Personalizing Interactions with Information Systems

Personalization constitutes the mechanisms and technologies necessary to customize information access to the end-user. It can be defined as the automatic adjustment of information content, structure, and presentation tailored to the individual. In this chapter, we study personalization from the viewpoint of personalizing interaction. The survey covers mechanisms for information-finding on the web, advanced information retrieval systems, dialog-based applications, and mobile access paradigms. Specific emphasis is placed on studying how users interact with an information system and how the system can encourage and foster interaction. This helps bring out the role of the personalization system as a facilitator which reconciles the user’s mental model with the underlying information system’s organization. Three tiers of personalization systems are presented, paying careful attention to interaction considerations. These tiers show how progressive levels of sophistication in interaction can be achieved. The chapter also surveys systems support technologies and niche application domains

Complex Visual Querying without SQL: Mashup in-memory data and persistent data

This dissertation has the intent of increasing the level of expressiveness of a visual interface that allows users to query data without resorting to textual query languages. Although it was in the 1970s that Relational Database Management Systems appeared, the standard way to interact with them remains to be through SQL, a textual query language. One of the main problems with these kinds of languages is that they require technical skills and knowledge of query language, syntax and domain schema. Consequently, database man- agement was considered only accessible to experienced users for a long time. In recent years, with the explosion of the Web, the volume of data available to everyone grew exponentially. This way, it became necessary to make data retrieval accessible not only to expert users but also to users without database knowledge. Visual Query Systems emerged in the late 1970s to hide the complexity of query languages behind a visual interface and improving the effec- tiveness of human-computer communication. Since then, many different approaches have been proposed and studied. The OutSystems platform provides a graphical query interface called Aggregates that allows its users to formulate queries through the manipulation of visual components. However, this tool does not yet support the same level of expressiveness as SQL. This dissertation aims at increasing the level of expressiveness of the Aggregates by propos- ing different solutions for the implementation of the IN and NOT IN clauses without compro- mising the global experience for any kind of user. In order to achieve this, an iterative devel- opment process was used, including the design, implementation and evaluation of prototypes. In this dissertation, we present a functional solution, integrated into the OutSystems platform. The results show that we were able to turn the filtering of persistent data by in-memory data very accessible to OutSystems Developers and also to regular Developers with no or very little experience using the OutSystems platform.Esta dissertação tem como objetivo aumentar o nível de expressividade de uma interface visual que permite aos seus utilizadores consultar dados sem recorrer a linguagens de consulta tex- tuais. Apesar de ter sido na década de 1970 que surgiram os Sistemas de Gestão de Bases de Dados Relacionais, a forma mais usual de interagir com esses sistemas continua a ser através de SQL, uma linguagem textual de consulta de dados. Um dos principais problemas da utilização deste tipo de linguagens é que requerem habili- tações técnicas e conhecimento sobre linguagens de consulta, sintaxes específicas e esquemas de domínio. Consequentemente, a gestão de bases de dados foi, durante muito tempo, consi- derada apenas acessível a utilizadores experientes. Recentemente, com a explosão da Web, a quantidade de dados disponíveis para toda a gente cresceu exponencialmente. Deste modo, tornou-se necessário tornar o acesso a esses dados possível tanto para utilizadores experientes como para utilizadores sem conhecimentos de bases de dados. Os Sistemas Gráficos de Con- sulta de Dados emergiram no final da década de 1970 com o objetivo de ocultar a complexidade das linguagens de consulta por detrás de uma interface visual e melhorar a eficácia da intera- ção pessoa-máquina. Desde então, muitas abordagens diferentes foram propostas e estudadas. A plataforma da OutSystems fornece uma interface gráfica de consulta chamada Aggregates que permite aos seus utilizadores formular consultas através da manipulação de componentes visuais. No entanto, esta ferramenta ainda não suporta o nível de expressividade do SQL. Esta dissertação visa, assim, aumentar o nível de expressividade dos Aggregates, propondo diferentes soluções para a implementação das cláusulas IN e NOT IN sem comprometer a experiência global para qualquer tipo de utilizador. Para tal, foi utilizado um processo de desen- volvimento iterativo, incluindo a concepção, implementação e avaliação de protótipos. Nesta dissertação apresentamos uma solução funcional, integrada na plataforma OutSystems. Os re- sultados mostram que fomos capazes de tornar a filtragem de dados persistentes por dados em memória muito acessível tanto para programadores OutSystems como para programadores regulares com nenhuma ou muito pouca experiência de uso com a plataforma OutSystems

Models, Modelling, Metaphors and Metaphorical Thinking - From an Educational Philosophical View

In this contribution, I present my view of models and metaphors within educational research, very broadly speaking. I start out by articulating my educational philosophical perspective as a form of applied philosophy. Inspired by Ricœur, I then define models as “instruments for configuration and reconfiguration”. I argue that metaphors and metaphorical thinking are more basic than models and modelling. The former can guide reasoning in a holistic, heuristic manner. The latter can be used analytically to develop the initial metaphorical similarity into articulated analogies. Models and metaphors may be deployed explicitly and consciously but may also (mis)lead cognition through implicit structuring of thinking. I proceed to give examples of the roles which models and metaphors have within different areas of (research in) education, teaching, and learning. One example is the explicit development of design patterns; another is implicit adherence to either an acquisition metaphor or a participation metaphor of learning. Towards the end, I provide tentative answers to three questions posed by my discussion pair, Willard McCarty, concerning 1) computer modelling, 2) open-endedness of models and metaphors, and 3) situated knowledge and relativism

Semantic Similarity of Spatial Scenes

The formalization of similarity in spatial information systems can unleash their functionality and contribute technology not only useful, but also desirable by broad groups of users. As a paradigm for information retrieval, similarity supersedes tedious querying techniques and unveils novel ways for user-system interaction by naturally supporting modalities such as speech and sketching. As a tool within the scope of a broader objective, it can facilitate such diverse tasks as data integration, landmark determination, and prediction making. This potential motivated the development of several similarity models within the geospatial and computer science communities. Despite the merit of these studies, their cognitive plausibility can be limited due to neglect of well-established psychological principles about properties and behaviors of similarity. Moreover, such approaches are typically guided by experience, intuition, and observation, thereby often relying on more narrow perspectives or restrictive assumptions that produce inflexible and incompatible measures. This thesis consolidates such fragmentary efforts and integrates them along with novel formalisms into a scalable, comprehensive, and cognitively-sensitive framework for similarity queries in spatial information systems. Three conceptually different similarity queries at the levels of attributes, objects, and scenes are distinguished. An analysis of the relationship between similarity and change provides a unifying basis for the approach and a theoretical foundation for measures satisfying important similarity properties such as asymmetry and context dependence. The classification of attributes into categories with common structural and cognitive characteristics drives the implementation of a small core of generic functions, able to perform any type of attribute value assessment. Appropriate techniques combine such atomic assessments to compute similarities at the object level and to handle more complex inquiries with multiple constraints. These techniques, along with a solid graph-theoretical methodology adapted to the particularities of the geospatial domain, provide the foundation for reasoning about scene similarity queries. Provisions are made so that all methods comply with major psychological findings about people’s perceptions of similarity. An experimental evaluation supplies the main result of this thesis, which separates psychological findings with a major impact on the results from those that can be safely incorporated into the framework through computationally simpler alternatives

“Standing-off Trees and Graphs”: On the Affordance of Technologies for the Assertive Edition

Starting from the observation that the existing models of digital scholarly editions can be expressed in many technologies, this paper goes beyond the simple opposition of ‘XML’ and ‘graph’, It studies the implicit context of the technologies as applied to digital scholarly editions: embedded mark-up in XML/TEI trees, graph representa- tions in RDF, and stand-off annotation as realised in annotation tools widely used for information extraction. It describes the affordances of the encoding methods offered. It takes as a test case the “assertive edition” (Vogeler 2019), in which the text is considered in a double role: as palaeographical and linguistic phenomenon, and as a representation of information. It comes to the conclusion that the affordances of XML help to detect sequential and hierarchical properties of a text, while those of RDF best cover the representation of knowledge as semantic networks of statements. The relationship between them can be expressed by the metaphor of ‘layers’, for which stand-off annotation technologies seem to be best fitted. However, there is no standardised technical formalism to create stand-off annotations beyond graphical tools sharing interface elements. The contribution concludes with the call for the acceptance of the advantages of each technology, and for efforts to be made to discuss the best way to combine these technologies

Design by searching : a system for creating and evaluating complex architectural assemblies

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (p. 168-172).This work investigates a prototypical Web-based search system designed to enable architects and/or developers to engage and educate residential consumers in a new way: as co-designers. The key motivation is to develop software tools that support a feasible industrial process while providing home consumers with a way to conceive of and design spaces, as an alternative to the standardized commodity solutions that are currently available. The basic mode of operation for this work is to combine the structure of the modern computational search with emerging building modeling technologies as a foundation for Web-based participative design tools. Object-oriented component representations have been utilized to build a solution space that can be searched directly, without indexing. Additionally, conceptual query interfaces have been designed and evaluated through interviews with volunteer users. 'The component-based solutions and conceptual queries were then incorporated into a prototype of an architectural search tool which was analyzed to measure its effectiveness.by Matthew Giles Phillips.S.M

Image Retrieval within Augmented Reality

Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht das Potenzial von Augmented Reality zur Verbesserung von Image Retrieval Prozessen. Herausforderungen in Design und Gebrauchstauglichkeit wurden für beide Forschungsbereiche dargelegt und genutzt, um Designziele für Konzepte zu entwerfen. Eine Taxonomie für Image Retrieval in Augmented Reality wurde basierend auf der Forschungsarbeit entworfen und eingesetzt, um verwandte Arbeiten und generelle Ideen für Interaktionsmöglichkeiten zu strukturieren. Basierend auf der Taxonomie wurden Anwendungsszenarien als weitere Anforderungen für Konzepte formuliert. Mit Hilfe der generellen Ideen und Anforderungen wurden zwei umfassende Konzepte für Image Retrieval in Augmented Reality ausgearbeitet. Eins der Konzepte wurde auf einer Microsoft HoloLens umgesetzt und in einer Nutzerstudie evaluiert. Die Studie zeigt, dass das Konzept grundsätzlich positiv aufgenommen wurde und bietet Erkenntnisse über unterschiedliches Verhalten im Raum und verschiedene Suchstrategien bei der Durchführung von Image Retrieval in der erweiterten Realität.:1 Introduction 1.1 Motivation and Problem Statement 1.1.1 Augmented Reality and Head-Mounted Displays 1.1.2 Image Retrieval 1.1.3 Image Retrieval within Augmented Reality 1.2 Thesis Structure 2 Foundations of Image Retrieval and Augmented Reality 2.1 Foundations of Image Retrieval 2.1.1 Definition of Image Retrieval 2.1.2 Classification of Image Retrieval Systems 2.1.3 Design and Usability in Image Retrieval 2.2 Foundations of Augmented Reality 2.2.1 Definition of Augmented Reality 2.2.2 Augmented Reality Design and Usability 2.3 Taxonomy for Image Retrieval within Augmented Reality 2.3.1 Session Parameters 2.3.2 Interaction Process 2.3.3 Summary of the Taxonomy 3 Concepts for Image Retrieval within Augmented Reality 3.1 Related Work 3.1.1 Natural Query Specification 3.1.2 Situated Result Visualization 3.1.3 3D Result Interaction 3.1.4 Summary of Related Work 3.2 Basic Interaction Concepts for Image Retrieval in Augmented Reality 3.2.1 Natural Query Specification 3.2.2 Situated Result Visualization 3.2.3 3D Result Interaction 3.3 Requirements for Comprehensive Concepts 3.3.1 Design Goals 3.3.2 Application Scenarios 3.4 Comprehensive Concepts 3.4.1 Tangible Query Workbench 3.4.2 Situated Photograph Queries 3.4.3 Conformance of Concept Requirements 4 Prototypic Implementation of Situated Photograph Queries 4.1 Implementation Design 4.1.1 Implementation Process 4.1.2 Structure of the Implementation 4.2 Developer and User Manual 4.2.1 Setup of the Prototype 4.2.2 Usage of the Prototype 4.3 Discussion of the Prototype 5 Evaluation of Prototype and Concept by User Study 5.1 Design of the User Study 5.1.1 Usability Testing 5.1.2 Questionnaire 5.2 Results 5.2.1 Logging of User Behavior 5.2.2 Rating through Likert Scales 5.2.3 Free Text Answers and Remarks during the Study 5.2.4 Observations during the Study 5.2.5 Discussion of Results 6 Conclusion 6.1 Summary of the Present Work 6.2 Outlook on Further WorkThe present work investigates the potential of augmented reality for improving the image retrieval process. Design and usability challenges were identified for both fields of research in order to formulate design goals for the development of concepts. A taxonomy for image retrieval within augmented reality was elaborated based on research work and used to structure related work and basic ideas for interaction. Based on the taxonomy, application scenarios were formulated as further requirements for concepts. Using the basic interaction ideas and the requirements, two comprehensive concepts for image retrieval within augmented reality were elaborated. One of the concepts was implemented using a Microsoft HoloLens and evaluated in a user study. The study showed that the concept was rated generally positive by the users and provided insight in different spatial behavior and search strategies when practicing image retrieval in augmented reality.:1 Introduction 1.1 Motivation and Problem Statement 1.1.1 Augmented Reality and Head-Mounted Displays 1.1.2 Image Retrieval 1.1.3 Image Retrieval within Augmented Reality 1.2 Thesis Structure 2 Foundations of Image Retrieval and Augmented Reality 2.1 Foundations of Image Retrieval 2.1.1 Definition of Image Retrieval 2.1.2 Classification of Image Retrieval Systems 2.1.3 Design and Usability in Image Retrieval 2.2 Foundations of Augmented Reality 2.2.1 Definition of Augmented Reality 2.2.2 Augmented Reality Design and Usability 2.3 Taxonomy for Image Retrieval within Augmented Reality 2.3.1 Session Parameters 2.3.2 Interaction Process 2.3.3 Summary of the Taxonomy 3 Concepts for Image Retrieval within Augmented Reality 3.1 Related Work 3.1.1 Natural Query Specification 3.1.2 Situated Result Visualization 3.1.3 3D Result Interaction 3.1.4 Summary of Related Work 3.2 Basic Interaction Concepts for Image Retrieval in Augmented Reality 3.2.1 Natural Query Specification 3.2.2 Situated Result Visualization 3.2.3 3D Result Interaction 3.3 Requirements for Comprehensive Concepts 3.3.1 Design Goals 3.3.2 Application Scenarios 3.4 Comprehensive Concepts 3.4.1 Tangible Query Workbench 3.4.2 Situated Photograph Queries 3.4.3 Conformance of Concept Requirements 4 Prototypic Implementation of Situated Photograph Queries 4.1 Implementation Design 4.1.1 Implementation Process 4.1.2 Structure of the Implementation 4.2 Developer and User Manual 4.2.1 Setup of the Prototype 4.2.2 Usage of the Prototype 4.3 Discussion of the Prototype 5 Evaluation of Prototype and Concept by User Study 5.1 Design of the User Study 5.1.1 Usability Testing 5.1.2 Questionnaire 5.2 Results 5.2.1 Logging of User Behavior 5.2.2 Rating through Likert Scales 5.2.3 Free Text Answers and Remarks during the Study 5.2.4 Observations during the Study 5.2.5 Discussion of Results 6 Conclusion 6.1 Summary of the Present Work 6.2 Outlook on Further Wor

Rendering real-time dashboards using a GraphQL-based UI Architecture

With the increase in the complexity of the systems being built and demand in the quality of service by the customers, developing and providing highly efficient real-time systems is one of the biggest challenges today for software enterprises. BluemixTM ─ IBM’s cloud offering implemented on Cloud Foundry, an open source “Platform as a Service” (PaaS), is an example of such a system. Currently, there are approx. 26 infrastructural services running in the background from where the data is fetched and is rendered on different dashboards of the system. However, the system suffers from performance issues. This thesis explores the performance improvements of the real-time dashboards by introducing our proposed GraphQL-based UI architecture which allows caching and asynchronous loading. The test results of this architecture’s implementation on the Bluemix Usage Dashboard show that the Real data renders 245% faster and the Switching Account 153% faster than the existing system

Proceedings of the Workshop on the Reuse of Web based Information

The proceedings are currently available online at: http://www-rocq.inria.fr/~vercoust/REUSE/WWW7-reuse.html where individual papers can be downloaded. However, this URL must not be regarded as permanent.These are the Proceeding of theWorkshop on the Reuse of Web Information that was held in conjunction with the Seventh International World Wide Web Conference, Brisbane, 14 April 19998