The user interface to computer-based information systems: a survey of current software design practice

From a survey of 201 people concerned with information-system design, estimates for 83 systems indicate that on average 30—35, per cent of operational software is devoted to the user-system interface (USI). In the design of USI software, survey responses indicate that improvements are needed in requirements definition, design documentation and design guidelines.     

Libra: a high fidelity knowledge-based system for recommending scheduling programs

Contemporary knowledge systems are usually neither easy to use or understand. We propose a new class of knowledge systems, which we call high fidelity systems, that use representations and processes that closely resemble the objects and tasks with which people are already familiar. To illustrate the concept of high fidelity, we describe Libra, one such system for recommending scheduling programs. Our initial experience with Libra and its usage suggests that high fidelity not only enhances the user acceptability of knowledge-based systems, but it also facilities high speed design and implementation.We chose to replicate the knowledge in Libra because it is already published, and because we wanted to show that a Libra user can have an interface similar to the diagrams drawn in the journal paper. The latter was used to describe the knowledge-based framework for selecting scheduling systems. If we can replicate them in the user interface, we would have successfully created a high fidelity system — that is, the Libra user interface would be at least as able to communicate the framework to the user as the journal paper.     

The user interface to computer-based information systems: a survey of current software design practice

Abstract

From a survey of 201 people concerned with information-system design, estimates for 83 systems indicate that on average 30—35, per cent of operational software is devoted to the user-system interface (USI). In the design of USI software, survey responses indicate that improvements are needed in requirements definition, design documentation and design guidelines.     

Dialogue based interfaces for universal access

Conversation provides an excellent means of communication for almost all people. Consequently, a conversational interface is an excellent mechanism for allowing people to interact with systems. Conversational systems are an active research area, but a wide range of systems can be developed with current technology. More sophisticated interfaces can take considerable effort, but simple interfaces can be developed quite rapidly. This paper provides an introduction to the current state of the art of conversational systems and interfaces. It describes a methodology for developing conversational interfaces and gives an example of an interface for a state benefits website. The paper discusses how this interface could improve access for a wide range of people and how further development of this interface would allow a larger range of people to use the system with enhanced functionality.     

The state of cognitive systems engineering

The widespread introduction of the personal computer, beginning about 1970, helped spawn the field of inquiry called cognitive engineering, which concerns itself with such things as interface design and user friendliness. Since then, this field has taught us many important things, including two major lessons. First, the road to user-hostile systems is paved with designers' user-centered intentions. Even smart, clever, well-intentioned people can build fragile, hostile devices that force the human to adapt and build local kludges and workarounds. Worse still, even if you are aware of this trap, you will still fall into it. Second, technology developers must strive to build truly human-centered systems. Machines should adapt to people, not the other way around. Machines should empower people. The process of designing machines should leverage what we know about human cognitive, perceptual, and collaborative skills.     

Menu — what menu?

In recent years information system interface design has become increasingly dominated by the use of menus, with the majority of systems relying on static menus as their main dialogue structure. Alternatives to this interface style are explored, and through the discussion of an application developed in banking a number of alternative styles which can be used are detailed. The usability and utility of this application is evaluated with positive results. It is suggested that while menus are a viable and useful interface design design technique, the use of other techniques should also be encouraged, and that small-scale innovations in interface design will improve the variety, usability and acceptability of information systems.     

Accountable system design architecture for embodied AI: a focus on physical human support robots

Although the development of robot-based support systems for elderly people has become more popular, it is difficult for humans to understand the actions, plans, and behavior of autonomous robots and the reasons behind them, particularly when the robots include learning algorithms. Learning-based autonomous systems which are called AI are treated as an inherently untrustworthy ‘black box,’ because machine learning or deep learning algorithms are difficult for humans to understand. Robot systems such as assistive robots, which work closely with humans, however, should be trusted. Systems should therefore achieve accountability for all stakeholders. However, most research in this field has focused on particular systems and situations, and no general design architecture exists. In this study, we propose a new design method, focused on accountability and transparency, for learning-based robot systems. Describing the entire system is a necessary first step, and transcribing the described system for each stakeholder based on several principles is effective for achieving accountability. The method improves transparency for systems, including learning algorithms. A standing assistive robot is used as an example of the entire system to clarify which system parts require greater transparency. This study adopted the Systems Modeling Language (SysML) to describe the system and the described system is used for the information representation. Information should be represented considering the relationships between stakeholders, information, and the system interface. Because of their complexity, it is difficult for humans to understand the complete set of information available in robot systems. Systems should therefore present only the information required, depending on the situation. The stakeholder–interface relationship is also important because it is more beneficial for professionals to view information relevant to their specialized field, which would be difficult for others to understand. By contrast, the interface should be intuitive for general users. Visualization and sound are very useful means of transmitting information, with advantages and disadvantages for different circumstances. These relationships are important for achieving accountability. Finally, we show an example of implementation with a developed support system. It is confirmed that accountable systems can be designed based on the proposed design architecture.     

Design for older and disabled people – where do we go from here?

The significant changes in the social, legal, demographic, and economic landscape over the past 10–15 years present enormous opportunities for the human–computer interface design community. These changes will have a significant impact on the design and development of systems for older and disabled people. This paper brings together a number of proposals to improve both specialist and mainstream design methods in the field as a contribution to the debate about design for older and disabled people and the concept of universal usability. Published online: 6 November 2002     

The design of smart homes for people with dementia—user-interface aspects

This paper reports on the user requirements analysis, design and evaluation of smart home solutions for people with dementia. In order to be appropriate for people with dementia, smart home technologies should keep interaction with users to a minimum. In the work presented in this paper, discussions with carers, as well as a more formal user-survey, provided a good understanding of the issues that are faced by this group, and useful indications of potential design solutions. This preliminary survey work led to a design approach that used carer emulation, familiarity of appearance, incorporation of verbal prompts and reminders, and careful user-monitoring, to achieve effective devices. This design approach is illustrated through several examples of specific designs. Evaluations of stand-alone systems were carried out prior to smart home installation, and illustrated the complex interface that exists between assistive technology and people with dementia.     

信息系统安全通过程序设计多方位控制策略的探讨

信息系统安全需要从多方面予以保障。可是,人们当前在很多情况下是分开考虑的,比如有些主要从数据库方面关注,考虑数据库自身的数据安全、访问控制和数据一致性;而有些着眼于从程序结构、设计方法等来满足系统安全。实际中,用户使用数据库中的数据不是直接从中得到的,而是经过展现在他们面前的程序界面实现的,从用户看到的
的程序界面到数据库本身的数据,中间可能经过了多个程序控制的环节,而将数据库和程序设计一起考虑,如何提高系统的安全性并不多见。本文探讨了如何通过程序设计对数据库进行多方位控制来保证信息系统所使用的数据的安全。     

Designing interactive interfaces: theoretical consideration of the complexity of standards and guidelines,and the difference between evolving and formalised systems

To design an interactive interface with communicative ability is a highly constrained, complex and difficult task. In the design process, a designer has to consider numerous principles, standards, and guidelines. It is impossible for a human being to consciously keep track of the interconnections between so many variables, or to calculate all the consequences that may emerge from putting all of the principles, standards, and guidelines together. This is often demonstrated in interaction with complex systems such as control rooms, surveillance systems, aeroplanes, especially when they display states (patterns) with which the user is not familiar. This is where the problems start. No artefact can display on its interface what has not been determined beforehand. If they could, it would mean that designers had the ability to predict all possible future states that the artefact may exhibit. As many complex artefacts function in a dynamic environment, it is simply impossible. There are two reasons why it is impossible to predict future states of a complex system, and hence to design communicative interfaces in an intelligible way. The first concerns the relationship between consciousness and the five omnipresent mental factors: contact, feeling, discernment, intention and attention. Secondly we note the essential difference between evolving and formalised communication systems: formalised systems are incapable of handling proliferating complexity, whereas proliferating complexity is a prerequisite for human development. Even though people appreciate natural complexity, which allows them to select and integrate information freely, they have difficulties in handling formalised complexity, which requires particular kinds of experience and logic. Hence, it is important to start a discussion about what kinds of formalised systems we should design. If we want to control systems, then they cannot be too complex, as we have difficulties coping with formalised complexity. If we want to create truly flexible systems, then we have to skip the control requirement.     

Prospective work design of a human-centred CNC lathe

In the operation of many automated systems, the control functions are performed concurrently by human operator and computer. This paper discusses the importance of man-machine interface design for overall system efficiency and described how interface software enables operator and machine to help each other to achieve an effect of which each is separately incapable. Guidelines for the design of a computer numerically controlled (CNC) lathe interface are outlined and the implications for interface design methodology are discussed.     

A model-based interface development environment

The author describes Mobi-D (Model-Based Interface Designer), a comprehensive environment that supports user-centered design through model-based interface development. In the Mobi-D paradigm, a series of declarative models, such as user-task, dialog, and presentation, are interrelated to provide a formal representation of an interface design. This contrasts to model-based systems, which use only one or two models in isolation and have no explicit notion as to how the various model elements are organized into an interface design     

Human software requirements engineering for computer-controlled manufacturing systems

Computers as integral systems components determine the quality of work of operators in industrial production. This paper contributes to improving the design of man-machine systems by proposing a formal aid to human software requirements definition and design. First, the need for considering human requirements is stressed. Since technology is to be considered as ‘non-deterministic’, the designer is faced with a degree of freedom in his design decisions which can be and should be utilized for raising the quality of work of people operating computer-controlled man-machine systems. Then, a hierarchy of human quality criteria applicable for ergonomic judgement of work design measures is derived. Following the principle of prospective work design, these criteria must be considered as design goals just like technical and economic requirements. As a formal aid for making design decisions meeting these comprehensive requirements, the Requirements/Quality Criteria Matrix is proposed. Finally, this method of considering human requirements is illustrated by designing some man-machine interface features for operators of a hypothetical flexible manufacturing system.     

Interface Alternatives for Hypertexts

This paper seeks to make explicit the ranges of design choices among which authors select whenever they create a particular hypertext. These choices are grouped into five categories: the links authors provide which influence the routes that readers can take within the text; the design features relating to the initiation of jumps within the hypertext; the visual characteristics of the destination of a jump; the navigation support that can be offered to readers; the design implications of the tasks that people will be trying to accomplish using the hypertext. It is suggested that the interface characteristics which are most helpful for hypertexts written as tutorials may differ from those design features which benefit users wishing to gain access through hypertexts to large (encyclopaedic) information sources, or hypertexts used by people as a means of personal information management. Although there is little evidence about which design features work best in which circumstances, an understanding of the range of interface options may help authors appreciate the tradeoffs they often have to make when designing hypertexts.     

Designing emotional, metaphoric, natural and intuitive interfaces for interactive art, edutainment and mobile communications

We are artists working since 1991 on the creation of interactive computer installations for which we design metaphoric, emotional, natural, intuitive and multi-modal interfaces. The interactive experiences we create are situated between art, design, entertainment and edutainment. When creating our interactive systems we often develop novel interface technologies that match conceptual and metaphoric content with technically novel interface solutions. While our main focus is to design interactive systems for the art context, our interactive or immersive systems also often find use in edutainment and in mobile communications areas. The following article summarizes some of our key concepts for our interface designs and presents some of our interactive technologies in more detail.     

Generalized interface automata with multicast synchronization

Interface automata are one of the prominent formalisms for specifying interface behaviors of componentbased systems. However, only one-to-one communication is allowed in the composition of interface automata. This paper presents multicast interface automata which generalize the classic interface automata and accommodate multicast communication mechanism. The multicast interface automata endorse both bottom-up and top-down design methodologies. Theoretical results on compatibility and refinement are established for incremental design and independent implementability.     

Multimodality and interactional differences in older adults

Many age-associated impairments such as loss of memory and vision make computer use difficult for older adults. This paper is concerned with interface design in a voice Web browser, which compensates for age-associated impairments, particularly loss of memory and vision. It describes a special Voice Help facility talking to older adults through their browser interaction, and reports experiments to establish the mixes of output media (text and speech) that are most effective for information transfer. In particular, the paper demonstrates that older adults retention of spoken output is different to that of younger people. The paper provides information on absorption rates for different media for older adults, which supports the design of multimodal systems suited to older adults. This is important for the development of systems that enable older adults to absorb information easily.     

表情机器人设计与实现

表情机器人的研究在国内还处于初级阶段，为了推进这一新的科学热点的研究，本文从生物学的角度和和谐人机交互的角度出发，运用了机械设计、传感器技术、舵机控制、嵌入式系统、人工智能等技术设计了一个情感机器人头。它可以和人进行对话并产生表情，最终为人机交互的过程中人们能与计算机进行具有情感、自然、和谐的交互提供接口。     

Model-based automation of the design of user interfaces to digitalcontrol systems

Digital control systems, like those controlling the functions of buildings or industrial processes, pose a number of special problems for good user interface design. The general problems of providing usability, common to all systems, include difficulty in accessing and applying principles of good design. In addition, digital control systems can have multiple users, with multiple roles, and each installation has different configurations of systems, controls, and user interface devices. Providing interactions for the users of building control systems is often achieved by manually implementing each required display. This is an expensive solution, which often produces less than optimal results. We address these problems through the automation of user interface design. Our solution, called DIGBE (dynamic interface generation for building environments), separates the domain knowledge, interaction design, and presentation heuristics into multiple collaborating models. Each model contains knowledge about a particular aspect of interface design, and uses this knowledge to dynamically create each user interface that is needed to support the users of a control system. DIGBE demonstrates that it is possible to automatically and dynamically create consistent and individualized user interfaces from model-based design knowledge