Systematic evaluation of design choices for software development tools

[Abstract]: Most design and evaluation of software tools is based on the intuition and experience of the designers. Software tool designers consider themselves typical users of the tools that they build and tend to subjectively evaluate their products rather than objectively evaluate them using established usability methods. This subjective approach is inadequate if the quality of software tools is to improve and the use of more systematic methods is advocated. This paper summarises a sequence of studies that show how user interface design choices for software development tools can be evaluated using established usability engineering techniques. The techniques used included guideline review, predictive modelling and experimental studies with users

Learning word processing: effects of techniques, preferences, and attitudes

Studies of people learning to use word processing equipment typically treat the computer users as a homogeneous group. Within that context, the present study undertook to examine the role of two individual differences factors, namely learning preferences and attitudes toward computers. In addition, the effectiveness of two training techniques was compared: a guided exploration versus an instruction-based technique;Seventy-five computer-naive undergraduate students were randomly assigned to two experimental conditions. Each filled out a self-report inventory assessing his/her previous experience with computers, learning preferences, and computer attitudes. Then, individually they worked through the training materials for two periods, lasting 65 and 35 minutes, respectively. Half of the trainees used a commercial onscreen tutorial. The rest were guided on how to explore the word processor, focusing on the built-in onscreen Help as a learning aid. Finally, performance and knowledge tests were administered as learning outcome measures;Hypotheses were tested using multivariate and univariate analyses of covariance, with computer experience variables serving as covariates. In line with previous findings, guided exploration was more effective than the instruction-based technique. This method apparently better suits the active orientation of novice computer users. Matching training techniques to learning preferences led to higher post-training performance: People assigned to their preferred method outperformed those using their nonpreferred method. Attitudes toward computers had no impact on learning outcomes. Results for the knowledge test as a single dependent variable were nonsignificant;Overall, the findings encourage deeper consideration of individual differences and motivational factors in the research and development of software application systems. Implications of the results are discussed, as well as suggestions for future research

TIDE

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2005.Includes bibliographical references (p. 81-83).The Timeliner system is used for controlling experiments aboard the International Space Station. Timeliner scripts are typically written in a generic text editor and turned into executable byte code by a command-line compiler. Script writers have no assistance during the development process, resulting in error-prone scripts and a prolonged development cycle. The Timeliner Integrated Development Environment (TIDE) is an environment built on top of the Eclipse Platform that assists developers with their tasks, and allows for any person to easily and quickly develop a Timeliner script. TIDE incorporates existing Timeliner stand-alone tools and contributes an editor with custom language definitions, a database browser, incremental compilation, and integrated help.by Maya Dobuzhskaya.M.Eng

Reconnaissance de documents assistée: architecture logicielle et intégration de savoir-faire

Cette thèse aborde la reconnaissance de documents suivant une approche assistée, qui vise à exploiter au mieux les compétences respectives de l’homme et de la machine. Nos contributions portent notamment sur les questions d’architecture logicielle soulevées par la mise en oeuvre de systèmes de reconnaissance de documents. Les avantages d’un environnement coopératif sont motivés par une analyse critique des systèmes actuels, et une projection sur les futures applications de la reconnaissance de documents. Diverses propositions concrètes sont émises sur la conduite du dialogue homme-machine, ainsi que sur les possibilités d’amélioration à l’usage. L’inventaire des données à gérer dans un système de reconnaissance est organisé de façon modulaire et homogène, et représenté à l’aide du format standard DAFS Sur le plan du contrôle, le système est décomposé selon une modélisation multi-agents. Cette découpe conceptuelle est alors simulée dans notre plateforme de développement, qui repose sur la programmation concurrente, distribuée, et multi-langages. Une solution expressive est proposée pour le couplage entre le noyau de l’application et l’interface graphique. Le prototype qui a servi à valider l’architecture est présenté. Notre architecture logicielle encourage l’exploitation du savoir-faire typographique, par l’intermédiaire d’un support de fontes standardisé. Ce rapprochement entre les deux disciplines profite à la fois à l’ergonomie, à la valorisation des résultats de reconnaissance, et aux méthodes d’analyse automatiques. Nous présentons une poignée d’analyseurs originaux, pour des tâches de reconnaissance de caractères, d’identification des fontes, ou de segmentation. Les expériences conduites en guise de première évaluation démontrent l’utilité potentielle de nos outils d’analyse. Par ailleurs, une contribution est apportée au problème de l’évaluation des performances de systèmes de reconnaissance assistée, avec l’introduction d’un nouveau modèle de coûts. Celui-ci intègre l’influence du comportement de l’utilisateur, de même que l’amélioration des performances liée au phénomène d’apprentissage incrémental. Notre modèle de coûts est utilisé dans des simulations, ainsi que dans des expériences mettant en jeu des analyseurs existants. Les observations mettent en évidence la dynamique particulière des systèmes assistés par rapport aux approches entièrement automatiques.This thesis addresses the question of document recognition with an assisted perspective advocating an adequate combination between human and machine capabilities. Our contributions tackle various aspects of the underlying software architecture. Both a study of existing systems and a projection on some future applications of document recognition illustrate the need of cooperative environments. Several mechanisms are proposed to drive the human-machine dialog or to make the recognition systems able to improve with use. The various data involved in a recognition system are organized in a modular and homogeneous way. The whole information is represented using the DAFS standard format. In our proposition, the control is decentralized according to a multi-agent modelling. This conceptual scheme is then simulated on our development platform, using concurrent, distributed, and multi-languages programming. An expressive solution is proposed for the coupling between the application kernel and a graphical user interface. A prototype is realized to validate the whole architecture. Our software architecture takes advantage of the typographical know-how, through the use of a standardized font management support. This integrated approach lets us enhance the ergonomy, extend the possible use of the recognition results, and redefine some recognition techniques. A few innovative analyzers are described in the field of optical character recognition, font identification, or segmentation. The first experiments show that our simple methods behave surprisingly well, with respect to what can be expected from the state of the art. Besides, we bring a contribution to the problem of measuring the performance of cooperative recognition systems, through the introduction of a new cost model. Our notations are able to describe assisted recognition scenarios, where the user takes part in the process, and where the accuracy is modified dynamically thanks to incremental learning. Our cost model is used both in simulations and in experiments implying existing analyzers. The dynamic aspects of assisted systems can then be observed

Impact of Query Specification Mode and Problem Complexity on Query Specification Productivity of Novice Users of Database Systems

With the increased demand for the utilization of computerized information systems by business users, the need for investigating the impact of various user interfaces has been well recognized. It is usually assumed that providing the user with assistance in the usage o-f a system would significantly increase the user's productivity. There is, however, a dearth of systematic inquiry into this commonly held notion to verify its validity in a scientific fashion. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of system-provided user assistance and complexity level of the problem on novice users' productivity in specifying database queries. The study is theoretical in the sense that it presents an approach adopted from research in deductive database systems to attack problems concerning user interface design. It is empirical in that it conducts an experiment in a controlled laboratory setting to collect primary data for the testing of a series of hypotheses. The two independent variables are system-provided user assistance and problem complexity, while the dependent variable is the user's query specification productivity. Three measures are used as separate indicators of query specification productivity: number of syntactic errors, number of semantic errors, and time required for completing a query task. Due to the lack of a well-defined metric for user assistance, the study first presents a generic classification scheme for relational query specification. Based on this classification scheme, two quantitative metrics for measuring the amount of user assistance in terms of prompts and defaults were developed. The user assistance is operationally defined with these two metrics. Four findings emerge as significant results of the study. First, user assistance has a significant main effect on all of the three dependent measures at the 1 percent significance level. Second, problem complexity also has a significant impact on the three productivity measures at the 1 percent significance level. Third, the interaction effect of user assistance and problem complexity on the number of semantic errors and the amount of time for completion is significant at the 1 percent level. Fourth, Although this interaction effect on the number of syntactic errors is not significant at the 5 percent level, it is at the 10 percent level. More research is needed to permit a thorough understanding of the issue of user interface design. A list of topics is suggested for future research to confirm or to modify the findings of this study

A technology acceptance model for empirically testing new end-user information systems : theory and results

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 1986.MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND DEWEY.Bibliography: leaves 233-250.by Fred D. Davis, Jr.Ph.D

Clique: Perceptually Based, Task Oriented Auditory Display for GUI Applications

Screen reading is the prevalent approach for presenting graphical desktop applications in audio. The primary function of a screen reader is to describe what the user encounters when interacting with a graphical user interface (GUI). This straightforward method allows people with visual impairments to hear exactly what is on the screen, but with significant usability problems in a multitasking environment. Screen reader users must infer the state of on-going tasks spanning multiple graphical windows from a single, serial stream of speech. In this dissertation, I explore a new approach to enabling auditory display of GUI programs. With this method, the display describes concurrent application tasks using a small set of simultaneous speech and sound streams. The user listens to and interacts solely with this display, never with the underlying graphical interfaces. Scripts support this level of adaption by mapping GUI components to task definitions. Evaluation of this approach shows improvements in user efficiency, satisfaction, and understanding with little development effort. To develop this method, I studied the literature on existing auditory displays, working user behavior, and theories of human auditory perception and processing. I then conducted a user study to observe problems encountered and techniques employed by users interacting with an ideal auditory display: another human being. Based on my findings, I designed and implemented a prototype auditory display, called Clique, along with scripts adapting seven GUI applications. I concluded my work by conducting a variety of evaluations on Clique. The results of these studies show the following benefits of Clique over the state of the art for users with visual impairments (1-5) and mobile sighted users (6): 1. Faster, accurate access to speech utterances through concurrent speech streams. 2. Better awareness of peripheral information via concurrent speech and sound streams. 3. Increased information bandwidth through concurrent streams. 4. More efficient information seeking enabled by ubiquitous tools for browsing and searching. 5. Greater accuracy in describing unfamiliar applications learned using a consistent, task-based user interface. 6. Faster completion of email tasks in a standard GUI after exposure to those tasks in audio