Intermediate and Post-Session Web Page Revisitation Techniques and Tools.

Hakutermit: web page revisitation, information workspace Web page revisitation, the most commonly performed activity in web navigation, is the primary concern of this thesis. This subject is subdivided into two categories, intermediate revisitation, which occurs during the web browsing session and postsession revisitation, which takes place at some point after the session of initial visitation. The strategies and existing facilities belonging to each are discussed in detail. A questionnaire assessing the post-session revisitation techniques of less experienced web users was conducted and the results were compared with previously reported techniques of experienced web users. The varied approaches of facilitating revisitation, coupled with the shortcomings of existing tools, motivate the design of our prototype revisitation tool, Session Highlights. The design of this tool is presented along with the results of an observational user study in which five participants carried out a web-based research task using the tool. The participants expressed great fondness for the tool’s visual representation of URLs and for the availability of such a web workspace. Moreover, when carrying out their task, they were instantly able to use the tool efficiently and effectively to address their intermediate and post-session revisitation needs. Based on the observations and subjective results of the study, design improvements and subsequent features for Session Highlights are established

Enhanced visualisation techniques to support access to personal information across multiple devices

The increasing number of devices owned by a single user makes it increasingly difficult to access, organise and visualise personal information (PI), i.e. documents and media, across these devices. The primary method that is currently used to organise and visualise PI is the hierarchical folder structure, which is a familiar and widely used means to manage PI. However, this hierarchy does not effectively support personal information management (PIM) across multiple devices. Current solutions, such as the Personal Information Dashboard and Stuff I’ve Seen, do not support PIM across multiple devices. Alternative PIM tools, such as Dropbox and TeamViewer, attempt to provide a means of accessing PI across multiple devices, but these solutions also suffer from several limitations. The aim of this research was to investigate to what extent enhanced information visualisation (IV) techniques could be used to support accessing PI across multiple devices. An interview study was conducted to identify how PI is currently managed across multiple devices. This interview study further motivated the need for a tool to support visualising PI across multiple devices and identified requirements for such an IV tool. Several suitable IV techniques were selected and enhanced to support PIM across multiple devices. These techniques comprised an Overview using a nested circles layout, a Tag Cloud and a Partition Layout, which used a novel set-based technique. A prototype, called MyPSI, was designed and implemented incorporating these enhanced IV techniques. The requirements and design of the MyPSI prototype were validated using a conceptual walkthrough. The design of the MyPSI prototype was initially implemented for a desktop or laptop device with mouse-based interaction. A sample personal space of information (PSI) was used to evaluate the prototype in a controlled user study. The user study was used to identify any usability problems with the MyPSI prototype. The results were highly positive and the participants agreed that such a tool could be useful in future. No major problems were identified with the prototype. The MyPSI prototype was then implemented on a mobile device, specifically an Android tablet device, using a similar design, but supporting touch-based interaction. Users were allowed to upload their own PSI using Dropbox, which was visualised by the MyPSI prototype. A field study was conducted following the Multi-dimensional In-depth Long-term Case Studies approach specifically designed for IV evaluation. The field study was conducted over a two-week period, evaluating both the desktop and mobile versions of the MyPSI prototype. Both versions received positive results, but the desktop version was slightly preferred over the mobile version, mainly due to familiarity and problems experienced with the mobile implementation. Design recommendations were derived to inform future designs of IV tools to support accessing PI across multiple devices. This research has shown that IV techniques can be enhanced to effectively support accessing PI across multiple devices. Future work will involve customising the MyPSI prototype for mobile phones and supporting additional platforms

Enhanced visualisation techniques to support access to personal information across multiple devices

The increasing number of devices owned by a single user makes it increasingly difficult to access, organise and visualise personal information (PI), i.e. documents and media, across these devices. The primary method that is currently used to organise and visualise PI is the hierarchical folder structure, which is a familiar and widely used means to manage PI. However, this hierarchy does not effectively support personal information management (PIM) across multiple devices. Current solutions, such as the Personal Information Dashboard and Stuff I’ve Seen, do not support PIM across multiple devices. Alternative PIM tools, such as Dropbox and TeamViewer, attempt to provide a means of accessing PI across multiple devices, but these solutions also suffer from several limitations. The aim of this research was to investigate to what extent enhanced information visualisation (IV) techniques could be used to support accessing PI across multiple devices. An interview study was conducted to identify how PI is currently managed across multiple devices. This interview study further motivated the need for a tool to support visualising PI across multiple devices and identified requirements for such an IV tool. Several suitable IV techniques were selected and enhanced to support PIM across multiple devices. These techniques comprised an Overview using a nested circles layout, a Tag Cloud and a Partition Layout, which used a novel set-based technique. A prototype, called MyPSI, was designed and implemented incorporating these enhanced IV techniques. The requirements and design of the MyPSI prototype were validated using a conceptual walkthrough. The design of the MyPSI prototype was initially implemented for a desktop or laptop device with mouse-based interaction. A sample personal space of information (PSI) was used to evaluate the prototype in a controlled user study. The user study was used to identify any usability problems with the MyPSI prototype. The results were highly positive and the participants agreed that such a tool could be useful in future. No major problems were identified with the prototype. The MyPSI prototype was then implemented on a mobile device, specifically an Android tablet device, using a similar design, but supporting touch-based interaction. Users were allowed to upload their own PSI using Dropbox, which was visualised by the MyPSI prototype. A field study was conducted following the Multi-dimensional In-depth Long-term Case Studies approach specifically designed for IV evaluation. The field study was conducted over a two-week period, evaluating both the desktop and mobile versions of the MyPSI prototype. Both versions received positive results, but the desktop version was slightly preferred over the mobile version, mainly due to familiarity and problems experienced with the mobile implementation. Design recommendations were derived to inform future designs of IV tools to support accessing PI across multiple devices. This research has shown that IV techniques can be enhanced to effectively support accessing PI across multiple devices. Future work will involve customising the MyPSI prototype for mobile phones and supporting additional platforms

Making Sense of Document Collections with Map-Based Visualizations

As map-based visualizations of documents become more ubiquitous, there is a greater need for them to support intellectual and creative high-level cognitive activities with collections of non-cartographic materials -- documents. This dissertation concerns the conceptualization of map-based visualizations as tools for sensemaking and collection understanding. As such, map-based visualizations would help people use georeferenced documents to develop understanding, gain insight, discover knowledge, and construct meaning. This dissertation explores the role of graphical representations (such as maps, Kohonen maps, pie charts, and other) and interactions with them for developing map-based visualizations capable of facilitating sensemaking activities such as collection understanding. While graphical representations make document collections more perceptually and cognitively accessible, interactions allow users to adapt representations to users’ contextual needs. By interacting with representations of documents or collections and being able to construct representations of their own, people are better able to make sense of information, comprehend complex structures, and integrate new information into their existing mental models. In sum, representations and interactions may reduce cognitive load and consequently expedite the overall time necessary for completion of sensemaking activities, which typically take much time to accomplish. The dissertation proceeds in three phases. The first phase develops a conceptual framework for translating ontological properties of collections to representations and for supporting visual tasks by means of graphical representations. The second phase concerns the cognitive benefits of interaction. It conceptualizes how interactions can help people during complex sensemaking activities. Although the interactions are explained on the example of a prototype built with Google Maps, they are independent iv of Google Maps and can be applicable to various other technologies. The third phase evaluates the utility, analytical capabilities and usability of the additional representations when users interact with a visualization prototype – VIsual COLlection EXplorer. The findings suggest that additional representations can enhance understanding of map-based visualizations of library collections: specifically, they can allow users to see trends, gaps, and patterns in ontological properties of collections

User interfaces for the organisation and representation of unstructured data

Der semantische Ansatz bezüglich der Speicherung, Verwaltung und Extraktion von Daten ist ein vielversprechendes Konzept, das über die letzten Jahre konsequent an Bedeutung gewonnen hat. Die Visualisierung solcher semantsicher Datensysteme weist allerdings immer noch einge Hindernisse auf, sowohl für den Interface-designer als auch für den interagierenden Benutzer. Diese Hindernisse zu überwinden ist die Aufgabe des Interaktion-designers, der durch den Einsatz von intuitiven und effizienten Design-komponenten dem unerfahrenen Benutzer den Einstieg in eine, auf semantischen Daten basierenden, Interaktionsumbegung erleichtern soll. Der Zweck dieser Arbeit ist es einen Überblick zu verschaffen über die Disziplinen des Human Computer Interaction sowie des Interaction Designs, mit der Absicht die grundlegenden menschlichen und technischen Prozesse zu vermitteln, die einen Einfluss auf das Entwerfen von Interaktion haben. Es werden Methoden und Techniken für den eigentlichen Design-prozess vorgestellt, ebenso wie Elemente und Komponenten die eine Rolle in visuellem Interface-design spielen, mit einem schwerpunkt auf die Darstellung semantischer Inhalte. Letztendlich wird ein web-basierendes, graphisches User-interface für SemDAV Repositories vorgestellt, dessen Entwurf auf den gewonnen Erkenntnissen beruht und dessen Implementierung sich nach den aktuellen Entwicklungen im Webdesign richtet.The semantic approach to data storage, management and extraction is a promising concept that has constantly been gaining importance during the past years. However, the visualization of semantic data systems as well as the functionalities of their interfaces still contain some obstacles for both, the interaction designer and the interacting user. In order to accommodate to those obstacles, the interaction designer has to come up with an intuitive and efficient user interface design, introducing inexperienced users to data representation and extraction in a semantic environment. The intention of this work is to provide an overview over the disciplines of Human Computer Interaction and Interaction Design, with the intention to mediate the essential human-based and technical processes influencing the design of interaction. Methods and techniques for the design process will be presented, as well as elements and components of visual design and interaction, with a focus on the representation of semantic content. Finally, a web-based graphical user interface for SemDAV repositories will be introduced, combining the gained insights with the ongoing development in web design

Augmenting IDEs with Runtime Information for Software Maintenance

Object-oriented language features such as inheritance, abstract types, late-binding, or polymorphism lead to distributed and scattered code, rendering a software system hard to understand and maintain. The integrated development environment (IDE), the primary tool used by developers to maintain software systems, usually purely operates on static source code and does not reveal dynamic relationships between distributed source artifacts, which makes it difficult for developers to understand and navigate software systems. Another shortcoming of today's IDEs is the large amount of information with which they typically overwhelm developers. Large software systems encompass several thousand source artifacts such as classes and methods. These static artifacts are presented by IDEs in views such as trees or source editors. To gain an understanding of a system, developers have to open many such views, which leads to a workspace cluttered with different windows or tabs. Navigating through the code or maintaining a working context is thus difficult for developers working on large software systems. In this dissertation we address the question how to augment IDEs with dynamic information to better navigate scattered code while at the same time not overwhelming developers with even more information in the IDE views. We claim that by first reducing the amount of information developers have to deal with, we are subsequently able to embed dynamic information in the familiar source perspectives of IDEs to better comprehend and navigate large software spaces. We propose means to reduce or mitigate the information by highlighting relevant source elements, by explicitly representing working context, and by automatically housekeeping the workspace in the IDE. We then improve navigation of scattered code by explicitly representing dynamic collaboration and software features in the static source perspectives of IDEs. We validate our claim by conducting empirical experiments with developers and by analyzing recorded development sessions