The goal of our ARKTOS project is to build an intelligent knowledge-based
system to classify satellite sea ice images. It involves acquiring knowledge
from sea ice experts, quantifying such knowledge as computational entities and
ultimately building an intelligent classifier. In this paper we describe a
two-stage knowledge engineering approach that facilitates explicit knowledge
transfer, converting implicit visual cues and cognition of the experts to
explicit attributes and rules implemented by the engineers. First, there is a
prototyping stage that involves interviewing sea ice experts, transcribing the
sessions, identifying descriptors and rules, designing and implementing the
knowledge and delivering the prototype. The objective of this stage is to
obtain a modestly accurate classification system quickly. Second, there is a
refinement stage that involves evaluating the prototype, refining the knowledge
base, modifying the design and re-evaluating the improved system. Since the
refinement is evaluation-driven, the experts and the engineers are motivated
explicitly to improve the knowledge base and are able to communicate with each
other using a common, consistent platform. Moreover, since the classification
result is immediately available, both sides are able to efficiently assess the
correctness of the system. To facilitate the knowledge engineering of the
second stage, we have designed and built three Java-based graphical user
interfaces: arktosGUI, arktosViewer and arktosEditor. arktosGUI concentrates on
feature-based refinement of specific attributes and rules. arktosViewer deals
with regional evaluation. arktosEditor has a rule indexing and search mechanism
and knowledge base editing capabilities.
Most visual search studies have been restricted to alphanumeric stimulus
materials. Research related to scanning patterns of Chinese characters is
sparse. This study is an attempt to understand the differences and similarities
in visual search of Chinese characters having a varying degree of complexity
among Hong Kong Chinese, Mainland Chinese and Chinese reading non-Chinese
people. Eighteen participants were tested on Chinese character screens with
three layouts (row, column, and uniform separation) and two word complexities
(high and low). The 18 participants comprised six Hong Kong Chinese, six
Mainland Chinese and six non-native Chinese readers. Performance data and eye
movement data were recorded. The percent correct and search time were the two
performance measures. A new measure, called HV-ratio was developed to
characterize eye movements. The results show that Hong Kong Chinese use
predominantly horizontal search patterns while the Mainland Chinese change
their search pattern depending on the layout presented. Non-native Chinese
readers, on the other hand, do not seem to show any preference on scanning
strategy for a given layout. Word complexity did not show any significant
effect on search time. Potential reasons for these differences and design
implications are discussed.
The MOSAIC project investigates a retrieval model for court decisions based
on structured and unstructured (natural language) information in legal cases.
This paper focuses on how relevant information in court decisions can function
as a key for retrieval and on the automated construction of case
representations. Techniques of automated concept learning and rhetorical
structure identification are among the most promising ones.
This paper reports on research in workplace issues encountered by knowledge
workers in cubicle environments, and on BlueSpace, a prototype workspace with
the goal of addressing workers' critical needs for privacy, concentration and
personalization. To inform the design process, more than 50 on-site interviews
with knowledge workers were conducted at six companies ranging from dot.com
startups to Fortune 100 corporations. Several common requirements emerged
including the need for a sense of control of one's workspace, the ability to
create privacy on-demand to improve concentration and minimize unwanted
interruptions, as well as in-place support for dyadic interactions. Many other
common workplace complaints (e.g. too hot, too cold, too noisy) were found to
be derivative of the major requirements for individual control and privacy.
The Back button on web browsers is one of the world's most heavily used user
interface components, yet its behaviour is commonly misunderstood. This paper
describes the evaluation of a "temporal" alternative to the normal
"stack-based" behaviour of Back and Forward. The main difference of the
temporal scheme is that it maintains a complete list of previously visited
pages. The evaluation compares the efficiency of the stack and temporal schemes
in an "out of the box" scenario in which participants were asked to use a "new"
version of a commercial browser without any explanation of the presence or
absence of new features. This scenario allows us to predict the likely
usability impact if commercial browsers were released supporting the temporal
scheme. The results showed that the relative efficiency of the two schemes
differed across different types of navigational task. In particular, the
temporal system poorly supported backtracking to parent pages, but performed
better for more distant navigation tasks. The temporal scheme also caused
extreme usage patterns, with the subjects either solving tasks very efficiently
or very inefficiently, depending on whether they used the Back menu. This
observation indicates that adaptations of the temporal system that improve the
effectiveness of the Back menu may enhance web navigation.
Computer-based multimedia technologies allow designers to construct
interactive and animated graphical presentations to communicate dynamic
information. The conventional wisdom is that such presentations are more
effective than printed materials. This paper presents research that critically
examines this assumption. Design guidelines and principles were derived from a
cognitive process model of multimodal comprehension. These guidelines and
principles were used to create several expository presentations in two domains
-- the concrete domain of mechanical systems and the abstract domain of
computer algorithms. A series of experiments evaluated the efficacy of these
presentations and compared them with other kinds of presentations such as
books, CD-ROMs and animations. The experiments also compared computer-based
interactive graphical presentations and static printed presentations containing
the same information. Experimental results suggest that the communicative
efficacy of multimodal presentations is more related to their match with
comprehension processes than with the interactivity and dynamism of the
presentation media. The results support a model-based approach to the design of
multimodal expository presentations of dynamic information. The comprehension
model and corresponding design guidance should aid designers in building
interactive graphical presentations that are more effective than intuitive
designs in communicating dynamic content.
This study investigates the evolution of the graphical representations used
to specify information systems in a community of novice designers supported by
a shared design memory, adopting the paradigm of distributed cognition. The
nature of the relationship between design notations, quality of design and
communication is explicated by considering the interplay of actors,
representations, design task and an evolving social and cultural context. An
account is provided of how meaningful representational features are transmitted
and transformed across generations of designers, and combined in a design
language that improves design quality and accommodates varied communication
needs and interactional constraints. Diffusion and creation of novel
representational features start from a process of critical imitation steered by
criteria of instrumental utility set by the individual design teams to address
both their needs, concerning level of understanding and desired expressiveness
of the design, and the socially regulated expectations about what is required
in a good design. These tendencies result in an organizational phenomenon
according to which the language of the community evolves by incorporating more
sophisticated representational modes, i.e. patterns of features that are used
in a socially clever way, in particular to reduce the cognitive load involved
in interpretation, and to sustain interaction with the instructor during the
exam. It is argued that the cognitive fit between the general characteristics
of design task and the expressive modalities allowed by the medium used for the
design specifications, plus the individual differences between the novice
designers are key factors in sustaining the evolution of the language.
This paper describes some examples of what is here called between-person
coordination of speech and gesture. It attempts to explain the phenomenon in
terms of the principles set forth in Growth Point theory (GP theory). McNeill
has proposed this to explain what is here contrastively called within-person
coordination of speech and gesture. In due course, the advantages of GP theory
over the other existing theories of speech-gesture coordination will be
discussed, and some implications for interactional graphical communication will
be noted.
This paper explores the influence of communicative interaction on the form
of graphical representations. A referential communication task is described
which involves exclusively graphical dialogue. In this task subjects
communicate about pieces of music by drawing. The drawings produced fall into
two basic types: Abstract and Figurative. Three hypotheses are developed about
the factors influencing the use of these drawing types: efficiency of
production, suitability for the task and level of communicative interaction.
Experimental evidence is presented which indicates that the drawing types do
not differ in the amount of effort required to produce them. The results
indicate that (1) Abstract drawings are more effective than Figurative drawings
for comparative tasks and (2) a key constraint on their use is level of direct
communicative interaction. It is argued that these observations result from
differences in the underlying semantic models of music associated with the
drawing types and the consequences these differences have for communicative
coordination.
This paper reviews the literature on the use of drawing to communicate by
people whose language is restricted due to aphasia. The advantages of drawing
over other forms of non-verbal communication for this population are detailed,
followed by discussion of different approaches to communicative drawing with
reference to descriptive reports, treatment studies and review papers. The two
main approaches differ in their view of drawing either as an alternative to
speech or as an augmentative tool in multimodal communication. In the former
approach the focus is on drawing skill or quality. Successful transmission of
messages is the goal, and this depends on the production of recognizable
drawings. In contrast, in the latter approach quality of drawings is secondary
to its value as an interactive medium. The focus is on interpersonal aspects of
communication and drawing is used alongside other modalities as a medium of
social connectedness. The main principles of interactive drawing are discussed
with examples from recent therapy studies. These are: the importance of drawing
"economically" rather than producing "good" drawings; the contribution of the
communication partner in facilitating, developing and maintaining a shared
interaction; and the importance of using interactive drawing within natural
communication contexts, in particular conversation.
Graphics have been used since ancient times to portray things that are
inherently spatiovisual, like maps and building plans. More recently, graphics
have been used to portray things that are metaphorically spatiovisual, like
graphs and organizational charts. The assumption is that graphics can
facilitate comprehension, learning, memory, communication and inference.
Assumptions aside, research on static graphics has shown that only carefully
designed and appropriate graphics prove to be beneficial for conveying complex
systems. Effective graphics conform to the Congruence Principle according to
which the content and format of the graphic should correspond to the content
and format of the concepts to be conveyed. From this, it follows that animated
graphics should be effective in portraying change over time. Yet the research
on the efficacy of animated over static graphics is not encouraging. In cases
where animated graphics seem superior to static ones, scrutiny reveals lack of
equivalence between animated and static graphics in content or procedures; the
animated graphics convey more information or involve interactivity. Animations
of events may be ineffective because animations violate the second principle of
good graphics, the Apprehension Principle, according to which graphics should
be accurately perceived and appropriately conceived. Animations are often too
complex or too fast to be accurately perceived. Moreover, many continuous
events are conceived of as sequences of discrete steps. Judicious use of
interactivity may overcome both these disadvantages. Animations may be more
effective than comparable static graphics in situations other than conveying
complex systems, for example, for real time reorientations in time and space.
Thong, James Y. L., Hong, Weiyin and Tam, Kar-Yan (2002): Understanding user acceptance of digital libraries: what are the roles of interface characteristics, organizational context, and individual differences?. In International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 57 (3) pp. 215-242
Digital library research efforts originating from library and information
scientists have focused on the technical development. While millions of dollars
have been spent on building "usable" digital libraries, previous research
indicates that potential users may still not use them. This study contributes
to understanding user acceptance of digital libraries by utilizing the
technology acceptance model (TAM). Three system interface characteristics,
three organizational context variables, and three individual differences are
identified as critical external variables that have impact on adoption
intention through perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of the digital
library. Data was collected from 397 users of an award-winning digital library.
The findings show that both perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use are
determinants of user acceptance of digital libraries. In addition, interface
characteristics and individual differences affect perceived ease of use, while
organizational context influences both perceived ease of use and perceived
usefulness of digital libraries.
Relations between mental and physical aspects of an agent can be of various
types. Sensing and acting are among the more commonly modelled types. In agent
modelling approaches often this is the only interaction between the physical
and mental; other possible types of interactions are abstracted away. If it is
also taken into account that the agent's mind has a materialization in the form
of a brain, the relations between mind and matter may become more complex. An
explanation of a dynamic pattern may involve mental aspects, physical aspects,
and interactions between mental and physical aspects. An explanatory
perspective sometimes advocated for such more complex phenomena is explanatory
pluralism. According to this perspective an explanation can consist of parts of
a different signature, for example, a partial physical explanation and a
partial mentalistic explanation. Each of these partial explanations is
insufficient to explain the whole phenomenon, but together they do explain the
whole, if some interaction is assumed. How for such explanations the different
types of interaction between mind and matter of an agent and the material world
can be modelled in a conceptually and semantically sound manner, and how the
overall explanation is composed from the parts, using these interactions, is
the main topic of this paper. The generic model presented can be used to model,
explain and simulate a variety of phenomena in which multiple mind-matter
interactions occur, including, for example, sensing and acting, (planned) birth
and death, bacterial behaviour, getting brain damage, psychosomatic diseases
and applications of direct brain-computer interfaces.
Computer transaction log analysis comprises the modeling of patterns of
machine-user transactions. Due to the web-like structure of the Internet,
Interactions can be represented in a three-dimensional, origin-destination-time
flow/transaction matrix. Loglinear models are used to model these transactions
in terms of their time, origin and destination components and to detect the
signature and stability of patterns of navigation through an Internet-based
digital library. Through the use of metric multidimensional scaling,
transaction patterns are then visualized and interpreted. The methods are
applied to a 12-month time series of transaction logs taken from the Alexandria
Digital Library, a web-based digital library of maps and other cartographic
materials. Among other things, results show that transaction patterns do not
change significantly despite changes in the user interface and that user
training has a significant impact on people's navigation of the library.
The Italian Public Administration (PA) represents an important testbed for
fulfilment of software usability in real settings. This is due to the volume of
existing applications, the various types of ongoing projects and the potential
users to whom the produced applications are addressed (both internal PA users
and citizen-users). Most acquisitions of computer products in the PA are made
in terms of ad hoc developments. This type of development could provide, in
principle, the best condition for usability purposes, i.e. a constant
contiguity between designers and users. Unfortunately, this does not lead to
user-centred projects and usable products in reality.
To analyse the current situation and propose improvements, the Italian
authority which controls the software diffusion in PAs (Autorita per
l'Informatica nella Pubblica Amministrazione -- AIPA) created a working group,
the Usability Working Group -- UWG. Among the various activities of the group,
two tests carried out for the PA on two different development designs of
interactive systems gave several hints. The UWG also produced the guidelines
for setting up PA contracts including usability as a key requirement for the
interactive systems to be supplied. This paper reports the tests, compares the
results with the ISO 13407 (1999) standard, and outlines the main indications
coming from the proposed guidelines. Finally, the outcome and influence of the
UWG activities on the PA contracts is discussed.
Social navigation exploits the knowledge and experience of peer users of
information resources. A wide variety of visual-spatial approaches become
increasingly popular as a means to optimize information access as well as to
foster and sustain a virtual community among geographically distributed users.
An information landscape is among the most appealing design options of
representing and communicating the essence of distributed information resources
to users. A fundamental and challenging issue is how an information landscape
can be designed such that it will not only preserve the essence of the
underlying information structure, but also accommodate the diversity of
individual users. The majority of research in social navigation has been
focusing on how to extract useful information from what is in common between
users' profiles, their interests and preferences. In this article, we explore
the role of modelling sequential behaviour patterns of users in augmenting
social navigation in thematic landscapes. In particular, we compare and analyse
the trails of individual users in thematic spaces along with their cognitive
ability measures. We are interested in whether such trails can provide useful
guidance for social navigation if they are embedded in a visual-spatial
environment. Furthermore, we are interested in whether such information can
help users to learn from each other, for example, from the ones who have been
successful in retrieving documents. In this article, we first describe how
users' trails in sessions of an experimental study of visual information
retrieval can be characterized by Hidden Markov Models. Trails of users with
the most successful retrieval performance are used to estimate parameters of
such models. Optimal virtual trails generated from the models are visualized
and animated as if they were actual trails of individual users in order to
highlight behavioural patterns that may foster social navigation. The findings
of the research will provide direct input to the design of social navigation
systems as well as to enrich theories of social navigation in a wider context.
These findings will lead to the further development and consolidation of a
tightly coupled paradigm of spatial, semantic and social navigation.
The work reported here integrates an analytical evaluation technique,
Programmable User Modelling, with established knowledge elicitation techniques;
the choice of techniques is guided by a selection framework, ACRE. The study
was conducted in conjunction with an ongoing industrial design project.
Techniques were selected to obtain domain knowledge in a systematic way; the
rationale behind each choice is discussed. The use of "negative scenarios" as a
means of assessing the severity of usability findings is introduced.
Within the class of perceptive user interfaces (i.e. interfaces providing
the computer with perceptive capabilities), artificial vision is being
exploited more and more as a new input modality, in addition to or in
replacement of standard interaction paradigms. The aim of this paper is to
provide a global view on the field of vision-based interfaces (VBIs), through
the analysis of the methods used for their implementation and the exploration
of the practical systems in which they have been employed. The focus will
mostly be on techniques and prototypes intended for office and home PC-based
use, as we are mainly interested in vision technology applied to ordinary
computing environments. After a brief introduction to basic concepts about
interfaces and image processing, the attention will be shifted to the four main
areas in which VBIs find their maximum expression, namely head tracking,
face/facial expression recognition, eye tracking and gesture recognition.
Nilsson, Rachel Michael and Mayer, Richard E. (2002): The effects of graphic organizers giving cues to the structure of a hypertext document on users' navigation strategies and performance. In International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 57 (1) pp. 1-26
Two experiments examined the effects of graphical organizers on users'
navigation of a 150-page hierarchical website of aquatic animals. In Experiment
1, users were given either a non-clickable map (map group) or no map (no-map
group) and answered 30 questions by searching the website. The map group was
more efficient (visited fewer pages) on the first 20 questions (learning phase)
but the no-map group was marginally more efficient on the last 10 questions
(test phase), and displayed more flexible search strategies. In Experiment 2,
users were either given a simplified organizer locating the current page in the
website (explicit group) or an alphabetized list of superordinate pages
(implicit group). The task from Experiment 1 was repeated. No differences in
efficiency were found, but the explicit group was faster than the implicit
group in the test phase. The results depended on individual differences in
spatial skills. These results suggest a tradeoff between organizers that are
useful initially and those that promote structural learning.
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Software design is the act of determining the user's experience with a piece of software. It has nothing to do with how the code works inside, or how big or small the code is. The designer's task is to specify completely and unambiguously the user's whole experience.
-- David Liddle, From Bringing Design to Software, edited by Terry Winograd, 1996
”