richard Dillon; Patricia Trbovich; Rachel White; Gary Fernandes; Sonny Lundahl; Anu Pinnamaneni | |||
| Several comprehensive User Centred Design methodologies have been published
in the last decade, but while they all focus on users, they disagree on exactly
what activities should take place during the User Needs Analysis, what the end
products of a User Needs Analysis should cover, how User Needs Analysis
findings should be presented, and how these should be documented and
communicated. This paper highlights issues in different stages of the User
Needs Analysis that appear to cause considerable confusion among researchers
and practitioners. It is our hope that the User-Centred Design community may
begin to address these issues systematically. A case study is presented
reporting a User Needs Analysis methodology and process as well as the user
interface design of an application supporting communication among first
responders in a major disaster. It illustrates some of the differences between
the User-Centred Design and the Requirements Engineering communities and shows
how and where User-Centred Design and Requirements Engineering methodologies
should be integrated, or at least aligned, to avoid some of the problems
practitioners face during the User Needs Analysis. Keywords: User Needs analysis; Requirements engineering; User centered design;
Integration | |||
| Inclusive development: Software engineering requirements for universally accessible interactions | | BIBA | Full-Text | 71-116 | |
| Anthony Savidis; Constantine Stephanidis | |||
| The notion of 'universal access' reflects the concept of an Information Society in which potentially anyone (i.e. any user) will interact with computing machines, at anytime and anyplace (i.e. in any context of use) and for virtually anything (i.e. for any task). Towards reaching a successful and cost effective realization of this vision, it is critical to ensure that the future interface development tools provide all the necessary instrumentation to support inclusive design, i.e. facilitate inclusive development. In the meantime, it is crucial that both tool developers and interface developers acquire awareness regarding the key development features they should pursue when investigating for the most appropriate software engineering support in addressing such a largely demanding development goal (i.e. universally accessible interactions). This paper discusses a corpus of key development requirements for building universally accessible interactions that has been consolidated from real practice, in the course of six medium-to-large scale research projects, all completed, within a 10 years timeframe. | |||
| Tasks for and tasks in human-computer interaction | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 117-138 | |
| Dan Diaper; Colston Sanger | |||
| It is argued that the engineering discipline of human-computer interaction
(HCI) has developed over the last couple of decades in an ad hoc manner, driven
by the need to solve real problems, rather than being informed by high level,
general theories of the discipline. A retrospective role for general HCI
theories is suggested. A start at such a general theory, which must be simple
and able to encompass all the discipline of HCI's activities, is proposed,
based on the concept of tasks. Tasks are characterised as the means by which
work is performed. A general systems modelling approach is introduced which
divides the assumed world it models into work systems and the application
domains that are changed by work performance. The role of different work
systems, defined by their differing boundaries and goals, to define different
subtasks is introduced and illustrated with a number of simple examples. Keywords: Human-computer interaction; Engineering; General theories; Systems models;
Work; Performance; Tasks; Task analysis | |||
| Emotion representation and physiology assignments in digital systems | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 139-170 | |
| Christian Peter; Antje Herbon | |||
| Emotions are of increasing interest to the HCI community. Within the last
decade, emotion research in HCI grew from an eccentric hobby of some visionary
scientists to a widely accepted field of research. A number of proof-of-concept
prototypes and studies have been published, dedicated sensor systems and
technology frameworks have been developed, and theoretical considerations have
been made. While they all represent a very valuable contribution to this young
field of research, they lack a common theoretical basis. Particularly, there
exists no applicable model of emotions suitable for designing emotion-aware
systems or performing HCI-related emotion studies. However, in order to become
a mature discipline, emotion research in HCI needs such a rigorous footing that
future work can be based on. In this paper, a suitable approach to structure
and represent emotions for use in digital systems is introduced, after a
detailed and critical review of widely used emotion models is given and
representative study results are discussed. The proposed method meets several
requirements of HCI researchers and software developers. It avoids artificial
categorisation of emotions, requires no naming of emotional states, is language
independent, and its implementation is straightforward. The results of an
experiment based on this approach are discussed demonstrating its
applicability. Keywords: Emotion; HCI; Affective computing; Emotion-aware systems; Human-centred
design | |||
| Continuous electronic data capture of physiology, behavior and experience in real life: towards ecological momentary assessment of emotion | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 171-186 | |
| Frank H. Wilhelm; Monique C. Pfaltz; Paul Grossman | |||
| Emotions powerfully influence our physiology, behavior, and experience. A
comprehensive assessment of affective states in health and disease would
include responses from each of these domains in real life. Since no single
physiologic parameter can index emotional states unambiguously, a broad
assessment of physiologic responses is desirable. We present a recently
developed system, the LifeShirt, which allows reliable ambulatory monitoring of
a wide variety of cardiovascular, respiratory, metabolic, motor-behavioral, and
experiential responses. The system consists of a garment with embedded
inductive plethysmography and other sensors for physiologic data recording and
a handheld computer for input of experiential data via touch screen. Parameters
are extracted offline using sophisticated analysis and display software. The
device is currently used in clinical studies and to monitor effects of physical
and emotional stress in naturalistic settings. Further development of signal
processing and pattern recognition algorithms will enhance computerized
identification of type and extent of physical and emotional activation. Keywords: Emotion; Respiration; Ambulatory monitoring; Inductive plethysmography;
Affective computing; Wearable computers | |||
| Severity and impact of computer user frustration: A comparison of student and workplace users | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 187-207 | |
| Jonathan Lazar; Adam Jones; Mary Hackley; Ben Shneiderman | |||
| User frustration with information and computing technology is a pervasive
and persistent problem. When computers crash, network congestion causes delays,
and poor user interfaces trigger confusion there are dramatic consequences for
individuals, organizations, and society. These frustrations, not only cause
personal dissatisfaction and loss of self-efficacy, but may disrupt workplaces,
slow learning, and reduce participation in local and national communities. Our
exploratory study of 107 student computer users and 50 workplace computer users
shows high levels of frustration and loss of 1/3-1/2 of time spent. This paper
reports on the incident and individual factors that cause of frustration, and
how they raise frustration severity. It examines the frustration impacts on the
daily interactions of the users. The time lost and time to fix problem, and
importance of task, strongly correlate with frustration levels for both student
and workplace users. Differences between students and workplace users are
discussed in the paper, as are implications for researchers. Keywords: User frustration; User interface design; Training; Helpdesk; Computer
experience; Computer anxiety | |||
| Real-time estimation of emotional experiences from facial expressions | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 208-226 | |
| Timo Partala; Veikko Surakka; Toni Vanhala | |||
| The present aim was to develop methods that estimate emotional experiences
in real time from the electromyographic activity of two facial muscles:
zygomaticus major (activated when smiling) and corrugator supercilii (activated
when frowning). Ten subjects were stimulated with a series of emotionally
arousing pictures and videos. After each stimulus the subjects rated the
valence of their emotional experience on a nine-point bipolar dimensional
scale. At the same time the computer estimated the subjects' ratings on the
basis of their electrical facial activity during each stimulation with 70
computational models. The models estimated the subjects' ratings either
categorically or dimensionally with regression models. The best categorical
models were able to estimate negative and positive ratings with an average
accuracy of over 70 and 80% for pictures and videos, respectively. The best
correlations between the human ratings and machine estimations formed with the
regression models were high (r>0.9). These findings indicate that models
estimating psycho-emotional experiences on the basis of facial activity can be
created successfully in several ways. Keywords: Emotions; Facial expression; Estimation; Human-computer interaction; Social
agent; Psychophysiology | |||
| Empathic agents to reduce user frustration: The effects of varying agent characteristics | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 227-245 | |
| Kate Hone | |||
| There is now growing interest in the development of computer systems which
respond to users' emotion and affect. We report three small-scale studies (with
a total of 42 participants), which investigate the extent to which affective
agents, using strategies derived from human-human interaction, can reduce user
frustration within human-computer interaction. The results confirm the previous
findings of Klein et al. [Klein, J., Moon, Y., Picard, R.W., 2002. This
computer responds to user frustration: theory, design and results. Interacting
with Computers 142, 119-140] that such interventions can be effective. We also
obtained results that suggest that embodied agents can be more effective at
reducing frustration than non-embodied agents, and that female embodied agents
may be more effective than male embodied agents. These results are discussed in
light of the existing research literature. Keywords: Affective computing; User emotion; Frustration; Agents | |||
| Levels of automation and user participation in usability testing | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 246-264 | |
| Kent L. Norman; Emanuele Panizzi | |||
| This paper identifies a number of factors involved in current practices of
usability testing and presents profiles for three prototype methods:
think-aloud, subjective ratings, and history files. We then identify ideal
levels to generate the profile for new methods. These methods involve either a
human observer or a self-administration of the test by the user. We propose
methods of automating the evaluation form by dynamically adding items and
modifying the form and the tasks in the process of the usability test. For
self-administration of testing, we propose similar ideas of dynamically
automating the forms and the tasks. Furthermore, we propose methods of
eliciting the user's goals and focus of attention. Finally, we propose that
user testing methods and interfaces should be subjected to usability testing. Keywords: Usability testing; User interface; WWW | |||
| Signposts on the digital highway: The effect of semantic and pragmatic hyperlink previews | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 265-282 | |
| Alfons Maes; Arjan van Geel; Reinier Cozijn | |||
| In this article, the effect of a local, content (as opposed to structure)
oriented navigation tool is investigated, i.e. mouse-over hyperlink previews. A
usability experiment is described in which three groups of participants were
exposed to three different versions of a website: without hyperlink previews,
with content oriented, semantic previews, and with task-oriented, pragmatic
previews. Participants were asked to execute search and recall tasks, and to
evaluate task and hypertext. The results showed a decisive overall advantage
for previews in terms of efficiency, but no effects on effectiveness or
appreciation. Although semantic and pragmatic previews did not differ
significantly, a post hoc analysis showed a learning effect of pragmatic
previews that was absent in the semantic preview condition. It was concluded
that previews fit in with the step-by-step goal orientation of hypertext users.
Once users are acquainted with them, pragmatic previews speed up decision
making.
Apart from the experimental part, the article surveys research into the usability of navigation tools, thereby focusing on the analysis of navigation tools. The bottom line of this review is that most navigation tools as they are used in the experiments provide users with different types of information, e.g. local vs. global, content vs. structure oriented. This complicates the unequivocal explanation of their effect and may explain, together with user and task differences, the variety and inconsistencies observed in the results. Keywords: Hypertext; Navigation; Previews; Advance organisers | |||
| Device-independent web browsing based on CC/PP and annotation | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 283-303 | |
| Hwe-Mo Kim; Kyong-Ho Lee | |||
| This paper presents a transcoding method that dynamically adapts Web pages
to various devices. The proposed method is based on a CC/PP profile that is a
standard description of a device's context information. For a sophisticated
transcoding, we define an annotation schema to describe an annotation that is
meta information about original contents. Since a mobile device has a screen of
limited size, a Web page might be split into many smaller pages. For an
efficient navigation, the proposed method constructs a navigation map that
represents the hierarchical relations among the split pages. Experimental
results with various Web contents show that the proposed method has performed
successfully in terms of users' convenience of navigation and the transcoding
quality. Keywords: Mobile device; Device independence; CC/PP; Annotation; Web browsing;
Navigation; Transcoding | |||
| Systematic evaluation methodology for cell phone user interfaces | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 304-325 | |
| Young Seok Lee; Sang W. Hong; Tonya L. Smith-Jackson; Maury A. Nussbaum; Kei Tomioka | |||
| As cell phones have expanded their functionality with enhanced mobile
technology, use of cell phones has become complex. Although usability of cell
phones has been improved by featuring hierarchical menu systems, designing
comprehensible navigation in the menu hierarchy is still a major challenge to
cell phone user interface (UI) developers as more diverse users are adopting
cell phones. To develop an easy-to-use cell phone UI, an effective usability
evaluation method (UE) is essential. While various usability evaluation methods
(UEM) have been developed, laboratory-based usability testing produces
high-quality usability data from actual users. Yet, the effectiveness of such
testing can vary dramatically depending on what data is collected and how the
data are analyzed. To provide a practical guidance for the effective laboratory
testing, we developed a systematic evaluation methodology for cell phone user
interfaces (SEM-CPU). SEM-CPU is specifically designed to integrate five
empirical methods (scenario-based task performance, questionnaires, post-task
interview, user observation, and retrospective think aloud) into a
laboratory-based test in order to evaluate cell phone UIs. By following
SEM-CPU, usability engineers should be able to (1) conduct laboratory-based
testing with multiple empirical methods in an efficient way, (2) collect
diverse but useful data to measure necessary usability attributes, (3) identify
determinants of usability problems, and (4) integrate all usability data to
generate proper solutions for the problems. Detailed descriptions of SEM-CPU
are presented along with a case study where SEM-CPU was applied to a
comparative cell phone usability test. Keywords: Usability evaluation; Mobile phone; Cell phone; User interface design | |||
| Human factors in personalised systems and services | | BIB | Full-Text | 327-330 | |
| George D. Magoulas; Sherry Chen | |||
| A web-based tutoring system with styles-matching strategy for spatial geometric transformation | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 331-355 | |
| Hao-Chuan Wang; Tsai-Yen Li; Chun-Yen Chang | |||
| It has been a major objective for researchers to develop computer systems
that can effectively deliver instruction to learners. Therefore, how to
incorporate instructional strategies in computer-assisted learning systems in a
systematic manner deserves further investigation. In this paper, a
style-matching strategy that attempts to match learning materials' styles to
learners' latent traits is proposed and realized in a web-based tutoring
system, called CooTutor. The mechanism of adaptive material selection takes
learners' different spatial ability and learning styles as an integral learning
profile into account, and performs traits-based personalization of learning
experience. This system is specifically designed to conquer the difficulty of
tutoring the topic on fundamental spatial geometry in conventional curriculums.
By conducting empirical evaluation with a small group of students, it is found
that CooTutor is generally beneficial to learning the domain, but the effect of
the styles-matching mechanism remains inconclusive. The work aims to contribute
to the community of adaptive hypermedia in providing an explorative example
adopting the concern of individual difference for personalization. The system
design, a usage scenario, and an exploratory evaluation are presented in this
paper as implications for further studies. Keywords: Adaptive hypermedia; Web-based Learning; Personalization; Learning style;
Spatial ability | |||
| Designing learner-controlled educational interactions based on learning/cognitive style and learner behaviour | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 356-384 | |
| Kyparisia A. Papanikolaou; Andrew Mabbott; Susan Bull; Maria Grigoriadou | |||
| Recently, research in individual differences and in particular, learning and
cognitive style, has been used as a basis to consider learner preferences in a
web-based educational context. Modelling style in a web-based learning
environment demands that developers build a specific framework describing how
to design a variety of options for learners with different approaches to
learning. In this paper two representative examples of educational systems,
Flexi-OLM and INSPIRE, that provide learners a variety of options designed
according to specific style categorisations, are presented. Experimental
results from two empirical studies performed on the systems to investigate
learners' learning and cognitive style, and preferences during interaction, are
described. It was found that learners do have a preference regarding their
interaction, but no obvious link between style and approaches offered, was
detected. Derived from an examination of this experimental data, we suggest
that while style information can be used to inform the design of learning
environments that accommodate learners' individual differences, it would be
wise to recommend interactions based on learners' behaviour. Learning
environments should allow learners or learners' interaction behaviour to select
or trigger the appropriate approach for the particular learner in the specific
context. Alternative approaches towards these directions are also discussed. Keywords: Individual differences; Learning style; Cognitive style; Adaptive
educational systems; Adaptation; Personalisation; Learner control | |||
| Adapting to intelligence profile in an adaptive educational system | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 385-409 | |
| Declan Kelly; Brendan Tangney | |||
| Learning characteristics, as informed by research, vary for each individual
learner. Research suggests that knowledge is processed and represented in
different ways and that students prefer to use different types of resources in
distinct ways. However, building Adaptive Educational systems that adapt to
different learning characteristics is not easy. Major research questions exist
such as: how are the relevant learning characteristics identified, how does
modelling of the learner take place and in what way should the learning
environment change for users with different learning characteristics?
EDUCE is one system that addresses these challenges by using Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences (MI) as the basis for dynamically modelling learning characteristics and for designing instructional material. This paper describes a research study, using EDUCE, that explores the effect of using different adaptive presentation strategies and the impact on learning performance when material is matched and mismatched with learning preferences. The results suggest that students with low levels of learning activity, and who use only a limited number of the resources available, have the most to benefit from adaptive presentation strategies and that surprisingly learning gain increases when they are provided with resources not normally preferred. Keywords: Student modelling; Learning characteristics; Learning styles; Instructional
design; Multiple intelligences | |||
| Improving the prediction accuracy of recommendation algorithms: Approaches anchored on human factors | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 410-431 | |
| George Lekakos; George M. Giaglis | |||
| Recommender systems are a special class of personalized systems that aim at
predicting a user's interest on available products and services by relying on
previously rated items or item features. Human factors associated with a user's
personality or lifestyle, although potential determinants of user behavior are
rarely considered in the personalization process. In this paper, we demonstrate
how the concept of lifestyle can be incorporated in the recommendation process
to improve the prediction accuracy by efficiently managing the problem of
limited data availability. We propose two approaches: one relying on lifestyle
alone and another integrating lifestyle within the nearest neighbor approach.
Both approaches are empirically tested in the domain of recommendations for
personalized television advertisements and are shown to outperform existing
nearest neighborhood approaches in most cases. Keywords: Personalization; Recommenders systems; Collaborative filtering;
Content-based filtering; Lifestyle; Digital television; Advertisements | |||
| Goal-based structuring in recommender systems | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 432-456 | |
| Mark van Setten; Mettina Veenstra; Anton Nijholt; Betsy van Dijk | |||
| Recommender systems help people to find information that is interesting to
them. However, current recommendation techniques only address the user's
short-term and long-term interests, not their immediate interests. This paper
describes a method to structure information (with or without using
recommendations) taking into account the users' immediate interests: a
goal-based structuring method. Goal-based structuring is based on the fact that
people experience certain gratifications from using information, which should
match with their goals. An experiment using an electronic TV guide shows that
structuring information using a goal-based structure makes it easier for users
to find interesting information, especially if the goals are used explicitly;
this is independent of whether recommendations are used or not. It also shows
that goal-based structuring has more influence on how easy it is for users to
find interesting information than recommendations. Keywords: Goal-based structuring; Recommender systems; Uses and gratification theory;
Decision theory; Personalisation | |||
| Personalising web page presentation for older people | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 457-477 | |
| S. H. Kurniawan; A. King; D. G. Evans; P. L. Blenkhorn | |||
| This paper looks at different ways of personalising web page presentation to
alleviate functional impairments in older people. The paper considers how
impairments may be addressed by web design and through various personalisation
instruments: accessibility features of standard browsers, proxy servers,
assistive technology, application adaptors, and special purpose browsers. A
pilot study of five older web users indicated that the most favoured
personalisation technique was overriding the CSS (cascading style sheet) with a
readily available one using a standard browser. The least favoured one was
using assistive technology. In a follow-up study with 16 older web users,
performing goal-directed browsing tasks, overriding CSS remains the most
favoured. Assistive technology remains the least favoured and the slowest.
Based on user comments, one-take-home message for web personalisation
instrument developer is that the best instrument for older persons is one that
most faithfully preserves the original layout while requiring the least effort. Keywords: Ageing; Elderly; Gerontology; Web; Assistive technology; Accessibility | |||
| Adapting the interaction in a call centre system | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 478-506 | |
| Federica Cena; Ilaria Torre | |||
| This paper describes Adaptive Response and Routing System (ARRS), a system
which personalizes the management of the entire answering process in a Call
Centre infrastructure. The system is characterized by combining two kinds of
adaptation: to the caller and to the operator. The aim is to support the user
incrementally, improving the global quality of the interaction. In particular,
the system combines a first process of automatic and personalized response with
a second one of adaptive routing of the call to the operator who best fits the
caller's features, according to a user-centered workflow. The results of a
preliminary evaluation confirm the validity of the approach. Keywords: Adaptation; VUI (voice user interface); User modeling; Automatic response;
Calls routing; Call Centre | |||
| Metrics for evaluating human information interaction systems | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 507-527 | |
| Jean Scholtz | |||
| Society today has a wealth of information available due to information
technology. The challenge facing researchers working in information access is
how to help users easily locate the information needed. Evaluation
methodologies and metrics are important tools to assess progress in human
information interaction (HII). To properly evaluate these systems, evaluations
need to consider the performance of the various components, the usability of
the system, and the impact of the system on the end user. Current usability
metrics are adequate for evaluating the efficiency, effectiveness, and user
satisfaction of such systems. Performance measures for new intelligent
technologies will have to be developed. Regardless of how well the systems are
and how usable the systems are, it is critical that impact measures are
developed. For HII systems to be useful, we need to assess how well information
analysts work with the systems. This evaluation needs to go beyond technical
performance metrics and usability metrics. What are the metrics for evaluating
utility? This paper describes research efforts focused on developing metrics
for the intelligence community that measure the impact of new software to
facilitate information interaction. Keywords: Human information interaction; Information retrieval; Evaluation;
User-centered; Intelligence analysis; Metrics for utility | |||
| A computer support tool for the early stages of architectural design | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 528-555 | |
| Dzmitry Aliakseyeu; Jean-Bernard Martens; Matthias Rauterberg | |||
| Even in the current computer age, there are still many important application
areas, such as early architectural design, where traditional tools like
sketching on paper continue to be preferred by many professionals over
computer-based tools. There is a growing awareness that there are often very
good grounds for this preference. Hence, instead of trying to replace such
traditional ways of working, it is now often considered more opportune to try
and preserve the strengths of these traditional ways of working, while at the
same time improving them by providing access to new media. This is one of the
main objectives of the augmented reality approach that we adopt here. In this
paper, we specifically discuss the realization of a tool for early
architectural design on an existing augmented reality system, called the Visual
Interaction Platform. We describe the development process, the resulting tool
and its performance for elementary tasks such as positioning and overdrawing.
We also identify directions for future research and applications. Keywords: User-centered engineering; Augmented reality; Tangible interfaces;
Architectural design; Electronic paper | |||
| When humans need humans: The lack of use of computer-based ICT in distance pastoral care | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 556-567 | |
| Stella Mills | |||
| Computer-based information and communication technologies (ICT) have become
a part of many people's working lives. Such technology is used in the form of
e-mails and video-conferencing across many sectors of society and these are
sometimes claimed to have replaced the need for face-to-face meetings. However,
certain areas of work still seem to need face-to-face meetings; this paper
focuses on one such area of work, that of Christian pastoral care. The article
discusses the needs of clients and carers involved in crisis care within a
Christian ethos and assesses why ICT tools seem to be mainly superfluous in
situations where crisis caring has to take place at a distance. Caplan's model
of crisis is used to indicate typical characteristics of people in crisis.
Evidence from the Foot and Mouth epidemic of 2001 in the UK is used to
investigate the usage of ICT in a real situation where distance pastoral care
was essential. The findings show that the telephone was by far the best ICT
tool although e-mail and the Internet were used in more formal business
situations. Keywords: ICT; Voice technology; Asynchronous technology; Synchronous technology;
Pastoral care; Caplan's crisis model | |||
| Usability professionals -- current practices and future development | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 568-600 | |
| Jan Gulliksen; Inger Boivie; Bengt Goransson | |||
| The usability concept has now received such a wide recognition in
information technology (IT) development that working with usability can be
regarded as a profession in its own right. In recent research projects, we have
surveyed and studied usability work on an individual level in a number of
Swedish development organisations, including success factors and obstacles.
What we have seen relates to the individual usability professional and her
background and experiences, the organisation in which she operates, the
development process, communication and communication means, and finally the
attitudes and basic values held by the people involved.
In this paper, we compile and reflect on selected findings from different studies on usability work in practical systems development in a number of Swedish organisations. We discuss our findings from a practical point of view and relate them to the research of others within the international HCI community. Finally, we discuss some issues we consider important for the future development of the practice of usability that we believe is of interest to the international community of usability professionals. Keywords: Usability; Design; User-centred design; Organisation; Software development;
Practice; Role; Profession | |||
| The lonesome cowboy: A study of the usability designer role in systems development | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 601-634 | |
| Inger Boivie; Jan Gulliksen; Bengt Goransson | |||
| This paper reports on an evaluation of the usability designer role as
applied in two Swedish systems development organisations. The role was
initially defined by us, but evolved in these two organisations. We conducted
interviews with usability designers, project managers and a user
representative. Our main research question was whether or not the introduction
of a usability designer has been successful in terms of changes in the systems
development process and the impact the role has had on products, projects and
organisations. To some extent, the role has met our expectations and intentions
for instance, in helping the usability designers shift their focus towards
design, and assume some kind of "users' advocate" role. But in other ways, the
role "failed". The usability designers in our study are still facing the kind
of problems and obstacles that usability professionals have always had to deal
with. Keywords: User-centred systems design; UCSD; Usability; Usability practitioner;
Usability professional; Software development | |||
| 'Representing the User' in software development -- a cultural analysis of usability work in the product development context | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 635-664 | |
| N. Iivari | |||
| It is widely accepted that users should be involved in the development of
interactive systems. However, involving users in interactive systems
development is challenging, especially in product development. The
organizational culture is a key factor affecting the successes and failures of
organizational change and development efforts. This paper shows how user
involvement is intertwined with the organizational cultures in a case study of
five software development organizations. User involvement is indirect in the
case organizations, and labeled as usability work. Using cross case analysis,
four 'cultures of usability work' are identified. The cultures have distinct
cultural characteristics, employ different approaches to usability work, and
have different preferences and strategies for the prospective facilitation of
usability work. Sensitivity to the cultural context is identified as an
important consideration in the facilitation of usability work, and culturally
compatible strategies for usability work in different cultural settings are
identified. The paper concludes that there might not be one 'best, universally
valid, context free way' of introducing and carrying out usability work in
software product development organizations. Keywords: User involvement; User-centered design; Organizational culture; Qualitative
research | |||
| Evaluating and implementing a collaborative office document system | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 665-682 | |
| Andy Adler; John C. Nash; Sylvie Noel | |||
| Collaborative work with office suite documents such as word processing,
spreadsheet and presentation files usually demands special tools and methods.
For this application, we have developed TellTable, a relatively simple
web-based framework built largely from available software and infrastructure.
TellTable allows the use of existing office-suite software in a collaborative
manner that is controlled but is familiar to users of common single user
software. From the literature and our research, we identify twelve challenges
to collaborative editing software that we use in an evaluation checklist: time
and space, awareness, communication, private and shared work spaces,
intellectual property, simultaneity and locking, protection, workflow,
security, file format, platform independence, and user benefit. We then use
this checklist to characterize TellTable in comparison to some other
collaborative office tools. Keywords: Collaboration; CSCW; Groupware; Collaborative editing; Collaborative office;
TellTable | |||
| An interactive computer graphics interface for the introduction of fuzzy inference in environmental education | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 683-708 | |
| Irene A. Ioannidou; Stephanos Paraskevopoulos; Panagiotis Tzionas | |||
| Fuzzy logic is based on sets of rules that can be easily understood by the
students, since they bear a close resemblance to natural language. The
introduction of fuzzy logic, within the framework of Environmental Education,
is considered to be necessary in order to provide an insight to the complex
environmental interactions. Fuzzy inference is introduced in this paper as an
extension of hypothetico-predictive argumentation and it allows the
investigation of alternative hypotheses. This is achieved through the
development of an interactive computer graphics environment that encompasses a
set of fuzzy logic analysis tools and a fuzzy inference model of a lake. The
fuzzy model guarantees the scientific integrity of the simulation results, and
the graphical interface presents to the students only the comprehensible
characteristics of the environmental stressors in the ecosystem of the lake.
The proposed graphical interface was developed in successive design stages,
with the active participation of the students. The results of the students'
experimentation with the graphical interface indicate that their comprehension
of the significant environmental problems of the lake is considerably improved
and some misconceptions are resolved. Thus, it is considered valuable as an aid
to environmental education. Keywords: Interactive interface; Fuzzy logic; Environmental education | |||
| On integration of interface design methods: Can debates be resolved? | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 709-722 | |
| Y. Lin; W. J. Zhang; R. J. Koubek; Ronald R. Mourant | |||
| There have been many debates on how to design the human-computer interface
(HCI). Often, one can find that different views in a debate are simply because
these views are attached to different aspects which embody the same thing. In
other words, prior to giving an effective judgment of a debate, one needs to
establish an understanding of the 'total' aspects of a thing the debate is
about. Following this line of thinking, in this paper, we propose an
understanding of the 'total' aspects of designing HCI, which is called the
total interface design framework. We then judge several debates under this
framework with the purpose of exemplifying the judgment process for any other
debate related to designing HCI. At the end, the debates used for exemplifying
our judgment process can be resolved. The effectiveness of the total interface
design framework for integrating the different HCI approaches is also
demonstrated. Keywords: Human-computer interface; Total interface design; Interface design principle | |||
| Towards optimal navigation through video content on interactive TV | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 723-746 | |
| Jinwoo Kim; Hyunho Kim; Kyungwook Park | |||
| A wide variety of video content -- news programs, documentaries, sports
shows, movies, and the like -- is broadcast today in digital format to
interactive TVs. Unlike a conventional TV, an interactive TV allows the viewer
to navigate back and forth in time through the available content. Surprisingly,
few studies have addressed the problems that arise when navigation along the
time dimension becomes possible. The aim of this study was to develop
navigation aids for interactive TVs that are theoretically grounded and
empirically verified. Toward this end, we first designed two new navigation
aids based on episodic indexing theory (EIT): a recency-frame and a
short-reminder. Second, we built an interactive TV simulator (ITS) to test the
new navigation aids in a controlled experiment. Finally, we devised several
measures appropriate for evaluating navigation aids for interactive TV in
addition to traditional usability measures. Subsequently, employing the
interactive TV simulator and the newly devised measures, we conducted an
experiment to evaluate the effectiveness of the two proposed navigation aids.
We found that both navigation aids enhanced the quality of the viewer's
experience. The paper concludes with a discussion of the study's limitations
and implications. Keywords: Video content; Temporal navigation; Interactive TV; Episodic indexing
theory; Recency-frame; Short-reminder | |||
| A method for conflict detection based on team intention inference | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 747-769 | |
| Taro Kanno; Keiichi Nakata; Kazuo Furuta | |||
| One of the typical causes of errors in team cooperative activities, such as
in central control rooms of power plants and cockpits in aircrafts, is
conflicts among team members' intentions. If mutual awareness and communication
were perfectly established and maintained, conflicts could be detected and
recovered by team members; however, this does not happen in practice. In this
paper, we provide a framework for detecting conflicts among team members'
intentions based on team intention inference, aiming to make machines function
as a coordinator for cooperative activities. In previous work, we developed a
method for team intention inference based on a definition of 'we-intention'.
We-intention is other-regarding intentions relating to situations in which some
agents act together, and is represented as a set of individual intentions and
mutual beliefs. In this framework, a conflict can be defined as a set of
individual intentions and false beliefs (undesired procedures), and detected by
searching for such combinations. We applied the proposed method to the
operation of a plant simulator operated by a two-person team, and it was
confirmed through an experiment that this method could list candidates for
conflicts by type and set the actual conflict high in priority in the tested
context. Keywords: Team intention; Conflict; Cooperation; Intention inference | |||
| The effects of metaphors on novice and expert learners' performance and mental-model development | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 770-792 | |
| Yu-chen Hsu | |||
| The effects of metaphors on learning have been proved by many studies.
Learners naturally invoke metaphors when learning new concepts because
metaphors stimulate them to generate models of the domain to be learned.
However, little evidence has been seen of metaphors' effect on developing
learners' mental models. Since metaphors function by providing familiar
concepts that help learners to construct new knowledge, metaphors' effects may
be more apparent to novice learners.
This study explores the effects of metaphors on both novice and expert learners' performance and their mental-model development as documented by three different measurement methods. It also examines the relationship between subjects' performance and their mental models. The results indicate that metaphors may facilitate novices' construction of integrative knowledge but not simple knowledge. In addition, metaphors may possibly have lasting effects on expert learning but the effects may not be seen immediately after learning. Keywords: Hypertext system; Knowledge structure; Learning; Mental model; Metaphor;
Novice versus expert | |||
| Clover: Connecting technology and character education using personally-constructed animated vignettes | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 793-819 | |
| Brian P. Bailey; Sharon Y. Tettegah; Terry J. Bradley | |||
| Schools are increasingly integrating character education to facilitate
improved moral thinking and pro social behavior among students. An effective
method for delivering character education is problem solving moral and social
situations represented visually as animated vignettes. However, schools are
rarely able to use animated vignettes since existing tools do not allow them to
be easily created and having them created externally is overly expensive. In
this paper, we describe the design, use, and evaluation of a computational tool
that enables students to construct their own animated vignettes. By building,
sharing, and responding to vignettes, students become engaged in problem
solving moral and social situations. Evaluations showed that users are able to
build meaningful vignettes, our tool is easy to learn and fun to use, and our
tool's multimedia features are often used and well-liked. Educators can
download and use our tool while researchers can draw upon our design rationale
and lessons learned when building similar tools. Keywords: Animation; Character education; Multimedia; Narratives; Vignettes | |||
| Towards culture-centred design | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 820-852 | |
| Siu-Tsen Shen; Martin Woolley; Stephen Prior | |||
| This paper addresses culturally rooted factors within user interface design.
The design implications of globalisation are discussed, together with the
related processes of internationalisation, localisation, 'glocalisation',
iconisation and culturalisation, in order to establish a basis for a new
approach to HCI design. The potential for a more diverse culture-centred,
design-based system -- 'Culture-Centred Design' (CCD) is introduced, and a CCD
process developed.
A redesigned computer interface, incorporating a consistent and culturally rooted metaphor for a Chinese user target group is discussed. A culturally specific 'garden' metaphor is developed and applied as an alternative to the current global 'office' or 'desktop' metaphor. A working demonstration of the interface is piloted with a group of Chinese users to assess its success in terms of interactivity, usability and cultural significance. The overall results of the first two evaluation phases have shown very positive outcomes for the use of the CCD system and Chinese garden metaphor. Keywords: Culture; Design process; Iconography; Metaphor; User-interface design; Human
computer interaction (HCI) | |||
| An overview of auditory display to assist comprehension of molecular information | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 853-868 | |
| Miguel Angel Garcia-Ruiz; Jorge Rafael Gutierrez-Pulido | |||
| This paper presents an overview of auditory display (the use of non-speech
sounds to convey information) applied to the study of molecular properties in
human-computer interfaces, particularly in virtual environments. Chemistry
researchers and students have difficulty in analysing and comprehending
molecular structure and bonding and other biomolecular characteristics.
Research reports that non-speech sounds have been useful in identifying trends
in gene sequences and molecular characteristics, which when used in virtual
environments, can facilitate comprehension of complex relationships that are
difficult to perceive through visualisation alone. Keywords: Virtual reality; Multimodality; Auditory display; Non-speech sounds;
Molecular structure; Bonding | |||
| Flexible tool support for accessibility evaluation | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 869-890 | |
| Barbara Leporini; Fabio Paterno; Antonio Scorcia | |||
| The increasing need to check Web site accessibility has stimulated interest
in tools to aid the various activities involved. While some tools for this
purpose already exist, we believe that there is a demand for making their
support more flexible. In particular, there is often a need for validation of
multiple sets of guidelines, repairing Web pages and providing better reports
for the evaluators. In this paper, we discuss such issues and how we have
addressed them in the design of MAGENTA, our new tool for supporting
inspection-based evaluation of accessibility and usability guidelines. Keywords: Accessibility; Tools; Evaluation; Guidelines | |||
| When humans form media and media form humans: An experimental study examining the effects different digital media have on the learning outcomes of students who have different learning styles | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 891-909 | |
| J. L. Alty; A. Al-Sharrah; N. Beacham | |||
| A set of computer-based experiments are reported that investigate the
understanding achieved by learners when studying a complex domain (statistics)
in a real e-learning environment using three different media combinations --
Text only, Text and Diagrams and Spoken Text and Diagrams, and the results
agree with earlier work carried out on more limited domains. The work is then
extended to examine how student interaction and student learning styles affect
the learning outcomes. Different responses to the media combinations are
observed and significant differences occur between learners classified as
Sensing and Reflective learners. The experiment also identified some important
differences in performance with the different media combinations by students
registered as Dyslexic. The experiment was therefore repeated with a much
larger sample of Dyslexic learners and the earlier effects were found to be
significant. The results were surprising and may provide useful guidance for
the design of material for Dyslexic students. Keywords: Multimedia; Learning; Learning style; Dyslexia; Sensing and intuitive
learners; Experimental study | |||
| An approach integrating two complementary model-based environments for the construction of multimodal interactive applications | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 910-941 | |
| David Navarre; Philippe Palanque; Pierre Dragicevic; Remi Bastide | |||
| This paper presents a tool suite for the engineering of multimodal Post-WIMP
Interactive Systems. The work presented here extends previous work done on
design, prototyping, specification and verification of interactive systems and
integrates two previously unrelated approaches. The first element of this
integration is ICoM (a data-flow model dedicated to low-level input modelling)
and its environment ICon which allows for editing and simulating ICoM models.
The other element is ICOs (a formal description technique mainly dedicated to
dialogue modelling) and its environment PetShop, which allows for editing,
simulating and verifying ICOs models. This paper shows how these two approaches
have been integrated and that this integration allows for engineering
multimodal interactive systems. We show on a Range Slider case study how these
tools can be used for prototyping interactive systems in general and multimodal
interaction techniques in particular. We also present in details how the
changes in the interaction techniques impact the models at various levels of
the software architecture. Keywords: Interactive systems engineering; Multimodal interaction; Prototyping; CASE
tools Formal methods | |||
| The emerging roles of performance within HCI and interaction design | | BIB | Full-Text | 942-955 | |
| Catriona Macaulay; Giulio Jacucci; Shaleph O'Neill; Tomi Kankaineen; Morna Simpson | |||
| Gaining insight into unfamiliar contexts: A design toolbox as input for using role-play techniques | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 956-976 | |
| J. Rodriguez; J. C. Diehl; H. Christiaans | |||
| This paper presents a design toolbox developed for Philips Design in
commission of Philips Medical Systems that provides insight into the healthcare
context of rural India. Creating products for this context requires an
understanding of the needs of the people within it. This paper discusses
'contextual design' through the combination of different descriptive and
experiential tools, used to introduce designers into a context they are not
familiar with. The toolbox has been evaluated using different performance
techniques with design students. The use of role-play techniques has proven
increasing relevance in many aspects: increasing the understanding and
experience of participants about the context, creating an embodied and common
understanding of the ideas being developed and communicating the concepts in
their context. Keywords: Performance; Cultural diversity; Design tool; Context information; People
understanding | |||
| Interacting with user data -- Theory and examples of drama and dramaturgy as methods of exploration and evaluation in user-centered design | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 977-995 | |
| Katri Mehto; Vesa Kantola; Sauli Tiitta; Tomi Kankainen | |||
| In this article, we discuss the application of drama and dramaturgy to
user-centered product concept design (UCPCD) processes, aiming to create a more
holistic approach to designing user experiences. We present the UCPCD process
and its background, and a selection of interactive theater tools that can be
applied to UCPCD. Through a case study we introduce a practical implementation
of these tools to UCPCD. The paper concludes by suggesting guidelines for using
drama and dramaturgy in concept design activities. The key finding is that
drama methods deepen the designers' involvement in the process and improve
understanding of the user communities' behavior. Keywords: User-centered design; Drama; Interaction; Evaluation; Participation;
Scenario | |||
| The use of theatre in requirements gathering and usability studies | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 996-1011 | |
| A. F. Newell; A. Carmichael; M. Morgan; A. Dickinson | |||
| This paper discusses the use of theatrical techniques to communicate to
designers the user requirements for IT interfaces - particularly those of
"extreme users" such as older people. The methodology and processes of
producing such material in a video form are described, together with the
strengths and weaknesses of this approach. The paper concludes by suggesting
the various roles live theatre can play in user centered design. Although the
research, on which this paper is based, focuses on the challenges presented by
older and disabled users, the techniques described are applicable to a wider
range of users. Keywords: Film/theatre; Communicating user requirements; Methodology; Older people | |||
| Designing for programming as joint performances among groups of children | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 1012-1031 | |
| Ylva Fernaeus; Jakob Tholander | |||
| Research on computer programming usually views the interactions as mostly
cognitively based, with focus on concepts such as memory, perception and
conceptual understanding. However, the current trend towards embodied and
social perspectives on interaction provides an alternative way of looking at
interactive processes, instead emphasising aspects such as social and physical
performance with and around technology. We have explored a range of activities
and tools that explicitly address these aspects in programming, with a specific
focus on children's making of own computer games and simulations. We exemplify
this work through three different situations where tools and activities are
used by children as recourses for building of interactive systems, while at the
same time allowing for bodily action in negotiation of design ideas. We discuss
how situations like these may provide directions for new technologies for
programming as well as methodological developments in the area of interaction
design. Keywords: Interaction design; Tangible programming; Performance in interaction design;
Children's programming | |||
| Guiding design with approaches to masked performance | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 1032-1054 | |
| Carlo Jacucci | |||
| This paper reinterprets practical approaches to masked performance to
articulate design activities that make use of performances and embodied
artefacts. In particular, the paper relies on examples from design research to
explore the application of performance work based on 'neutrality', expressivity
and 'incompleteness', which have been developed in theatre to devise
performances with 'neutral', 'characterised' and 'larval' masks.
A more general argument in the paper is that the project of applying the performing arts into interaction design can be usefully extended beyond the boundaries that have so far characterised such applications. These have been limited to the direct staging of the performances which are meant to provide the evidence for design inquiries. Instead, design activities can proceed by working in a more indirect way, by researching variations of the achieved performances, and by using multiple performance genres, including stylised performances and mask work. Keywords: Design; Performance; Performing arts; Props; Masks | |||
| The influence of hedonic quality on the attractiveness of user interfaces of business management software | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 1055-1069 | |
| Martin Schrepp; Theo Held; Bettina Laugwitz | |||
| Recent work concerning user satisfaction shows that hedonic aspects of a
user interface influence the perceived usability and attractiveness of the
product. We investigate if these results can also be applied to business
management software. In addition, we try to clarify the impact of hedonic
aspects on user preference for different user interfaces.
In an empirical study subjects judged three different user interfaces for the same business task with respect to their attractiveness by filling out the AttrakDiff questionnaire (Hassenzahl, M., Burmester, M., Koller, F., 2003. AttrakDiff: Ein Fragebogen zur Messung wahrgenommener hedonischer und pragmatischer Qualitat [AttrakDiff: A questionnaire for the measurement of perceived hedonic and pragmatic quality]. In: J. Ziegler and G. Szwillus (Eds.), Mensch and Computer 2003: Interaktion in Bewegung, 187-196. Stuttgart, Leipzig: B.G. Teubner). The subjects ranked the interfaces also by personal preference. The results show that pragmatic and hedonic qualities have an impact on attractiveness. In addition, the more attractive an interface is the higher is the preference of subjects for this interface. Keywords: Usability; Aesthetics; Hedonic quality; Business management software | |||
| The need for transparency and rationale in automated systems | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 1070-1083 | |
| David Dinka; James M. Nyce; Toomas Timpka | |||
| As medical devices and information systems become increasingly complex, the
issue of how to support users becomes more important. However, many current
help systems are often ignored or found to be too complicated to use by
clinicians. In this article, we suggest an approach that allows designers to
think about user support and automating tasks in ways users find more
acceptable. The issue we address in particular is the notion of transparency
and to what extent it allows the end-user to understand and critique the advice
given. We have found that one central problem with existing support systems is
that often the end-user does not understand the differences between the
automated parts and the parts that have to be done manually. By taking aspects
of transparency and control into account when designing an automated tool it
seems that some of the more refractory issues that help systems pose for
professional users can be addressed. Keywords: Automated systems; Usability; Control; User identity; Gammaknife surgery | |||
| Modeling users' task performance on the mobile device: PC convergence system | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 1084-1100 | |
| Seung Hun Yoo; Wan Chul Yoon | |||
| This study aims to establish a model-based approach for user interface
design that simultaneously considers the system's information hierarchy, users'
task procedure knowledge, and system interfaces. The approach is based on a
framework that contains multiple interaction models to express both system
elements and users' knowledge. The framework evaluates system interface through
the interaction between user's knowledge on interface, task procedure and
information structure perceived by the user in the system. The interface is
evaluated by its contribution to the users' task performance and system
navigation.
These three factors were defined as design factors that affect users' task performance. Through the crosscheck process of models, the relation between information, interface, and task procedure is calculated into combined difficulty index (CDI) that expresses the difficulty of a system interface that users would experience during the use of system. A user test was conducted for the validation of the CDI. The difficulties of the interface of a mobile healthcare system were predicted with the CDI, and the predictions were compared with the experimental results, where the users' performance showed consistence with the prediction. Keywords: Interaction model; Task-information link; UI problem detection; Difficulty
index | |||
| Usability evaluation of multi-modal biometric verification systems | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 1101-1122 | |
| Doroteo T. Toledano; Ruben Fernandez Pozo; Alvaro Hernandez Trapote; Luis Hernandez Gomez | |||
| As a result of the evolution in the field of biometrics, a new breed of
techniques and methods for user identity recognition and verification has
appeared based on the recognition and verification of several biometric
features considered unique to each individual. Signature and voice
characteristics, facial features, and iris and fingerprint patterns have all
been used to identify a person or just to verify that the person is who he/she
claims to be. Although still relatively new, these new technologies have
already reached a level of development that allows its commercialization.
However, there is a lack of studies devoted to the evaluation of these
technologies from a user-centered perspective. This paper is intended to
promote user-centered design and evaluation of biometric technologies. Towards
this end, we have developed a platform to perform empirical evaluations of
commercial biometric identity verification systems, including fingerprint,
voice and signature verification. In this article, we present an initial
empirical study in which we evaluate, compare and try to get insights into the
factors that are crucial for the usability of these systems. Keywords: Evaluation; Usability; Biometrics; Identity verification; Fingerprint
recognition; Signature recognition; Voice recognition | |||
| Optimizing conditions for computer-assisted anatomical learning | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 1123-1138 | |
| Jan-Maarten Luursema; Willem B. Verwey; Piet A. M. Kommers; Robert H. Geelkerken; Hans J. Vos | |||
| An experiment evaluated the impact of two typical features of virtual
learning environments on anatomical learning for users of differing
visuo-spatial ability. The two features studied are computer-implemented
stereopsis (the spatial information that is based on differences in visual
patterns projected in both eyes) and interactivity (the possibility to actively
and continuously change one's view of computer-mediated objects). Participants
of differing visuo-spatial ability learned about human abdominal organs via
anatomical three-dimensional (3D) reconstructions using either a stereoptic
study phase (involving stereopsis and interactivity) or using a biocular study
phase that involved neither stereopsis nor interactivity. Subsequent tests
assessed the acquired knowledge in tasks involving (a) identification of
anatomical structures in anatomical 2D cross-sections (i.e. typical Computed
Tomography pictures) in an identification task, and (b) localization of these
cross-sections in a frontal view of the anatomy in a localization task. The
results show that the stereoptic group performed significantly better on both
tasks and that participants of low visuo-spatial ability benefited more from
the stereoptic study phase than those of high visuo-spatial ability. Keywords: Visuo-spatial ability; Stereopsis; Anatomical learning; Virtual learning
environments; Interactivity | |||
| Pastiche scenarios: Fiction as a resource for user centred design | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 1139-1164 | |
| Mark A. Blythe; Peter C. Wright | |||
| Pastiche scenarios draw on fiction as a resource to explore the interior
'felt-life' aspects of user experience and the complex social and cultural
issues raised by technological innovations. This paper sets out an approach for
their use, outlining techniques for the location of source material and
presenting three case studies of pastiche scenario use. The first case study is
an evaluation of the Apple iPod that explores the socio-cultural meanings of
the technology. The second case study focuses on the participatory design of
Net Neighbours, an online shopping system where volunteers shop as
intermediaries for older people who do not have access to computers. The third
is an in depth consideration of a conceptual design, the 'cambadge' a wearable
lightweight web cam which, upon activation broadcasts to police or public
websites intended to reduce older people's fear of crime. This design concept
is explored in depth in pastiche scenarios of the Miss Marple stories, A
Clockwork Orange and Nineteen Eighty-four that reflect on how the device might
be experienced not only by users but also by those it is used against. It is
argued that pastiche scenarios are a useful complementary method for designers
to reason about user experience as well as the broad social and cultural
impacts of new technologies. Keywords: Scenario based design; Pastiche scenarios; User experience; Experience
centred design | |||
| Special issue of interacting with computers: Symbiotic performance between humans intelligent systems | | BIB | Full-Text | 1165-1169 | |
| Martha E. Crosby; Jean Scholtz; Paul Ward | |||
| Agent coordination and communication in sociotechnological systems: Design and measurement issues | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 1170-1185 | |
| David W. Eccles; Paul T. Groth | |||
| This article is concerned with enhancing agent coordination in modern
sociotechnological systems. To this end, sociotechnological systems are
conceptualized as problem solving systems that comprise human and technological
agents engaged in dynamic collaboration. Following this, there is a discussion
of the challenge of achieving agent coordination in problem solving systems as
technological agents become increasingly autonomous. A key assertion is that
agent coordination in problem solving systems might be enhanced through the
study of competent coordination in living systems such as human and animal
groups. Based on a review of research on competent coordination in human and
animal groups, design principles for problem solving systems are then
presented. Finally, methods are proposed for measuring the extent to which a
given agent operates in accordance with these principles. Keywords: Computer-human interface; Problem solving; Systems; Teams; Group dynamics | |||
| Evaluation metrics and methodologies for user-centered evaluation of intelligent systems | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 1186-1214 | |
| Jean Scholtz; Emile Morse; Michelle Potts Steves | |||
| In the past four years, we have worked with several research programs that
were developing intelligent software for use by intelligence analysts. Our
involvement in these programs was to develop the metrics and methodologies for
assessing the impact on users; in this case, on intelligence analysts. In
particular, we focused on metrics to evaluate how much the intelligent systems
contribute to the users' tasks and what the cost is to the user in terms of
workload and process deviations. In this paper, we describe the approach used.
We started with two types of preliminary investigations - first, collecting and
analyzing data from analysts working in an instrumented environment for a
period of 2 years, and second, developing and conducting formative evaluations
of research software. The long-term studies informed our ideas about the
processes that analysts use and provided potential metrics in an environment
without intelligent software tools. The formative evaluations helped us to
define sets of application-specific metrics. Finally, we conducted assessments
during and after technology insertions. We describe the metrics and
methodologies used in each of these activities, along with the lessons learned. Keywords: Evaluation; Metrics; Intelligent software systems; Intelligence analysts | |||
| Toward a real-time model-based training system | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 1215-1241 | |
| Wai-Tat Fu; Daniel Bothell; Scott Douglass; Craig Haimson; Myeong-Ho Sohn; John Anderson | |||
| This article describes the development of a real-time model-based training
system that provides adaptive '"over-the-shoulder'" (OTS) instructions to
trainees as they learn to perform an Anti-Air Warfare Coordinator (AAWC) task.
The long-term goal is to develop a system that will provide real-time
instructional materials based on learners' actions, so that eventually the
initial set of instructions on a task can be strengthened, complemented, or
overridden at different stages of training. The training system is based on the
ACT-R architecture, which serves as the theoretical background for the
cognitive model that monitors the learning process of the trainee. An
experiment was designed to study the impact of OTS instructions on learning.
Results showed that while OTS instructions facilitated short-term learning, (a)
they took time away from the processing of current information, (b) their
effects tended to decay rapidly in initial stages of training, and (c) their
effects on training diminished when the OTS instructions were proceduralized in
later stages of training. A cognitive model that learned from both the upfront
and OTS instructions was created and provided good fits to the learning and
performance data collected from human participants. Our results suggest that to
fully capture the symbiotic performance between humans and intelligent training
systems, it is important to closely monitor the learning process of the trainee
so that instructional interventions can be delivered effectively at different
stages of training. We proposed that such a flexible system can be developed
based on an adaptive cognitive model that provides real-time predictions on
learning and performance. Keywords: Model-based training system; Cognitive model; Skill acquisition; Training;
ACT-R; Model tracing; Augmented cognition | |||
| Small-vocabulary speech recognition using surface electromyography | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 1242-1259 | |
| Bradley J. Betts; Kim Binsted; Charles Jorgensen | |||
| We present results of electromyographic (EMG) speech recognition on a small
vocabulary of 15 English words. EMG speech recognition holds promise for
mitigating the effects of high acoustic noise on speech intelligibility in
communication systems, including those used by first responders (a focus of
this work). We collected 150 examples per word of single-channel EMG data from
a male subject, speaking normally while wearing a firefighter's self-contained
breathing apparatus. The signal processing consisted of an activity detector, a
feature extractor, and a neural network classifier. Testing produced an overall
average correct classification rate on the 15 words of 74% with a 95%
confidence interval of (71%, 77%). Once trained, the subject used a classifier
as part of a real-time system to communicate to a cellular phone and to control
a robotic device. These tasks were performed under an ambient noise level of
approximately 95 decibels. We also describe ongoing work on phoneme-level EMG
speech recognition. Keywords: Electromyography; EMG; Bioelectric; EMG speech recognition; First responder;
Pattern recognition; SCBA | |||
| When the chips are down: Social technical aspects of computer failure and repair | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 1260-1277 | |
| Michael Quayle; Kevin Durrheim | |||
| This paper explores computer failure as a social event by examining recorded
interactions between computer users and help-desk consultants (technicians). It
was found, first, that the nature of a failure was negotiated between
participants rather than being simply technically evident. Failure was defined
from users' perspectives, in relation to what they were trying to achieve,
rather than according to technical parameters. Secondly, negotiations of
failure had social consequences for both users and help-desk consultants. Both
avoided being seen as incompetent and actively defended their social standing.
Thirdly, such social issues sometimes took precedence over technical and
practical ones. The implications for HCI theorists and practitioners are
twofold: firstly, failure should be accepted as a regular part of computer use
in which human-computer interaction continues even though the interface may be
non-functional. Secondly, the management of failure could be better addressed
if technicians were trained in social as well as technical intervention skills. Keywords: HCI; Human factors; Reliability; Help-desk; Social aspects; Dependable
computing; Computer failure | |||
| Interacting with parallel coordinates | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 1278-1309 | |
| Harri Siirtola; Kari-Jouko Raiha | |||
| Parallel coordinate visualizations have a reputation of being difficult to
understand, expert-only representations. We argue that this reputation may be
partially unfounded, because many of the parallel coordinate browser
implementations lack essential features. This paper presents a survey of
current interaction techniques for parallel coordinate browsers and compares
them to the visualization design guidelines in the literature. In addition, we
report our experiences with parallel coordinate browser prototypes, and
describe an experiment where we studied the immediate usability of parallel
coordinate visualizations. In the experiment, 16 database professionals
performed a set of tasks both with the SQL query language and a parallel
coordinate browser. The results show that although the subjects had doubts
about the general usefulness of the parallel coordinate technique, they could
perform the tasks more efficiently with a parallel coordinate browser than with
their familiar query language interface. Keywords: Information visualization; Parallel coordinates; Multidimensional data;
Interaction | |||
| Exploring 'Canned Communication' for coordinating distributed mobile work activities | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 1310-1335 | |
| Jesper Kjeldskov; Jan Stage | |||
| Communication between physically distributed people in industrial and
safety-critical domains is often spoken and mediated through walkie-talkies, or
closed-circuit intercoms. Because this kind of communication is hampered by
noise, radio interference, lack of persistency, etc. vital information is
sometimes lost. In response to this challenge, this paper discusses the use of
'canned' text-based messaging as a supplement for improving such communication.
Based on data from ethnographic studies of work activities in an industrial
domain, and grounded in a theoretical model of communication, we have designed
and evaluated a mobile canned communication prototype system facilitating
exchange of predefined text messages, a persistent graphical representation of
the operation in progress, and a filtered list of completed tasks. Results from
two evaluations show that in the domain considered, canned text-based
communication has a potential to supplement voice and assist in overcoming some
of the inherent problems of spoken communication. Yet using a textual and
persistent mode of communication also raises new challenges such as choice of
modality, speed, flexibility and handling situations deviating from standard
procedures. Keywords: Canned communication; Mobile device interface; Text-based communication | |||
| Conceptual models of software artifacts | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 1336-1350 | |
| Mordechai Ben-Ari; Tzippora Yeshno | |||
| According to constructivism, learning takes place by constructing cognitive
structures based upon current, perhaps naive, knowledge and new experiences. In
the case of software artifacts like programming languages and applications,
current knowledge is not a solid base upon which to build viable new knowledge.
Therefore, we conjecture that explicit conceptual models constructed by
educators should be able to improve the performance of users in their
interaction with software artifacts, in our case the popular word processor
MS-Word. The experiments described in this paper support this idea: we found
that learners who used our conceptual models were able to analyze and solve
problems conceptually, while learners who used task-oriented learning materials
of equivalent scope employed aimless trial and error. Keywords: Mental model; Conceptual model; Software; MS-Word; Block mode; WYSIWYG | |||
| Homepage aesthetics: The search for preference factors and the challenges of subjectivity | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 1351-1370 | |
| Muzeyyen Pandir; John Knight | |||
| While many studies have considered the usability of website homepages,
subjective issues such as preference have been under explored. This paper
describes a pilot study that investigates subjects' preferences for different
homepages. The study applies Berlyne's theory of experimental aesthetics to
website homepages. This theory suggests that there is an inverted-U shape
relationship between preference for a stimulus and its complexity. Twelve
subjects evaluated 12 homepages. The study used a ranking method to measure
subjects' preferences and the relationships between complexity, pleasure and
interestingness. In addition, verbal reports were collected. No support was
found for an inverted-U shape relationship and the findings indicate that
complexity is not a predictor of pleasure. However, the results uncovered a
number of subjective factors that underlie preference. These factors include
individual differences in taste and lifestyle all of which are highly personal
factors that change and develop over time. In addition, the findings suggest a
link between interestingness and curiosity. Lastly, the findings show an
agreement on the judgements of complexity, and disagreement on aesthetic
preferences. In conclusion, the paper points out the challenges faced in
researching preference because of its highly subjective character. Keywords: Aesthetic pleasure; Experimental aesthetics; Preference factors; Website
preferences; Subjectivity | |||
| Cross-cultural differences in recognizing affect from body posture | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 1371-1389 | |
| Andrea Kleinsmith; P. Ravindra De Silva; Nadia Bianchi-Berthouze | |||
| Conveyance and recognition of human emotion and affective expression is
influenced by many factors, including culture. Within the user modeling field,
it has become increasingly necessary to understand the role affect can play in
personalizing interactive interfaces using embodied animated agents. However,
little research within the computer science field aims at understanding
cultural differences within this vein. Therefore, we conducted a study to
evaluate if differences exist in the way various cultures perceive emotion from
body posture. We used static posture images of affectively expressive avatars
to conduct recognition experiments with subjects from three cultures. After
analyzing the subjects' judgments using multivariate analysis, we grounded the
identified differences into a set of low-level posture features. We then used
Mixture Discriminant Analysis (MDA) and an unsupervised expectation
maximization (EM) model to build separate cultural models for affective posture
recognition. Our results could prove useful to aide designers in creating more
effective affective avatars. Keywords: Affective communication; Affective body postures; Embodied animated agents;
Intercultural differences; Emotion nuances | |||
| Exploring the design space of robots: Children's perspectives | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 1390-1418 | |
| Sarah Woods | |||
| Children's perceptions and evaluations of different robot designs are an
important unexplored area within robotics research considering that many robots
are specifically designed for children. To examine children's feelings and
attitudes towards robots, a large sample of children (N = 159) evaluated 40
robot images by completing a questionnaire for each image, which enquired about
robot appearance, robot personality dimensions and robot emotions. Results
showed that depending on a robot's appearance children clearly distinguished
robots in terms of their intentions (i.e. friendly vs. unfriendly), their
capability to understand, and their emotional expression. Results of a
principal components analysis of the children's ratings of the robots'
personality attributes revealed two dimensions labelled 'Behavioural Intention'
and 'Emotional Expression'. Robots were classified according to their scores on
these two dimensions and a content analysis of their appearance was conducted
in an attempt to identify salient features of different robot personalities.
Children judged human-like robots as aggressive, but human-machine robots as
friendly. Results on children's perceptions of the robots' behavioural
intentions provided tentative empirical support for the Uncanny Valley,
hypothesized by (Mori, M., 1970), reflecting a situation where robots are very
human-like, but still distinguishable from humans, evoking a feeling of
discomfort or repulsion. The paper concludes with a discussion of design
implications for robots, and the use of robots in educational contexts. Keywords: Robots; Child evaluations; Attitudes; Personality; Emotions; Uncanny valley | |||
| Intentional processing as a key for rational behaviour through Natural Interaction | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 1419-1446 | |
| Javier Calle-Gomez; Ana Garcia-Serrano; Paloma Martinez | |||
| This paper presents an interaction model pursuing flexible and coherent
human-computer interaction. Starting from a cognitive architecture for Natural
Interaction, an agent-based design is presented, focusing particularly on the
role of the interaction agent. Regarding the intentional processing within this
agent, the Threads Model is proposed. Finally, its implementation is described
and evaluated to find out the integrity of the intentional approach. Keywords: Natural Interaction; Intentional processing; Model-based design; Agent-based
architecture; Threads Model; Task Model; Interaction system evaluation | |||