The conference objective is to provide an international forum for the dissemination and exchange of up-to-date scientific information on theoretical, generic and applied areas of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Universal Access, Engineering Psychology, Cognitive Ergonomics, Virtual and Mixed Reality, Internationalization, Design and Global Development, Online Communities, Social Computing, Augmented Cognition , Digital Human Modeling and Human Centered Design.
“A structured hypertext system, constructed of frames of information arranged according to the level of abstraction of the text material, is described and tested in three instructional settings: in competition with in-person lectures; as a supplement to them; and as a replacement for them. Objectively measured performance does not vary according to the setting, but subjective reactions of the students to the technology do differ. Structured hypertext is seen as most suitable as a replacement for classroom instruction for situations in which in-person instruction is not possible.”
“MAPS (Modular Applied Physiology System) is a computer based expert system designed to provide knowledge in the area of human applied physiology. It has been implemented at the British Army Personnel Research Establishment (APRE). This paper describes the process of this implementation. It illustrates the use of established HCI guidelines, together with an ergonomic approach to design procedure. MAPS is intended for users who are experts in applied physiology, but are unfamiliar with computer technology and terminology. The results of user evaluations are discussed, and conclusions drawn as to the validity of the design procedure adopted.”
“The design of software development environments is often based on intuition. These environments are sometimes successful. User-centred design hopes to lead to software which is usable and successful because it will support users in the performance of their tasks. One important task within programming is program debugging. Expert programmers are known to be better at debugging programs that they did not write than are novice programmers. We argue that this task is not representative of the tasks novice programmers are required to do. We hypothese, and attempt to show empirically, that novice programmers possess, and are able to use, skills when debugging their own programs which they are not able to use when debugging programs which they did not write. We were unable to demonstrate this empirically. We consider this result in relation to the experimental design, the design of the debugging aids available to our subjects and the debugging strategy which these aids attempt to support.”
“The impact of the introduction of advanced manufacturing technology on job contents, skill demands and autonomy in work were studied in nine manufacturing companies. Jobs at three different levels of technological advance were compared: 1) conventional single-purpose machine tools, 2) production cells consisting of CNC machines and robots, 3) flexible manufacturing cells and systems FMC/FMS. Basic machinist's skills in metal cutting are needed at all technological levels. Furthermore, skills and knowledge related to CNC technology are needed in work with more advanced systems. Job contents and autonomy are mainly determined by the organizational setting and division of labor assumed in the company. When applied properly, advanced technology gives opportunities for designing coherent jobs and for professional learning and development.”
“The paper presents an investigation of the differences between two experts in the same domain. The observed differences concern comparisons between domain objects, rule justifications (technical vs. pragmatic justifications, naive physics reasoning), and categorical knowledge (logic, level, and extension of the categorization). Differences are attributed to the prior experience of the two experts (workshop vs. laboratory). Implications for knowledge elicitation and for the design of assistance tools are presented.”
“The research describes action schemata acquired through experience and studies their use and the way they are adapted. Sixteen subjects participated in an experiment: they were interviewed about their activity and then they had to carry out some tasks in an unusual context. The comparison between the subjects' representations in both situations allowed the description of action schemata. The results agree with schema theory: schema instantiation, creation of a new schema by modifying more elementary schemata. They emphasize the importance of distinguishing between declarative and procedural aspects for representing tasks and for interface design.”
“This study reviewed the beginners' typing behavior and assessed usefulness of two coursewares and one typing textbook. The fifteen subjects participated in the experiments of typing lessons. As the result, all the participants mastered the "home positioning" method of typing, and improved their typing speed. One third of the subjects sacrificed their accuracy to gain their speed, however. For courseware improvement, review on its development is important and necessary. Discussed are the way and materials to be instructed, and interactive feedbacks to users about their typing speed and accuracy during a course of practicing.”
“Since the early 1980's in Japan, computer systems have been introduced rapidly at manufactories and offices. And recently, workers and users using the interface are demanding the better interfaces. The basic research for the studies of interfaces in Japan has been begun from the early 1960's. And we referred to research in other countries. Because many researchers in other countries have studied the research of human interfaces at early 1960's. But in Japan, this type of research have too much not been published to date. The age that this research has been begun actually at public agencies and enterprises with the publication of the Japanese translation of ergonomics at Olivetti by Buruno Scagliola as a turning point was in 1985. Many reports have been published in Japan from the period of about 1985. On the other hand, during the last few years, methods of research on the human interfaces have been changing from physical ergonomics to cognitive ergonomics, or from hard ergonomics to soft ergonomics. This paper shows the review of the studies on human interfaces in Japan.”
“This paper reports the ergonomic and human factors issues that emerged during an assessment of computer and telecommunications service needs within a pediatric hospital. To assess patients' needs, we conducted a series of informal interviews with patients, parents, and hospital staff, and we also visited the hospital to make on-site observations. With respect to ergonomics, we found that the design constraints on physical equipment are severe. The constraints arise because hospital rooms are workspaces and because hospital equipment must be sterile. With respect to human factors, the constraints arise because the hospital population is so heterogeneous and activity schedules are idiosyncratic. Finally, some suggestions are given about future research directions.”
“Fundamental research investigating the influence of subject characteristics on the reading of algorithms can benefit several ares of software engineering, in particular design of programming environments and adaptive human-computer interfaces. In this study, we employed an eye tracking monitor to examine subject differences in the reading of a short, complex computer algorithm. The experiment revealed that experience, comprehension and cognitive style played significant roles in the degree of attention that subjects devoted to complex areas of the algorithm. The scanning strategies, however, could not be attributed to either experience or comprehension.”
“Job content is a conceptual framework and has two aspects. The first aspect usually makes the basis for job description. The second aspect is the ability to perform and points out technical, interpersonal, cognitive and experiential skills. Technical skills are critical for entry into automated office but interactive and abstract skills are key to maintaining jobs. We recommend the type of training that includes a technical component which emphasizes computer use and the component which focuses on developing and encouraging interactive and abstract skills.”
“The U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratory located in Champaign, Illinois, has developed a personal computer-based model for maintenance resource prediction. The model is written for a DOS environment and can be used by any organization for maintenance resource predictions. The model is being used by select sites in Germany, Korea, and the United States. This paper presents the general methodology and the current applications.”
“Experienced programmers transferring to a new programming language have a far easier time than the novice learning a first language. However, they still experience considerable difficulties. Our objective in this study was to characterize the kinds of learning and transfer that take place in the early stages of using a new programming language and where difficulties develop. Transfer of skill has been studied in text editing, but not in programming, so this work is an initial contribution. It has theoretical significance for the understanding of transfer processes in a complex domain and practical significance for the training or retraining of programmers. We are interested in using what we discover to design automated systems to facilitate transfer among programming languages.”
“This paper discusses the components of a national microcomputer policy for the small and medium-sized industrial firm in Colombia. The paper is based on the results of an 18-month study carried out among 31 Colombian manufacturing firms. The major components of such a policy -- managerial development, improved access to technology, the creation of the proper environment and R & D activities -- are placed in the context of the type of organizational and institutional changes needed to make microcomputer technology appropriate and beneficial for the smaller industrial firm in Colombia. The paper then considers the relevance of the Colombian experience to other developing countries.”
“This paper reports progress in the development of a computer-aided engineering system for the design of helicopter crewstations. The system will apply computational human factors methods to predict pilot training requirements early in the conceptual phase of design. We focus on operational complexity as one of the training predictors, and introduce methods for deriving complexity measures from design characteristics and pilot mental models. We argue that dependency graphs can be used to represent evolution of pilot models in the course of training, and propose complexity measures reflecting uncertainty resolved in graphs manipulation. We Indicate motivations of this work, then describe pilot models, followed by key concepts of complexity assessment.”
“The methods of both, Industrial and Cognitive Psychology show some deficiencies when applied at the analysis and evaluation of complex mental working tasks, e.g. software development tasks. A promising alternative is an individual and cooperative analytical and evaluative procedure assisted by a psychologist: The psychologist offers theoretically based instruments and supports the programmers in analysing and evaluating their working tasks. The psychologist works as some kind of a "living manual" of the instruments applied by the programmers and carries out steps of the procedure demanding special skills. Furthermore s/he moderates the final group discussion resulting in a joint assessment of work organization within the group. The procedure continuously proceeds to task re-design as a part of organizational development.”
“Current instructional strategies often place emphasis on the way in which a learner formulates a model of the task. In this context both "discovery learning" and "model-based instruction" have been emphasized. An empirical study is reported that suggests some limitations on these approaches in computer-based learning. Pure "discovery" in which the learner explores the computer system may not provide an adequate means for a person to evaluate his or her knowledge. Likewise, although it may be useful to provide models of the system in some cases, unless the user has some tools to help revise that model over time, the model instruction may actually interfere with performance. These results lend support to a somewhat more constrained "guided" form of discovery learning.”
“This paper is a first step in setting the respective role of various sources of help. It reports an empirical study attempting to define the advisory role of computer meetings, i.e. the role some human advisors play within meetings. Advisory role is described in terms of advisory goals: (a) goals users want meeting advisors to achieve and (b) goals advisors really pursue. A sample of such goals are presented within a provisional classification. At the top level of the classification, goals are grouped into two main classes: goals related to computing activity and goals related to advisory activity itself. Conclusion emphasizes the necessity for elaborating a sharper taxonomy of advisory goals.”
“Syntax diagrams used in existing microcomputer software manuals are compared to a simpler diagram developed for this study. Computer users examined the diagrams and ranked them according to how easy they were to read and understand. Then they used only one diagram to select correct commands from a list. Computer users without programming experience preferred the simpler diagram to the existing diagrams. Computer users with programming experience preferred all diagrams about the same. The number of errors made in selecting commands from a list was somewhat lower for groups using the simpler diagram although this difference was not statistically significant.”
“Thirty-five manager-secretary teams participated in an exploratory study of "user" and "operator" roles vis-a-vis integrated office systems (IOS). Managers filled both user and operator roles with regard to IOS communication features, but a dichotomy of roles (manager as user, secretary as operator) was observed for use of word processing and office maintenance features. Skill differences and communication were key factors in the "shared operation" of the IOS. Implications of the results for workgroup adaptability and productivity are discussed.”
“Full Text display of database information will cease to be acceptable to users who have grown used to the myriad of graphical and typographic options available on personal workstations. What will be required is Full Information display, which includes textual, tabular, typographic and graphical information. OCLC is exploring the use of SGML (Standardized General Markup Language) in the capture, storage and retrieval of Full Information. This paper outlines work to date on a project that will handle Full Text display, suggests how the basic framework of this effort can be expanded to encompass Full Information display, and assesses the strengths and weaknesses of SGML as a tool in this work.”
“Usability is increasingly accepted by Information Technology manufacturers as an important factor in the commercial success of their products. This paper reviews the comprehensive, user-centred approach needed to design usable products. The outcomes of ESPRIT project 385 -- HUFIT (Human Factors in Information Technology) aim to help manufacturers of office products adopt the user-centred approach in order to improve the design of IT products. The design tools which have been developed in the HUFIT project are briefly described.”
“Interface design for systems that search large bibliographic databases is considered in light of users' needs to create meaningful queries. The General Hierarchy Exploration Tool (GHET) prototype is described as a first step toward an intelligent search system. This prototype uses pre-compiled knowledge of class relationships, structured as taxonomic hierarchies. The hierarchies can be explored directly or entered through a concept index or a relations index. Semantic relations between concepts are explored as a way of providing a "meaning-based" search rather than a "keyword" search. These notions are formalized, illustrating how they can be applied in the context of an intelligent search interface.”
“Method and process are often confused in software development. This paper discusses the differences between the two, and why an emphasis on process is more likely to lead to systems that meet user needs and expectations. The root of the confusion lies in a mis-understanding of method and process. A model is presented that views system development as a design process that may include the use of several different methods, each chosen for the appropriateness of the task requirements. The ecology of the workplace is discussed as an appropriate way for human factors engineers to the environmental and behavioral effects of new systems on users. Finally, the concept of information architecture is presented as a new way of thinking about high-level system design.”
“The concept of action facilitation, derived from Hacker's theory of goal-directed action, can be defined as an improvement or maintenance of performance under conditions of decreasing mental and/or physical effort. This concept applies to any kind of work, including work with computers. A method for operationalizing this concept in the context of human-computer interaction ls discussed, and it is shown how this method can be applied to the evaluation and design of user interfaces for office systems.”
“Three-dimensional computer models provide the benefits of physical models and are a much better medium of communication between the designers and construction personnel than conventional drawings. Stone & Webster has developed an interface between a three-dimensional computer graphics system, a relational database management system, and an expert systems shell to create an integrated system for engineering, design, and construction of facilities. This system provides a graphical window into the database that makes the data-base easier to use. Interactive expert systems combine geometric information from the three-dimensional model, data from the database, and other information to arrive at immediate conclusions to assist the user at the workstation.”
“This paper offers scenarios of future developments in applications such as home control, hypermedia, office automation, digital photography, collaborative meeting/classrooms, public access, professional workstations, and medical record-keeping. Also, predictions are made for some of the underlying technologies such as User Interface Management Systems, remote control, flexible search, display devices, and touchscreens.”
“There is still little knowledge about how to involve users in the software development process in order to better match system interfaces to the user's needs and tasks. In this contribution, three cases will be presented each of which differed in the approach to user participation and the problems encountered.”
“Until recently a relational database system (RDBS) has not been viable for such routine library management work as cataloging and retrieving because of the restriction that the data should be in flat table format. The RDBS potential, provides higher flexibility in sharing, recovery and security, as well as storing and managing large volume data banks efficiently. It has therefore become highly attractive to the modern library system operation. This paper describes an interface mechanism referred to as "complex view support" and discuses performance problems involved in query processing. This interface mechanism is used with an RDBS for supporting the increasingly complex distribution environment of current automated library systems.”
“This paper discussed the validity of mental workload measurement using heart rate variability (H.R.V.) method. The H.R.V. refers to the variability of successive R-R intervals. In this experiment, fourteen well-skilled pilots performed the ordinary flights by flight simulators. From the result, there is a strong negative correlation between the spectral peak's power of H.R.V. near 0.1 beat{sup:-1} region (8 20 beats cycle) and subjective rating estimated by using Modfied Cooper and Harper scale at every flight phase. It is asserted that the spectral power of H.R.V. near 0.1 beat{sup:-1} region could accurately adjust to the change in the mental conditions.”
“This paper discusses work-in-progress to identify an analytic framework for matching social and technical features in the design of computer-automated manufacturing technology. The framework offers specific technical features which have been found from the research literature to have specific human role requirements. By clarifying these constraints imposed by technical design options, a model not only for future research but for engineers designing technology can be developed.”
“A graphical environment interfacing with knowledge and/or data base (K&DB) systems is discussed. This environment provides simple graphical formalisms to present information and friendly yet powerful interaction techniques. A network is introduced to specify links between K&DB objects; these objects are presented to the user as a collection of trees. The system provides multi/mono level and 2-dimensional/linear display of these trees, and a set of navigation techniques that do not require preconceived retrieval targets or familiarity with the K&DB contents and organization.”
“In this paper, Heart Rate Variability (HRV) in the remote manipulation task over a period of 2 hours was considered using 8 HRV measures the change of these measures with time was examined to determine which HRV measures are suitable as an indicator of operators' mental workload or mental stress under the man-computer system. As a result, it was shown that HRV measures called D-complex are useful indicators of the mental workload and have strong correlations with the work performance.”
“This paper presents a natural language interface to databases, for the Spanish language. The objectives that this model have achieved are: low implementation cost, performance, interapplication transportability and the possibility of massive use in Latin America in part because it works with entity-relationship databases [CHEN, 1979] and it can be implemented on conventional hardware. The simplicity of the system is an effect of the context free language approach to the problem. At the end of the paper we show the performance of a prototype of the system developed for QRY (1), a non-procedural language used for information retrieval from databases constructed with a 4GL tool called DUNGA (2), and a test database.”
“The method of measuring mental stress using the electroencephalogram (EEG) was studied for tasks involving a high mental load, as represented by visual display terminal (VDT) work. The study consisted of experiments using VDTs. The brain waves investigated were the frontal-midline theta waves and theta waves. The duration of the frontal-midline theta waves was found to increase with increasing mental stress and the theta waves were found to be correlated with task performance or concentration on the task in question. These findings suggest that the observation of theta wave variation is a powerful means for measuring the mental change of VDT operators.”
“The purpose of this study was to evaluate students' use of a controlled vocabulary index as a searchable file on an online library catalog. Students were given four tasks designed to be approached as subject searches but which also provided some author and title information. Only 56% of the questions were answered correctly and only 21% of subject terms entered by students matched controlled vocabulary terms. Students' attempts to use the online list of controlled vocabulary terms dropped from 100% on task 1 to 0% on task 4. Although some design changes are recommended, the major source of difficulty for the students seemed to be their inadequate conceptual model of the system.”
“Future C{cubed}I systems will have to make rapid and accurate deployment decisions based upon an analysis of terrain elevations to ensure microwave intervisibility between various system components. An experiment was run, using RPV systems as an example application, to assess the requirements for computer support in this task. The results showed that human cognitive processes are inadequate in visualizing and assessing large areas of terrain represented on topographic contour maps and that computer support is required at every stage of the process from selecting candidate sites to computing intervisibility profiles. A system designed by the authors which solves these terrain analysis problems is briefly described.”
“A model that defines job control as the crucial determinant of stress outcomes through which other job elements (i.e. job content, job demands and career/future concerns) influence the stress outcomes was tested among a population of VDT users in a governmental organization. It was found that job control was not a critical predictor of the stress outcomes, and that career/future concerns was consistently related to the stress outcomes.”
“The purpose of this project was to study the relationship between job stressors and three stress outcomes over time in a population of VDT workers. Five job elements were chosen for the study: job control, future ambiguity, skill use, task clarity, and workload. One hundred twenty two VDT workers from a Midwest agency were the subjects of this study. The results showed that task clarity and workload were significantly related to daily life stress, and task clarity to mood disturbances at both time 1 and time 2 of the study. The job elements did not seem to contribute to psychological complaints.”
“The tremendous growth in the area of human-computer interaction has, in some cases, resulted in the implementation of technologies at a pace well ahead of the development for assessing human performance on tasks employing these technologies. An example of such a technology is computer-aided design. The cognitive processes underlying human design behavior require that performance measures be developed that adequately reflect these processes. Ultimately, the development and implementation of such a performance methodology could help us establish the degree to which the computer technology supports or constrains human design activities. In this paper we discuss an approach that was taken toward meeting these objectives. In particular, the application area of architectural design will be examined.”
“This study proposed a model to examine the links between both objective and subjective measures of chair ergonomics, self-report of back pain, and psychological stress outcomes. We assumed that there would be both direct and indirect effects of ergonomics on stress. The model was tested with 125 office workers who used VDTs for varying amounts of time. All subjects completed questionnaires and had ergonomic evaluations performed on their workstations by trained researchers. The results showed that subjective ergonomics had both a direct and indirect effect on stress while objective ergonomics had only an indirect effect on stress (through subjective ergonomics). A new model was proposed.”
“Innovations in automated construction operations can be made if their designs and behaviors are first simulated and optimized before committing actual resources to the operations. This paper focuses on the application of a 3-D CAD system for constructibility analysis of a piping construction system for process plants. Conventional designs of system components are altered and tested, within the CAD model, for system enhancements. CAD simulation permits quantitative analyses of constructibility issues objectives. Productivity savings in piping erection of 22% have been realized through system enhancements via CAD modeling.”
“Thirty patients coming to the occupational health unit of two big companies and having difficulties in coping with their job demands during the implementation of new information technology were selected for our case study. Their situation was thoroughly investigated and an individual intervention program was constructed. After 1 1/2 years follow-up including regular discussions with an occupational health nurse, their situation was evaluated by the OHS personnel. The patients' situation at the work place and their health was totally in order for one third of the cases, and clearly better for one half. The early detection and handling of work-related problems and social support during the intervention was of great help to the patients.”
“The purpose of this study was to find a better information design of the SPDS (Safety Parameter Display System) in a nuclear power plant control room so that the efficiency and safety of the system can be improved. An experiment was conducted by manipulating the independent variables, depth, task load, and the arrangement of parameters. The dependent variables included the response time of the subjects and the number of errors. The results showed that both depth and task load had significant effects on the response time.”
“In the control rooms of the chemical process industry panel instrumentation is gradually being replaced by visual display units (VDU's) as the interface between process and operators. After discussing the consequences of this trend for the operator task it is concluded that a serious "interface mismatch" often exists: the way of presenting information on the VDU'S does not fit the mental model of the operators. Therefor a procedure was developed to enable plant employees themselves to redesign the existing VDU graphics. So far favorable results have been obtained in several case studies indicating an efficient and effective way of user participation.”
“Banks and insurance companies are advanced users of modern information technology. A Finnish follow-up survey in six firms in 1985 (n=1305) and in 1987 (n=1475) revealed differences in the mastery of computer applications of different occupational and age groups. Also the effects of information technology were analyzed by different end-user groups. The updating of skills to fulfill the new work requirements under time pressure demands mental energy especially from older employees. Emphasis should be placed on developing methods which combine learning, designing and implementing information systems, and building adequate mental models of enlarged tasks at workplace level.”
“This research covered the 104 employees at the software company to study their stress mood and stress sources at their work places. In this survey it was that the stress mood of the software workers is conspicuously higher than that of people involved in other industrial work and the stress sources at their work places were related to negative feelings toward their jobs, the distribution of a work pace, which they cannot control at their own will, heavy overtime work, and the operation of computers.”
“The knowledge for a natural domain as contained in the rules of a rule based expert system in text mode are copied pictorially and textually to a neutral domain. The pictorial rules match one to one with the corresponding text mode rules. The neutral domain can be used to test groups of subjects for differences between mental models of the rules that are learned by interacting with text and with pictorial rule bases. An interface for displaying rule components and execution via animation of symbols is described.”
“Discrepancies between faculty word processing needs and support staff skills/practices were identified through the use of structured interviews conducted in an academic department of a large university. Dissatisfaction with typing services provided was attributed, in part, to differences in the nature of the hardware used by faculty and staff. A lack of attention to hardware and software provisions appears to have resulted in substantial duplication of effort.”
“The goal of this project is to extract information about computer programmer's mental models of programming languages and use this knowledge to design an interactive graphics display so that novice programmers can acquire accurate mental models quickly. Novice programmers in C language compared pairs of eleven commands and provided similarity ratings. Multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis procedures were performed on the pairwise similarity ratings, replicating previous findings by Caldwell and Eberts (1985) and Caldwell (1987); features identified were the degree to which a command affects the flow of control, the type of operations performed on data, and the manner in which commands could be combined to obtain more complex statements. These features were then mapped to elements and widgets of a graphics display in design specifications. Such a display can be used to encourage novices to organize programming knowledge during acquisition in a way that should lead to mental models similar to those possessed by experts.”
“The contribution of this study is the identification of different mechanisms involved in program understanding by experts, specifically the mechanisms which cope with novelty. An experiment was conducted to identify and describe the expert's strategies involved in understanding usual (plan-like) and unusual (unplan-like) programs. Under "normal" conditions the strategy which is observed is symbolic simulation. Information extracted from the program allows the activation of schemas and evoked knowledge creates expectations on what information should be in the program. But when failures occur additional strategies are required. The authors identified three types of understanding failures the subject may experience and the additional strategies invoked in those cases.”
“A technology transfer framework is proposed as an appropriate model for understanding the computerization of information intensive work. This framework regards outcomes of attempts to introduce computer based tools into ongoing work as a function of three key sources of effect: features of the new technology; characteristics of the organizational context; and properties of the implementation process. Among them, the implementation process itself -- the steps taken to embed a new tool in an extant setting -- is most closely linked to social impacts. Research results are reviewed to corroborate and refine the model in relation to computer based work, using it to identify implementation process variables predictive of successful outcomes. Implications for positive change management are discussed.”
“The Co-adaptics is proposed as a general theory of mutual multilevel adaptation in different kinds of systems including man-machine and man-computer. The fundamentals of the Co-adaptics are the laws of mutual adaptation in man-machine and other systems (Venda, 1986). The objective studies of human operators performance have shown many individual differences (Venda, Mitkin, 1969) and led me to the necessity of individual adaptation of operator's work means (Venda, 1976; Venda and Lomov, 1983). A new type of man-computer systems as the Quadrigramms was proposed (Venda, 1988). The problem of searching of optimal level of adaptation of display and dialogue to the operators is discussed.”
“Conventional diagnostic protocols in radiological viewing dictate the availability of a large display space, as exemplified by the film alternator (or lightbox). Currently, electronic emulation of the display capacity of an alternator is prohibitively expensive, thus a hybrid alternator-filmstrip metaphor is introduced to aid the radiologist in scrolling through X-ray Computed Tomography studies. The main purpose of this research was to investigate the effectiveness of the alternator-filmstrip metaphor and the subjective preferences for its associated image display formats. In addition, the effectiveness of two image processing functions provided by the workstation, contrast manipulation and zoom, were tested. Implications of the results for medical imaging workstation design are discussed.”
“The possible effects on health of introducing VDTs in bank offices are presently studied in three Swedish regions. The first preliminary analysis on one region suggests that, when VDT work times increased drastically due to VDT introduction in these workplaces (work with VDTs increased from 3 to 42% of the total work volume), a limited increase in eye discomforts occurred. No changes in muscle or skin problem prevalences were seen. Responses in terms of stress-related problems, in attitude and in worry were mixed.”
“An experiment is described, in which the practicality of using rotational displays and stereoscopic viewing for providing computer graphic depth cues, as a potential aid in stereotactic neurosurgery, was investigated. Subjects were required to detect connectivity of line segments within a complex three dimensional tree structure, possessing characteristics analogous to a cerebral angiogram. Results indicated apparent superiority of monoscopic viewing with interactively controlled image rotation over static stereoscopic viewing. Practical aspects of employing these technologies, both separately and in combination, are reviewed.”
“The project 'Human Factors in Information Technology' (HUFIT) is an extensive project of cooperation in the European ESPRIT programme, involving eleven companies and research institutes in eight European countries. The project has two major objectives: it aims at improving the design process of IT products by increasing the awareness of Human Factors issues and by providing methods and tools for a user-oriented design. The second major objective is to further develop user interface techniques, especially for multimedia and multimodal interfaces and to provide tools for prototyping, and implementation of these interfaces. This paper presents the areas of research in HUFIT. The focus is on the presentation of the major outcomes of the project: the HUFIT Toolset and the software tools INTUIT, DIAMANT, and MAITRE.”
“The various experiments and studies dealing with the purported health effect of electromagnetic fields and VDTs need to be considered together in the context of scientific discipline and rigor.”
“In this paper we present a tool for the efficient and rapid creation of user interfaces for CAE applications, e.g. interactive modeling or robotics programming. The tool combines 3D-graphics and window based dialog elements such as menus, icons or input fields. This enables the user to get a uniform and flexible control of his application. The tool consists of five components which are described as well as their interaction: a dialog manager, a 3D-graphic kernel system, a construction language for user interfaces, an application interface and a graphic editor for user interfaces.”
“The disparity of results concerning visual strain in Visual Display Terminal (VDT) operators is shown, in this paper, to originate from the complexity of pathways linking VDT work to symptoms of visual discomfort or disability. A model of interrelated risk factors is presented. Right and wrong statements on the problem are discussed.”
“We have experimented with the impact of a fisheye view on graphical presentations for topographic networks. Subjects selected optimal routes between stations on a fictional subway network, using either a scrolling view or a fisheye view. Performance using a fisheye view was superior when the destination station was not visible in the initial display; performance with scrolling was superior when both stations were visible and when more complex itineraries were required. Scrolling performance improved over time with two-station routes; the fisheye performance improved in the (later) itinerary task.”
“The three-dimensional optometer (TDO) was applied to measure the visual responses gazing at a spotlight which changes its radius in an otherwise completely dark room. Three emmetropic females served as subjects and the stimuli were presented at 33cm from the subjects. The subjects felt that the spotlight approached them when the radius was increased. The magnitude of the accommodation towards the smaller radius spotlight was greater than the one toward larger radius spotlight. It means that the eye accommodates farther, though the spotlight approaches the subjects subjectively, and contradicts the measurement reported Ittelson and Ames in 1950. It was pointed out that this should come from the effort in reducing accommodation lag to watch the smaller target more clearly.”
“As computer images become more sophisticated and easier to generate, we must find ways to remove the initial influence of the programmer and incorporate the individuality, creative experience, and preferences of specific users into image generation algorithms. This paper describes a system which generates images based on a specific set of visual variables with user derived values. By employing machine learning techniques, the system is shown to interactively adapt and change graphics displays to meet the needs, taste and preferences of specific users.”
“A questionnaire was administered to 174 VDT-operators that were passing routine visual screening tests, which are mandatory for VDT-operators in Germany. The screening tests revealed short-sightedness in 55 cases and long-sightedness in 47. With correction all subjects reached a good binocular visual acuity in "working distance" (>= 1.0 snellen equivalents). Eye complaints tended to be increased in subjects using glasses or with lower monocular visual acuity in working distance. The only visual test, that was clearly (p < 0.01) correlated with visual symptoms, was the Ishihara test for colour blindness. It is concluded that regular screening ensures use of proper visual corrections, but minor visual deficiencies may still increase visual discomfort. Colour-contrasts can be difficult to recognize by subjects with deficient colour vision and therefore may cause increased visual fatigue.”
“Many behavioral experimenters have created a corpus of advice about how the visual design of a human-computer interface should proceed. Construction of an expert system that embodied this advice would be a boon to interface designers. This problem, however, required a new kind of expert system, a "true consultant." We report the construction of the first such true consultant for a well-understood visual design domain: the simple visual design task of chart construction. An analysis of several other more interesting visual design problems has using the techniques described has also been completed.”
“The purpose of this study was to obtain additional information about the occupational origin of musculoskeletal complaints among Visual Display Unit (VDU) operators. A field study was conducted on 672 full time female operators in 3 large organizations in Singapore to determine the prevalence of musculoskeletal complaints. Results show that stiffness and discomfort of the”
“The SUNPICT environment, which supports interactive graphical composition and execution of procedural programs, incorporates many novel features which have been unavailable in previous visual systems. Both textual names and simple icons are associated with all variables; the icon's task in this case is to rapidly convey type information to the observer. The run-time action associated with a program icon may be specified either by means of an iconic (SUNPICT) subprogram or, alternativity when a mathematical calculation is required, by writing textual code in a simple Lisp-like dialect; this code can be changed on the fly, as necessary. User program modules are not limited by screen size, but rather are potentially infinite in all four directions of the compass. The cumulative effect of these and other visual features (including color and animation), in conjunction with the efficient algorithms which underly the implementation, is that SUNPICT is able to effectively handle larger user programs than its predecessors.”
“This project studied how correction of presbyopia by bifocals and progressive lenses influenced the muscle load and working posture. The muscle load in the neck/shoulder region was measured by electromyography (EMG). The work posture was measured by recording postural angles of the head, upper arm in the gleno-humeral joint, and back, with pendulum potentiometers. Subjects performed a data-entry task whilst wearing four alternative correction spectacles, three multifocals and one single vision lens. The multifocal lenses were fitted according to manufacturers specifications, then with the near segments 2 mm. up, and then 2 mm. below the recommendation. The paper concludes with a discussion of the difference in load on the musculo-skeletal system and work posture, when comparing single vision lenses to different types of multifocals. However, if the work task demands both distant and near vision, multifocal lenses can be used if the workplace is ergonomically designed and the near segments of the multifocal lenses are corrected for the working distance.”
“The control strategy for the towed submersible, Argo, is currently limited to straight-line maneuvers, because of the complex dynamics of the long cable. A long-term predictor is developed to help human operators to control the Argo's position. Although it is not likely to have a complete model for the long cable, a hybrid prediction method that combines a discrete time-series model and a continuous extrapolation model is introduced under the condition of the limited knowledge about this complex system. The technique of least squares with exponential data-weighting is applied to calibrate the model parameters in real time. An experimental cable model is also developed for computer simulation. Two simulations, straight-line and curve maneuvers, are investigated. The satisfactory prediction performance of the hybrid algorithm is shown in simulation results.”
“Design of an ergonomic chair for prolonged seated work posture entails consideration of interaction among four factors: system goals, work environment, operator characteristics, and chair characteristics. These entail a degree of flexibility required to support operators in a variety of task-determined postures. However, flexibility alone may be counter productive. Careful consideration of the operator control problem is essential.”
“SUMMARY This paper reports the findings of part of a study carried out by the author into the qualitative assessment of cognitive complexity. The relationship between task complexity and interface complexity is discussed with particular reference to sequencing information and the transfer of common structures or goal plans.”
“A four input parameter model is presented which can be used to evaluate the throughput of complex, manned, telescience based systems that may be incorporated in future remotely located laboratories. The first two parameters deal with nominal (A) and off-nominal (B) predicted events while the last two focus on measured events of two types, human performance (C) and system performance (D). Digital simulations showed that the expression A(1-B)/(C+D) yielded the smallest data distribution and greatest symmetry. Complex, interacting telescience systems may be systematically evaluated with this expression much like a benchmark is used.”
“The purpose of this paper is to introduce a conceptual model for understanding some of the complexities surrounding health effects within the sociotechnical context of reconciling women, work, and families. New research from a large scale field study of women's health and the work place (Cohen et al., 1987) is used as the heuristic for this way of thinking. That study reported the development and intercorrelations of six working conditions indexes and the health complaints index, demonstrating that better working conditions are associated with fewer health complaints. Additive or interactive effects, to improve the prediction of health effects, were discussed but not reported. This paper reports one simple ANCOVA model which depicts the complexity of this research arena. The generic hypothesis of such models being that a complex dynamic of work, family, and personal factors controls the overall health, well-being, and productivity of female office workers. Specifically, the health complaints index scores from a total sample of 625 female secretaries, clerks, and clerical information processors (response rate”
“This paper describes a number of human-computer interface techniques specifically designed to facilitate presentation and navigation of map based graphic systems. The advantages and disadvantages of these techniques are discussed. Two of these techniques, the bifocal display technique and the split screen technique have been implemented using the London Underground map on an Apollo graphics workstation. These human-computer interface techniques can well be applied to other map based diagrams such as engineering plans and electronic circuit diagrams.”
“Experienced users of a command and graphic (iconic) interface performed a benchmark task on the operating system they know and on the other operating system with which they are not familiar. The results showed that the operating system tasks are completed in approximately the same amount of time on both systems by experienced users, and that transfer from the command to graphic system results in performance comparable to the experienced users after training. On the other hand, task time in transferring from the graphic to command system was much slower.”
“One of the most important questions in ergonomics of VDT's is whether or not the introduction of VDT's caused an increase in visual fatigue. There is comparatively little evidence to suggest that the use of the VDT itself leads to more complaints of visual fatigue. The twenty-six subjects who participated in this research study were female data entry operators, between the ages of 20-31. After a typical workday the VDT operators were asked to respond to eleven ocular subjective discomfort questions and to four questions which were related to a general discomfort with VDT work. It was found that the general dissatisfaction with VDT work and fear arising from the introduction of the new technology increase the ocular subjective discomfort symptoms.”
“Much has been written on the effectiveness of graphics in computer aided instruction from a subjective viewpoint, as well as from an objective viewpoint, though there is still disagreement between these two views. What this creates is a need for further statistical analysis. A study was designed to determine statistically the effectiveness of graphics in CAI. A group of 60 middle school science students participated in the study. The study consisted of a pre-test on student attitudes and existing knowledge of human body systems, four CAI lessons, and a post-test on subsequent attitudes and acquired knowledge of human body systems. An analysis of these results indicates that amount of information acquired by a student from CAI is related to the interaction between presence or absence of graphics, and pre-existing knowledge.”
“Scheduled microbreaks of discretionary length were evaluated for their effects on performance and well-being in a highly repetitive, data entry task. The results indicated that discretionary-length "microbreaks" were instrumental in reducing fatigue and associated performance decrements, but did not fully prevent the accumulation of fatigue.”
“To show the impact of VDU use the most common factors in occupational health research are "amount of time" at and "content" of VDU work. These are here used to describe organizational patterns. Cross site studies provide the empirical findings. Local differences are identified. The relation between these two VDU work dimensions and well-being in terms of work load and psychosocial satisfaction is discussed.”
“Interfaces which use sound, employing speech input, speech output or non-speech sounds, are the subject of much advocacy. This paper undertakes a critical evaluation of such interfaces, using a functional analysis of the human uses of speech as a starting point. Sound, it is argued, is attention grabbing, public, transient, related to attributes not objects, and induces anthropomorphism. The effect of each of these qualities is to suggest only a limited range of settings in which sonic interfaces are useful.”
“One of the main problems in the database area is to define query languages characterized by both high expressive power and ease of use. In this paper, we propose a system to query databases, using diagrams as standard user interface. The system, called Query by Diagram* (QBD*), makes use of a conceptual data model, a query language on this model and a graphical user interface. The conceptual model is the Entity-Relationship Model; the query language, whose expressive power allows recursive queries, supports visual interaction. The main characteristics of the interface are the ease of use, and the availability of a rich set of primitives for schema selection and query formulation.”
“Temporal designation is a key issue in speech interface technology for hands-busy and handicapped applications. The delay resulting from utterance duration prevents a voice-button from functioning as effectively as a push-button when marking a point in time. Experiments were conducted to determine the scope of this problem and to evaluate a general approach to its solution. Results showed that performance under delays comparable to speech detection or truncated-word recognition can approach performance with manual push buttons. Results also indicated that words truncated to fixed-length initial segments can be recognized using existing speech technology.”
“The "discount usability engineering," method consists of scenarios, simplified thinking aloud, and heuristic evaluation and is intended to alleviate the current problem where usability work is seen as too expensive and difficult by many developers.”
“This paper describes a new voice reaction system equivalent to nodding, to aid smooth vocal input in human-computer communication. The synchrony between a speaker's voice and a listener's intentional nodding is first analyzed. Secondly, on the basis of these findings, a hierarchical voice-nodding reaction model is proposed, and the efficiency of the model is demonstrated. Finally, the system is developed using a Digital Signal Processor.”
“This paper discusses the implications of natural fuzziness for the human-computer interaction (HCI) area, and examines the usefulness of fuzzy methodologies in the analysis and design of HCI. In particular, a generalization of the Goals-Operations-Methods-Selection Rules (GOMS) concept is outlined, and experimental verification of the Fuzzy GOMS model is provided.”
“Despite the improving quality of synthetically produced speech, listeners continue to find speech-by-rule less intelligible and more difficult to comprehend and remember than natural speech. This study tests whether these differences can be reduced by exposure to synthetic speech. This was tested by examining memory and comprehension on three successive days. The results showed that although memory performance was poorer in the synthetic speech condition on day one, by day three, these condition differences had disappeared.”
“A study was conducted to investigate the effects of source pedigree of problem solving advice on self-reported measures of agreement with the advice and confidence in the source of the advice. Each subject in the study received the same advice from a different attributed source (an expert system, a human expert and a human novice) for ten problem solving trials. For each trial, subjects were presented with a business problem, a possible solution (the advice), and instructions "to rate the extent to which they agreed with the advice". Confidence ratings in the source were obtained from the subjects four times throughout the trials. The results show subjects had the same level of confidence in the expert system as in the human novice, but higher confidence in the human expert. Surprisingly subjects agreed less with the human expert in the first problem, but this difference disappeared after the first trial. The results also indicate that there are differences on how confidence and agreement judgements are made when the advice is received either from an expert system or a human.”
“The study examined interference between manual tracking and a concurrent speech input task. Tracking did not significantly increase recognition error rates, but did reduced the quality of the speech utterance when measured by recognition distance scores. Also, there is some evidence that tracking error increases at the moment of speech data entry. This appeared to be due to sensory registration rather than to programming of the utterance. The results also have implications for methodology, in particular the measurement of speech recognition accuracy and for models of dual task performance.”
“A five-layer structure model of the HANYU (Chinese Language) Speech Information Processing System (HYSIPS) is proposed for the first time and a concept of the speech code for information interchange is described. Also, the architecture model of the HYSIPS is discussed. It is pointed out that the design of the HYSIPS must be based on the Hanzi (Chinese Ideographic Character) Information Processing System (HZIPS) and the Speech Information Processing System (SIPS).”
“People with severe impairments in the ability to understand and produce language as the result of stroke or traumatic brain injury have reached levels of communicative function using a computer communication medium which surpass their natural language processing capabilities. The results obtained with severely aphasic chronic and acute patients indicate that profoundly language-impaired people can make use of computers, given appropriately designed user interfaces. Augmentative communication and therapeutic intervention studies in progress are briefly reviewed and new directions in the design of computer interfaces for this population are discussed.”
“EASE is a user interface designed for use by older adults. Eldernet which uses EASE is an intelligent computer network communication and monitoring facility aimed at reducing the isolation of elderly participants. The system is multi-modal with voice and text messaging, mouse and keyboard input, synthesized voice and screen output. A strong television metaphor and context-sensitive on-line help are combined to make the system usable with almost no training. The help system also makes EASE cooperatively extensible.”
“This paper deals with a supporting tool for communication in software development process, called COMICS (COMputer-based Intention Communication System). It is difficult to express intention of software and a software project has some communication problems. We propose a method to represent the ambiguous image of software and intention of software designer based on the theater model. Theater shows sequences of the integrated scene composed of actors, settings, etc. on the stage and the audience can understand its scenario and intention. We believe this property of human cognition can be used for intention communication in software development. COMICS is designed on the basis of the theater model. COMICS may be used as a conceptual design tool for system designer or as an explanation tool from development team to maintenance team.”
“This paper introduces Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), a recently developed communications technology, to individuals having responsibility for the human interfaces connected with introducing new technologies and for improving the effectiveness of knowledge workers who access computer data bases. The authors have developed an NLP business applications modeling process that has been successfully applied in: improving knowledge worker performance, introducing new technologies, managing complex projects and in developing expert systems. This process is called "3-SIGMA Communications Strategies".”
“This paper describes heuristics for constraining noun-verb category-label ambiguity during the parsing process or in the intermediate step from parsing to semantics in a natural language processing system that will interpret VLSI computer hardware specifications. The specific types of noun-verb ambiguity that occur in the restricted set of English used in specifications are infinitive/noun ambiguity and past-participle/noun ambiguity. The heuristics for resolving this ambiguity include marking specific verbs as requiring a following infinitive phrase, word position in the sentence, nominal compound frequency, and case role restrictions on verbs.”
“While a number of hypertext/hypermedia systems have appeared in the latter half of the 1980s, such as Guide, HyperCard, KMS, and Intermedia, there is still no general agreement on the fundamental design principles of a hypermedia system. All these systems share the ability to store a "link" between two nodes and allow a user to traverse that link. However, there are great variation among systems in important areas such as: document and linking model; the relationship between authoring and browsing; the relationship between a node, a document, and a viewing screen; and the visualization of links. Intermedia, the hypermedia system developed at Brown University's Institute for Research in Information and Scholarship (IRIS), has been used to create materials for a variety of college-level courses in the sciences and humanities. An example is given of how the design of the Intermedia system has effected the way material is presented to the reader, and how the reader is encouraged to interact with and extend these materials.”
“This paper describes a systematic, widely applicable methodology for defining user requirements for system functionality and user interface capabilities. This methodology is a variation of the user centered system design approach, which focuses on the user of a system. Our methodology involves obtaining user input from questionnaires and interviews, utilizing a range of statistical techniques to analyze user data, then developing mathematical models to determine user needs. This methodology was used successfully to define user requirements in a replacement for an obsolete system at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Advantages and disadvantages of this methodology are discussed.”
“Bechtel has successfully incorporated technologies which aid human-computer interaction into its business. This paper will discuss the use of technologies which support human-computer interaction, as applied in the engineering/construction industry and will provide insight as to how emerging interface technologies may be applied in the future.”
“This paper describes a coordinated research effort at SUNY Stonybrook concerning the development of visualization tools for the applied sciences. The primary goal of this project is to build tools that allow scientists, without programming expertise, to construct visualization environments customized for specific application areas.”
“Electronic "hyperbooks" are a very different medium from conventional print and require a different relationship between the reader and the information presented. As a result, authors and designers must think differently about how best to organize and access knowledge presented electronically. Conventional models of human-computer interaction provide some guidance but there is not yet an adequate body of performance data to describe the optimal ways to organize and retrieve information in hyperbooks. However, cognitive psychology provides some models that suggest design solutions. This paper discusses one such solution in the context of three current projects: a large hypermedia encyclopedia, a mid-sized corporate procedure manual, and a small trade book.”
“By means of parallel coordinates a non-projective mapping between N-Dimension (for any N) and 2-Dimensional sets is obtained. Relations among N variables are then represented by their planar images, which have certain geometrical properties corresponding to properties of the relation (hypersurface) that they represent. Starting from a point {larr} {rarr} line duality when N=2, the representation of lines in N-dimensions is given and illustrated by an application to Air Traffic Control (i.e. for N=4). It is followed by the representation of hyperplanes and more general convex and some nonconvex in N-dimensional hypersurfaces. Some of these results can be applied in Exploratory Data Analysis in Statistics. An algorithm for constructing and exhibiting any interior point of such a hypersurface is discussed. Such a display shows some local (i.e. near the point) properties of the hypersurface and information on the point's proximity to the boundary and is useful in Instrumentation and Process Control.”
“Over the past several decades, several authors have speculated on the future information use environment. There have been visions of a work environment in which the knowledge worker is supported by automated and integrated information technology to improve the worker's problem solving and thinking processes. This paper provides a brief historical review of some of these visions, characterizes a current view of the knowledge worker's environment, and identifies some barriers to the evolution to this vision.”
“Tools for three-dimensional (3D) user interaction that form the basis for a flexible and natural dialogue in an inherent 3D environment are described. The user interface handles events from a 3D positioning and orientation Polhemus input device (the kite), with feedback as a jack (a 3D cursor) moving inside a small-scale virtual 3D reality. A 3D drafting environment is supported to aid in the composition and transformation of geometric objects and in the interactive manipulation of volumetric data. These tools have been implemented as part of the Cube workstation, which is a 3D versatile volume-visualization system employing voxel representation.”
“We propose a user model and an analogical reasoning method using this model for the individualized human interface. Our model called a TRC represents the hierarchical structure of the user's decision making process. We show a method for processing subjective tasks by using this model. In our method, a subjective problem is solved with modifying the user's TRC which have already been used in the analogous situation. The usefulness of our approach is demonstrated with the experimental system proposing appropriate goods for each person.”
“An experiment is conducted to compare two tablet-based virtual input devices for interactive computer graphics. The Gesture method uses hand gestures (kinesthetic correspondence) and the Button method uses a collection of virtual buttons to manipulate graphic objects. Although the Button method is shown to be a simpler design, it performs as well as the Gesture method when a low degree of accuracy is allowed. However, the Gesture method is found to increase user productivity when high accuracy is required. Suggestions are made to improve the performance of the Button method.”
“A human performance model is proposed for controlling an FMS in abnormal situations. The model is built by blackboard architecture which can communicate with various knowledge sources. The human performance model developed in this paper demonstrated in a pilot study superior performance using dispatching rules.”
“This paper describes a new research program at the Stockholm University. Its aim is to study the introduction of knowledge based systems (KBS). Changes in the organizational and psycho-social work environment are being described and analyzed. These changes will have a deep impact on society as KBS come into wider use. Our study includes strategic aspects within the following areas: Company structure; Organization of work roles; Work tasks; Need of knowledge and education; Worker participation and decision-making; Leadership and management roles; Communication: human-human and human-computer.”
“This report addresses the phenomenon of perturbed sensory feedback as a potentially serious obstacle to optimal performance and safety of interactive human-computer and telerobotic tasks in extraterrestrial environments. Human-factors considerations suggest that spatiotemporal perturbations plus other types of distortions in sensory feedback will arise during use of interactive telerobots for space station assembly, maintenance, and servicing. Potential consequences for the performance of the extraterrestrial operator include reduced fidelity of visual-manual tracking, impaired visual perception, problems with speech production and recognition, memory and learning decrements, impaired decision-making, and elevated behavioral-physiological stress, with a concomitant increase in the risk of performance errors and accidents. Findings from laboratory research documenting these effects are summarized, followed by a discussion of how such effects may contribute in a major way to variability of interactive performance in space.”
“Multi-dimensional Outlining is a new user-interface technique, which is very useful for structuring and browsing in large amounts of data. Multi-dimensional Outlining is a generalization of the ordinary outlining known from many word-processors. Multi-dimensional Outlining is based on a new and very special data structure called Multi-dimensional Trees. Both programmers and non-programmers like the Multi-dimensional Outlining idea very much and find it easy to use. This suggest that Multi-dimensional-Outlining is a very powerful technique, which can be very useful in databases, accounting programs, project management systems, hypertext systems and other applications which involve large amounts of data.”
“A group at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center has been exploring a Paper-Like Interface which couples the convenience of pen and paper with the power of a computer. This paper describes the paper-like interface and the demonstration applications we have built in order to investigate the benefits and liabilities of this interface style. The findings from formal and informal studies of the use of the prototype system are reported.”
“By combining a stereoscopic display and appropriate input devices, a new man-machine interface can be designed. Discussed in this paper are problems to be solved in order to realize this environment, including a high fidelity display method for stereoscopic displays and man-machine interface technique for 3-D image manipulation. We have constructed a display system which determines the position of the viewer's eye and generates an image based on his/her actual viewpoint. We have also evaluated the fidelity of the image displayed. As a test of a 3-D image manipulating interface, we evaluated the task of locating a 3-D cursor at the target position of the stereoscopic display using three types of input devices: dial-box, mouse and 3-D digitizer, with from one to three degrees of freedom.”
“Different modes of interaction are better suited for different tasks and both natural language and direct manipulation have strengths and weaknesses as interface technologies. Previous studies in the evaluation of interactive natural language interfaces have noted certain benefits of natural language access to information, but have neglected to describe the features of natural language that provides these benefits. We have identified a set of communicative features of natural language, such as quantification and discourse reference, that are difficult to support with direct manipulation. The analysis has implications for determining the tasks in a personal information environment that natural language is suited for.”
“In this paper, we argue that "telepresence", the sense of being present at a remote location, should be a means to achieve higher performance, but not a purpose in itself. Force feedback, considered as a subset of telepresence, is essential in constrained motion tasks. However, force feedback to the operator may reduce the performance because, firstly, it is fatiguing; secondly, it limits the dexterity and capacity of the system; and thirdly, it causes the teleoperator system to be unstable and hard to control especially in the presence of time delay. Therefore, we suggest that force information should be analyzed and interpreted at the remote site to avoid dynamic coupling between the task and operator. We also discuss the possibility and technology needed to replace force feedback with a supervisory control system in order to achieve a higher performance level in teleoperation.”
“We describe elements of a cognitive theory of analogical reasoning. The theory was developed using protocol data and has been implemented as a computer model. In order to constrain the theory, it has been developed within a problem-solving context, reflecting the purpose of analogical reasoning. This has allowed us to develop: A purpose-constrained mapping process which makes learning and debugging more tractable; An evaluation process that actively searches for bugs; And a debugging process that maintains functional aspects of base models, while adding target-appropriate causal explanations. The active, knowledge-based elements of our theory are characteristic of mechanisms needed to model complex problem-solving.”
“One of the major factors affecting the usability of complex systems is the ease with which users can keep track of changes of state or activity. This paper presents a task analysis and experimental evaluation of a model of the cognitive operations performed by users in order to facilitate the retrieval of information about system state from cues. These operations are based upon various forms of interrupt handling procedure. Such 'Cognitive Switches' can be classified according to the notional cognitive effort required to initiate them. Thus, the nature of the provision of state information may substantially increase the users cognitive load. Implications for the design of state change indicators are considered.”
“While several Mechanical Computer-Aided Engineering (MCAE) tools have successfully integrated expert systems with solid modelers and analysis packages, most systems still use the traditional keyboard and mouse or stylus input devices. These devices can be clumsy and difficult to use, and may actually hinder a designer's creativity. We have designed a new hand-held input device for use with a sheet metal Computer-Aided Design (CAD) system, which we believe exploits human tactile and spatial reasoning abilities. We hypothesize that this device will be easy to learn and use, will give a designer the power to rapidly conceptualize and modify a design, and will ultimately increase overall design quality and designer productivity. This paper describes our approach, an initial prototype, and a possible evaluation methodology.”
“Summary This paper indicates how we have defined and validated user interfaces in various applications developed by Cap Sesa Innovation. It then indicates experiences and lessons learned and what we feel the important aspects are. The main aspect focuses on modeling the interaction process.”
“The purpose of this paper is to realistically assess the performance we can expect from a robot equipped with tactile sensors. It is our hypothesis that it is essential to understand the physical properties of the sensor which delivers the information about the world to the robotic system. We compare two methodologies -- one coming from psychophysics and the other from engineering -- and give, in one concrete example, some insights about the sensor and their implications.”
“We are currently studying two new techniques for implementation of user interfaces. One experimental implementation provides UI designers with a design toolkit using actors, allowing dynamic delegation of interface behaviours. The actors are defined in a frame-based structure which permits a flexible delegation scheme. We illustrate how this flexibility can be used to potential advantage in adaptive interfaces. The second technique, active data distribution, is being developed for use in a distributed processing environment. A typical target situation would have a personal workstation providing user interface facilities, for access to a data server through a network connection. When access to the data causes delays in interaction, the user interface can anticipate requests and pre-fetch data, using a task model to adapt its data distribution strategy. Our experiments, run using a computer conferencing system as the host application, demonstrate the improvements in response times possible with this technique, and also some of the limitations it imposes.”
“In recent years the use of computers in both nautical and technical ship operation has increased significantly. At the same time, crews of sea-going ships have been gradually reduced to such an extent that one single person operates the whole ship. Often there are different systems for special nautical or technical tasks, some of them being only modifications of control systems used ashore. Thus problems may arise from inconsistencies in the human-computer interface and from neglecting special on-board conditions. In order to ensure safety and economy of ship operation special information systems should be developed with user interfaces paying attention to the tasks and needs for information on board.”
“From a layered model the principle "separation of dialog manager and application functionality" is deduced. The implementation of these two parts -- dialog manager and application functionality -- can be carried out in parallel by qualified specialists. A User Interface Design Toolkit (UIDT) is used for creating UI's. UI's are designed with the help of an interactive graphics editor. The output of the editor is a formal description of the UI. During rapid prototyping this formal description is interpreted to visualize the UI. For productive use, linkable UI code is generated from the formal description. The formal description is the basic internal representation of the UI, which is used not only by the interpreter respectively generator but by the other tools like evaluator or debugger too.”
“This study was an investigation of human visual functions while viewing various kinds of information displays which have been widely used for most business nowadays. From the ergonomic aspects of pupil function of the eye, positive type CRT (dark character on the light background) was better than the negative one. It was also proved that the velocity of lens accommodation was higher while viewing the positive type display than that while viewing the negative type one. Types of display were arranged according to the velocity of lens accommodation in the following order (from high to low); positive type CRT, negative type CRT, PDP, LCD with back light and LCD without back light.”
“Rapid prototyping of direct manipulation interfaces became part of the methodology for the design of adaptive interfaces that required the evaluation of alternative designs using the key concept of Deferred Design. The methodology that uses the concept of deferred design is described. The Rapid Prototyper provides an immediate capability of producing and then evaluating alternative interfaces resulting from the deferral. The use of direct manipulation within the Rapid Prototyper for laying out the functioning user interface both avoids the need for systems level expertise and the delays incurred with normal programming.”
“It is understood through the study of influence upon the readability by using P-LCD as a test piece that the segment overrupping which comes from the increasing of visual direction angle occupies the major cause of readability degradation.”
“Light emitting diode has come into wide use exceedingly because of its merits. However, as the operational environment, such as car-borne, etc., getting more severe, the more influence arises upon visual characteristics. So we investigated how the visibility is influenced by the irradiation illuminance.”
“Rapid prototyping of the User-Machine Interface involves the simulation of potential user-interface designs for demonstrating and evaluating design concepts. This paper presents the rapid prototyping tool EMSIG (Design and Evaluation of Human-Machine Systems Interfaces with Interactive Graphics) that enables a developer to design an interface for a physical system, test the quality of the design and evaluate alternative designs. The advantages of using a rapid prototyping tool such as EMSIG are threefold: decreasing the time it takes to develop a product, increasing the accuracy of the testing and evaluation process, and most importantly, decreasing the overall cost of developing a well designed product.”
“Subjective evaluations using thirty-one kinds of VDT display colors were carried out to clarify the relationships among dominant wavelength, stimulus purity and readability. The findings indicated that there was a most readable stimulus purity for each dominant wavelength, that women's evaluation tendency was different from men's, and that middle dominant wavelengths had similar evaluation values. By applying a factor analysis to the subjective feelings for the display colors used, these factors on "Conspicuous" and "Uncomfortable" were extracted.”
“To further the research and development of advanced information processing systems, the following topics were examined: the primary functions of a system, how to divide it into functional modules, how to decide interfaces between modules, and how to evaluate its functions and performance. The Human Interface Architecture (HIA) was produced according to the human information processing mechanism using the knowledge gained of the above subjects. Systematic research on such advanced systems will be promoted by referring to the HIA.”
“This paper examines the technical and social components of office automation. It argues that office automation cannot be understood purely in terms of the characteristics of the machines -- the hardware -- of which it is composed, but must be seen as having been shaped, both in its development and in its implementation, by various factors of a social, economic, historical and political nature. It considers some of these factors and looks at the resulting characteristics of WP systems in a series of case study offices.”
“This study investigated the effectiveness of redundant color-codes and monochrome shape-codes for coding the operational states of scanpoints displayed on a CRT-displayed process-control diagram. Response-times were faster with color-coding than with shape-coding, across all levels of display density and inspection load, with both search and identification tasks. Also, color coding mitigated the detrimental effects of increased density and load. Coding did not affect response-accuracy on the search task, but on the identification task more errors were produced with shape-coding. It was concluded that redundant color-coding was superior to monochrome shape coding given the present task conditions.”
“A fundamental axiom of user-interface design states that the style in which information is presented and acquired from the user should be appropriate for the particular type of user, the type of information involved, and the context in which the information is being presented or acquired. To date, little progress has been made on understanding the effects of context on the selection and presentation of information. Because the content and appearance of information and queries presented to the user arise, in part, from the context of the task being performed, knowledge based tools make it possible to automatically adapt the interface. Thus, rather than viewing the user/domain interface as being specified a priori, the CRUISE interface controller uses task knowledge, dialog and context histories, and knowledge about information presentation, dialog navigation, user models and context interaction to dynamically configure interface functionality.”
“The Ergosticks control system has been developed for teleoperation of a large construction manipulator. It gives an operator intuitive proportional control of a 20 meter radius, eight axis hydraulic arm. A spectrum of enhancements is in development, including simple joint rate control, developed cartesian motions, and closed loop position control. This allows evaluation of "appropriate technology" for this large scale environment, and investigation of construction automation issues.”
“To aid the end-user to develop application quickly, the CasisUIMS has been conceptualized and developed. This CasisUIMS contains two components: a window management system which provides a basis visualization environment for this system, and an UI Generator which consists of a set of tools that can help end-user and UI designer to develop an application efficiently. This paper describes the structure of dialogue scripts and the implementation of a dialogue interpreter (DI). It is estimated that, using the CasisUIMS, a system designer can greatly improve his dialogue design productivity, and an application can be generated quickly and easily.”
“Service-integrated telecommunication networks suggest the use of a single terminal for accessing various narrow and broadband services. Such multiservice terminals encourage a combined use of services. Previous human factors tests revealed that a service-oriented operational concept has fundamental shortcomings in handling this form of service use. This paper presents a discussion of alternative operational concepts. On the basis of their pros and cons, a hybrid operational concept is derived. Empirical human factors tests of this new concept are in progress.”
“With increasing presence of computers in society, there have been calls from a number of sources for standardization of human-computer interfaces. Such standardization could contribute to the quality of computer software if the standards helped produce systems which both matched the needs and capabilities of users, and enabled them to easily acquire knowledge needed to use the systems and transfer previously learned skills. One question that we can ask of the science base we are attempting to apply to HCI design is whether or not such standards might possibly be based on theory. While it is not possible to offer a theoretically based HCI standard at this time, theoretical research in cognitive psychology can offer some suggestions for developers of standards.”
“In this paper we present a project called GEGS, standing for Generation of Editors for Graphical Structures. With the GEGS system the user can generate a graphical structure editor from the definition of a graphical language. It comprises a specification of the graphics to be edited, as well as information about the editor's interface. Both aspects are treated within a common framework using only a few basic concepts. The GEGS-system up to now is in operation only partially, but the concepts involved in itself are interesting enough for presentation.”
“The work of Human Factors Society Human-Computer Interaction Committee towards developing guidelines and standards for the design of dialogues is described. It is argued that the committee's "conditional standards" approach is both workable and acceptable to designers. Examples of conditional standards are provided and the content of the two dialogue technique areas which have received the most work to date (menus and commands) is discussed.”
“Textual representations and procedural models have dominated programming efforts. As the cost of programming increases in proportion to machine cost, higher level languages become more attractive. Traditionally, computer languages have been represented as alphanumeric text. Current developments in display technology and graphics software make graphic representations much more feasible. In this study, we examined relative programming performance with textual and diagrammatic representations of a very simple procedural language. The results show that novice programmers' performance on error inspection time is superior for textual over diagrammatic representations. Problem solving time yielded no significant differences suggesting that representation is not a factor for problem solving in unstructured procedural languages.”
“The author explained the role of the keyboard and the basic desired requirements. The author then indicated in concrete terms the way in which those requirements could be fulfilled. The author then describes an actual example implementation of the keyboard as a commercial product developed with consideration given to ergonomics. The new keyboard permits touch-typing use of all keys (including function keys). This permits high-speed input and reduces operator fatigue over long periods of continuous operation.”
“This paper argues that the current visual appearance and functionality of window managed mouse driven style interfaces, though capable of being useful in systems where the volume of information is small, are unable to provide a satisfactory interface to large information spaces and encourage chaotic and dis-integrated work environments. It identifies two high-level user-interface objects that appear to have wide applicability, and together they provide a new metaphor at a level above that of a window manager. This metaphor will remove the need for window managers to have their own user-interface (that often conflict with the interfaces to individual tools), and it will encourage the benign imposition of a managed work environment that not only removes the chaos but actively discourages the necessity for the user to fiddle with the environment. In this way, the user can concentrate on the tasks that have to be performed, and he will experience a high degree of integration at the user-interface.”
“The analysis of how humans make, detect and correct errors in interacting with computers is of crucial importance both in designing and in evaluating human-computer interaction. The present paper is aimed at illustrating a methodology of cognitive error analysis which allows to discriminate human errors on the basis of where the attentional control is directed to when an error occurs, to identify the characteristics of error detection as a function of the events which make apparent a mismatch in the course of action, and to single out the strategies utilized for error recovery.”
“The key to better human computer interaction is through developing human potential, both in the development of better systems to interact with, and in the use of computer systems. A technological education program which encompasses explicitly a variety of thinking styles and work practices allows for the emergence of creativity. Co-operative work in small groups allows students to tackle multi-media projects which embrace a range of skills from hard science to technology to interpersonal communication. Educating for technological change and complexity, and interpersonal communication skills provides a possible solution for improved utilization of technological tools of the future.”
“The notebook model is a user interface model based on an analogy with a physical notebook. We introduce the notebook model, give an example to illustrate its use, discuss its advantages, and review our experience using it as the user interface model for applications in our organization.”
“Subject selection is a crucial element of documentation usability testing. The accuracy and benefit of usability testing depend on how well the test audience emulates key segments of the actual audience for the documentation. This paper discusses how to select subjects for usability testing of computer documentation. Many of the issues presented apply to testing of other technical products and documentation, but my experience has primarily involved usability of computer software and systems. Subject selection for usability testing involves three major activities: * Developing appropriate user profiles. * Locating and obtaining suitable subjects. * Making decisions related to the experimental design (such as sample size and population groups). For this paper, I take subject selection to include identifying desired criteria for subjects (including the composition of subject subgroups) and obtaining the subjects. Except for a few remarks, I exclude the issue of organizing the subgroups into samples for specific test settings, which deserves a treatment of its own under the topic of experimental design. The following pages describe procedures and criteria for identifying appropriate subjects for computer documentation usability testing. In addition, I present an example of user group identification, based on the subject selection process for a documentation usability testing project my firm recently performed.”
“In this paper, a knowledge based macro-economic analysis system with a man-machine interface is introduced. Using a user-friendly interface, the system cooperated closely with decision-markers is suitable for the decision analysis. Two windows and menus management system are developed. The results of system analysis may be displayed intuitively.”
“The influences of sex and age on the adaptability to a visual inspection task with a VDT dependent on workers' visual judgment and hand functions were investigated from the viewpoint of psychophysiological functions, work efficiencies and feelings of fatigue. The purpose of this study was to determine how to best utilize female workers by evaluating their exact capabilities and to contribute to the improvement of productivity in the workshop.”
“The Intelligent Front End (IFE) is a collection of tools that was developed to give workstation-style interfaces to users who need to use both host and workstation applications. This article discusses the functions required for mapping user interface components on host terminals to new components available on workstations, and then describes how these functions are provided by the IFE.”
“Studies were made on the relationship between the skin resistance reflex (SRR) observed on skin surface of man's palms and mental work load (MWL) and relationships between the skin resistance level (SRL) and the arousal level (AL). And the relationship error rate and MWL and AL was quantitatively examined. It was found that increase of error rates could be assessed by monitoring SRR and SRL.”
“Developing the next generation of advanced computing systems will change the patterns of work in software system development organizations. Based on empirical studies of how new computing systems are developed, we find that major system engineering problems require organizational solutions rather than just technical solutions. We continue to investigate organizational settings where large software systems are being developed to study these problems and examine possible solutions. Our experience to date indicates that we can successfully incorporate findings from social analyses of computing into system development, and use them to find more effective ways to organize system development work. Further, we believe that system development strategies that follow from such findings when applied may lead to a more participatory, democratic workplace, rather than one that is just increasingly automated and bureaucratic.”
“The paper regards man-machine system as a complex dynamic system consisting of two hierarchies, including sub-system structures. It puts up a systematic approach to human computer interaction analysis, that is, function-behavior-structure analysis method. The analysis is carried out at three different levels. But more emphases should be put on the behavior of man machine interaction.”
“Recently, the number of people who come in contact with video display terminals (VDT's) in offices, schools and homes is rapidly increasing. This may contribute to causing health-related problems, since man's visual and auditory sensation is already being exposed to a large number of strong stimulus. On what grounds should the time in which man is exposed to VDT's be limited? The limited time in which one should be exposed is related to one's health. Critical flicker fusion frequency (CFF) has been used to measure the activity level of the cortex. In this study, the author has conducted an experiment on the hypothesis that the minimum audible pressure may be a measure of the activity level of the cortex and, as a result, has concluded that the hypothesis is valid. This makes cortex activity measurement more convenient and therefore, contributes to health management.”
“The value of formal methods in the design of interactive systems is that (if they are understood) they can be effective in making design concepts precise, and making the specification of a system tractable. It then becomes possible to model key features of an interactive system. Once these features have been recognised, they may be used as an interpretive framework for empirical evaluation. This paper uses an example to illustrate the complementary relationship between analytical and empirical techniques in evaluating interactive systems. The example is a menu-based bibliographic database program (called REF). Parts of the system have been modelled, and mismatches between model and system have been used as a basis for formulating claims about the usability of the system.”
“Many offices and industries have integrated computerized work into their routines in accordance with the high-tech revolution in the past 10 years. In spite of these changes in the mode of labor we still do not possess adequate instrument for accurately measuring the fatigue involved in computer work and visual task accompanied by hand and arm movement. In order to meet this situation we devised new apparatus named VRT (Visual Reaction Test) using a visual display terminal. In this report physical makeup and the validity of this new apparatus were introduced.”
“The effect of the layout of alphanumeric VDU-displays as well as the effect of different cognitive loads on eye-movement parameters was investigated. Accurate measurement of eye-movements was used. A model for search-tasks concerning eye-movements was developed. Subjects had to answer questions concerning the information on a VDU-display. Thus, a visual search-task was caused. The layout of the displays and the difficulty of questions (cognitive load) was varied. The results of the reported research show that the investigation of a man-machine-interface using eye-movement data (for example during the prototyping phase) offers a measure of performance which allows an evaluation of the layout of a user-interface as well as an evaluation of the cognitive load of users. Some practical conclusions are drawn to evaluate user-interfaces according to eye-movement data.”
“This paper discusses advances in computer tools for interactive integrated design, particularly in the area of novel design. The problem of how we represent and communicate design information, both between the human experts involved in design, and between the computer and the human, is examined. The case for using visual images as a medium for communicating design issues is presented and results of a prototype design system which generates not only the final design, but also captures the construction processes which must be followed, are shown in graphical plots and in the form of a video.”
“A program editor is the most used means to mentally manipulate computer programs. The editor can be a simple text editor or a more advanced one. This paper describes VOPE (Variable-Oriented Pascal Editor) which is connected to a standard editor with a simple interface. It allows a programmer to view and edit Pascal programs both in the usual fashion and in a way that makes variable plans more visible. As variable plans correspond to programmers' mental plans the VOPE system provides a cognitively sound approach to program editing.”
“In this paper, a spectacle type eye-movement detector allowing movement of the head is proposed in order to utilize a person's gaze for human interface. The system detects the gaze point on the display screen even when the head is moving, and calibration is easily performed. To upgrade calibration precision, a method of least squares is used, and to facilitate obtaining the required data, an indicator moving in a circular orbit on the display screen is used. An experiment evaluated the subject's ability to position his gaze on the indicator displayed on the screen.”
“This paper reports on a study to explore the feasibility of creating state diagrams and supervised flow diagrams (SFDs) from human-computer dialogue scenarios. The goal was to facilitate a dialogue developer with this process and to produce a means by which developers can create consistent, correct diagrams. Diagrams produced by experimental subjects were analyzed for consistency and correctness, and a set of guidelines was empirically produced to clarify issues underlying the diagrammatic errors that were discovered. Then, use of these guidelines by subjects with previous experience in producing the diagrams was shown to result in more consistent and accurate diagrams.”
“Visual fatigue encountered in viewing a stereoscopic 3D display was examined using visual evolved potential (VEP) by light flash. The peak latencies of the VEPs measured after viewing the 3D display were significantly later than that before viewing. The average latencies in the 3D observation were significantly later than those in the standard 2D display for 30, 60 and 90 minutes. These findings suggest that the unnatural stereopsis forced in the 3D display under low luminance conditions can cause visual fatigue.”
“Recent development of computer and information processing in China has come to the stage being able to handle Chinese character input and output. The main concern of this paper is the psychological foundation for the design of three inputting systems which are often stated as the typical types at present in China. They are: 1) Five-Stroke Structure; 2) Real-Time Speech Recognition System; 3) Chinese Character Hand-writing Plate. Psychological studies are discussed with references both to experimental reports and to theoretical results.”
“This paper proposes a measure, called Task Content Complexity TCC, for evaluating the task complexity a human operator faces while performing a task using a given computer system. It is theoretically proven that the TCC measure is related to the content of the task, independent of the operation of the computer system used. An experiment confirms a strong relationship between the subjective complexity of the input material, in this case graphical information, and the TCC measure of the task the operator performs, using two different systems. The TCC measure will be of great use in the evaluation of computer operations.”
“Based on the hypothesis that expert performance is derived from superior knowledge structures, the primary objective of this study was to identify the structural dimensions of human problem solving knowledge for various classes of problems and identify possible applications to the design of expert system interfaces. The conceptual framework is derived from Greeno's typology of problems, modeling the structure of human problem solving knowledge in a domain-independent manner in terms of representation employed. The structure of human problem solving knowledge, as specified in the conceptual framework, determines the nature of the knowledge representation presented in the interface.”
“The negative influence glare, respectively reflections, has on character reading on VDU's is well known. In most cases glare changes the adaptation level of the eye. Therefore the characters on the screen are more difficult to be read. Because of their sharp images the reflections may lead to an irritation of the accommodation of the eye. They force the VDU user to accommodate his or her eye to the distance of the target reflected in the display. As the viewing distance of the reflected target does not correspond to the viewing distance to the screen the characters on the screen are therefore seen as blurred. Beside the described negative effects of glare and reflections it has to be mentioned that any overlay of superfluous light on the screen diminishes the contrast of the characters and therefore reduces their legibility. This becomes worse as the details which have to be recognized on the screen get smaller. Considering the above mentioned facts it is clear that reflections on the screen have to be eliminated. The best method is to arrange screen and illumination in a way that no glare or reflections are produced at all. Mostly this cannot be realized. Therefore antiglare devices have to be installed additionally on the surface of the screen. As there are various devices available which work on different physical principles, the question arises which is the antiglare device which best reduces reflections and how the efficiency of different devices can be compared to each other? In this paper we propose a method for ranking different antiglare devices which correlates with subjective ratings. The main aim of the presented study was to find an easy to use method for assessing the quality of antiglare devices.”
“While the number of Expert System and Decision Support System applications is growing rapidly, current research on evaluating the ability of these systems in facilitating work tasks and/or decision making is fragmented and limited. We propose a conceptual framework that stems from an organizational design approach to provide a theoretical base that will support and unify current and future empirical efforts. With this framework, we position current research efforts and derive further implications and research avenues.”
“CHESS is an integrated decision support system intended to provide multi-dimensional theory-based assistance to a variety of users. Its initial application is with people at high risk for serious consequences because of their lifestyles. But we believe it has important implications for a variety of audiences who are isolated from services for geographic, economic emotional or social reasons. Rural families, the elderly, as well as adolescents, HIV infected people, and others who otherwise may not seek help are provided a means to access services conveniently and without fear of ridicule. Employee assistance programs can offer consistent, high quality support throughout their organization. While the current focus of CHESS is on supporting end users (e.g. consumers of health care), discussions have suggested its potential for assisting providers of services to keep up-to-date on recent advances in the field, hold debates with colleagues at a distance, examine difficult decisions and plans they have for implementing Innovations, etc. Fundamental to success of CHESS is the quality of its user interface and the comprehensiveness of its vision of decision support.”
“This paper discusses the use of knowledge base system software to aid trouble-shooters in diagnosing hydraulic system failures in complex hydraulic machinery. The knowledge base is constructed to allow the user to input initial symptoms of the failed hydraulic machine. The most probable cause of failure is traced through the knowledge base, with the software requesting additional information related to the area of failure. Although the case study presented is for general hydraulic systems, results are applicable to any industry which uses complex hydraulic machinery.”
“The work here is part of a larger project to construct a computer-based feedback/ training system for the speech impaired requiring both speech recognition and speech production capabilities. The system will utilize a knowledge-based approach for recognition of phonemes (the basic speech sounds). The concern here is to explore a mechanism for constructing a knowledge-base of phoneme recognition rules which can be automatically individualized for each impaired speaker through an initial training session. A feature detection approach is used which builds upon a knowledge-base for a range of "normal" speakers (native-born, midwest American English speakers).”
“An empirical evaluation of two display modes for an interactive simulator of a material handling system is given. It is shown that the choice of display mode does not significantly affect user performance.”
“The most expensive errors to correct in a software development project are those made during high-level design. This study investigates the cognitive processes during high-level system design using the verbal protocols of three professional designers working on a problem of realistic complexity. The high-level design process was observed, behaviorally, to be opportunistic where knowledge discovery plays a critical role. Examples of knowledge discovery are presented, and their genesis and impact on the design process are discussed. Implications for methods and computational environments to support software designers are outlined.”
“It is urgently necessary to establish an effective methodology for studying the usability of computer systems. Recently, verbal protocol analysis has been adopted as a technique for studying user behavior in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). In this article, the "VPA Method" is proposed as a formal method for verbal protocol analysis. In this method, verbal protocol data are encoded by the "Segmentation & Tagging" procedure. The stability and explicability of the analysis procedure are emphasized. The VPA Method provides an analysis-supporting tool (VPA TOOL) in order to help analysts follow the standard procedure.”
“A user interface management system, NUUIMS, has been developed to enhance the interactive graphics application systems especially the CAD systems. It fully uses the modular technique to isolate the user interface and the application, so that the user interface can be designed concurrently with the application. NUUIMS uses a normalized user interface model to separate as much as possible the system-independent contents from the user interface program, then reduces the effort of specifying a user interface and makes the user interface more consistent, maintainable, extensive, and friendly.”
“This paper investigates the feasibility of the thinking aloud method in user interface design practice. The study is based on interviews with 12 system designers who had used the method for testing the usability of complete systems, prototypes, paper mock-ups, and documentation. They had little or no training in Human Factors or cognitive psychology. The results were generally positive. The method reveals a large number of errors; the usability of the system after modification is enhanced markedly; the resources required are modest; and the social relations between designers and users are enhanced.”
“This paper describes the self-adaptive user interface based on the abstraction of operations and objects for extracting user knowledge from a dialogue between humans and computers. The authors have researched a self-adaptive user interface which is intended to realize a conceptual-level user-oriented interface for each user. To realize this interface, it is necessary to extract user knowledge. In particular, a method is proposed for generating abstractions of both dialogue sequences and objects appearing frequently in the dialogue. Using this method, it is possible to deal with these two kinds of abstractions in an integrated manner. Moreover, since this method is also domain independent, it is applicable to various fields. Finally, the method was implemented on a 3-dimensional CAD system, which has been then evaluated.”
“This paper describes the process that, starting from observation of user's activity, leads to the elaboration of ergonomic input to design. The theoretical model used in order to analyse the user's reasoning during resolution of breakdowns is presented. Then, this intrinsic description of reasoning is connected to description of the users and work situation characteristics. From this, configurations of constraints that determine difficulties for the users are identified. To end the process, the paper indicates how design rules are derived from these configurations of constraints, and how these rules can be organised through the notion of "characteristic situation of use".”
“A sophisticated help system is expected to aid the user in a direct and flexible way, taking into account the user's state of knowledge, his/her intentions and plans, and his/her communicative abilities. In this paper we describe the architecture of an help system based on planning, the knowledge structures used and the functionalities of the system. A particular attention is given to the structures used for representing knowledge about actions and plans.”
“Identification of rules has been recognized as an important human factors issue in knowledge engineering. The intent of this research was to determine if solution patterns could be identified in an interactive and decision making task and if a metric could be designed linking subjects to their respective solution patterns. Twenty subjects (10 experts and 10 novices) participated in an experiment involving an interactive resource scheduling task. Two levels of task complexity were used and the task involved navigating through a set of action alternatives, each of which was presented as a separate screen. A set of measures were used to measure the solution patterns. Results show a large range in the number of transitions among subjects and a variety of distributions of the transitions. Task level appears to have a dominant effect on the solution strategy. The merits of pattern score, as a metric for measuring solution patterns is discussed.”
“Expert system usability is determined by both the correctness of system recommendations and the quality of the system's interface. In this paper, usability is represented as a function of both subjective and objective variables, where subjective variables indicate user perceptions with respect to the quality of user-system interaction, and objective variables measure human performance. State transitions are used to model user actions performed during consultation with the expert system. In addition to offering a systematic approach for recording user actions, the state transition model enables mathematical analysis of human-expert system interaction. Through analysis of the model, several objective usability measures are derived and incorporated into the usability function.”
“Communication with current expert systems is rather primitive, and a behavioural study was carried out to discover more about the interaction that occurs between a questioner and an expert who is also a good communicator. Analysis of the interactions indicated that several components were usually present. The paper discusses what these components are, and what strategies the expert uses in order to complete those components which are connected with modelling the individual user and the current problem situation. Implementation issues are also discussed, including different aspects of modelling and a possible algorithm for implementing advisory strategies.”
“Recent expert systems successes have motivated an increasing trend to incorporate this technology in numerous, diverse fields. However, techniques to select the most suitable application domains and predict relative success have not kept pace with demand. This paper proposes a theory-driven approach to define the knowledge components of a candidate domain to determine the compatibility of the domain with the support capabilities offered by expert systems technology.”
“Fuzzy knowledge, that for which the terms of reference are not crisp (mutually exclusive) in their meanings, but whose meanings overlap one another, is seen to characterize human expertise and decision-making. A fuzzy expert system with operating software has been developed and demonstrated for capturing fuzzy knowledge by observing human decision responses to system states, and identifying that knowledge in terms of a fuzzy expert relation matrix (FERM).”
“Knowledge acquisition is universally acknowledged as a problem in the development of expert systems. Numerous techniques for knowledge acquisition have emerged, but unstructured interviews are still the most commonly applied technique. Insight into the application value of different knowledge acquisition tools is provided by models of human memory. These models suggest that unstructured interviews have an advantage over the more formal knowledge acquisition techniques because they increase the flexibility of access to the domain expert's knowledge and the amount of knowledge available to the knowledge engineer.”
“Beacons are surface features of program code which serve as keys to program comprehension. They are significant because they allow the programmer to determine program function quickly without line-by-line study of the code. The two experiments reported here were designed to establish a causal connection between presence of beacons and superior program comprehension. One experiment showed that when a beacon in a familiar program is disguised in some way, program comprehension of experienced programmers declines. Another experiment showed that this result holds true even for programs unfamiliar to the programmer.”
“This article discusses the differences between conventional and computerized work measurement. Recommendations are offered to replace traditional work measurement and incentives with elective incentives that permit workers to select their work level and the associated incentive earnings. General guidelines are given for developing an elective incentive program.”
“This paper describes the approach to design for useability which has been taken in ESPRIT Project 814 PIMS (Project Integrated Management System). The objective of the project was to produce a prototype system to support the work of software development project managers and to help people to learn that job. The central feature of the system is the Process Guide, which advises the user about the standard approach to project management in his organization and prepares for his use the "working environments" which support routine project management tasks.”
“In this paper, we introduce a new type of user interface named Enhanced Menu-Based Software (EMBS) and also describe an automatic generator for software which works as a prototyping system for non-computer specialists. In general, as can be seen in spreadsheets, the invocation of actions cascades through cells. Thus, as a general model to represent the propagation of actions, we define the Action Propagation Graph (APG). The automatic EMBS generator translates the user-defined action statements into the internal syntactic structure, that is, APGs, and then, analyzes the APGs in order to produce efficient program code.”
“This paper provides a general description of the ACORD project. After a description of the different modules of the system and how they interact, we will focus on the graphic system and on an algorithm for generation within the UCG framework.”
“This paper describes the background and development of a computerized personal information and database system. MEMOIRS, that is intended to investigate and exploit peoples' everyday memory in offices. The system is based on-a hypertext-style database in which each information node has links to a time-structured network (a "Timebase") and additional links to document labels known as attributes. The user interface to the system is complex in that it supports a wide range of strategies and methods for retrieval of information. The paper considers the issues that this raises in the design of the interface and the extent to which the system is able to support the users' processes of recall and recognition in retrieval of information. The rationale behind the system and the psychological theory behind it are discussed. The iterative development of various aspects of the interface are then considered, together with the problems encountered in designing a multimedia environment for MEMOIRS.”
“This paper proposes a general intelligent interface for HCI called Structural Intelligent Interface (SII) which serves as the unique natural language interface for all applications. In it a structural approach and Intermediate Carrier Language have been introduced. Moreover, the implementation of an experimental SII called KZ2/TZJ is simply described in the paper. The experimental result indicates that SII is a good approach to general intelligent interface.”
“The user interface design of complex systems requires prototyping methods to meet the user's needs. In order to provide fast feedback from the user, the system developer must be supported by suitable methods and tools. An object-oriented toolbox of interaction objects and several assisting tools for color selection, icon design and speech recognition are introduced. The user interface design of a knowledge-based system in anesthesia is described as an example for the application of evolutionary prototyping.”
“BASAR is a blackboard based software architecture mainly developed for generating flexible and adaptable user interfaces. To achieve this goal the user interface is represented declaratively within a knowledge base and as a set of rules controlling the application of the knowledge in the knowledge base. The whole process of selecting the appropriate rules is governed by the dialogue manager. The application programmer uses very high level objects to define the user interface. This approach of separating the user interface knowledge from the application has been used in various expert systems and has proven to be very successful.”
“An architecture for a hybrid software development environment that binds user interface management systems (UIMS), object-oriented programming and Ada programming was designed. An object-oriented development environment, based on the Smalltalk language, permitted system programmers to design, test, and implement Smalltalk scripts. These scripts, during program execution, accessed an existing library of Ada routines. Two existing user interface development tools, LUIS and DataViews, were integrated into the Smallworld environment and a proof-of-concept prototype was implemented.”
“This paper describes GIL, the graphical tutor for LISP programming, according to criteria that are emerging from the field of intelligent tutoring. We begin with a brief overview of GIL's explanatory and visual characteristics, then discuss ways in which the system reduces and obviates many difficulties in learning to program. Finally, GIL's present and future performance is considered with respect to several problematic issues in the design of intelligent tutors.”
“This paper presents an intelligent medium for knowledge bases construction and validation in XPS+. XPS+ is a rule-based expert system shell using the goal-oriented reasoning paradigm with certainty factors for diagnosis problem-solving. Our aim is to emphasize the human-engineering facilities of the environment: multilevel intelligent editor, tracing and explaining the reasoning process, visualizing the conceptual form of the knowledge base and the inference tree, versioning mechanisms.”
“The paper is concerned with human-computer interaction within the Computer-Integrated Enterprise. It has been indicated that in the literature that about 80% of a company's valuation is due to the knowledge and expertise that comprise its competence and its competitive edge. Most of this knowledge is held in human heads. As organisations move into a more competitive future, it is imperative that this knowledge is mobilised effectively. This paper discusses how the knowledge can be identified and mapped into models of the organisation, the creation of 'goal states' for the organisation, and the generation of 'migration paths' to reach that goal state.”
“Support is one of the seven criteria of user-oriented dialog-design (Ulich 1987) which our research group is empirically investigating. In our first study, we evaluated the effectiveness of a context-specific help system. Then we developed and evaluated an online tutorial. Data regarding the real user behavior of tool and die makers using an interactive NC-programming system were collected by means of a combination of methods (Moll 1987), as logfile-recordings, thinking aloud and video self-confrontation. Our initial results indicate that support of novices could be improved if the online assistance were of a task-oriented design and based on data regarding real user problems.”
“Current help systems often assume that users want to achieve optimizing goals (i.e. desire to get an optimal solution to their problems). As a result, the advice that help systems provide is directed towards the completion of an optimal solution by the user, even when the user is currently attempting to complete a suboptimal solution, for he just pursues a "satisficing" goal. This paper is a claim for designing systems which help users achieve satisficing goals too. Arguments for such systems are given, which rest on the results of a threefold empirical study of casual Unix Shell programmers. Arguments are: (1) programmers achieve satisficing goals; (2) programmers seek for help with regard to their satisficing goals; (3) advisors provide help with regard to the programmers' satisficing goals.”
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