User interface design for older adults

The percentage of older adults is expected to increase to unprecedented levels within the next decade. Little attention has been devoted to understanding, organizing, and accommodating the needs of older adults with respect to interaction with computers. Indeed, most usability studies have focused on the needs of younger adults, to the neglect of the elderly. As computerized products increasingly appeal to broader audiences, the needs of older adults will become a concern for designers. This review focuses on the organization and presentation of characteristics of older adult learners, along with recommendations based on those characteristics, with the hope that their accessibility will enhance designer intuition and provide suitable information to guide user testing.     

User interface patterns in recommendation-empowered content intensive multimedia applications

Design Patterns (DPs) are acknowledged as powerful conceptual tools to improve design quality and to reduce time and cost of the development process by effect of the reuse of “good” design solutions. In many fields (e.g., software engineering, web engineering, interface design) patterns are widely used by practitioners and are also investigated from a research perspective. Still, they have been seldom explored in the arena of Recommender Systems (RSs). RSs provide suggestions (“recommendations”) for items that are likely to be appropriate for the user profile, and are increasingly adopted in content-intensive multimedia applications to complement traditional forms of search in large information spaces. This paper explores RSs through the lens of User Interface (UI) Design Patterns. We have performed a systematic analysis of 54 recommendation-empowered content-intensive multimedia applications, in order to: (i) discover the occurrences of existing domain independent UI patterns; (ii) identify frequently adopted UI solutions that are not modelled by existing patterns, and define a set of new UI patterns, some of which are specific of the interfaces for recommendation features while others can be useful also in a broader context. The results of our inspection have been discussed with and evaluated by a team of experts, leading to a consolidated set of 14 new patterns that are reported in the paper. Reusing pattern-based design solutions instead of building new solutions from scratch enables novice and expert designers to build good UIs for Recommendation-empowered content intensive multimedia applications more effectively, and ultimately can improve the UX experience in this class of systems. From a broader perspective, our work can stimulate future research bridging Recommender Systems, Web Engineering and Interface Design by means of Design Patterns, and highlights new research directions also discussed in the paper.

     

User interface design for military AR applications

Designing a user interface for military situation awareness presents challenges for managing information in a useful and usable manner. We present an integrated set of functions for the presentation of and interaction with information for a mobile augmented reality application for military applications. Our research has concentrated on four areas. We filter information based on relevance to the user (in turn based on location), evaluate methods for presenting information that represents entities occluded from the user??s view, enable interaction through a top-down map view metaphor akin to current techniques used in the military, and facilitate collaboration with other mobile users and/or a command center. In addition, we refined the user interface architecture to conform to requirements from subject matter experts. We discuss the lessons learned in our work and directions for future research.     

User modelling for graphical design in complex dynamic environments: concepts and prototype implementations

In this paper, it is proposed that using knowledge-based technology to generate different types of models of a target domain can better assist designers of support systems. The main argument is that designers' decisions should be based on knowledge about a domain rather than on their "common sense" judgments. This approach is illustrated by describing a canonical user model capturing operators' information and knowledge acquisition behaviour. In the present work, this model is used to help designers identify what process variables need to be associated with flow diagrams representing the structure of the technical system. Concepts underlying the user modelling approach as well as the knowledge elicitation and knowledge representation process are described. Finally, functionality provided by the user model is discussed as well as how the approach can be evaluated.     

一种支持访问控制的用户界面设计模型*

针对传统界面设计方法不能很好地支持多用户访问控制建模的缺点,提出一个面向多用户访问控制的用户界面ACUI（access control user interface）模型。该模型在传统界面设计模型的基础上,引入了RBAC（role based access control）机制,通过对用户模型中的角色及用例进行形式化分析,并根据内部模型中描述的界面构成元素及其交互关系,在用户界面模型中给出了针对不同角色的界面展示规则和界面布局树,最终实现了界面代码的自动生成。实验证明,该模型能很好地指导多用户权限访问控制     

User interface design assistance for large-scale software development

The User Interface Design Assistant (UIDA) addresses the specific design problems of style and integration consistency throughout the user interface development process and aids in the automated feedback and evaluation of a system's graphical user interface according to knowledge-based rules and project-specific design examples. The UIDA system is able to quickly identify inconsistent style guide interpretations and UI design decisions resulting from distributed development of multiple UI sub-systems. This case arises when each sub-system conforms to the general style guide rules, but when integrated together, may appear inconsistent.This work was conducted jointly at the University of Southern California's Center for Software Engineering, and the Arcadia Project, University of California Irvine.     

User interface design for decision support systems: A self-adaptive approach

This paper presents a self-adaptive approach to user interface design. The primary philosophy of this design is that the user interface must be aware of the changes in its user's behavior and then adapt to it. Three different default policies are proposed to control the adaptation of a user interface: fixed default, dynamic default, and no default. Performance of these policies are compared for various patterns of usage. Mechanisms that determine the optimal default value to reduce the unnecessary effort are also discussed.     

User security enhancement: A worldwide security project

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (S.W.I.F.T.) provides financial processing and communication services of the highest quality and integrity. Its network and value-added services enable customers to reduce costs, raise productivity and control risks. Security is one of the key benefits that S.W.I.F.T. offers to customers, and the User Security Enhancement (USE) programme is a major part of the company's security strategy.     

User interface based on natural interaction design for seniors

With world population ageing, how to help seniors to adapt to technology life is an important issue. Technology is becoming life rather than resistance, because many of the technology applications are often accompanied by a lot of information to process. This makes the user interface to become an important bridge between human computer interactions. Especially the inconvenience caused by human ageing, these related issues from the cognitive and operational of products are derived. This study proposes a study of user interface design based on natural interaction to increase seniors’ usage intention. In the proposed contents, the Kinect sensor is used to retrieve seniors’ in-depth information in movements, thus the user interface of system can be operated by the gesture intuitively. In the framework of the system, in the first all, the morphology is applied to identify the features of a hand from depth values obtained from the sensor. Gesture is used to recognize operating behavior of users to implement the interactive action, and collision detection is applied to confirm effectiveness of operation. On the other hand, through interpretive structural model (ISM), each design element of interactive interface can be decomposed and realized, and the solution for target and direction of design problem is also proposed. At the meanwhile, the concept of affordance is conducted to the development of interface for graphic users that proposed in this study, and the design achievement contains operation and usability of intuition can further be acquired. Finally, based on the proposed methodology, an intuitive user interface of digital devices is constructed by Java programming language that allows for verifying the feasibility of user interface for seniors. Besides, the proposed method can be widely used to develop the user interface for various products.     

User productivity as a function of AutoCAD interface design

Increased operator productivity is a desired outcome of user-CAD interaction scenarios. Two objectives of this research were to (1) define a measure of operator productivity and (2) empirically investigate the potential effects of CAD interface design on operator productivity, where productivity is defined as the percentage of a drawing session correctly completed per unit time. Here, AutoCAD provides the CAD environment of interest. Productivity with respect to two AutoCAD interface designs (menu, template) and three task types (draw, dimension, display) was investigated. Analysis of user productivity data revealed significantly higher productivity under the menu interface condition than under the template interface condition. A significant effect of task type was also discovered, where user productivity under display tasks was higher than productivity under the draw and dimension tasks. Implications of these results are presented.     

User interface design for medical imaging workstations: image display and processing

Conventional diagnostic protocols in radiological viewing require the availability of a large display space, as exemplified by the film alternator (or lightbox). However, the recent trend in medical imaging workstation design is the use of relatively small display screens to present radiological images. In the study, the efficacy of an alternatorfilmstrip metaphor for navigating through and displaying the images of a patient study is evaluated. The metaphor relies on the availability of a ‘pictorial directory’ and accommodates the concurrent display of a variable number of images on the screen. In addition the study also evaluated the utility of two commonly available operations for manipulating the appearance of an image: contrast enhancement and image magnification. The study consisted of two experimental variables: availability of a pictorial directory (yes, no) and number of concurrently displayed images (1, 2, or 4). Twelve radiologists viewed two sets of X-ray computed tomography (CT) studies for each of the six treatment conditions and were asked to record an interpretation for each study. Results indicate that interpretations using the two-image display formats took the least amount of time per study, whereas the single-image format with access to the pictorial directory required the longest mean interpretation time. The image magnification capability was generally not found to be useful for image interpretation, whereas the contrast manipulation operations were judged extremely helpful. Implications of the results for medical imaging workstation design are discussed.     

Tougher: A user-friendly graphical interface for TOUGHREACT

TOUGHREACT is a powerful simulator for multiphase fluid, heat, and chemical transport, but has a steep learning curve and the creation of the input files is time intensive, particularly for heterogeneous and complex geometries such as those in mining rock pile formations. TOUGHER is an application developed by the acid rock drainage research group of the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Utah in order to develop TOUGHREACT models rapidly for two-dimensional problems and to be able to visualize the simulation results in an intuitive way. It also reduces errors when creating complex layered 2D models and makes debugging easier. The software is currently limited to 2D rectangular grids with constant spatial sizes. The application is written in C++ and can be used on any computer with a Windows or Linux operating system. This paper will describe the overall structure of the application and give some examples of how it interfaces with the TOUGHREACT program. In particular, it will be shown how the application can generate a grid system for a rock pile containing several distinct geological layers, how the properties of each layer are set, and how the input sections (ELEM and CONNE) for TOUGHREACT are generated automatically. In addition, visualizing the flow and chemical output files generated by TOUGHREACT for a particular rock pile will be demonstrated. This includes transient vector as well as transient scalar data. At the end of the paper, two case studies, one with a simplified geometry and another with more complex layered rock geometry, will be presented.     

3Desque: interface elements for a 3D graphical user interface

This paper explores some design possibilities and constraints for 3D enhancements of graphical user interfaces (GUIs). This is done with the aim of conveying more information in less screen space, while avoiding visual clutter. Design elements include the use of ‘slapped‐back’ windows obtained by projecting windows and icons into three dimensions; ‘trays’, an alternative to folders or piles; the use of transparent ‘beams’ for indicating hierarchy; and the use of ‘periphs’ for a form of fisheye projection on window borders. In addition we employ shading and shadows to enhance the interface, and automatic placement algorithms to prevent visually confusing occlusion. By considering these approaches together, rather than in isolation, the interactions between the different modifications are made explicit. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

GUIDS: A Graphical User Interface Development System in UniECAD

UniECAD is an integrated electronic CAD system,the user interface development system is the key of the integration of UniECAD.This paper presents the architecture of GUIDS,a graphical user interface development system in UniECAD,and then discusses a series of new techniques and methods in the design and the implementation of this system around the following aspects:the editing environment of interface elements,the implementation of dialogue control and the automatic generation of interface code.As an example,the generation of the main interfaces of UniECAD shows the procedure of the development of user interfaces with this development system.     

User interface modeling in UMLi

Although user interfaces represent an essential part of software systems, the Unified Modeling Language )UML) seems to have been developed with little specific attention given to user interface issues. Several researchers have investigated integrating interface modeling techniques with UML. In UML, one models tasks using extended activity diagrams rather than by incorporating a completely new notation into UML. UMLi also addresses the relationships between use cases, tasks, and views, and thoroughly addresses the relationship between tasks and the data on which they act. UMLi is probably the most technically mature proposal for interface development in UML.     

User interface design for cooperating agents in industrial process supervision and control applications

Computer systems based on cooperating agent architectures are currently introduced in industrial process supervision and control applications as operator support systems in tasks such as fault diagnosis, system restoration etc. Cooperating agents are relevant to these applications since they involve a high degree of physical distribution, the operators' decisions are often based on multiple conflicting views which can be moderated by the cooperating agents, and the domains are complex with high degree of modularity.In the frame of the research project ARCHON, a multi-agent system architecture has been defined in order to be used in industrial process supervision and control applications. An issue of high importance in this context is the interaction with the human operator and the design of a user interface which supports this interaction. The impact of multi-agent architectures on the user interface design of industrial process supervision and control systems is the subject of this paper. An example of an interface designed for a multi-agent system in the area of electrical network supervision is provided.     

Trading off usability and security in user interface design through mental models

The aim of this paper is to establish the foundations for developing a mental model that bridges the gap between usability and security in user-centred designs. To this purpose, a meta-model has been developed to align design features with the users’ requirements through tacit knowledge elicitation. The meta-model describes the combinatorial relationships of Security, Usability and Mental (SUM) and how these components can be used to design a usable and secure system. The SUM meta-model led to the conclusion that there is no antagonism between usability and security. However, the degree of usable security depends on the ability of the designer to capture and implement the user’s tacit knowledge. In fact, the SUM meta-model seeks the dilution of the trading-off effects between security and usability through compensating synergism of the tacit knowledge. A usability security cognitive map has been developed for the major constituents of usability and security to clarify the interactions and their influences on the meta-model stipulations. The three intersecting areas of the three components’ relationships are manipulated to expand the Optimal Equilibrium Solution (OES) (δ) expanse. To put the SUM meta-model into practice, knowledge management principles have been proposed for implementing user-centred security and user-centred design. This is accomplished by using collaborative brainpower from various knowledge constellations to design a system within the user’s current and future perception boundaries. Therefore, different knowledge groups, processes, techniques, tactics and practices have been proposed for knowledge transfer and transformation during the mental model development.     

Now you see it, now you don't [graphical user interface design]

Accounting for color vision deficiency in user interface designs would cost little and benefit many users. By following a few basic guidelines, it's possible to ensure that Web browsers and other interfaces do not put color-blind users at a disadvantage. Developers can accomplish this easily and without compromising the designs' wider qualities