Michael J. Albers
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Publications by Michael J. Albers (bibliography)
» 2008 «
Albers, Michael J. (2008): Human-information interaction. In: DOC08 2008. pp. 117-124. Available online
“The technical communicator's job has changed from creating a document to creating information appropriate for a communication situation with multiple user groups and highly dynamic information needs. Many of the communication failure issues we consistently see have a root cause not based on how people interact with computers, but with a failure to understand how information is communicated to a person and how they interact with and interpret that information. It is a failure of effective Human-information interaction (HII), which emphasizes communicating information -- interacting with, interpreting, and using information -- not writing documents, not designing web sites, not generating content. Producing modern web-based information requires a solid understanding of HII to increase the success of creating information which communicates effectively to all readers. The information design and creation must be based on a clear understanding of a person's goals and information needs and how that person interacts with information. Developing information which fits a person's need requires understanding how a person thinks and what factors drives their decision processes. These elements form for the base of an understanding of HII.”
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Pierce, Robert, Mehlenbacher, Brad, Costa, Carlos J., Albers, Michael J. and Protopsaltis, Aristidis (2008): Panel design of communication: new steps. In: DOC08 2008. pp. 183-184. Available online
“SIGDOC comes from a technical writing tradition, where literature and rhetoric play an important role. Communication is now giving a broader focus, especially as influences come from graphical design, web design, digital sound or digital multimedia. In Lisbon, we expect to discuss this focus of SIGDOC. This is an important transition that is being done, without loosing its identity. In fact, from the revision process the heterogeneity of view point was identified. This is the result of including more participants from multimedia, computer science and graphical design. For the second time, SIGDOC will take place outside the American continent. For the first time it takes places in a non-English speaking country. It is the ideal place to discuss an important issue either for the technical documentation, either for software engineering or for design of communication communities: translation, internationalization, localization, and globalization. Bologna process is transforming and making an authentic revolution in the European university panorama. This may be faced either as a threat or as an opportunity. In this context, the discussion about a curriculum in design of communication is an important step that may be undertaken by the SIGDOC. It is a step that may contribute to its affirmation either in academia or in practitioner context.”
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» 2007 «
Albers, Michael J. (2007): Information salience and interpreting information. In: Proceedings of the 25th annual ACM international conference on Design of communication 2007, El Paso, Texas, USA. pp. 80-86. Available online
“The information available for many situations often causes information overload. To help prevent this overload, the designer and writer need to carefully consider the issues of what are the most salient information elements for the reader and what can be done to queue the reader that this is the most salient information.”
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» 2004 «
Albers, Michael J. (2004): Signal to noise ratio of information in documentation. In: ACM 22nd International Conference on Computer Documentation 2004. pp. 41-44. Available online
“The signal to noise ratio is a common concept in radio communications and electronic communication in general. For a radio, the static is the noise. Too much static and the storm report gets drowned out, or at least you must listen closely to understand the announcer. Unfortunately, information designers do not posses a clear cut set of techniques available to electrical engineers. For information systems, taking the raw data in a system and deciding what is signal and what is noise proves to be extremely difficult. This paper will examine how the concept of signal to noise ratio can be applied to documentation. It will consider how the need to address different tasks and audience forces compromises on the writer to meet those different needs, when each audience has different definitions of which information constitutes signal and which constitutes noise.”
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Bruss, Michell, Albers, Michael J. and McNamera, Danielle (2004): Changes in scientific articles over two hundred years: a coh-metrix analysis. In: ACM 22nd International Conference on Computer Documentation 2004. pp. 104-109. Available online
“We analyzed texts from years 1800-2004 from the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Two-thousand-word sections from about 20 articles published at 25-year intervals (1800, 1825, 1850, etc.) for a total of 127 articles were analyzed by a new tool (Coh-metrix) developed by McNamara, Louwerse, and Graesser [9] at the University of Memphis' Institute for Intelligent Systems. The study discerned significant differences in four general measurement areas: word information, connectives, causal cohesion, and syntactic complexity. Specifically, there was a significant decrease in concreteness, imagability, number of causal verbs, number of causal particles, number of connectives (including total number of connectives, and positive temporal and causal connectives), and the mean number of higher-level constituents per sentence and per word. We also found a significant increase in age of acquisition, syntactic complexity (measured in mean number of modifiers per noun phrase), and indicators of analytical and logical difficulty.”
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» 2003 «
Albers, Michael J. (2003): Multidimensional analysis for custom content for multiple audiences. In: ACM 21st International Conference on Computer Documentation 2003. pp. 1-5. Available online
“As technical communication gains the technology to deliver dynamic custom documents, the importance of the upfront analysis increases. As a major factor in supporting dynamic adjustment of document content, the task and audience analysis must clearly capture the range of user goals and information needs in a flexible manner. Replacing a linear analysis model with a multidimensional model provides one method of achieving that flexibility. With a minimum of three separate dimensions to capture topic knowledge, detail required, and user cognitive ability, this model provides the writer a means of connecting content with information requirements and ensuring a dynamic document fits varying audience needs.”
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» 2002 «
Albers, Michael J. (2002): Design of complex information. In: ACM 20th International Conference on Computer Documentation 2002. pp. 1-9. Available online
“This paper addresses the issues surrounding analysis and design which supports developing web-based information for use in situations which require supporting multiple levels of audience knowledge and ability. Firmly focused on communicating information, it addresses the analysis and design of information content requirements for systems that assemble customized information; a communication possibility that has only recently become possible on a practical scale. It develops a five element model (situation, user, user goals, information needs, system). It builds an argument stressing the need to analyze and design for user goals and information needs within the situational context in order to maximize communication with the user.”
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» 2001 «
Kim, Loel and Albers, Michael J. (2001): Web design issues when searching for information in a small screen display. In: IEEE ACM 19th International Conference on Computer Documentation 2001. pp. 193-200. Available online
“In this paper, we report preliminary findings from an experimental study in which twenty-eight users answered questions by performing strategic information searches on web pages. Pages, which varied in length from 100 to 850 words, were displayed on either a standard, desktop monitor (full-sized) or a palm handheld interface (small-screen). Overall, users took more time to perform the tasks on the small screen interface, with the break in efficacy appearing between 225 and 350 word-lengths. Finally, contrary to our hypothesis, participants were similarly accurate across conditions.”
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» 1999 «
Albers, Michael J. (1999): Information Design Considerations for Improving Situation Awareness in Complex Problem-Solving. In: ACM 17th International Conference on Systems Documentation 1999. pp. 154-158. Available online
“The conventional techniques for task analysis derive the basic tasks that make up user actions. However, in the complex-problem solving environment, attempts to describe step-by-step actions breakdown because no single route to a solution exists. Although individual tasks can be defined, task-analysis normally results in the tasks being divorced from context. However, to support complex problem-solving, the design must place the information within the situation context and allow users to develop and maintain situation awareness.”
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» 1998 «
Albers, Michael J. (1998): Goal-Driven Task Analysis: Improving Situation Awareness for Complex Problem-Solving. In: ACM 16th International Conference on Systems Documentation 1998. pp. 234-242. Available online
“Goal-driven analysis is a methodology for determining what the user needs for solving complex problems. It is designed for use in systems with ill-structured problems, such as performance support or decision support systems, rather than the well-defined problems addressed by conventional task analysis. It assists in the creation of systems that enhance and support overall situation awareness. The analysis considers the user's decision making process while analyzing the required tasks and goals needed to accomplish the job. The result is a goal/information diagram relating the user's goals and information needs.”
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» 1997 «
Albers, Michael J. (1997): Cognitive Strain as a Factor in Effective Document Design. In: ACM 15th International Conference on Systems Documentation 1997. pp. 1-6. Available online
“People have a limited amount of cognitive resources. Coping with the increasing amount of information presented via a software interface strains a user's cognitive resources. If a person has to use the documentation, whether on-line or paper, additional cognitive resources are consumed, often overloading the user. Using several windows or multi-media elements can compound the problem. Unfortunately, as Wickens (1992) states, humans are unable to manage excessive cognitive strain and they respond by getting frustrated, committing errors, shedding tasks, or reverting to known methods. Understanding the causes of cognitive strain helps explain why seemingly well-designed and usability-tested documentation still elicits complains of being unusable. In this paper, I define cognitive strain as exceeding the amount of mental resources available to devote to problem solving. Psychology researchers have found that we have a small set of resources which must be distributed between all the cognitive tasks we simultaneously perform. When those resources are exhausted, error rates and frustration increase while performance and material retention decrease. It is important to note that cognitive strain is a short-term overload and is not the longer-term stress we associate with impending deadlines or an over-scheduled workload. However, longer-term stress factors do influence the amount of cognitive resources available. Thus it is essential that we, as technical communicators, explore effective methods which reduce cognitive strain and maximize the user's ability to extract information from the system. In this paper, I first examine the literature on cognitive strain and the signs of cognitive overload. Next, I look at current methodologies and discuss how they don't include considering cognitive stress. Finally, I explore how modifying our design methodologies to consider cognitive strain can improve the resulting documentation.”
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Albers, Michael J. (1997): Information Engineering: Creating an Integrated Interface. In: Smith, Michael J., Salvendy, Gavriel and Koubek, Richard J. (eds.) HCI International 1997 - Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction - Volume 2 August 24-29, 1997, San Francisco, California, USA. pp. 213-216.
» 1996 «
Albers, Michael J. (1996): Decision Making: A Missing Facet of Effective Documentation. In: ACM 14th International Conference on Systems Documentation 1996. pp. 57-65. Available online
“The purpose of this paper was to begin the exploration of the literature on decision-making and problem-solving and how they can contribute to the design of effective documentation. However, these are well established fields with wealth of material and space limitations have prevented me from doing more that scratching the surface. Further research should be done in these areas to: * Help define which parts of the decision-making research are application to technical communication. * Consider the impact of decision-making on answering complex questions. * Develop and test the practical application of the theoretical concepts derived from the decision-making literature.”
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Mar 21st, 2010
Changes to this page (author)
25 Feb 2010: Enabled abstracts to be shown on Michael J. Albers's author page.04 Jun 2009: Author was edited 07 Apr 2009: Author was edited
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