Minimizing ecological gaps in interface design

The authors explore what they call an ecological gap between what is observed during interface evaluation in a laboratory and what happens when the interface is used in the real world. They look at the gap as it relates to users, tasks, systems, and the real-world context. They propose specific techniques to be used at different phases of development for evaluation and tuning the interfaces in a real-world context     

Evaluation of ecological interface design for nuclear process control: situation awareness effects

OBJECTIVE: We determine whether an ecological interface display for nuclear power plant operations supports improved situation awareness over traditional and user-centered displays in a realistic environment. BACKGROUND: Ecological interface design (EID) has not yet been fully evaluated with real operators facing realistic scenarios. METHOD: Ecological displays were evaluated alongside traditional and user-centered "advanced" displays in a full-scope nuclear power plant simulation. Licensed plant operators used the displays in realistic scenarios that either had procedural support or did not have procedural support. All three displays were evaluated for their ability to support operator situation awareness. RESULTS: A significant three-way interaction effect was observed on two independent measures of situation awareness. For both measures, ecological displays improved situation awareness in scenarios that did not have procedural support, primarily in the detection phases of those scenarios. No other pronounced effects appeared across both measures. CONCLUSIONS: The observed improvement was sufficiently large to suggest that EID could improve situation awareness in situations where procedures are unavailable. However, the EID displays did not lead to improved situation awareness in the other conditions of the evaluation, and participants using these displays occasionally underperformed on single measures of situation awareness. This suggests that the approach requires further development, particularly in integrating EID with procedural support. APPLICATION: This research has important findings for the ongoing development of the EID approach, the design of industrial operator displays, and design to support situation awareness.     

A comparative review of knowledge structure measurement techniques for interface design

Recent research suggests that the structure of user knowledge, in addition to the content, is a significant determinant of user behavior in computer‐oriented tasks. The purpose of this article is to provide the researcher in human‐computer interaction with a comparative review of available knowledge structure measurement techniques and to summarize their potential application for aiding the designer at various stages of interface design. Three general classes of techniques are identified: verbal reports, clustering, and scaling. Each group is reviewed according to (1) the manner in which concepts and relationships are elicited, (2) the method used to derive the knowledge structure, and (3) procedures used to analyze the knowledge structure. With this information, the human‐computer interface designer can more effectively use these techniques for their particular application.     

A study on the collaborative management method of product design cycle knowledge

Because of the ever-increasing market competition and rapidly changing of customers’ requirements, the innovation quality and design efficiency of knowledge-intensive product has become the key factors in business success. The traditional knowledge management method which is based on design reuse and the single categories of design knowledge cannot satisfy these demands any more. Therefore, in order to effectively support the innovative design process of enterprises, a design knowledge collaborative management method based on multi-knowledge migration is proposed. According to the characteristics and functions during the product design process, the design knowledge is divided into three categories, design principle knowledge, design domain knowledge and design object knowledge. By extracting the operation attributes, relation attributes and physical attributes of the design knowledge, a unified knowledge representation model is established for different design participants. The ontology concept and knowledge matrix are used to establish the association between various categories of design knowledge. Multifarious knowledge search methods include keyword, function, principle and natural semantics are proposed for different design participants in different design stages. They can not only realize the knowledge reuse in the same domain but also support the cross-domain knowledge migration among different domain. Finally, based on the system analysis modelling, a design knowledge collaborative platform is established for the design process of mechanical products. A case study is also presented to illustrate the implementation of the platform.     

Experimental evaluation of a tide prediction display based on the ecological interface design framework

This study evaluates whether the approach of ecological interface design (EID) can be applied to natural systems. Whereas the EID has proved its worth in a number of studies done at interfaces for complex artificial systems, its application to natural systems is just emerging. A display was designed for tide predictions. This new tidal display, referred to as the ecological document (ED), was evaluated against a classical table format and a commercially available graphical display, to assess the cognitive contribution of the ED to user performance for maritime novices and experts. The results are that the ED leads to less misreading, shorter response times, and a subjective preference among novices and experts. In particular, response times to questions concerning abstract functions of the domain decrease with the use of the ED. Thus, a document reflecting the domain can significantly improve information retrieval, and in particular cognitive processing on abstract functions.

Making the most of ecological interface design: the role of individual differences

As advanced control rooms for new process control plants are being designed, the question arises as to whether operators of the future need to have a particular set of cognitive characteristics to make the most of those advanced control rooms. This issue was investigated by examining the interaction between ecological interface design (EID) and individual differences in the context of a process control microworld. A number of potential predictors of performance were investigated, including: demographic data, type of interface, type of instruction, and data from two cognitive style tests. Eight linear regression analyses were conducted to determine which variables were the strongest predictors of performance. The results indicate that the strongest and most consistent predictor of performance was the interaction between a holist cognitive style score and an interface based on the principles of EID. That is, individuals who used an EID interface and who had high holist scores were the best performers. It seems that these individuals have the relational thinking ability that is required to exploit the value of the higher-order functional information provided by an EID interface. This empirical result has practical implications for operator selection.     

面向知识重用和智能创新的交互界面进化设计研究

为了让交互界面脱离依赖设计师个人经验和主观认知的传统设计方式,将设计知识加以重用,并为人工设计提供自动智能的创新启发.基于交互产品中常见的交互界面构建重用知识规则和边界,构建了交互界面进化基因模型,并利用遗传算法,通过构建针对交互界面编码的遗传算子、重用知识约束规则库和交互式评价等进化模块,形成了面向知识重用和自动化智...     

Network and multidimensional representations of the declarative knowledge of human-computer interface design experts

A two-part experiment investigated human computer interface (HCI) experts' organization of declarative knowledge about the HCI. In Part 1, two groups of experts in HCI design—human factors experts and software development experts—and a control group of non-experts sorted 50 HCI concepts concerned with display, control, interaction, data manipulation and user knowledge into categories. In the second part of the experiment, the three groups judged the similarity of two sets of HCI concepts related to display and interaction, respectively. The data were transformed into measures of psychological distance and were analyzed using Pathfinder, which generates network representations of the data, and multidimensional scaling (MDS), which fits the concepts in a multidimensional space. The Pathfinder networks from the first part of the experiment differed in organization between the two expert groups, with human factors experts' networks consisting of highly interrelated subnetworks and software experts' networks consisting of central nodes and fewer, less interconnected sub-networks. The networks also differed across groups in concepts linked with such concepts as graphics, natural language, function keys and speech recognition. The networks of both expert groups showed much greater organization than did the non-experts' network. The network and MDS representations of the concepts for the two expert groups showed somewhat greater agreement in Part 2 than in Part 1. However, the MDS representations from Part 2 suggested that software experts organized their concepts on dimensions related to technology, implementation and user characteristics, whereas the human factors experts' organized their concepts more uniformly according to user characteristics. The discussion focuses on (1) the differences in cognitive models as a function of the amount and type of HCI design experience and (2) the role of cognitive models in HCI design and in communications within a multidisciplinary design team.     

Application of ontology modularization to human-web interface design for knowledge sharing

Ontology has received considerable attention in the semantic technology community. This paper discusses the roles of ontology modularization in human-web interface design for knowledge sharing. It stresses that ontology can support human-web interaction as a key component of knowledge sharing on the Internet. The paper proposes an approach of ontology modularization to navigating and searching web portals for the purposes of knowledge sharing. A case study of human-web interface design using ontology modularization for a commercial software web portal is used to illustrate the application of the proposed approach.     

A study of usability principles and interface design for mobile e-books

This study examined usability principles and interface designs in order to understand the relationship between the intentions of mobile e-book interface designs and users' perceptions. First, this study summarised 4 usability principles and 16 interface attributes, in order to conduct usability testing and questionnaire survey by referring to Nielsen (1993), Norman (2002), and Yeh (2010), who proposed the usability principles. Second, this study used the interviews to explore the perceptions and behaviours of user operations through senior users of multi-touch prototype devices. The results of this study are as follows: (1) users' behaviour of operating an interactive interface is related to user prior experience; (2) users' rating of the visibility principle is related to users' subjective perception but not related to user prior experience; however, users' ratings of the ease, efficiency, and enjoyment principles are related to user prior experience; (3) the interview survey reveals that the key attributes affecting users' behaviour of operating an interface include aesthetics, achievement, and friendliness.     

A knowledge environment for the biodiversity and ecological sciences

The Science Environment for Ecological Knowledge (SEEK) is a knowledge environment that is being developed to address many of the current challenges associated with data accessibility and integration in the biodiversity and ecological sciences. The SEEK information technology infrastructure encompasses three integrated systems: (1) EcoGrid—an open architecture for data access; (2) a Semantic Mediation System based on domain-specific ontologies; and (3) an Analysis and Modeling System that supports semantically integrated analytical workflows. Multidisciplinary scientists and programmers from multiple institutions comprise the core development team. SEEK design and development are informed by three multidisciplinary teams of scientists organized in Working Groups. The Biodiversity and Ecological Analysis and Modeling Working Group informs development through evaluation of SEEK efficacy in addressing biodiversity and ecological questions. The Knowledge Representation Working Group provides knowledge representation requirements from the domain sciences and develops the corresponding knowledge representations (ontologies) to support the assembly of analytical workflows in the Analysis and Modeling System, and the intelligent data and service discovery in the EcoGrid. A Biological Classification and Nomenclature Working Group investigates solutions to mediating among multiple taxonomies for naming organisms. A multifaceted education, outreach and training program ensures that the SEEK research products, software, and information technology infrastructure optimally benefit the target communities. This work is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Nos. ITR 0225676, 0225674 and DBI-0129792, as well as DARPA (N00014-03-1-0900). Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF) or DARPA.     

嵌入式以太网接口的研究与设计

本文使用微处理器和以太网协议芯片,组成嵌入式以太网接口,用软件实现简化的TCP/IP协议,解决了仪器仪表与以太网的连接问题。使用该接口,通过现有计算机网络,实现了对仪器仪表的远程控制和访问。     

A study of learning performance of e-learning materials design with knowledge maps

This research investigated the application of knowledge maps in e-learning materials design and hypothesized that knowledge maps would be more effective than e-learning in general at improving the performance and satisfaction of e-learning. In order to test the hypotheses, we conducted an experiment with 175 participants and randomly assigned them into knowledge map-based and browse-based groups. Both groups of participants needed to acquire specific skills and knowledge to write the target ADO.NET program. In the end of each training session subjects received an assessment to understand their learning score, satisfaction level, and computer self-efficacy. Our statistical analysis result showed that knowledge map-based learning group outperformed browse-based group in these three measurements. Thus, the proposed hypotheses were supported. We concluded that if knowledge map-based materials design approach were employed novice users would acquire the ADO.NET programming in a more effective manner. In addition, the satisfaction and computer self-efficacy of users could be improved substantially as a result of knowledge map-based materials design approach.     

Understanding the attitudes,knowledge sharing behaviors and task performance of core developers: A longitudinal study

ContextPrior research has established that a few individuals generally dominate project communication and source code changes during software development. Moreover, this pattern has been found to exist irrespective of task assignments at project initiation.ObjectiveWhile this phenomenon has been noted, prior research has not sought to understand these dominant individuals. Previous work considering the effect of team structures on team performance has found that core communicators are the gatekeepers of their teams’ knowledge, and the performance of these members was correlated with their teams’ success. Building on this work, we have employed a longitudinal approach to study the way core developers’ attitudes, knowledge sharing behaviors and task performance change over the course of their project, based on the analysis of repository data.MethodWe first used social network analysis (SNA) and standard statistical analysis techniques to identify and select artifacts from ten different software development teams. These procedures were also used to select central practitioners among these teams. We then applied psycholinguistic analysis and directed content analysis (CA) techniques to interpret the content of these practitioners’ messages. Finally, we inspected these core developers’ activities as recorded in system change logs at various points in time during systems’ development.ResultsAmong our findings, we observe that core developers’ attitudes and knowledge sharing behaviors were linked to their involvement in actual software development and the demands of their wider project teams. However, core developers appeared to naturally possess high levels of insightful characteristics, which became evident very early during teamwork.ConclusionsProject performance would likely benefit from strategies aimed at surrounding core developers with other competent communicators. Core developers should also be supported by a wider team who are willing to ask questions and challenge their ideas. Finally, the availability of adequate communication channels would help with maintaining positive team climate, and this is likely to mitigate the negative effects of distance during distributed developments.     

基于深度学习的知识追踪研究综述

随着人工智能与教育的不断发展,知识追踪在智慧教学领域具有广阔的应用前景;深度学习以其强大特征提取能力广泛应用于知识追踪,以深度学习知识追踪模型为起点,其改进模型为主线,全面回顾了知识追踪模型的研究进展,简要介绍了知识追踪领域传统模型的特点及不足,阐述了基于深度学习知识追踪模型的原理及局限性,同时全面整理并分析了针对可解释性问题、缺少学习特征、记忆增强网络、图神经网络、基于注意力机制五个方面的改进模型,梳理了知识追踪领域常用的公开数据集、评价指标及模型性能对比分析,最后总结并探讨了知识追踪在智慧教学方面的应用以及当前该研究领域的研究现状与未来的研究方向。     

Applications of deep knowledge

This paper contrasts the shallow representational methods used in many of today's commercial expert systems with methods which reason about the function and structure of the objects under consideration. These methods are used to build ‘deep knowledge’ systems and are still being researched. The paper gives examples of the experimental application of these methods in different domains.     

Designing for attention with sound: challenges and extensions to ecological interface design

OBJECTIVE: We explore whether ecological interface design (EID) principles can be applied to the design of an auditory display for anesthesia monitoring. BACKGROUND: EID examples focus almost exclusively on visual displays. In the anesthesia work environment, however, auditory displays may provide better individual and team awareness of patient state. METHOD: Using a work domain analysis of physiological monitoring in anesthesia, we identify information to display. Using the skills, rules, and knowledge distinction we identify cognitive control needed. Using semantic mapping we map physiological variables and constraints to auditory dimensions. RESULTS: EID principles do not address when information should be displayed and to whom. An attentional mapping stage helps to specify answers to these questions so that a workable auditory display for anesthesia monitoring is achieved. CONCLUSION: EID principles of representing work domain functional structure and minimizing resource-demanding cognitive control are necessary but insufficient to specify requirements for an effective auditory display. Also needed are analyses of control tasks, strategies, and the social organization of work. Such analyses are an integral part of the broader cognitive work analysis framework from which EID emerged. APPLICATION: Actual or potential uses of this research include the design of displays that support continuous peripheral awareness in collaborative multimodal work environments.     

基于优化目的的人机界面知识化表示方法

对一种新的人机界面操作和交互行为的知识化表示方法进行了介绍和分析。以语义网络为基础,通过对人在界面操作中的知识作业过程及交互行为进行分析研究,建立了一种带距离标识的基于面向对象的语义网络的界面知识化表示方法,提供了人机界面特征集定义、推理规则和交互描述模型。该表示方法从界面语义模型和心理语义模型的角度描述了交互,能够正确地描述人机界面的语义知识特征。并以手机短信界面为例说明了该方法的有效性和必要性。     

Shifting knowledge from analysis to design: requirements for contextual user interface development

There is consensus among the members of the HCI community as well as among software developers that work tasks and user characteristics (i.e. context) should play a leading role in the course of system development. There seems to be less consensus on how the information about users and work tasks should be acquired and subsequently moved to the design process of a development project. Due to the use of unifying methods and concepts--such as object-orientation-- that might be used for analysis, design and implementation, this transition seems to be facilitated. However, few inputs have been provided to guide developers on how to shift knowledge from analysis to design when task- and user knowledge are considered to be inherent parts of the development knowledge. This paper details the interface between analysis and design, reviews existing concepts to bridge the gap between the two phases of development, and enriches these findings with some empirical results from a survey with respect to practical experiences. From these findings, requirements to successfully shift knowledge in the early phases of software development have been derived.     

Shifting knowledge from analysis to design: Requirements for contextual user interface development

There is consensus among the members of the HCI community as well as among software developers that work tasks and user characteristics (i.e. context) should play a leading role in the course of system development. There seems to be less consensus on how the information about users and work tasks should be acquired and subsequently moved to the design process of a development project. Due to the use of unifying methods and concepts--such as object-orientation-- that might be used for analysis, design and implementation, this transition seems to be facilitated. However, few inputs have been provided to guide developers on how to shift knowledge from analysis to design when task- and user knowledge are considered to be inherent parts of the development knowledge. This paper details the interface between analysis and design, reviews existing concepts to bridge the gap between the two phases of development, and enriches these findings with some empirical results from a survey with respect to practical experiences. From these findings, requirements to successfully shift knowledge in the early phases of software development have been derived.