Designing for augmented attention: Towards a framework for attentive user interfaces

Attentive user interfaces are user interfaces that aim to support the user’s attentional capacities. By sensing the users’ attention for objects and people in their everyday environment, and by treating user attention as a limited resource, these interfaces avoid today’s ubiquitous patterns of interruption. Focusing upon attention as a central interaction channel allows development of more sociable methods of communication and repair with ubiquitous devices. Our methods are analogous to human turn taking in group communication. Turn taking improves the user’s ability to conduct foreground processing of conversations. Attentive user interfaces bridge the gap between the foreground and periphery of user activity in a similar fashion, allowing users to move smoothly in between.We present a framework for augmenting user attention through attentive user interfaces. We propose five key properties of attentive systems: (i) to sense attention; (ii) to reason about attention; (iii) to regulate interactions; (iv) to communicate attention and (v) to augment attention.     

Requirements for graphical user interface development environments for groupware

Most user interface designers are conversant with graphical user interface (GUI) tools such as Motif¹ and Presentation Manager² which provide ‘widgets’ and other facilities for building user interfaces. Such GUI tools were developed primarily for building interfaces to single-user systems. The purpose of the paper is to present the result of research into the requirements for GUI tools for multi-user systems. Many of the requirements of single and multi-user GUIs are the same, for example, usability and flexibility. A number of new widgets are needed for multi-user GUIs, for example, shared scroll-bars and multi-user telepointers. The requirements are divided into three groups based on three sources of requirements: literature, user survey and widgets.     

An information retrieval approach for approximate queries

With the growing availability of online information systems, a need for user interfaces that are flexible and easy to use has arisen. For such type of systems, an interface that allows the formulation of approximate queries can be of great utility since these allow the user to quickly explore the database contents even when he is unaware of the exact values of the database instances. Our work focuses on this problem, presenting a new model for ranking approximate answers and a new algorithm to compute the semantic similarity between attribute values, based on information retrieval techniques. To demonstrate the utility and usefulness of the approach, we perform a series of usability tests. The results suggest that our approach allows the retrieval of more relevant answers with less effort by the user.     

Vehicle Routing and Production Planning Decision Support Systems: Designing Graphical User Interfaces

Given the inherent complexity of vehicle routing and production planning decision support systems, designing user interfaces for them is challenging and can make a big difference in the usability of these systems. Many heuristic and optimization-oriented systems that have been implemented for this type of problem have failed in part due to a poor graphical user interface. This work proposes an approach that can be applied to improve the design of user interfaces for this type of system and make its implementation easier. The approach is based on tools that were adapted from the FW/SM system for Structured Modeling and commercially available tools, such as Powerbuilder and CPLEX. Two systems that were implemented using this approach, in two different firms, are presented. These systems run on standard PCs under MS Windows, follow the Windows applications design guidelines, and interact with relational database management systems.     

Trust-inspiring explanation interfaces for recommender systems

A recommender system’s ability to establish trust with users and convince them of its recommendations, such as which camera or PC to purchase, is a crucial design factor especially for e-commerce environments. This observation led us to build a trust model for recommender agents with a focus on the agent’s trustworthiness as derived from the user’s perception of its competence and especially its ability to explain the recommended results. We present in this article new results of our work in developing design principles and algorithms for constructing explanation interfaces. We show the effectiveness of these principles via a significant-scale user study in which we compared an interface developed based on these principles with a traditional one. The new interface, called the organization interface where results are grouped according to their tradeoff properties, is shown to be significantly more effective in building user trust than the traditional approach. Users perceive it more capable and efficient in assisting them to make decisions, and they are more likely to return to the interface. We therefore recommend designers to build trust-inspiring interfaces due to their high likelihood to increase users’ intention to save cognitive effort and the intention to return to the recommender system.     

Modeling the user state for context-aware spoken interaction in ambient assisted living

Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) systems must provide adapted services easily accessible by a wide variety of users. This can only be possible if the communication between the user and the system is carried out through an interface that is simple, rapid, effective, and robust. Natural language interfaces such as dialog systems fulfill these requisites, as they are based on a spoken conversation that resembles human communication. In this paper, we enhance systems interacting in AAL domains by means of incorporating context-aware conversational agents that consider the external context of the interaction and predict the user’s state. The user’s state is built on the basis of their emotional state and intention, and it is recognized by means of a module conceived as an intermediate phase between natural language understanding and dialog management in the architecture of the conversational agent. This prediction, carried out for each user turn in the dialog, makes it possible to adapt the system dynamically to the user’s needs. We have evaluated our proposal developing a context-aware system adapted to patients suffering from chronic pulmonary diseases, and provide a detailed discussion of the positive influence of our proposal in the success of the interaction, the information and services provided, as well as the perceived quality.     

Integrated systems II: Multi-tier interfaces for integrating families of systems

Of critical importance is the design of the man-machine interfaces for general rule based systems. They must serve (i) as user-friendly interfaces for different classes of users for different applications and (ii) to invoke service components in integrated packages without interrogating users. These objectives are achieved with a multitier interface design whose two parts, the Interactive User-Friendly Interface (IUFI) and the System Interface (SI), communicate with each other via commonly used notational systems and can be invoked independently of each other. The user-friendly interface, which is uniquely designed for each user discipline, passes information to the SI. The SI does not change for new IUFI designs and it can be invoked by other rule based systems without interrogating users.Here the requirements for the IUFI and SI parts are identified, four different designs of multi-tier interfaces are given and two applications are described. Also included are guidelines for designing user friendly interfaces.     

The design of a hybrid cultural model for Arabic gamified systems

The growing popularity of gamification in the global environment increases the importance of balancing factors that affect user engagement, satisfaction and acceptability in different cultures. While the main motivation behind gamifying software systems is to improve user engagement, an adverse effect might happen if the design and functionality did not consider users' cultural requirements. This paper presents a hybrid cultural design model for localising Arabic systems that takes into consideration the visual elements of user interfaces as well as the functionality and cultural factors of Arabic countries. We start by introducing design guidelines for localising Arabic systems and then evaluate the designed localisation criteria by conducting questionnaires and interviews. We base our studies on the factors that could affect the productivity levels of software engineers who use gamified software project management tools in their workplace. 63 software engineers participated in a mood board based questionnaire composed by different visual elements, rewards and achievements. To validate our findings, seven experts were interviewed. Those were software developers and designers. Based on our results, we propose a hybrid cultural design model, composed of personalised elements, localised elements and non-localised elements. This paper also proposes the first comprehensive model for localising Arabic gamified systems.     

Interactive multi-user video retrieval systems

In this paper we present two interactive multi-user systems for video search and browsing. The first is composed by web applications which allows multiuser interaction in a distributed environment; such applications are based on the Rich Internet Application paradigm, designed to obtain the levels of responsiveness and interactivity typical of a desktop application. The second system implements a multi-user collaborative application within a single location, exploiting multi-touch devices. Both systems use the same backend, based on a service oriented architecture (SOA) that provides services for automatic and manual annotation, and an ontology-based video search and browsing engine. Ontology-based browsing let users to inspect the content of video collections; user queries are expanded through ontology reasoning. User-centered field trials of the systems, conducted to assess the user experience and satisfaction, have shown that the approach followed to design these interfaces is extremely appreciated by professional archivists and people working on multimedia.     

A formal model for plastic human computer interfaces

The considerable and significant progress achieved in the design and development of new interaction devices between man and machine has enabled the emergence of various powerful and efficient input and/or output devices. Each of these new devices brings specific interaction modes.With the emergence of these devices, new interaction techniques and modes arise and new interaction capabilities are offered. New user interfaces need to be designed or former ones need to evolve. The design of so called plastic user interfaces contributes to handling such evolutions. The key requirement for the design of such a user interface is that the new obtained user interface shall be adapted to the application and have, at least, the same behavior as the previous (adapted) one. This paper proposes to address the problem of user interface evolution due to the introduction of new interaction devices and/or new interaction modes. More, precisely, we are interested by the study of the design process of a user interface resulting from the evolution of a former user interface due to the introduction of new devices and/or new interaction capabilities. We consider that interface behaviors are described by labelled transition systems and comparison between user interfaces is handled by an extended definition of the bi-simulation relationship to compare user interface behaviors when interaction modes are replaced by new ones.     

User interface design guidelines for smartphone applications for people with Parkinson’s disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is often responsible for difficulties in interacting with smartphones; however, research has not yet addressed these issues and how these challenge people with Parkinson’s (PwP). This paper specifically investigates the symptoms and characteristics of PD that may influence the interaction with smartphones to then contribute in this direction. The research was based on a literature review of PD symptoms, eight semi-structured interviews with healthcare professionals and observations of PwP, and usability experiments with 39 PwP. Contributions include a list of PD symptoms that may influence the interaction with smartphones, a set of experimental results that evaluated the performance of four gestures tap, swipe, multiple-tap, and drag and 12 user interface design guidelines for creating smartphone user interfaces for PwP. Findings contribute to the work of researchers and practitioners’ alike engaged in designing user interfaces for PwP or the broader area of inclusive design.     

Teleoperation User Interfaces for Mining Robotics

This paper presents a brief discussion of the requirements for user interfaces for teleoperation of mining vehicles and systems. Current commercial interfaces are relatively simple, evolving from line-of-sight remote control systems with the addition of video displays. This level of sophistication has nonetheless allowed teleoperation to be a viable and profitable technique. CSIRO Exploration and Mining research into interface design currently concentrates on fusion of non-visual feedback to the operator and efficient presentation of such information. Case studies based on user interfaces for two experimental teleoperated mining-related systems, the Numbat mine emergency response vehicle and remote highwall mining control systems are described. In both cases the purpose of the user interface is to satisfy the major client requirements for mining systems of robustness, reliability and ease of use by site operational and support personnel.     

Applying user modeling to human-computer interaction design

Since the early 1980's, intelligent and adaptive systems have appeared and have been written about in a variety of guises. Although there are many differences between such systems as adaptive user interfaces, intelligent help systems and explanation systems, there are many similarities as well. The most notable of these is that they all require user models to be maintained and exploited as part of their designs. Furthermore, they share the same high level architecture. This paper discusses the use of models in human-computer interaction design and offers a common architecture for these adaptive systems. A methodology for the development of these systems is presented.This is based on our experimental work which is reported fully in Jennings, Benyon and Murray, 1991 and Jennings and Benyon, in press)     

Stroke Style Analysis for Painterly Rendering

We propose a novel method that automatically analyzes stroke-related artistic styles of paintings.A set of adaptive interfaces are also developed to connect the style analysis with existing painterly rendering systems, so that the specific artistic style of a template painting can be effectively transferred to the input photo with minimal effort.Different from conventional texture-synthesis based rendering techniques that focus mainly on texture features, this work extracts, analyzes and simulates high-level style features expressed by artists’ brush stroke techniques.Through experiments, user studies and comparisons with ground truth, we demonstrate that the proposed style-orientated painting framework can significantly reduce tedious parameter adjustment, and it allows amateur users to efficiently create desired artistic styles simply by specifying a template painting.     

Information tools for the shop-floor

New production and work practices set new proficiency requirements for employees in operative organisations. Most of these requirements involve information and communication. We can train and educate people to meet with these challenges and design their physical and information environments to support and facilitate them in their work. New information tools play a central role in this development. But what kind of tools? How to apply these tools to enhance employees’ learning by reflection. In this article we will discuss the emergency of shop-floor information environment from the sociotechnical point of view. In addition, the possibilities and limitations of electronic performance support as a solution are evaluated. Shop-floor information artifacts are tools used to produce, organise, store and distribute work related information in a shop-floor environment. They may be very simple like handwritten notes or user interfaces to extremely complex data management systems.     

Eye-tracking for user modeling in exploratory learning environments: An empirical evaluation

In this paper, we describe research on using eye-tracking data for on-line assessment of user meta-cognitive behavior during interaction with an environment for exploration-based learning. This work contributes to user modeling and intelligent interfaces research by extending existing research on eye-tracking in HCI to on-line capturing of high-level user mental states for real-time interaction tailoring. We first describe the empirical work we did to understand the user meta-cognitive behaviors to be modeled. We then illustrate the probabilistic user model we designed to capture these behaviors with the help of on-line information on user attention patterns derived from eye-tracking data. Next, we describe the evaluation of this model, showing that gaze-tracking data can significantly improve model performance compared to lower level, time-based evidence. Finally, we discuss work we have done on using pupil dilation information, also gathered through eye-tracking data, to further improve model accuracy.     

Creating realistic map-like visualisations: Results from user studies

Maps have traditionally been used for displaying geographical information. However, apart from this obvious purpose, the metaphor of maps has been applied to other uses, such as information visualisation and novel user interfaces, since the map metaphor is easy-to-understand and allows users to explore data intuitively. There are several methods for creating these map-like visualisations and user interfaces, but there is little understanding on how people perceive these non-geographical maps, and how to make the visualisation output more realistic. As such, we aim to find preliminary answers on these issues by conducting user studies with a series of map-like visualisations. In this paper, we report on the results of the studies and reveal the factors that have an impact on the human perception of visualisations that are designed to resemble geographic maps. Based on these results, we propose design suggestions for building realistic map-like visualisations.     

Influential Characteristics of Enterprise Information System User Interfaces

ABSTRACT

End-user acceptance is considered as a significant factor influencing the success of enterprise information system (EIS) implementations and operations. This study conceptualizes three aspects of EIS user interfaces (UIs), namely information overload, control familiarity, and UI fit, and proposes a model to understand their effect on two major factors that are considered to influence the end-user acceptance of these systems: EIS end user’s performance expectancy and effort expectancy. We developed a theoretical model and multiitem scales for the proposed EIS UI characteristics and tested the model empirically with data from a survey performed with a sample 98 EIS end users. The results from our test provide evidence for the key role that EIS UI design plays in the end user’s performance and effort expectancy.