When the Interface Is a Face

People behave differently in the presence of other people than they do when they are alone. People also may behave differently when designers introduce more human-like qualities into computer interfaces. In an experimental study we demonstrate that people's responses to a talking-face interface differ from their responses to a text-display interface. They attribute some personality traits to it; they are more aroused by it; they present themselves in a more positive light. We use theories of person perception, social facilitation, and self-presentation to predict and interpret these results. We suggest that as computer interfaces become more "human-like," people who use those interfaces may change their own personas in response to them.     

Haptic User Interfaces for the Visually Impaired: Implications for Haptically Enhanced Science Learning Systems

The overall quality of haptic user interfaces designed to support visually impaired students' science learning through sensorial feedback was systematically studied to investigate task performance and user behavior. Fourteen 6th- to 11th-grade students with visual impairments recruited from a state-funded blind school were asked to perform three main tasks (i.e., menu selection, structure exploration, and force recognition) using haptic user interfaces and a haptic device. This study used several dependent measures that are categorized into three types of variables: (a) task performance including success rate, workload, and task completion time; (b) user behavior defined as cursor movements proportionately represented from the user's cursor positional data; and (c) user preference. Results showed that interface type has significant effects on task performance, user behavior, and user preference, with varying degree of impact to participants with severe visual impairments performing the tasks. The results of this study as well as a set of refined design guidelines and principles should provide insights to the future research of haptic user interfaces that can be used when developing haptically enhanced science learning systems for the visually impaired.     

SX/Tools - An Open Design Environment for Adaptable Multimedia User Interfaces

In this paper a brief review of user interface management systems (UIMSs) and their advantages is given. Shortcomings of current UIMSs and open requirements imposed by industrial application areas are outlined. Among the most important requirements are uniform design mechanisms independent of interaction media, techniques, and styles as well as a straight forward end-user adaptability of user interfaces. A new approach to interactive interface construction, called “direct composition”, is introduced. In this approach all interface objects contain the means for their own modification and design and therefore offer consistent interaction techniques for both the construction and usage of user interfaces. Moreover, end-user adaptability is an inherent feature of direct composition interfaces. The user interface design environment SX/Tools is described to exemplify specific properties of user interface management systems following the principle of direct composition. The impacts of direct composition on user interface design include a uniform interface development process covering tool development, interface development, and “on-usage” interface adaptation. It is argued that the direct composition approach can overcome many of the problems with traditional UIMSs.     

Designing for uncertain,asymmetric control: Interaction design for brain–computer interfaces

Designing user interfaces which can cope with unconventional control properties is challenging, and conventional interface design techniques are of little help. This paper examines how interactions can be designed to explicitly take into account the uncertainty and dynamics of control inputs. In particular, the asymmetry of feedback and control channels is highlighted as a key design constraint, which is especially obvious in current non-invasive brain–computer interfaces (BCIs). Brain–computer interfaces are systems capable of decoding neural activity in real time, thereby allowing a computer application to be directly controlled by thought. BCIs, however, have totally different signal properties than most conventional interaction devices. Bandwidth is very limited and there are comparatively long and unpredictable delays. Such interfaces cannot simply be treated as unwieldy mice. In this respect they are an example of a growing field of sensor-based interfaces which have unorthodox control properties. As a concrete example, we present the text entry application “Hex-O-Spell”, controlled via motor-imagery based electroencephalography (EEG). The system utilizes the high visual display bandwidth to help compensate for the limited control signals, where the timing of the state changes encodes most of the information. We present results showing the comparatively high performance of this interface, with entry rates exceeding seven characters per minute.     

Driver's distracted behavior: The contribution of compensatory beliefs increases with higher perceived risk

Engaging in distractive behaviors while driving is common worldwide, despite its proven negative impact on driving safety. The current study aimed to investigate the ability of drivers' compensatory beliefs regarding distracted driving (i.e., the belief that the negative effects of an unsafe behavior can be “neutralized” by engaging in another safe behavior; e.g., “slowing down can compensate for the impact of driving distractions”) and drivers' risk perceptions to predict drivers' distracting behaviors. This study analyzed the self-reports of 304 non-professional drivers (186 males and 118 females) between the ages of 19 and 66 years. The revised questionnaires were proven reliable and valid for measuring drivers' compensatory beliefs regarding distractions, their distractive behaviors, and their perceived risk. Additionally, three components (i.e., mobile phone use, in-vehicle interactions, and mind wandering) were identified in the current study using factor analyses. The analysis of the relationships among the study variables showed that the drivers' compensatory beliefs regarding distractive behaviors were a core predictor of the drivers’ engagement in distracting behaviors, especially for behaviors with a higher perceived risk rating (e.g., mobile phone use).     

Control and emotions: Understanding the dynamics of controllee behaviours in a health care information systems project

The control of information systems (IS) projects is important for organizations seeking to realize the value‐creating capabilities of information technology (IT). However, their achievement has proven complex and has triggered research on the unique challenges related to IS project control. The existing research focuses primarily on the contextual antecedents and performance effects of control‐mode choices but largely neglects the dynamics of control activities, and particularly the socio‐emotional aspects of such activities. We conducted longitudinal fieldwork to evaluate the dynamic interplay between control activities and emotions in the context of a large‐scale, health care IS project. Our case analysis provides empirical evidence for the link between controllers' control styles and controllees' emotions and subsequent behaviours. For instance, our analysis results point to “suppressed” effects of negative emotions on control effectiveness. We find that while controllees' negative emotional appraisals of control activities do not necessarily translate into immediate resistance behaviours, they can give rise to delayed resistance behaviours triggered by shifting control styles.     

The effects of 3D interface metaphor on older adults’ mobile navigation performance and subjective evaluation

Navigating vast information spaces through mobile interfaces has become a common activity in older adults' everyday lives. Studies suggested that interface metaphors could be used to facilitate users' metal model development and information processing when using mobile technologies. However, we know little about how metaphors affect older adults' mobile navigation behavior, and which user characteristics matter during this perceptual and cognitive process. To investigate this, a card interface with a 3D metaphor and a list interface without 3D metaphors were compared among twenty-two participants when performing four navigation tasks. User characteristics including demographic factors, technology experience, and user capabilities were examined. The participants' navigation performance and subjective evaluations were measured as the dependent variables. From the results, we recommend the list interface without 3D metaphors as a beneficial choice for older adults. It performed better in navigation performance, although the differences are not statistically significant. Moreover, navigation performance using the card interface with a 3D metaphor was significantly associated with participants' perceptual speed, thus this interface may be more sensitive to capability declines. Valuable insights into the older adults’ mobile navigation performance and preferences are discussed and important implications for the design of mobile navigation user interfaces are proposed based on the results.Relevance to industryThe experimental results propose a more beneficial way to present contents on a mobile user interface for older adults and provide valuable insights for the designers and industry to help them understand the older adults’ usage and perceptions towards the application of 3D metaphors when navigating with mobile interfaces.     

User attitude as a mediator of learning performance improvement in an interactive multimedia environment: an empirical investigation of the degree of interactivity and learning styles

Multimedia technology-based interactive learning/training programs have recently emerged as major tools for learning in educational settings (schools), at home and for training in corporations. Multimedia aspects and an ability to interact with the programs are claimed to enhance the learning experiences. A central thesis of this study is that such “interactive multimedia learning systems” would significantly improve users' attitudes, and that this, in turn, would enhance their learning achievement. An additional thesis of the study is that the “learning style” of the users will moderate the relationship between interactivity and attitude. This article reports the findings of a controlled quasi-experimental study of the influences of “interactivity” on six different dimensions of user attitude (content, format, user-control, feedback, ease of use and motivation) and performance improvement (achievement-gain). The results indicate that interactivity positively influences user attitude, and some dimensions of attitude translate into enhanced user performance. The study finds some interesting support for the moderating effects of learning styles. Implications and future research directions are discussed.     

An experimental study of the impact of visual semantic feedback on novice programming

Prior empirical studies of programming have shown that novice programmers tend to program by exploration, relying on frequent compilation and execution of their code in order to make progress. One way visual and end-user programming environments have attempted to facilitate this exploratory programming process is through their support of “live” editing models, in which immediate visual feedback on a program's execution is provided automatically at edit time. Notice that the notion of “liveness” actually encompasses two distinct dimensions: (a) the amount of time a programmer must wait between editing a program and receiving visual feedback (feedback delay); and (b) whether such feedback is provided automatically, or whether the programmer must explicitly request it (feedback self-selection). While a few prior empirical studies of “live” editing do exist, none has specifically evaluated the impact of these dimensions of “live” editing within the context of the imperative programming paradigm commonly taught in first-semester computer science courses. As a preliminary step toward that end, we conducted an experimental study that investigated the impact of feedback self-selection on novice imperative programming. Our within-subjects design compared the impact of three different levels of feedback self-selection on syntactic and semantic correctness: (a) no visual feedback at all (the No Feedback treatment); (b) visual feedback, in the form of a visualization of the program's execution state, provided on request when a “run” button is hit (the Self-Select treatment); and (c) visual feedback, in the form of a visualization of the program's execution state, updated on every keystroke (the Automatic treatment). Participants in the Automatic and Self-Select treatments produced programs that had significantly fewer syntactic and semantic errors than those of the No Feedback treatment; however, no significant differences were found between the Automatic and Self-Select treatments. These results suggest that, at least in the case of novice imperative programming environments, the benefits of delivering a continuously updated visual representation of a program's execution may fail to justify the substantial costs of implementing such feedback. We recommend that programming environment designers instead direct their efforts toward carefully considering when programmers will be ready to take advantage of the feedback that is coming toward them, along with what content will be of most benefit to them.     

A contextual game-based learning approach to improving students' inquiry-based learning performance in social studies courses

Inquiry-based learning, an effective instructional strategy, can be in the form of a problem or task for triggering student engagement. However, how to situate students in meaningful inquiry activities remains to be settled, especially for social studies courses. In this study, a contextual educational computer game is developed to improve students' learning performance based on an inquiry-based learning strategy. An experiment has been conducted on an elementary school social studies course to evaluate the effects of the proposed approach on the inquiry-based learning performances of students with different learning styles. The experimental results indicate that the proposed approach effectively enhanced the students' learning effects in terms of their learning achievement, learning motivation, satisfaction degree and flow state. Furthermore, it is also found that the proposed approach benefited the “active” learning style students more than the “reflective” style students in terms of learning achievement. This suggests the need to provide additional supports to students with particular learning styles in the future.     

Computer interface evaluation using eye movements: methods and constructs

Eye movement-based analysis can enhance traditional performance, protocol, and walk-through evaluations of computer interfaces. Despite a substantial history of eye movement data collection in tasks, there is still a great need for an organized definition and evaluation of appropriate measures. Several measures based upon eye movement locations and scanpaths were evaluated here, to assess their validity for assessment of interface quality. Good and poor interfaces for a drawing tool selection program were developed by manipulating the grouping of tool icons. These were subsequently evaluated by a collection of 50 interface designers and typical users. Twelve subjects used the interfaces while their eye movements were collected. Compared with a randomly organized set of component buttons, well-organized functional grouping resulted in shorter scanpaths, covering smaller areas. The poorer interface resulted in more, but similar duration, fixations than the better interface. Whereas the poor interface produced less efficient search behavior, the layout of component representations did not influence their interpretability. Overall, data obtained from eye movements can significantly enhance the observation of users' strategies while using computer interfaces, which can subsequently improve the precision of computer interface evaluations.

Relevance to industry

The software development industry requires improved methods for the objective analysis and design of software interfaces. This study provides a foundation for using eye movement analysis as part of an objective evaluation tool for many phases of interface analysis. The present approach is instructional in its definition of eye movement-based measures, and is evaluative with respect to the utility of these measures.     

Multi-Modal Human Interactions with an Intelligent Interface Utilizing Images, Sounds, and Force Feedback

One goal of research in the area of human–machine interaction is to improve the ways a human user interacts with a computer through a multimedia interface. This interaction comprises of not only text, graphical animation, stereo sounds, and live video images, but also force and haptic feedback, which can provide more “real” feeling to the user. The force feedback joystick, a human interface device is an input–output device. It not only tracks user's physical manipulation input, but also provides realistic physical sensations of force coordinated with system output. As part of our research, we have developed a multimedia computer game that assimilates images, sounds, and force feedback. We focused on the issues of how to combine these media to allow the user feel the compliance, damping, and vibration effects through the force feedback joystick. We conducted series of human subject experiments that incorporated different combinations of media, including the comparative study of the different performances of 60 human users, aiming to answer the question: What are the effects of force feedback (and associated time delays) when used in combination with visual and auditory information as part of a multi-modal interface? It is hoped that these results can be utilized in the design of enhanced multimedia systems that incorporate force feedback.     

First impressions last a lifetime: effect of interface type on disorientation and cognitive load

Today, technology users are faced with a multitude of different interfaces for computer applications, web sites, vehicle navigation, and cellular phones. In most cases, training to use these technologies is minimal or none and is left up to the user to learn the use of the technology at hand. Subsequently, their initial impression, which is dependent on how successful they can achieve simple tasks during their self-directed learning process, plays an important role in their intention to adopt the technology. Many users have trouble learning and remembering information presented on the screen. Disorientation and cognitive loading are two primary cognitive conditions that may be used to learn more about human behavior while using different type of interfaces. This paper presents the results of an experiment on computer user’s behavior while using one of two types of software interfaces: a menu-driven and an icon-based interfaces. Disorientation and cognitive loading theories are used to explain observations. A research model based on the technology acceptance model is used. Results show a strong relationship between performance and perceptions. The mediating effects on the different interfaces on perceptions are evident and significant considering that perceptions have been shown to predict computer user’s attitudes towards their intentions to use a technology. The experiment demonstrated the need to consider standard consistent interfaces when training is not provided.     

Temporal Presence Variation in Immersive Computer Games

Increasingly, the sophistication of modern computer-gaming systems is becoming comparable to that of immersive, virtual reality (VR) environments, and the popular VR research topic of “presence” is now being explored in the context of computer games. The explosion of popularity of networked gameplay and the movement of computing infrastructure on to the Internet and the cloud mean that technical anomalies such as network latency, dropouts, and so on, may increasingly disrupt players' experience of presence. In this article, a study of these “Breaks in Presence” (BIPs), which examines a networked, first-person-shooter game in an immersive virtual environment, is presented. Our study investigates how participants react to BIPs in terms of their impact on participants' levels of presence and in terms of the time needed for participants to recover from BIPs. Four distinct BIP types, which were selected because of their practical significance and because of their relevance to an established model for presence, were tested. The effects of two contrasting game modes (a low-involvement “navigation game” and a high-involvement “combat game”) on the perceptions of these BIPs are analyzed. As part of our experimental procedure a new video-cued-recall slider technique is introduced.

Our study shows that participants experience different levels of impact and recovery from BIPs and that the perceptions of impact of BIPs depend on the overall sense of presence as well as being task dependent. The article shows that recovery time seems to be a well-defined concept and that an overall measure of recovery time exhibits believable correlations with overall presence, with the overall number of BIPs (including “spontaneous” BIPs) and with user characteristics. The article also shows that the slider data for recovery time from BIPs provide evidence for a smooth variation of presence during an immersive experience. It is found that perceptions of impact and recovery time behave differently and that, intriguingly, recovery time appears to be much more independent of game mode than impact is. Evidence is found of strong carry-over effects in participants' recollections of the impact of BIPs from one game experience to the next is found. Results from our slider technique appear to show general agreement with results from a postexperiment questionnaire, and our study motivates the usefulness of our slider technique for future experiments.     

Evaluating user perception and emotion of microinteractions using a contradictory semantic scale

Microinteractions are presented with dynamic effects through the joint operation of external performance and internal mechanisms, allowing users to produce a variety of emotion and perception. In this study, we focus on microinteraction with functional effects and aim to explore the perception of microinteraction with different functional attributes. To understand the emotional tendency of microinteractions, 14 groups of typical contradictory semantics adjectives were selected, and two main factors were extracted: “hedonic” related to deep emotional enjoyment and “effectiveness” with highly effective characteristics. Among them, the “hedonic factor” has a high impact in microinteraction design, suggesting that the user's cognition of microinteraction mainly depends on the arousal of emotion and stimulates emotion using animation. Second, this study carried out an emotional comparison on representative microinteraction samples. The results indicate that feedback that caters to psychological feelings of realistic characteristics can strengthen a sense of connection between humans and computers and that continuity and consistency created by interface narrative can also contribute to a complete and exquisite interface. The conclusions of this study are relevant to the practical design of microinteractions and can be applied to improve the emotional experience of users in different scenarios.     

Perceiving artificial social agents

Three experiments were conducted to examine perceptions of a natural language computer interface (conversation bot). Participants in each study chatted with a conversation bot and then indicated their perceptions of the bot on various dimensions. Although participants were informed that they were interacting with a computer program, participants clearly viewed the program as having human-like qualities. Participants agreed substantially in their perceptions of the bot’s personality on the traits from the five-factor model (Experiment 1). In addition, factors that influence perceptions of human personalities (e.g., whether one uses another’s first name and response latency) also affected perceptions of a bot’s personality (Experiments 2 and 3). Similar to interactions with humans, the bot’s perceived neuroticism was inversely related to how long individuals chatted with it.     

Can Autonomous Vehicles Be Safe and Trustworthy? Effects of Appearance and Autonomy of Unmanned Driving Systems

Although autonomous vehicles are increasingly becoming a reality, eliminating human intervention from driving may imply significant safety and trust-related concerns. To address this issue from a psychological perspective, this study applies layers of anthropomorphic cues to an artificial driving agent and explicates the process in which these cues promote positive evaluations and perceptions of an unmanned driving system. In a between-subjects factorial experiment (N = 89) consisting of three unmanned driving scenarios, participants interacted with an artificial driving agent with different levels of anthropomorphic cues induced by the variations in appearance (human-like vs. gadget-like) and autonomy (high vs. low) of the agent. The results indicated that human-like appearance and high autonomy were more effective in eliciting positive perceptions of the agent. In addition, a mediation analysis revealed that the greater level of anthropomorphism induced by human-like appearance and high autonomy in the agent evoked the feelings of social presence, which in turn positively affected the perceived intelligence and safety of and trust in the agent, suggesting that the extent to which users perceive the driving agent as intelligent, safe, and trustworthy is largely determined by the feelings of social presence experienced during their interaction.     

Establishing a baseline for text entry for a multi-touch virtual keyboard

Multi-touch, which has been heralded as a revolution in human–computer interaction, provides features such as gestural interaction, tangible interfaces, pen-based computing, and interface customization—features embraced by an increasingly tech-savvy public. However, multi-touch platforms have not been adopted as “everyday” computer interaction devices that support important text entry intensive applications such as word processing and spreadsheets. In this paper, we present two studies that begin to explore user performance and experience with entering text using a multi-touch input. The first study establishes a benchmark for text entry performance on a multi-touch platform across input modes that compare uppercase-only to mixed-case, single-touch to multi-touch and copy to memorization tasks. The second study includes mouse style interaction for formatting rich text to simulate a word processing task using multi-touch input. As expected, our results show that users do not perform as well in terms of text entry efficiency and speed using a multi-touch interface as with a traditional keyboard. Not as expected was the result that degradation in performance was significantly less for memorization versus copy tasks, and consequently willingness to use multi-touch was substantially higher (50% versus 26%) in the former case. Our results, which include preferred input styles of participants, also provide a baseline for further research to explore techniques for improving text entry performance on multi-touch systems.     

Cooperating with life-like interface agents

As computer interfaces can display more life-like qualities such as speech output and personable characters or agents, it becomes important to understand and assess users’ interaction behavior within a social interaction framework rather than only a narrower machine interaction one. We studied how the appearance of a life-like interface agent influenced people’s interaction with it, using a social interaction framework of making and keeping promises to cooperate. Participants played a social dilemma game with a human confederate via realtime video conferencing or with one of three interface agents: a person-like interface agent, a dog-like interface agent, or a cartoon dog interface agent. Technology improvements from a previous version of the human-like interface led to increased cooperation with it; participants made and kept promises to cooperate with the person-like interface agent as much as with the confederate. Dog owners also made and kept promises to dog-like interface agents. General evaluations of likability and appealingness of the interface agent did not lead people to cooperate with it. Our findings demonstrate the importance of placing user interface studies within a social interaction framework as interfaces become more social.     

基于网络远程机器人学的人-机接口界面分析研究

分析网络远程机器人学的发展状况及存在的问题 ,对网络远程机器人系统的人 机接口界面和工作方式进行了详细讨论。根据用户在网络远程机器人系统中的行为表现及其状况分析 ,提出人 机网络闭环控制系统的以人为中心的人 机接口界面设计方法。最后 ,探讨了网络远程机器人学的应用前景。