User diversity and design representation: Towards increased effectiveness in Design for All

This paper addresses user modelling for “Design for All” in a model-based approach to Human-Computer Interaction, paying particular attention to placing user models within organisational role- and task-related contexts. After reviewing a variety of user modelling approaches, and deriving requirements for user modelling related to Design for All, the paper proposes a role-driven individualised approach. Such an approach is based on a model-based representation schema and a unifying notation that keeps the user’s models and the contextual information transparent and consistent. Individualisation is achieved by coupling symbolic model specifications with neural networking on synchronisation links between symbolic representation elements. As a result, user modelling for Design for All is achieved not by stereotypical user properties and functional roles, but by accommodating the actual users’ behaviour. Published online: 18 May 2001     

Effective Communication in Requirements Elicitation: A Comparison of Methodologies

The elicitation or communication of user requirements comprises an early and critical but highly error-prone stage in system development. Socially oriented methodologies provide more support for user involvement in design than the rigidity of more traditional methods, facilitating the degree of user–designer communication and the ‘capture’ of requirements. A more emergent and collaborative view of requirements elicitation and communication is required to encompass the user, contextual and organisational factors. From this accompanying literature in communication issues in requirements elicitation, a four-dimensional framework is outlined and used to appraise comparatively four different methodologies seeking to promote a closer working relationship between users and designers. The facilitation of communication between users and designers is subject to discussion of the ways in which communicative activities can be ‘optimised’ for successful requirements gathering, by making recommendations based on the four dimensions to provide fruitful considerations for system designers.     

Accessibility in the built and transport environment The wheelchair user perspective

‘Improving Accessidility for those with Impaired Mobility’ (I-AIM) is developing a telematic-based device to attach to wheelchairs to provide a navigation aid in the built environment. A technical project such as this must have end-user input from the beginning. In partial fulfilment of this, a user requirements survey was carried out. The survey found that accessibility in the built environment is generally possible for wheelchair users with assistance, which does not fulfil objectives of independence. Accessibility to public transport is regarded as poor. Information communication technologies can offer greater independence and inclusion, but attention must be paid to ergonomics. Published online: 9 October 2001     

Toward overcoming culture, skill and situation hurdles in Human-Computer Interaction

This paper proposes a new effective strategy for designing and implementing interactive systems overcoming culture, skill and situation hurdles in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). The strategy to identify and reduce these hurdles is developed in the framework of a methodology based on a recently introduced model of HCI, and exploits the technological innovations of XML (Extensible Markup Language). HCI is modelled as a cyclic process in which the user and the interactive system communicate by materializing and interpreting a sequence of messages. The interaction process is formalized by specifying both the physical message appearance and the computational aspect of the interaction. This formalization allows the adoption of notation traditionally adopted by users in their workplaces as the starting point of the interactive system design. In this way, the human–system interaction language takes into account the users’ culture. Moreover, the methodology permits user representatives to build a hierarchy of systems progressively adapted to users’ situations, skills and habits, according to the work organization in the domain considered. The strategy is proved to be effective by describing how to implement it using BANCO (Browsing Adaptive Network for Changing user Operativity), a feasibility prototype based on XML, which allows the hierarchy implementation and system adaptations. Several examples from an environmental case under study are used throughout the paper to illustrate the methodology and the effectiveness of the technology adopted. Published online: 4 June 2002     

Personalized, interactive news on the Web

We present Krakatoa Chronicle, an interactive, personalized newspaper on the World Wide Web implemented as a Java applet. The newspaper is similar in appearance to newspapers in the real world, with a multi-column layout and justified text. At the same time, it provides various interaction techniques for browsing the content of articles, giving relevance feedback, and dynamically changing layout. As users interact with the system, individual ‘user profiles’ are built up at the webserver site. These are used to tailor the newspaper's content and layout to each user's declared and inferred preferences. The system allows for a balancing of personal and community interests, allowing the user to navigate through a space of newspapers corresponding to a range of viewpoints.     

Building intelligent collaborative interface agents with the ICAGENT development framework

This paper describes the implementation of intelligent collaborative interface agents using the intelligent collaborative agent (ICagent) development framework. In particular, the paper presents the implementation of a collaborative interface agent that acts as a tutor in the context of an educational software application. The agent deliberates socially with users following the SharedPlans model of collaborative activity. Social deliberation requires interface agents to make their desires and intentions clear to the application users, being in constant communication with them, to understand the context of their activity and to reconcile their own and users’ desires in the overall context of action. Reconciliation of users’ desires allows agents to recognize the situations where users need help. The paper briefly presents the ICagent development framework, describes the implementation of the interface agent, and discusses an example of the behavior of the agent during a collaboration session.     

Round-Trip Prototyping Based on Integrated Functional and User Interface Requirements Specifications

Requirements engineering in the new millennium is facing an increasing diversity of computerised devices comprising an increasing diversity of interaction styles for an increasing diversity of user groups. Thus the incorporation of user interface requirements into software requirements specifications becomes more and more mandatory. Validating these requirements specifications with hand-made, throw-away prototypes is not only expensive, but also bears the danger that validation results are not accurately fed back into the requirements specification. In this paper, we propose an enhancement of the requirements specification method SCORES for an explicit capturing of user interface requirements. The advantages of the approach are threefold. First, the user interface requirements specification is UML-compliant and integrated into the functional requirements specification. Second, prototypes for validation purposes can semi-automatically be generated. Third, the model-based generation of prototypes allows for ‘round-trip prototyping’ such that manual changes of the prototype during the validation process are automatically fed back into the requirements specification.     

The impact of Web self-efficacy,age, and Web experience on bookmark manipulation

This paper presents a study that examines the impact of age, Web experience, and Web self-efficacy across the adult life span on users’ bookmark management behaviors. It was hypothesized that Web self-efficacy would mediate the effect of age and Web experience on bookmark manipulation. Six hundred users, sampled from the Project 2000 and 7th WWW User survey data, were used to examine this model. Using structural equation modeling techniques, it was found that the effect of age on bookmark manipulation was fully mediated by Web self-efficacy. However, the effect of Web experience was not fully mitigated by Web self-efficacy. Published online: 22 May 2002     

The state-of-the-art in personalized recommender systems for social networking

With the explosion of Web 2.0 application such as blogs, social and professional networks, and various other types of social media, the rich online information and various new sources of knowledge flood users and hence pose a great challenge in terms of information overload. It is critical to use intelligent agent software systems to assist users in finding the right information from an abundance of Web data. Recommender systems can help users deal with information overload problem efficiently by suggesting items (e.g., information and products) that match users’ personal interests. The recommender technology has been successfully employed in many applications such as recommending films, music, books, etc. The purpose of this report is to give an overview of existing technologies for building personalized recommender systems in social networking environment, to propose a research direction for addressing user profiling and cold start problems by exploiting user-generated content newly available in Web 2.0.     

An experts approach to strategy selection in multiagent meeting scheduling

In the multiagent meeting scheduling problem, agents negotiate with each other on behalf of their users to schedule meetings. While a number of negotiation approaches have been proposed for scheduling meetings, it is not well understood how agents can negotiate strategically in order to maximize their users’ utility. To negotiate strategically, agents need to learn to pick good strategies for negotiating with other agents. In this paper, we show how agents can learn online to negotiate strategically in order to better satisfy their users’ preferences. We outline the applicability of experts algorithms to the problem of learning to select negotiation strategies. In particular, we show how two different experts approaches, plays [3] and Exploration–Exploitation Experts (EEE) [10] can be adapted to the task. We show experimentally the effectiveness of our approach for learning to negotiate strategically.     

Display Design of Process Systems Based on Functional Modelling

The prevalent way to present information in industrial computer displays is by using piping and instrumentation diagrams. Such interfaces have sometimes resulted in difficulties for operators because they are not sufficient to fulfil their needs. A systematic way that supports interface design therefore has to be considered. In the new design framework, two questions must be answered. Firstly, a modelling method is required to describe a process system. Such a modelling method can define the information content that must be displayed in interfaces. Secondly, how to communicate this information to operators efficiently must be considered. This will provide a basis for determining the visual forms that the information should take. This study discusses interface design of human–machine systems from these two points of view. Based on other scholars’ work, a comprehensive set of functional primitives is summarised as a basis to build a functional model of process systems. A library of geometrical presentations for these primitives is then developed. To support effective interface design, the concept of ‘functional macro’ is introduced and a way to map functional model to interface display is illustrated by applying several principles. To make our ideas clear, a central heating system is taken as an example and its functional model is constructed. Based on the functional model, the information to be displayed is determined. Several functional macros are then found in the model and their corresponding displays are constructed. Finally, by using the library of geometrical presentations for functional primitives and functional macros, the display hierarchy of the central heating system is developed. Reusability of functional primitives makes it possible to use the methodology to support interface design of different process systems.     

Usability study of digital libraries: ACM, IEEE-CS, NCSTRL, NDLTD

If digital libraries are to be used effectively, their user interfaces should be tested and enhanced. We observed 48 participants as they worked with the following digital libraries: ACM, IEEE-CS, NCSTRL, and NDLTD. We discuss how the features of these digital libraries influence the subjects’ efforts to perform search and retrieval tasks. Data analysis indicates that the IEEE-CS digital library was rated the best overall and NDLTD had the best search time. We present user recommendations and propose a taxonomy of features that we believe are essential for the design of future digital libraries. Noteworthy is the observation that users’ judgements on the importance of different features varied widely between the beginning and end of their test sessions. Received: 15 December 1997 / Revised: June 1999     

Using ubiquitous computing in interactive mobile marketing

Unique features of handheld devices, including their mobility, personalization and location-awareness engender new types of applications for mobile commerce, such as mobile advertising. Mobile marketing and advertising applications deliver promotional information to consumers based on their preferences and location. In this paper, we present SMMART, a context-aware, adaptive and personalized m-commerce application designed to deliver targeted promotions to the users of mobile devices about the products they like while guarding the users’ identity and protecting them from any unsolicited messages. Promotions distributed by SMMART are personalized by performing intelligent matching of the user’s shopping interests to current promotions available at a retail site. SMMART can adapt to changing preferences of its user by inconspicuously monitoring his or her shopping habits. We describe a fully functional prototype of SMMART built for Pocket PCs running Windows CE with .NET Compact Framework. This paper also presents a study demonstrating end-user usability and economic viability of SMMART.     

The use of cursor measures for motion-impaired computer users

“Point and click” interactions remain one of the key features of graphical user interfaces (GUIs). People with motion-impairments, however, can often have difficulty with accurate control of standard pointing devices. This paper discusses work that aims to reveal the nature of these difficulties through analyses that consider the cursor’s path of movement. A range of cursor measures was applied, and a number of them were found to be significant in capturing the differences between able-bodied users and motion-impaired users, as well as the differences between a haptic force feedback condition and a control condition. The cursor measures found in the literature, however, do not make up a comprehensive list, but provide a starting point for analysing cursor movements more completely. Six new cursor characteristics for motion-impaired users are introduced to capture aspects of cursor movement different from those already proposed. Published online: 6 November 2002     

Plan recognition for interface agents

Interface agents are computer programs that provide personalized assistance to a user dealing with computer based applications. By understanding the tasks the user performs in a software application an interface agent could be aware of the context that represents the user’s focus of attention at each particular moment. With this purpose, plan recognition aims at identifying the plans or goals of a user from the tasks he (for simplicity, we use “he” to refer to the user, but we do not mean any distinctions about sexes) performs. A prerequisite for the recognition of plans is knowledge of a user’s possible tasks and the combination of these tasks in complex task sequences, which describes typical user behavior. Plan recognition will enable an interface agent to reason about what the user might do next so that it can determine how to assist him. In this work we present the state of the art in Plan Recognition, paying special attention to the features that make it useful to interface agents. These features include the ability to deal with uncertainty, multiple plans, multiple interleaved goals, overloaded tasks, noisy tasks, interruptions and the capability to adapt to a particular user.     

‘Working Well, Together’: Arts-Based Research and the Cultural Future of Small Cities

This article offers a research update on a 3-year programme initiated by the Kamloops Art Gallery and the University College of the Cariboo in Kamloops, British Columbia. The programme is supported by a ‘Community–University Research Alliance’ grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the collaboration focuses on the cultural future of small cities – on how cultural and arts organisations work together (or fail to work together) in a small city setting. If not by definition, then certainly by default, ‘culture’ is associated with big city life: big cities are equated commonly with ‘big culture’; small cities with something less. The Cultural Future of Small Cities research group seeks to provide a more nuanced view of what constitutes culture in a small Canadian city. In particular, the researchers are exploring notions of social capital and community asset building: in this context, ‘visual and verbal representation’, ‘home’, ‘community’ and the need to define a local ‘sense of place’ have emerged as important themes. As the Small Cities programme begins its second year, a unique but key aspect has become the artist-as-researcher. Correspondence and offprint requests to: L. Dubinsky, Kamloops Art Gallery, 101–465 Victoria Street, Kamloops, BC V2C 2A9 Canada. Tel.: 250-828-3543; Email: ldubinsky@museums.ca     

User Environments and Individuals: Experience with Adaptive Interface Agents

The traditional style of working with computers generally revolves around the computer being used as a tool, with individual users directly initiating operations and waiting for the results of them. A more recent paradigm of human-computer interaction, based on the indirect management of computing resources, is agent-based interaction. The idea of delegation plays a key part in this approach to computer-based work, which allows individuals to relinquish the routine, mechanistic parts of their everyday tasks, having them performed automatically instead. Adaptive interfaces combine elements of both these approaches, where the goal is to have the interface adapt to its users rather than the reverse. This paper addresses some of the issues arising from a practical software development process which aimed to support individuals using this style of interaction. This paper documents the development of a set of classes which implement an architecture for adaptive interfaces. These classes are intended to be used as part of larger user interface systems which are to exhibit adaptive behaviour. One approach to the implementation of an adaptive interface is to use a set of software “agents”– simple processes which effectively run “in the background”– to decompose the task of implementing the interface. These agents form part of a larger adaptive interface architecture, which in turn forms a component of the adaptive system.     

The Human Communication Space: Towards I-centric Communications

In the last few years, a variety of concepts for service integration and corresponding systems have been developed. On the one hand, they aim for the interworking and integration of classical telecommunications and data communications services. On the other, they are focusing on universal service access from a variety of end-user systems. Many of the technical problems, resulting from the service integration, and service personalisation have been solved during the last years. However, all these systems are driven by the concept of providing several technologies to users by keeping the peculiarity of each service.  Looking at humans’ communication behaviour and their communication space, it is obvious that human beings interact habitually in a set of contexts with their environment. The individual information preferences and needs, persons to interact with, and the set of devices controlled by each individual define their personal communication space. Following this view, a new approach is to build communication systems not on the basis of specific technologies, but on the analysis of the individual communication spaces. The result is a communication system adapted to the demands of each individual (I-centric). The communication system will act on behalf of users’ demands, reflecting recent actions to enable profiling and self-adaptation to contexts and situations.  In this paper, we introduce I-centric Communications, an approach to design communication systems that adapt themselves to the individual communication space and individual environment and situation. In this context “I” means I, or individual, “Centric” means adaptable to I requirements and a certain user environment.     

User and Concept Studies as Tools in Developing Mobile Communication Services for the Elderly

The basis of this study was the ageing of the population all over the world. The study concentrated on finding out the key service needs of elderly people. The service needs from the end users’ as well as the experts’ perspective were gathered by means of various group methods such ideation sessions. Four mobile communication service concepts were created using these groups’ opinions. After diverse communication, these concepts were tested by the elderly. The research methods comprised a user study and a concept study.  Based on the results, the needs could be prioritised. Additionally, the main trend of the results confirmed the opinions presented in the literature. One important finding was the positive opinions about additional value of wireless devices and services. This knowledge can be used in mobile communication product development. Most of the elderly are ready to accept new forms of mobile communication service. Ease of use and actual need of the services are important criteria. The elderly are ready to begin using the services as long as they truly facilitate independent living.