Intelligent colour agent in world wide web interface design

Colour management is a vital aspect in interfaces design as it retains an overall balanced and coherent appearance of the interfaces.The appropriate combination use of colours creates diverse effect and enhances the outlook as well as indirectly affects on the user acceptance and satisfaction of interfaces perceived.WWW interface designers often use up plenty of time and effort in mix-matching colours with the intention to obtain the most ultimate combination of the colours used.A poor colour management in WWW interfaces might not be able to convey its information to users efficiently and effectively. As a result, this paper aims to evaluate and resolve the appropriateness and inappropriateness use of colour in interface design, and proposed an intelligent colour agent to automate the process of considering and minimising the selection of the appropriateness use of colours.It has been safely concluded that the intelligent colour agent is capable of performing its tasks positively in analysing and consulting the suitable colours to be used and intensify the information transformation to and from the users.The visibility of interfaces has been examined to promote the contrast display between the users and machines

Generación automática de entornos de simulación con interfaces inteligentes

Este artículo describe cómo generar automáticamente entornos de simulación con interfaces de usuario inteligente, a partir de la descripción del modelo de simulación. Para ello hemos utilizado nuestro propio lenguaje de simulación continua orientado a objetos, OOCSMP, un compilador realizado para este lenguaje, capaz de generar código en C++ para las simulaciones y la interfaz, y un gestor de tareas de usuario, ATOMS, también construido por nosotros, capaz de ofrecer facilidades runtime a los usuarios de las aplicaciones.Este trabajo ha sido parcialmente subvencionado por el Plan Nacional de Investigación, proyecto número TIC96-0723-C02-01/02

Picture-based task definition and parameterization support system

Applications for task definition and automation are valuable tools to automated software engineering area. This paper describes a solution to support a parameterized task definition using screen capture images. The approach allows the capture of a sequence of actions defined by the user. Through the captured sequence of actions, the approach assists in the implementation of task automation processes. Based on picture-driven computing the proposed tool aims to reduce the challenges that users face while trying to define tasks. This approach provides also a foundation for the creation of picture-driven based tests for interactive systems, enabling to test any interactive system but also allowing for the definition, parameterization and execution of tests that might involve the use of several independent interactive systems.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Demonstration-based help: a case study

The usability of today’s applications is of utmost importance, and to fully achieve it some changes are yet to be adopted. Help systems are part of the applications and allow users to understand it and use it. However, this is one of the fields that some corporates still neglect. Moreover, every system has its characteristics and customizations and being able to explain how something works on a generic but efficient way is a major challenge. Studies have been conducted and applications, especially on a daily-use context, are still cause of frustration to its users. Contextual and demonstration-based strategies are examples of beneficial approaches to improve the status. Additionally, current technologies like picture-driven computing and automation are enablers facilitating the interaction with “closed” applications, whose source codes are not available, and allowing for the process to be reproduced automatically on any platform. Our solution deploys fast easy learning. It allows users to learn how to perform tasks by watching them get done on their own system. This was done by the manual creation of picture-driven scripts with the use of a tool named Sikuli. This paper presents our tool and a preliminary case-study. A preliminary evaluation with users was made and positive results were shown. When tracking metrics relative to a first interaction with a system/realization of a specific tasks, users achieved the goal five times faster with the demonstration-based help tool. On second time executions, the performance from users that used our tool and users that learned through exploration and manual readings were similar, indicating that learning by observation does not detract the learning process. The solution is now to be implemented in a technology corporation where problematic tasks and platforms will be identified, automation scripts developed, and an evaluation with its employees will be conducted. From this evaluation, the usability of the tool will be measured, as learning improvements and increased task performance will be tracked. The availability to help other users, developing and sharing scripts is also one of the research points.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Model-Based Self-Explanatory UIs for free, but are they valuable?

Part 1: Long and Short Papers (Continued)International audienceModel-Driven Engineering (MDE) has been extensively used for generating User Interfaces (UIs) from models. As long as these models are kept alive at runtime, the UIs are capable of adapting to variations of the context of use. This paper investigates a potentially powerful side effect: the possibility of enriching the UIs with explanations directly generated from these models. This paper first describes a software infrastructure that supports this generation of explanations. It then reports on a user study that evaluates the added value of such model based self-explanations

Supporting GUI exploration through USS tool

Advances in usability and design techniques (e.g. user-centered design) try to facilitate the use of interactive systems. However, users still have to adapt to interactive systems, i.e. they have to learn the steps required to accomplish a task either by trial and error or by obtaining help. While advanced users are usually able to adapt without much effort this is far from being the case with beginners. Some interactive systems offer different interaction styles in an attempt to meet the needs of all types of user but this is not the case with all interactive systems. In this sense, we present an approach to support the use of any interactive system making use of enriched models and picture-driven computing to achieve tasks automation. The USS tool (User Support System) is the basis to the adaptation of interactive systems accordingly to the users' needs. The approach provides the foundation for the addition of help (based on demonstration) to any graphical user interfaces (GUI) facilitating learning and use. The work is illustrated by a case study and completed with a preliminary user evaluation which provides insights about the validity of the approach.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Sikuli: Using GUI screenshots for search and automation

We present Sikuli, a visual approach to search and automation of graphical user interfaces using screenshots. Sikuli allows users to take a screenshot of a GUI element (such as a toolbar button, icon, or dialog box) and query a help system using the screenshot instead of the element's name. Sikuli also provides a visual scripting API for automating GUI interactions, using screenshot patterns to direct mouse and keyboard events. We report a web-based user study showing that searching by screenshot is easy to learn and faster to specify than keywords. We also demonstrate several automation tasks suitable for visual scripting, such as map navigation and bus tracking, and show how visual scripting can improve interactive help systems previously proposed in the literature

Interopérabilité des systèmes d'information : approches dirigées par les modèles

National audienceInformation systems are more and more often based on aggregation of other systems that must be maintained and evolved in an agile way and with no entropy creation. This is not without interoperability problems! Among others, the aim of Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) is to provide solutions for interoperability issues between systems. This paper summarizes thoughts that have come up from the specific action "Interoper- ability of information systems and model-driven engineering: What challenges? What solutions?" supported by inforsid. We propose a summary of approaches that are based on MDE and knowledge engineering and that tackle interoperability issues in the industry. Open questions and limitations that raised during the meetings are also reported

INTELLIGENT COLOUR AGENT IN WORLD WIDE WEB INTERFACE DESIGN

ABSTRACT Colour management is a vital aspect in interfaces design as it retains an overall balanced and coherent appearance of the interfaces. The appropriate combination use of colours creates diverse effect and enhances the outlook as well as indirectly affects on the user acceptance and satisfaction of interfaces perceived. WWW interface designers often use up plenty of time and effort in mix-matching colours with the intention to obtain the most ultimate combination of the colours used. A poor colour management in WWW interfaces might not be able to convey its information to users efficiently and effectively. As a result, this paper aims to evaluate and resolve the appropriateness and inappropriateness use of colour in interface design, and proposed an intelligent colour agent to automate the process of considering and minimising the selection of the appropriateness use of colours. It has been safely concluded that the intelligent colour agent is capable of performing its tasks positively in analysing and consulting the suitable colours to be used and intensify the information transformation to and from the users. The visibility of interfaces has been examined to promote the contrast display between the users and machines. KEYWORDS Intelligent colour agent, interface design, WWW