Linguistic style checking with program checking tools

Written text is an important component in the process of knowledge acquisition and communication. Poorly written text fails to deliver clear ideas to the reader no matter how revolutionary and ground-breaking these ideas are. Providing text with good writing style is essential to transfer ideas smoothly. While we have sophisticated tools to check for stylistic problems in program code, we do not apply the same techniques for written text. In this paper we present TextLint, a rule-based tool to check for common style errors in natural language. TextLint provides a structural model of written text and an extensible rule-based checking mechanism.     

The impact of interface customization on the effect of cognitive style on information system success

The paper investigates the impact that customizing the user interface has on the effect that the users' cognitive styles have on the success of an information system. The study was carried out on an office automation. (OA) system, which was implemented in an institution of higher learning to support the top administrators in their work. Pearson and Bailey's user information satisfaction (UIS) instrument was used to measure the success of the system, while the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was used to determine the cognitive style of the user. The results provided evidence that support the proposition that by customizing the interface to suit the idiosyncrasies of the user, the effect that the cognitive style of the user has on the success of the OA system can be reduced, if not removed. This result suggests that if the interface to OA system can be customized, then system designers do not need to consider the users' cognitive styles explicitly when they are designing the system.     

Embarking on Spoken-Language NL Interface Design

Natural language (NL) user interfaces are growing in popularity. Unfortunately, the complexity of NL interaction makes these interfaces difficult to design. For NL interfaces to become successful, universal tools are needed to help support the NL design process. What work practice should these tools explicitly support? Interviews with NL designers and our own experiments have identified a specific work practice that designers should consider as they begin to incorporate NL into user interface designs. The work practice study highlights the value of using Wizard of Oz prototyping in NL design. We describe a tool that we have built, called SUEDE, to explicitly support the first stage of NL design for spoken-language user interfaces. Our tools and tools like it will help make NL in human-computer interaction (HCI) more commonplace.     

A Visual and Formal Glue between Application and Interaction

The construction of interactive software is known to be a difficult task. As far as the non-interactive part of the application is concerned, designers can find support in the field of software engineering, using object-oriented design methods for example. With regard to the user interface per se, a number of interactive tools (interface builders) are available, that allows creating interactively the look and feel of the interface. However, relating an object-oriented design with a proper user-interface design is still a matter of craft and experience, and few techniques permit the seamless integration of the two.The work presented here aims at bridging this gap. The paper proposes a visual language, based on Petri nets, for the design of the dialogue of interactive systems. This language allows specifying both activation and rendering on the one hand, and provides a seamless integration with an object-oriented design on the other.     

笔式用户界面交互信息模型研究

笔式用户界面是Post-WIMP界面的重要形态,在许多领域得到广泛应用.笔式界面设计需要设计者和用户的共同参与.捕获用户使用意图是设计笔式用户界面的前提,连接交互信息的表示与控制则是成功构造界面的关键.依据笔式交互信息连续性及模糊性特征,从设计参与者与交互信息管理两个维度建立了笔式用户界面交互信息模型OICM(orthogonal interaction information architecture coordinate model).从问题知识域、交互任务、规则集合以及上下文关联4个不同的象限对模型进行了详细的描述,并给出了基于XML的实现方法.在对模型进行分析后,介绍了基于OICM模型的开发平台和应用系统实例.     

Designing with dialogue charts: a qualitative content analysis of end-user designers' experiences with a software engineering design tool

Abstract. Software engineering tools used by designers are critical to most systems development methodologies, and successful methodologies are critical to improved productivity. However, the way in which designers use and relate to software engineering tools, whether computer assisted or not, has received little attention in the design literature. The purpose of this study is to gain insight into how people perceive the process of using design tools. The study is a qualitative analysis of interview information from participants in a field experiment. Four teams of student designers used various design tools during the development of interactive information systems typical of those that might be developed by sophisticated end-users. The research reported here is an exploratory study aimed at understanding how designers use one of these tools, the dialogue charts. The broad range of purposes included the uses predicted by the reference literature on design. However, the end-user designers also used the tool opportunistically — they found a broader range of tool usage than the literature on design tools predicted. For example, they consistently used the tool as a communications vehicle among different phases of design and development. The results show that the relationships these 'end-user designers' developed with the target tool are expressed in highly emotional language. These attitudes are tightly coupled with the purposes for which the designers use the tool. The methodology uses a field experiment as a treatment and a semistructured interview with a hidden agenda for gathering data. The data analysis techniques draw on the concepts of discovering grounded theory as described by Glaser and Strauss. They further draw on the concepts of qualitative content analysis synthesized by Krippendortf and the qualitative data analysis methods described by Miles and Huberman.     

ITS系统中自然语言人机接口的设计与实现

文中详细介绍了智能教学系统ＭＳＣＩＴＳ中基于知识的自然语言人机接口的设计及实现方法。     

Formal Modeling and Reconfiguration of User Interfaces for Reduction of Errors in Failure Handling of Complex Systems

Controlling and observing complex systems is central to the study of human–machine interaction. In our understanding, there is much to be gained from integrating formal modeling and analysis, including the reconfiguration of user interfaces, with the development of user interfaces with high usability. To this end, we introduce a new approach to modeling and reconfiguration of user interfaces jointly with a newly developed set of tools for interactive and visual creation and automatic transformation of user interfaces' interaction logic to a formal language based on Petri nets. Reconfiguration will be embedded into a process for adapting user interfaces to the user's cognitive representation of the controlled system. This process involves practicing the use of a given user interface, adapting it to the user's needs through reconfiguration, and applying the resulting adaptations to the formally defined interaction logic. An evaluation study confirms that this process reduces errors in interaction.     

How map designers can represent their ideas in thematic maps

Problem analysis in designing thematic maps and user interfaces which assist map designers in incorporating their ideas into maps are presented. Problems in designing choropleth maps are analyzed from the map designers point of view. A graphical user interface, called “Histogram Interface”, is implemented as countermeasure for problems in designing choropleth maps. The user interface can assist map designers in representing their ideas and achieving the desired maps through the designing process. The user interface operations, which correspond to the map designer's ideas, are explained. The user interface effectiveness is confirmed by resulting map examples and the corresponding graphical patterns on the interface. A concept is proposed concerning the importance in any computer graphics field, which the designers should consider in determining how to incorporate their ideas into pictures.     

Domain‐specific design of user interfaces

The use of graphical user interfaces in a computerized work environment is often considered to substantially improve the work situation. The outcome can, however, often be the opposite. Inappropriate use of windowing techniques, scrolling, and colors can result in tedious and confusing interaction with the computer. Today's standards and style guides define basic design principles but are insufficient for design of interfaces to end‐user applications. Here detailed domain knowledge is indeed essential. A domain‐specific style guide (DSSG) is an extension of today's standard with domain‐specific primitives, interface elements, and forms, together with domain‐specific guidelines. Careful dedicated analysis of information utilization in a domain is the development basis for a DSSG. The development is performed with an object‐oriented approach to facilitate the reuse of interface components and to support consistency and structure. Using a DSSG, the development of applications can be performed with a simplified information analysis. Therefore a more effective design process is possible, one in which end users can participate in the design using their own familiar domain‐related terminology. Time and costs for the development process can be drastically reduced if domain‐specific style guides, design guidelines, and development tools are used.     

User preferences for adaptive user interfaces in health information systems

An adaptive user interface requires identification of user requirements. Interface designers and engineers must understand end-user interaction with the system to improve user interface design. A combination of interviews and observations is applied for user requirement analysis in health information systems (HIS). Then, user preferences are categorized in this paper as either data entry, language and vocabulary, information presentation, or help, warning and feedback. The user preferences in these categories were evaluated using the focus group method. Focus group sessions with different types of HIS users comprising medical staff (with and without computer skills) and system administrators identified each user group’s preference for the initial adaptation of the HIS user interface. User needs and requirements must be identified to adapt the interface to users during data entry into the system. System designers must understand user interactions with the system to identify their needs and preferences. Without this, interface design cannot be adapted to users and users will not be comfortable using the system and eventually abandon its use.     

Systematic evaluation of design choices for software development tools

Most design and evaluation of software tools is based on the intuition and experience of the designers. Software tool designers consider themselves typical users of the tools that they build and tend to subjectively evaluate their products rather than objectively evaluate them using established usability methods. This subjective approach is inadequate if the quality of software tools is to improve and the use of more systematic methods is advocated. This paper summarises a sequence of studies that show how user interface design choices for software development tools can be evaluated using established usability engineering techniques. The techniques used included guideline review, predictive modelling and experimental studies with users.     

Glove Based User Interaction Techniques for Augmented Reality in an Outdoor Environment

This paper presents a set of pinch glove-based user interface tools for an outdoor wearable augmented reality computer system. The main form of user interaction is the use of hand and head gestures. We have developed a set of augmented reality information presentation techniques. To support direct manipulation, the following three selection techniques have been implemented: two-handed framing, line of sight and laser beam. A new glove-based text entry mechanism has been developed to support symbolic manipulation. A scenario for a military logistics task is described to illustrate the functionality of this form of interaction.     

以交互为中心的Post-WIMP界面模型

随着硬件设备和软件技术的发展,国内外开展了大量基于Post-WIMP界面的新型交互技术的研究.面对多种交互设备以及使用环境,在界面设计的过程中,根据上下文选择适当的交互组件或技术,并有效地进行组合与评估,成为构造Post-WIMP界面的关键问题.将界面设计与应用语义分离,使设计者能够灵活地置换各种交互技术.通过对Post-WIMP界面交互过程与界面设计层次的分析,建立起以交互为中心的分层Post-WIMP界面模型,将交互的各个层次进行分离.在模型的基础上,描述一个了Post-WIMP界面生成工具.借助该工具,设计者能够在设计过程中方便地引入新的交互技术,并能在最终的软件系统中加以灵活应用,从而可以快速、有效地进行界面原型实现和迭代评估.应用实例表明,Post-WIMP模型的建立以及生成工具的实现,有利于设计者确定设计方案及对方案的整体评估.     

Sketching Tangible Interfaces: Creating an Electronic Palette for the Design Community

Until very recently, the typical home computer user accessed the machine's software and processing capabilities solely through the physical interfaces of a mouse, keyboard, and monitor. Everyone, from software designers to industrial designers to Web site designers, relied on these elements to be the physical-interaction method that users employed to access their product. Today, interface designers can no longer assume that the interaction between a user and a digital interface occurs only, or most effectively, through traditional devices such as keyboards, mice, and number pads. Tangible interfaces and ubiquitous-computing technologies are changing the human relationship to computing technology, and designers must take this into account when creating products and services. In this article the authors describe some of the tools available for this purpose, including proprietary, open-source, and custom solutions.     

Rapid Prototyping of Adaptable User Interfaces

User interface adaptation has been proposed in recent years as a means to achieve personalized accessibility and usability of user interfaces. Related user interface architectures, as well as a variety of related development method and tools, have also been elaborated. Admittedly, however, despite the recognized validity of the approach, which has been proved in practice in a series of prototype systems, the wider adoption and uptake of user interface adaptation approaches are still limited. One of the identified obstacles is the complexity intrinsic in designing such interfaces and the need of radically revising the current user interface design practice to account for (a) the alternative designs required for adaptation, (b) the parameters involved in driving adaptations (i.e., selecting among alternatives at a given point during interaction), and (c) the logic of adaptation at runtime. This article proposes a twofold tool-based support strategy for user interface adaptation development, based on (a) an adaptation development toolkit and related widget library, which directly embeds lexical level adaptations into common interactive widgets, and (b) embedding such a library in a common integrated development environment, thus allowing designers to define and view alternative adaptations at design time and create adaptable user interfaces through traditional prototyping. The aforementioned approach has been implemented in the domain of adaptable applications for older users, producing tools that are currently in use in the development of a large suite of interactive applications in various domains. The approach presented in this article is claimed to be the first and so far unique supporting rapid prototyping of adaptable user interfaces, thus minimizing the divergence between typical development practices and user interface adaptation development.     

A Design Thinking Rationality Framework: Framing and Solving Design Problems in Early Concept Generation

The concept of “Design Thinking” opens up debate regarding the prevalent human–computer interaction design practice. This article focuses specifically on the cognitive processes of designers during their early design activities. Two groups of designers—experts and novices—were asked to develop a fictitious vacuum cleaner. We then examined the different ways in which these groups manage their design thinking processes and how the groups choose design concepts. The empirical study revealed that expert designers are effective at framing design problems. They make quick decisions (through the use of the affect heuristic) but are more wedded to their own previously developed design concepts, which they do not change in subsequent design stages. In contrast, novice designers are less skilled in framing new design problems but better able to renounce their initial design concepts. These diverse design thinking approaches are linked to potential problems. We then discuss how to address these concerns in conjunction with empathy for the artifact (i.e., artifact empathy via the mediated self) or user (i.e., user empathy via the simulated self), problem framing with second-order semantic connotations, and irrationality when analyzing design solutions. Finally, we propose a design thinking rationality framework that can establish a designer's view of design activities and thereby assist designers educated in both creative and rational design decisions.     

An application-oriented,optimization-based methodology for interactive design of engineering systems†

Motivated by a control system example, a new methodology is proposed for tackling optimal design of engineering systems. This methodology emphasizes designer's intuition and man-machine interaction. It includes a classification of specifications into various types and a scaling of specification space and parameter spaces based on the designer's knowledge of the particular application. An algorithm is proposed for solving the resulting constrained ‘minimax’ optimization problem and its convergence is proved. Finally, an application-oriented user front-end is presented. The methodology discussed in this paper has been implemented in the DELIGHT system and has been successfully used in various types of applications.