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Guest
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Presentation
The Human Side of IT
[HTML]
[PDF: 3 pages, 647 KB]
(includes a list of Useful
References for those interested in knowing more about
"Human-Computer
Interaction")
Paloma
Díaz-Pérez
and Gustavo Rossi - Guest Editors
Abstract: The guest
editors present the issue and describe its purpose and contents,
explaining
that the selection of articles was made with the idea of covering
various
aspects of interaction from both an academic and an industrial
viewpoint.
Accessibility- and
Usability-Oriented
Design through USERfit Tool [PDF: 7
pages,
1.2 MB]
Julio
Abascal-González,
Myriam Arrue-Recondo, Nestor Garay-Vitoria, Jorge Tomás-Guerra,
and Carlos A. Velasco-Nuñez
Abstract: This
paper
presents an application called USERfit Tool, developed to facilitate
the
use of the USERfit design methodology that was developed in order to
generate
usability and accessibility specifications. Though USERfit methodology
was developed mainly for the Assistive Technology environment it has
been
adapted to the design of applications for any group of users. The
principal
difficulty experienced in the application of USERfit has been that
because
the information generated was handled using paper forms then the
inclusion
or elimination of users, change of user contexts, and the need to
propagate
data from one form to other tended to make the USERfit application
tedious.
In order to decrease the effort required to manage the information
produced
in the design process – and so facilitate the use of USERfit
methodology
– USERfit Tool allows the reuse of previously generated designs, and
the
sharing of a design among remote designers, therefore maintaining
coherence
and compatibility.
Ontology-Based
Annotation
of Usability Evaluation-Related Resources: Design and Retrieval
Mechanisms
[PDF:
6 pages, 953 KB]
Elena
García-Barriocanal,
Miguel-Ángel Sicilia-Urbán, and Ignacio Aedo-Cuevas
Abstract: Current
Web resource retrieval mechanisms – namely, search engines, link
catalogues
or link databases – have well known limitations on their usefulness,
especially
when searching highly specific resources. In this work, we describe an
alternative interface based on annotating resources with terms inside
an
ontology, and its application to the usability evaluation domain. The
structural
principles of the ontology and a prototype based on the RDF meta-data
description
language are described. In this prototype, the specification of the
query
is carried out through browsing the ontology’s inheritance hierarchy,
and
resources are also retrieved according to the semantic relationships
defined
in the conceptualization.
Errata notice: The
right title for this paper is the one above (Ontology-Based
Annotation
of Usability Evaluation-Related Resources: Design and Retrieval
Mechanisms),
the one shown in the corresponding PDF file being incorrect. Our
apologies
for the mistake.
Virtual Reality: Do
Not
Augment Realism, Augment Relevance [PDF:
9
pages, 700 KB]
Johan F. Hoorn, Elly
A. Konijn, and Gerrit C. van der Veer
Abstract: Virtual
Reality (VR) is not technology and VR is not new. VR is fiction and
fiction
is as old as humanity. Users of computer systems deal with virtual
reality
all the time. Typically, they do not distinguish functionality from
machinery
but create their own User’s Virtual Machine. Because users do not
clearly
discriminate between (their own created) fiction and (misunderstood)
reality,
delusions can be insidiously destructive to the satisfaction with and
efficient
use of the system. How to design the experience of fiction and how to
develop
technologies for implementing this experience such that users are
satisfied
while the system remains obtrusive? We describe a new model for the
perception
and experience of fictional characters within situations, while VR is
discussed
for its truth-value, degree of being realistic, and its place in
fiction
and reality. We argue that a VR-experience gains more from increased
emotional
relevance than from higher realistic resolutions.
GADEA: a Framework
for
the Development of User Interfaces Adapted to Human Cognition Diversity
[PDF:
4 pages, 652 KB]
Martín
González-Rodríguez,
Esther Del Moral-Pérez, María del Puerto Paule-Ruiz, and
Juan-Ramón Pérez-Pérez
Abstract: The
adaptation
of user interfaces to the specific cognitive, perceptive and motion
requirements
of certain kinds of user is usually much too expensive and unprofitable
to be attractive to the software industry. GADEA is a user interface
management
system for the development of adaptive user interfaces, which are both
easy to user by developers and able to adapt the user interface of an
application
in an automated way. This framework uses new ways of isolating user
interfaces
from the application’s functionality, and they are based on code
structural
reflection, fuzzy logic bases, artificial intelligence techniques and
small
“armies” of intelligent software agents that keep the user model
updated.
User Interface
Patterns
for Object-Oriented Navigation [PDF: 7
pages,
1,063 KB]
Pedro-Juan
Molina-Moreno,
Ismael Torres-Boigues, and Oscar Pastor-López
Abstract:
Conceptual
patterns applied to user interface requirement elicitation can provide
a common language for user interface development teams. This paper
proposes
a set of patterns and shows its use in practice with an easy case study
from specification to final implementation.
e-CLUB: A Ubiquitous
e-Learning
System for Teaching Domotics [PDF: 8
pages,
2.4 MB]
Manuel Ortega-Cantero,
José Bravo-Rodríguez, Miguel-Ángel Redondo-Duque,
and Crescencio Bravo-Santos
Abstract:
Computer-assisted
educational environments are an excellent complement to the learning
process.
However, when domains are complex, the expected learning support
objectives
may not be achieved. In this paper, we present an e-Learning system for
the teaching of Domotics featuring some characteristics which improve
on
the teaching-learning process. Among these improvements, we would
highlight
two factors: planning in order to reach an intermediate solution to
complex
design problems, and collaboration for the in group building of these
solutions.
The last step, an excellent complement to these improvements, is the
implementation
of the ubiquitous classroom with which we intend to reinforce the
previous
advantages by complementing e-Learning with ubiquity.
Designing Complex
Systems
in Industrial Reality: A Study of the DUTCH Approach [PDF:
7 pages, 1,012 KB]
Cristina Chisalita,
Mari-Carmen
Puerta-Melguizo, and Gerrit C. Van der Veer
Abstract: The main
interest of our research group is to study the design process of
“complex
interactive systems”. The conceptual design framework we are using is
DUTCH.
Coming as we do from an academic environment, our main interest was to
put this framework into practice and to test our ideas in the real
world.
The opportunity arose several times in both academic and industrial
settings.
In these cases our group acted as consultants but now, for the first
time,
we are learning from the inside. We are currently working as
ethnographers
and therefore we are members of a real interdisciplinary design team in
a leading IT industry. In this paper we will set out the initial
results
of our experience and the lessons we are learning from it. More
specifically,
we will focus on the problems we encountered when performing Task
Analysis,
and on the implications for the modelling tool developed from DUTCH.
Towards Universal
Access
in the Disappearing Computer Environment [PDF:
7 pages, 745 KB]
Constantine Stephanidis
Abstract: The
emerging
technological paradigm of the Disappearing Computer will bring
about
new challenges for the discipline of Human-Computer Interaction,
resulting
in multiple new requirements for the development of user interfaces.
These
challenges will inevitably need to be addressed in the broader context
of developing an Information Society acceptable to all citizens. In
this
respect, Universal Access is expected to play a critical role in
providing
appropriate user interface development methods and tools. This paper
describes
the design, implementation and evaluation of an application experiment
addressing some of the issues raised by Universal Access in the
Disappearing
Computer environment, and in particular context-awareness, interface
migration
and continuous interaction, and briefly discusses the requirements that
arise concerning the design, development and evaluation of user
interfaces
in such a context.
Customer Interaction
Personalization:
iSOCO Alize [PDF: 5 pages, 1.4M KB]
Jesús
Cerquides-Bueno,
Enrique Hernández-Jiménez, Oscar Frías-Barranco,
and
Noyda Matos-Fuentes
Abstract: User
interaction
personalization is a key factor in the design of electronic businesses.
In this article we present a brief introduction to the concept of
personalization,
highlighting the difference between explicit and implicit
personalization,
as well as such aspects as confidentiality and security. After
introducing
the subject, we go on to present the Alize architecture, iSOCO’s
particular
bet on personalization, to conclude with an explanation of its use
within
the framework of a virtual bookstore.
A Web Voice
Solution:
ConPalabras [PDF: 6 pages, 1.1 MB]
Carlos
Rebate-Sánchez,
Yolanda Hernández-González, Carlos García-Moreno,
and Alicia Fernández del Viso-Torre
Abstract:
ConPalabras
(Spanish for “with words”) is a voice solution that enables your web
pages
to speak, either by synthesising messages embedded on the web page or
by
synthesising text documents stored at a remote location. ConPalabras is
a voice plug-in which, when installed on the client side (via the
Internet
or some other way, such as by connection kits) makes it possible to
integrate
voice into a web site.
Paloma Díaz-Pérez graduated and received her doctorate in Computer Science at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain), and is now a Lecturer/Associate Professor at the Universidad de la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. The main lines of research which she is pursuing in the DEI laboratory <http://www.dei.inf.uc3m.es> of this University include: hypermedia and electronic documentation systems; software development methodologies, CASE tools and formal methods for representing web systems and hypermedia, and user interface design and evaluation processes for interactive systems. She was President of the IPO2002 Programme Committee. <pdp@inf.uc3m.es>
Gustavo Rossi is a Full Professor at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata (Argentina), and Director of LIFIA (Laboratory for Education and Research in Advanced Informatics) of that same University. He was awarded a doctorate in Computer Sciences by the PUC-Rio, Brazil. in 1996. He is one of the developers of OOHDM, a leading methodology for Web application design. His current areas of interest are design reuse in Web applications and business process modelling on the Web. He is co-editor of the Object Technology section of Novática, journal of the Spanish CEPIS society ATI. <gustavo@sol.info.unlp.edu.ar>
François Louis Nicolet, Zürich (Switzerland) <nicolet@acm.org>; Rafael Fernández Calvo, Madrid (Spain) <rfcalvo@ati.es> (he is also the editor of this website)
Mike Andersson, Richard Butchart, David Cash, Arthur Cook, Tracey Darch, Laura Davies, Nick Dunn, Rodney Fennemore, Hilary Green, Roger Harris, Michael Hird, Jim Holder, Alasdair MacLeod, Pat Moody, Adam David Moss, Phil Parkin, Brian Robson.
The phenomenon of interaction is present in all activities of our lives, whether it involves objects or human beings. From the moment we get up till it is time to go to bed again we are constantly interacting with the objects around us in order to achieve some specific purpose: our breakfast cup of coffee, the car we drive to go somewhere, the fork we eat with or the bed we sleep in. Naturally, we all want this interaction to take place in the most effective and efficient way possible, so that it takes a minimum (even imperceptible) amount of our time for us to find out what an object is for and how it works. This is precisely what Donald Norman hopes to reveal in his book “The psychology of everyday things” which aims to show us how things should be designed in order to make it easy for us to understand and learn their function and their use, and thereby improve their interaction with users.
This phenomenon which happens in our day to day life also occurs when a person interacts with a computer. This particular interaction is known as HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) though in some cases it can also be seen referred to as CHI – Computer-Human Interaction) which is “a discipline concerned with the design, evaluation and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use and with the study of major phenomena surrounding them” (as defined by the ACM SIGCHI 1992). For this reason it can be said that the fundamental goal of HCI is to help create usable and safe systems which are also functionally suitable for the users’ needs. These systems comprise not only hardware and software, but also the environment they are used in or which will be affected by their use (e.g. company organization, the personal work environment, etc.). It was precisely when the environment was brought into the equation in the early eighties when the term HCI started to replace the term “man machine interface”.
There are therefore a great many different disciplines involved in the study of HCI, ranging from computer science to psychology, not to mention ergonomics (in the USA the term ‘human factors’ is also used) and graphic design. All have a part to play in the analysis of how to improve a system’s usability. This is normally measured in terms of five criteria: the ease of learning how it works; the ease of remembering how the system works after not having used it for some time; the efficiency of use; the number of errors the user makes when using it; and finally, the user’s satisfaction when using the system.
HCI, is not therefore just a discipline concerned with the development of an interface of windows which the user interacts with by using a mouse. Work is currently underway on many fronts in this field, such as accessibility or internationalisation, with the aim of making systems usable by all kinds of users, with different physical, intellectual and cultural characteristics, and on any type of platform, as well as on other fronts which present day and future technology are opening up, such as ubiquitous computing (the use of computers anywhere), pervasive computing (or the use of computers integrated in a worldwide infrastructure), wearable computing (computers integrated in everyday objects), computational toys (computers in interactive toys) or interactive television (communication media which the audience can interact with).
In this monograph on
HCI
we have included some of the articles that were presented at the Interacción
2002 Congress held at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (Spain)
last May, in which the guest editors of this monograph of Upgrade
participated
as members of the programme committee. The selection of these articles
was made with the idea of covering various aspects of interaction from
both an academic and an
industrial viewpoint.
In “USERfit Tool: A Design Tool Oriented towards Accessibility and Usability”, Julio Abascal-González, Myriam Arrue-Recondo, Nestor Garay-Vitoria, and Jorge Tomás- Guerra, of the Universidad del País Vasco (Spain), and Carlos A. Velasco-Nuñez, from the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology, in Germany, tackle the subject of accessibility and usability via a tool which implements the USERfit methodology to generate usability specifications. This methodology wasdeveloped as part of the European project USER (TIDE-1062), undertaken by the HUSAT Research Institute, Sintef Unimed Rehab and COO.S.S. Marche scrl. The tool presented here, known as USERfit Tool, has also been designed to maximize usability and is currently the subject of several evaluations.
In “An
Annotation Ontology on Usability Evaluation Resources: Design and
Retrieval
Mechanisms”,
Elena García- Barriocanal, of
the Universidad de Alcalá (Spain), and Miguel-Ángel
Sicilia-Urbán and
Ignacio Aedo-Cuevas, of
the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (Spain), analyse how to improve
the
information retrieval process (a key aspect nowadays) by the use of
ontologies,
in line with what we know as the
Semantic Web . As
a specific example of an application the authors propose an ontology on
the usability of interfaces and present a tool which, by means of the
markup
of resources using the terms of the ontology, enables a search to be
performed
which is more suitable for users’ needs and with better semantics.
Johan F. Hoorn, Elly A. Konijn, and Gerrit C. van der Veer, from the Free University of Holland, tackle the subject of virtual reality in their article “Virtual Reality: Do Not Augment Realism, Augment Relevance” in which the authors see virtual reality as another kind of fiction and put forward the idea that if we want to improve the effectiveness of these kinds of systems, rather than concentrate on technology, which is only a means of transmission, we need to centre on those human aspects which make the user experience a virtual environment as if it were real. To do this they propose augmenting the relevance of virtual environments, taking into consideration features which are of interest to the users and the activities which they perform in that environment in real life.
In “GADEA: a Framework for the Development of User Interfaces Adapted to Human Cognition Diversity”, Martín González-Rodríguez, Esther Del Moral-Pérez, María del Puerto Paule-Ruiz and Juan-Ramón Pérez Pérez, of the Universidad de Oviedo (Spain), tackle the interesting topic of user interface adaptation, proposing a tool to manage the adaptation process by means of an intelligent system. In this way the task of the developer or designer of the system is greatly simplified, since he or she need not devote any time to modelling the adaptation and can concentrate his or her efforts on improving interaction or on purely technical aspects of development.
“User Interface Patterns for Object Oriented Navigation” shows us an example of cooperation between the corporate and the academic world. In this work, Pedro-Juan Molina-Moreno and Ismael Torres-Boigues, of CARE Technologies S.A., and Oscar Pastor-López, of the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (Spain), have identified and specified a series of user interface conceptual patterns in business management applications. The use of these patterns not only provides a common language during the development process but also offers the possibility of validating requirements with the end user.
The topic of ubiquitous computing is dealt with in “e-CLUB: A Ubiquitous e-Learning System for Teaching Domotics” by Manuel Ortega-Cantero, José Bravo-Rodríguez, Miguel-Ángel Redondo-Duque, and Crescencio Bravo-Santos, of the Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha (Spain). In this article, the authors present a system oriented to the learning of domotics which aims to improve the training/learning process by applying two principles: the use of intermediate solutions which oblige the student to abstract and plan; and the application of a collaborative learning process. The tool is also integrated in a ubiquitous classroom with the aim of encouraging communication among students by making it possible to use a number of different devices.
In “Designing Complex Systems in Industrial Reality: A Study of the DUTCH Approach” we can read about an interesting case of cooperation between the academic and industrial worlds. The authors, Cristina Chisalita, Mari-Carmen Puerta-Melguizo, and Gerrit C. Van der Veer, describe how they have succeeded in transferring their experience in the design of complex interactive systems to the real world of business. Having been invited to join the development team of a high-tech company, they explain how they made use of DUTCH, a conceptual framework for the design of interactive systems, and Euterpe, the tool provided by this task based design, and pass on some of the lessons they have been learning as a result of this cooperation.
Universal access is a fundamental requirement of our Information Society, as we aim to make information accessible to every citizen. This is the subject matter of the article “Towards Universal Access in the Disappearing Computer Environment” by Constantine Stephanidis, in which he analyses and discusses the requirements which emerged during the design, development and evaluation of user interfaces in the context of universal access in a society in which the computer as we know it in its most traditional sense is gradually disappearing, as every day we find more smart devices embedded in everyday objects. This article also presents a practical experience, the “Nomadic Music Box”, in which an interaction environment made up of various mobile devices provides each user with access in the most convenient way possible.
To close this monograph we have two examples of how HCI principles can be applied to commercial developments. Firstly, Jesús Cerquides-Bueno, Enrique Hernández-Jiménez, Oscar Frías-Barranco, and Noyda Matos-Fuentes, from Intelligent Software Components (iSOCO) deal once again with the subject of meeting the needs of the user. In “Customer Interaction Personalization: iSOCO Alize” the authors present us with a multi-agent architecture which aims to adapt the user interface by making use of a series of behavioural patterns. Alize has also been applied to the world of e-Commerce, in a virtual bookstore to be more precise, under the premise that the possibility of generating personalized offers could make the difference between survival or failure for such businesses.
Finally, from Soluziona, Carlos Rebate-Sánchez, Yolanda Hernández-González, Carlos García-Moreno, and Alicia Fernández del Viso-Torre present us with “A Web Voice Solution: ConPalabras” (Spanish for “with words”), a plug-in developed with the aim of making web pages “speak”, to use the authors’ own words, by reading either their own content or the content of an attached file. In this way the auditory channel, normally underutilized, is made use of, thereby improving accessibility among other things. The authors also present several examples of where the application ConPalabras may be of interest.
We sincerely thank all the authors for their valuable contribution.
Translated by Steve Turpin
Note from the
Editors:
This monograph will be also published in Spanish (full issue
printed,
some articles online) by Novática, journal of the Spanish CEPIS
society ATI (Asociación de Técnicos de
Informática)
at <http://www.ati.es/novatica/>,
and in Italian (online edition only, containing abstracts and
some
articles) by the Italian CEPIS society ALSI and the Italian IT portal
Tecnoteca
at <http://www.tecnoteca.it>.
Useful References on Human-Computer Interaction
Below is a not exhaustive list of resources on the subject of HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) which, together with the articles included in this monograph, will afford the reader a broader understanding of this field.
Associations
• ACM SIGCHI <http://www.acm.org/sigchi/>
• Association for
Information
Systems Special Interest Group on Human-Computer Interaction <http://melody.syr.edu/hci/sig_homepage.cgi>
• The Ergonomics Society
- an international organisation for professionals using knowledge of
human
abilities and limitations to design and build for comfort, efficiency,
productivity and safety. <http://www.ergonomics.org.uk/>
• Human Factors and
Ergonomics
Society (HFES) <http://hfes.org/>
• British HCI group <http://www.bcs-hci.org.uk/>
• Association Francophone
d’Interaction Homme-Machine <http://www.afihm.org/
• AIPO <http://www.aipo.es/>
• Usability Professional’
Association <http://www.upassoc.org/>
• CADIUS <http://www.cadius.org/>
Electronic Resources
• useit.com: Jakob
Nielsen’s
Website <http://www.useit.com/>
• Usable Web <http://usableweb.com/>
• HCI Bibliography <http://www.hcibib.org/>
• HCI Index <http://degraaff.org/hci/>
• Human-Computer
Interaction
Resource Network <http://www.hcirn.com/>
• Wearable computing <http://home.earthlink.net/~wearable/>
• Usability resources <http://www.usabilityfirst.com/>
• Bad Designs <http://www.baddesigns.com/>
• Usablity news <http://www.usabilitynews.com/>
Books
• Jenny Preece et al.
Interaction
Design: beyond human computer interaction. John Wiley &Sons, 2002.
<http://www.id-book.com/>
• Mary B. Rosson and John
M. Carroll. Usability engineering. Morgan Kauffmann Pub. 2002. <http://www.mkp.com/books_catalog/catalog.asp?SBN=1-55860-712-9>
• Jakob Nielsen. Designing
web usability. New Riders Pub.1999. Traducción española:
Usabilidad: diseño de sitios web. Editorial Alambra-Longman 2000.
• Deborah J. Mayhew. The
usability engineering lifecycle: a practitioner’s handbook for user
interface
design. Morgan Kaufmann, 1999.
• Alan Dix et al. Human
Computer Interaction. Prentice Hall. 1998.
• Ben Shneiderman.
Designing
user interfaces. Pearson education. 1997 (second edition).
• Jakob Nielsen. Usability
engineering. AP Professional, 1993.
Specialized
Publications
• UInteracting with
Computers
<http://www.elsevier.com/locate/intcom>
• International Journal
of Human-Computer Studies <http://www.elsevier.com/inca/publications/store/6/2/2/8/4/6/>
• Transactions On
Computer-Human
Interaction <http://www.acm.org/tochi/>
• User modeling and
user-adapted
interaction <http://umuai.informatik.uni-essen.de/>
• Interaction D-Zine <http://www.interaction-design.nl/>
• The Interaction
Designer’s
Coffee Break <http://www.guuui.com/>
• Interactions <http://www.acm.org/interactions/>
• SIGCHI Bulletin <http://sigchi.org/bulletin/>
Conferences and
Congresses
• HCI International <http://hcii2003.ics.forth.gr/>
• ACM CHI <http://chi2003.org/>
• INTERACT <http://www.interact2003.org/>
• Interacción <http://suido.lsi.uvigo.es/i2003/>
| Last updated on February 27th, 2003 | by Rafael Fernández Calvo and François Louis Nicolet, co-editors of Upgrade |
| <rfcalvo@ati.es> |
