Human computer interaction methods for electronic flight bag envisionment and design

This paper reports on the application of a range of human computer interaction (HCI) methods to the re-design of an electronic flight bag (EFB), as part of a commercial software development project. Specifically, it focusses on the use of participatory design methods, for resolving EFB usability problems. The purpose of this case study is to: (a) Show how participatory design methods can be effectively combined with ethnographic techniques and more formal methods in HCI, for the development of human-friendly EFB systems, (b) Illuminate the specific EFB usability issues encountered in this research and related HCI solutions, (c) Generate an awareness of the challenges faced by HCI practitioners adapting HCI methods to meet commercial project constraints. The HCI methodology outlined in this case study may be of interest to practitioners tasked with process and technology envisionment and/or working with limited resources.Joan Cahill has worked as an (HCI) consultant to Aircraft Management Technologies     

Mosaic and the World Wide Web

The World-Wide Web, an information service on the Internet, uses hypertext links to other textual documents or files. Users can click on a highlighted word or words in the text to provide additional information about the selected word(s). Users can also access graphic pictures, images, audio clips, or even full-motion video through hypermedia, an extension of hypertext. One of the most popular graphics-oriented browsers is Mosaic, which was developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) as a way to graphically-navigate the WWW. Mosaic browsers are currently available for Unix workstations running X Windows, PCs running Microsoft Windows, and Macintosh computers. Mosaic can access data in WWW servers, Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS), Gopher servers, Archie servers, and several others. The World-Wide Web is still evolving at a rapid pace. Distributed hypermedia systems on the Internet will continue to be an active area of development in the future. The flexibility of the WWW design, its use of hyperlinks, and the integration of existing WAIS and Gopher information resources, make the WWW ideal for future research and study. Highly interactive multimedia applications will require more sophisticated tools than currently exist. The most significant issue that needs to be resolved is the mismatch between WWW system capabilities and user requirements in the areas of presentation and quality of service     

Auditory navigation in hyperspace: design and evaluation of a non-visual hypermedia system for blind users

This paper presents the design and evaluation of a hypermedia system for blind users, making use of a nonvisual interface, non-speech sounds, three input devices, and a 37 node hypermedia module. The important components of an effective auditory interface are discussed, together with the design of the auditory interface to hypermedia material. The evaluation, which was conducted over several weeks and used a range of complementary objective and subjective measures to assess users' performance and preferences, is described. The findings from the evaluation with nine visually impaired student participants are presented. The results from this research can be applied to the design and evaluation of other non-visual hypermedia systems, such as auditory World Wide Web (WWW) browsers and digital talking books.     

Internet上信息服务系统的建造、维护和管理

ＷＷＷ（Ｗｏｒｌｄ－ＷｉｄｅＷｅｂ）是Ｉｎｔｅｒｎｅｔ上广泛流行的分布式超媒体信息系统。目前,随着Ｉｎｔｅｒｎｅｔ热潮席卷全球,越来越多的部门、企业甚至个人基于Ｉｎｔｅｒｎｅｔ上的ＷＷＷ设施建造自己的信息系统。但是由于ＷＷＷ系统的固有特点,使得利用现有方法开发的信息系统存在许多问题。该文针对这些问题,提出了建造基于Ｉｎｔｅｒｎｅｔ的分布式超媒体信息系统的一些设想,并给出了实现这一设想的系统模型。     

HCI and business practices in a collaborative method for augmented reality systems

ContextEvery interactive system is composed of a functional core and a user interface. However, the software engineering (SE) and human–computer interaction (HCI) communities do not share the same methods, models or tools. This usually induces a large work overhead when specialists from the two domains try to connect their applicative studies, especially when developing augmented reality systems that feature complex interaction cores.ObjectiveWe present in this paper the essential activities and concepts of a development method integrating the SE and HCI development practices, from the specifications down to the design, as well as their application on a case study.MethodThe efficiency of the method was tested in a qualitative study involving four pairs of SE and HCI experts in the design of an application for which an augmented reality interaction would provide better user performance than a classic interactive system. The effectivity of the method was evaluated in a qualitative study comparing the quality of three implementations of the same application fragment (based on the same analysis model), using software engineering metrics.ResultsThe first evaluation confirmed the ease of use of our method and the relevance of our tools for guiding the design process, but raised concerns on the handling of conflicting collaborative activities. The second evaluation gave indications that the structure of the analysis model facilitates the implementation of quality software (in terms of coupling, stability and complexity).ConclusionIt is concluded that our method enables design teams with different backgrounds in application development to collaborate for integrating augmented reality applications with information systems. Areas of improvement are also described.     

Java hypermedia: on and beyond the world wide web

The world wide web (WWW) has made hypermedia applications widespread. Originally, the WWW was used only for ‘freestyle’, unrestricted browsing and its foundation technologies reflect this. Now, developers are working on more advanced hypermedia for new application domains. Improvements in graphical user interfaces, adaptive guidance and integrated navigation support are the main objectives. In this paper, we present Java as a mature implementation language for advanced Internet hypermedia. A minimalistic Java approach (MJA) towards development is introduced. MJA integrates Java with existing object-oriented hypermedia design methodologies. MJA is illustrated with HyperMap, a browser application for spatial hypermedia.     

Analysis and design of Web-based information systems

We have developed a method for analysis and design of web-based information systems (WBISs), and tools to support the method, WebArchitect and PilotBoat. The method and the tools focus on architectures and functions of web sites, rather than on appearance of each web resource (page), such as graphics and layouts. Our goal is to efficiently develop WBISs that best support particular business processes at least maintenance cost. Our method consists of two approaches, static and dynamic. We use the entity relation (E-R) approach for the statis aspects of WBISs, and use scenario approach for the dynamic aspects. The E-R analysis and design, based on relationship management methodology (RMM) developed by Isakowitz et al., defines what are entities and how they are related. The scenario analysis defines how web resources are accessed, used, and changed by whom. The method also defines attributes of each web resource, which are used in maintaining the resource. WebArchitect enables designers and maintainers to directly manipulate meta-level links between web resources that are represented in a hierarchical manner. PilotBoat is a web client that navigates and lets users collaborate through web sites. We have applied our approaches to the WWW6 proceedings site.     

A scenario-based object-oriented hypermedia design methodology

This paper defines an object-oriented methodology for developing hypermedia information systems. The methodology consists of six phases: domain analysis; object modeling; view design; navigation design; implementation design; and construction. Users' requirements are analyzed with a responsibility-driven technology using scenarios. Object-oriented views are generated as the result of object modeling, and then used for the subsequent navigation and implementation design. The implementation design phase deals with database schema, page structure and flow, and user interface. This methodology integrates enterprise databases with distributed hypermedia systems via Internet, Intranet, or Electronic Commerce.     

CRITON: A Hypermedia Design Tool

The WWW has turned into a development and run-time environment for large-scale and complex applications. Such sophisticated applications are being deployed in increasing numbers without having been developed according to appropriate methodologies, tools and quality standards. The reason is not only that the hypermedia industry resists to utilize formal methods, but also that these methods and corresponding tools are very few and of dubious standards. The consequence is that the hypermedia applications being developed are of poor functionality and lack qualities such as modifiability, usability and maintainability. Especially the design phase is one of the phases that lack sufficient support from methods and CASE tools. This paper presents CRITON, a cross platform tool, built to support a hypermedia design method within an integrated environment. CRITON manages all three aspects of hypermedia design: conceptual design, navigational design and graphical user interface design, utilizing well-established theories and practices from software as well as hypermedia engineering. It employs these designs to generate a preliminary, exemplary form of the hypermedia application for the purpose of assessing the designs before the implementation phase.     

Discovering and Using Design Patterns in the WWW

In this paper, we discuss how the idea of design patterns can be used in the context of the World Wide Web, for both designing and implementing web sites or more complex information systems. We first motivate our work by discussing which are the most outstanding problems in designing Web-based information systems. Then we briefly introduce design patterns and show how they are used to record and reuse design information. We next present some simple though powerful design patterns and show known uses in the WWW. Finally, we outline a process for building applications by combining a design methodology (OOHDM) with design patterns.     

Labyrinth, an abstract model for hypermedia applications. Description of its static components

In information technology, models are abstract devices to represent the components and functions of software applications. When a model is general and consistent, it represents a useful design tool to unambiguously describe the application. Traditional models are not suitable for the design of hypermedia systems and, therefore, specific design models and methodologies are needed. In the present article, the requirements for such models are analysed, an overview of the characteristics of the existing models for hypermedia applications is made and an abstract model fulfilling the analysed requirements is presented. The model, called Labyrinth, allows 1) the design of platform-independent hypermedia applications; 2) the categorisation, generalisation and abstraction of sparse unstructured heterogeneous information in multiple and interconnected levels; 3) the creation of personalisations (personal views) in multiuser hyperdocuments for both groups and individual users and 4) the design of advanced security mechanisms for hypermedia applications.     

Engineering the Design of Usable Hypermedia

This paper presents a systematic method for designing hypermedia that are easy to use for various types of users, along with its application to a specific case study. The design phase is supported by the use of task models. We have identified criteria that indicate how information in task models can be used to identify links, design presentations, and structure the data of the hypermedia considered. Different types of users imply different task models and thus different hypermedia designs. We then show how the design obtained was evaluated using both empirical testing and metrics for hypermedia navigation. We discuss the results obtained by these two evaluation methods and how they affected the original design.     

A grounded theory approach to modelling learnability of hypermedia authoring tools

One potential barrier to the development of educational hypermedia is the design of current hypermedia authoring tools (HATs) that unfortunately require higher knowledge and skills levels than possessed by most academics. Whilst the usability of hypermedia has been extensively researched, the usability of the tools required to build hypermedia has not. Learnability of HATs, an associated factor of usability, has been similarly neglected. Analysing contemporary approaches to the study of human computer interaction, this paper concludes that they do not support the kind of ‘theory building’ required to study and describe the learnability of HATs. Grounded theory (GT) is posited as an alternative approach, which if applied correctly can provide explanatory theory to inform HAT design. The paper describes the application of GT to two studies of the ease-of-learning of HATs. The first study uses quantitative and qualitative data to explore the experiences of 16 subjects learning to use HATs. In the second study, key HATs are demonstrated to a focus group of IT trainers to analyse their observations of users learning HATs. From these studies a causal model of learnability of HATs that is more detailed and complete than that offered by other contemporary theories of learnability was developed. The paper concludes that applying a GT approach can enhance HCI research through the development of explanatory, extensible and evolutionary theory to inform HAT design.     

Towards A New Authoring Methodology for Large-Scale Hypermedia Applications

As the amount of information technology increases, managing information resources, so that the correct people can find the information easily, becomes a critical issue. Hypermedia systems are considered one solution to this problem as they provide a means for representing higher level relationships between the underlying information. However, the amount of information available electronically is increasing at an accelerated rate. Using standard hypermedia authoring techniques, the effort required managing and maintaining large-scale hypermedia systems is enormous. Hypermedia authoring in the large requires new methodologies if it is going to be feasible.This paper presents a new model for building and structuring large-scale hypermedia applications. It describes a case study that explored the delivery of hypermedia information in an industrial environment on a small scale. Models and techniques developed for that case study were then refined and augmented so they could support the construction of large-scale hypermedia systems. In order to support such endeavors a new linking model is presented that allows the author to explicitly represent abstract concepts contained within the underlying information and interconnect them in some meaningful manner. A prototype system applying this linking technique is presented.     

Formalization and analysis of the REST architecture from the process algebra perspective

As one of the most promising architectural styles, REpresentational State Transfer (REST) was proposed to support a scalable and reliable design for large-scale distributed hypermedia systems such as the World Wide Web (WWW). However, the rapid development of RESTful systems brings the misunderstanding and misapplying of the REST architecture. As a consequence, considerable confusions about REST exist and many examples of supposedly RESTful applications violate key REST constraints. Thus, it is of significant importance to give a better and explicit understanding of REST architecture to guide the design and implementations of RESTful systems.In this paper, we give a formalization and analysis of the REST architecture from the perspective of Communicating Sequential Processes (CSP), which is one of the most famous process algebras. In particular, we present a formal model to capture essential features for the REST architecture, where components (together with one connector) of RESTful systems are modeled as CSP processes. Besides, resources are also abstracted as CSP processes. Furthermore, all the REST constraints, including Client–Server, Cacheable, Stateless, Uniform Interface, Layered and Code-On-Demand, are described in our framework and implemented in the model checker Process Analysis Toolkit (PAT) to check whether a system breaks REST constraints or not. It is difficult to ensure that a system is RESTful system, because many unRESTful systems may also contain unRESTful properties besides satisfying the six REST constraints. Thus, a complementary approach is proposed in this paper to check the system from a different perspective; that is, if a system breaks any specification of the REST constraints, then it is not a RESTful system. Finally, to show the feasibility of our approach, we illustrate a case study about an application scenario for environment monitoring. One feature of the proposed framework for the REST architecture is that it not only confines to HyperText Transport Protocol (HTTP) but can also be applied to other REST-compliant protocols, e.g., Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP). Consequently, through the general framework, a better understanding of the REST architecture can be achieved, and moreover, implementations and designs of RESTful systems can benefit from it.     

Web2DB：一个通用WWW数据库接口系统

文中介绍了一个ＷＷＷ与数据库系统连接的通用接口系统Ｗｅｂ２ＤＢ的设计和实现。     

HyperTree: a structural approach to web authoring

The expansion of the World Wide Web (WWW) has created an increasing need for tools capable of supporting WWW authors in composing documents using the HyperText Markup Language (HTML). Currently, most web authors use tools which are basically ordinary text editors and have additional features to facilitate the easy and correct use of HTML tags. This approach places the burden on the web author to design and then create the entire web site in a top-down fashion, without any explicit support for the structural design of the site. In this paper we discuss an alternative structural approach to Web authoring, which is based on the use of the HyperTree hypermedia system as the central authoring tool. The advantages of using HyperTree are two-dimensional. Firstly, web authors can manage a web site as a single complete hypermedia database. For example, HyperTree provides facilities like the automatic creation of indices and the discovery of link inconsistencies. Additionally, it organizes the web pages in an easy to understand hierarchy without using any HTML directly. Secondly, web end-users can benefit from the use of HyperTree, since seeking information in structured web sites is generally less disorientating and develops fewer cognitive overheads. ©1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Heart period variability as mental effort monitor in Human Computer Interaction

Elementary steps of H uman Computer Interaction (HCI), like users' mental actions followed by a series of keystrokes and mouse-clicks, are the basic components of using information technological systems. This is why examination methods capable of assessing users' actual mental effort corresponding to these elementary steps during HCI in a scientifically sound way have great importance. It is known that under certain circumstances, Heart Period Variability (HPV) could be a measure of actual mental effort. This paper gives a short overview of applications of HPV in ergonomics in general and, based on empirical evidence intends to prove that this methodology, after a careful adaptation, could be powerful technique for monitoring mental effort in HCI. The paper outlines the main components of the INTERFACE testing workstation and the related methodology for investigatingamong others-users mental effort. A detailed application example is also provided.     

Hypermedia systems development practices: a survey

Merely calling a system "Web-based" doesn't necessarily imply that its software design differs much from that of a traditional system. When Web-based systems assume hypermedia functionality they become substantively different from a design perspective. Hypermedia technologies support much richer user interfaces, more complex navigation mechanisms, and more varied forms of information than traditional computer systems. In recent years, hypermedia systems (particularly Web-based ones) have grown in complexity and scope as they've begun to involve critical organizational activities such as customer support, sales and marketing, and technical support.     

Model-based virtual document generation

Virtual documents are hypermedia documents that are generated on demand in response to reader input. This paper describes a virtual document application that generates natural language explanations about the structure and behavior of electromechanical systems. The application, called DME, structures the interaction with the reader as a question–answer dialog. Each page of the hyperdocument is the answer to a question, and each link on each page is a follow-up question that leads to another answer. DME is amodel-basedvirtual document generator; unlike conventional database front-ends that provide views onto data, DME dynamically constructs the document's content (i.e. coherent explanations in English) from underlying mathematical and symbolic models. DME-based virtual documents have been running on the WWW since late 1993. They are used to document engineered systems in support of collaborative design and simulation-based training.In this paper we describe and demonstrate the DME application (with examples that run), and describe how it generates virtual documents on the web. We discuss the impact that model-based virtual documentation can have on the way technical documentation is authored and delivered.