Applying scenarios in user-centred design to develop a sketching interface for human modelling and animation

This paper presents our user and usability studies for applying scenarios in user-centred design to develop a sketching interface for virtual human modelling and animation. In this approach, we utilise the User Centred System Design (UCSD) strategy and spiral lifecycles to ensure system usability and functionalities. A series of usability techniques were employed. After the initial conceptual design, a preliminary user study (including questionnaires and sketching observations) was undertaken to establish the formal interface design. Second, an informal user test was conducted on the first prototype: a “sketch-based 3D stick figure animation interface”. Finally, a formal user evaluation (including performance tests, sketching observations, and interviews) was carried out on the latest version: a “sketch-based virtual human builder”. During this iterative process, various paper-based and electronic-based sketching scenarios were created, which were acted-out by users to help designers evoke and verify design ideas, identify users’ needs, and test the prototype interfaces in real contexts. Benefiting from applying the UCSD strategy and scenario-based design to develop a natural and supportive sketching interface, our investigation can be a useful instantiation for the design of other sketching interfaces where these techniques have not been widely acknowledged and utilised in the past

Which User Interaction for Cross-Language Information Retrieval? Design Issues and Reflections

A novel and complex form of information access is cross-language information retrieval: searching for texts written in foreign languages based on native language queries. Although the underlying technology for achieving such a search is relatively well understood, the appropriate interface design is not. This paper presents three user evaluations undertaken during the iterative design of Clarity, a cross-language retrieval system for rare languages, and shows how the user interaction design evolved depending on the results of usability tests. The first test was instrumental to identify weaknesses in both functionalities and interface; the second was run to determine if query translation should be shown or not; the final was a global assessment and focussed on user satisfaction criteria. Lessons were learned at every stage of the process leading to a much more informed view of what a cross-language retrieval system should offer to users

Which User Interaction for Cross-Language Information Retrieval? Design Issues and Reflections

A novel and complex form of information access is cross-language information retrieval: searching for texts written in foreign languages based on native language queries. Although the underlying technology for achieving such a search is relatively well understood, the appropriate interface design is not. This paper presents three user evaluations undertaken during the iterative design of Clarity, a cross-language retrieval system for rare languages, and shows how the user interaction design evolved depending on the results of usability tests. The first test was instrumental to identify weaknesses in both functionalities and interface; the second was run to determine if query translation should be shown or not; the final was a global assessment and focussed on user satisfaction criteria. Lessons were learned at every stage of the process leading to a much more informed view of what a cross-language retrieval system should offer to users

Which user interaction for cross-language information retrieval? Design issues and reflections

A novel and complex form of information access is cross-language information retrieval: searching for texts written in foreign languages based on native language queries. Although the underlying technology for achieving such a search is relatively well understood, the appropriate interface design is not. The authors present three user evaluations undertaken during the iterative design of Clarity, a cross-language retrieval system for low-density languages, and shows how the user-interaction design evolved depending on the results of usability tests. The first test was instrumental to identify weaknesses in both functionalities and interface; the second was run to determine if query translation should be shown or not; the final was a global assessment and focused on user satisfaction criteria. Lessons were learned at every stage of the process leading to a much more informed view of what a cross-language retrieval system should offer to users

Optimizing Computer-Assisted Transcription Quality with Iterative User Interfaces

Computer-assisted transcription promises high-quality speech transcription at reduced costs. This is achieved by limiting human effort to transcribing parts for which automatic transcription quality is insufficient. Our goal is to improve the human transcription quality via appropriate user interface design. We focus on iterative interfaces that allow humans to solve tasks based on an initially given suggestion, in this case an automatic transcription. We conduct a user study that reveals considerable quality gains for three variations of iterative interfaces over a non-iterative from-scratch transcription interface. Our iterative interfaces included post-editing, confidence-enhanced post-editing, and a novel retyping interface. All three yielded similar quality on average, but we found that the proposed retyping interface was less sensitive to the difficulty of the segment, and superior when the automatic transcription of the segment contained relatively many errors. An analysis using mixed-effects models allows us to quantify these and other factors and draw conclusions over which interface design should be chosen in which circumstance

Applying HCI Design Practices to the Design of the BrainEx User-Interface to facilitate fNIRS Research

This project aims to develop a user-interface for BrainEx using HCI practices to enable fNIRS researchers to explore and analyze large datasets. The target users were identified through interviews with lab staff and developing user personas. Through iterative design, prototypes of increasing complexity and detail were designed, evaluated, and refined to satisfy user needs while fulfilling system requirements. The final user-interface developed from these design specifications and initial implementation will reflect all user feedback while accomplishing the tool’s main goal

Applying HCI Design Practices to the Development of the BrainEx User-Interface to Facilitate fNIRS Research

This project aims to develop a user-interface for BrainEx using HCI practices to enable fNIRS researchers to explore and analyze large datasets. The target users were identified through interviews with lab staff and developing user personas. Through iterative design, prototypes of increasing complexity and detail were designed, evaluated, and refined to satisfy user needs while fulfilling system requirements. The final application encompasses a user-friendly and tested interface that accomplishes the tool\u27s most essential functionality

User Interface Design in Virtual Reality Research

Thesis Statement The primary objective of this research is to develop and investigate a user interface that supports learning to be implemented in the virtual reality application Anatomy Builder VR, an ongoing project from the Department of Visualization. Through the conception of this interface, we will explore the research question “how can user interface design in virtual reality applications support learning and engagement?”. Theoretical Framework Through the use of iterative design, we will develop an interface to be implemented in the virtual reality application Anatomy Builder VR.To accomplish this, we will create several prototypes to be evaluated by a focus group before implementing a high fidelity interface into the application. The three prototypes will be used to conduct a user study that will improve the quality and functionality of the final interface as a whole. Project Description Effective user interface design is extremely important when creating an application focused on learning. If the application’s interface is misleading, the user will either incorrectly learn the information or stop using the application altogether. For this reason, we will center our research on the question “how can user interface design in virtual reality applications support learning and engagement?”. Expected outcomes include designing a user interface that will provide an intuitive and engaging learning experience. Our interface will be implemented intoAnatomy Builder VR, an application that allows users to assemble a human or canine skeleton while learning comparative anatomy. Anatomy Builder VR is a current collaborative project between Department of Visualization and Department of Veterinary Integrative Biosciences. We will investigate how our design impacts the user’s anatomy learning experience

Synthesis-Oriented Situational Analysis in User Interface Design

Analytic evaluation is a term describing a class of techniques for examining a representation of a user interface design, discovering design flaws and/or predicting user task performance. In our work with analytic evaluation, we have observed limitations on the effectiveness and efficiency of analytic techniques for formative evaluation supporting the iterative design and re-design cycle. Here we support those observations with arguments based on theoretical limitations of the models underlying these techniques. By way of comparison we discuss desirable characteristics for an alternative approach. In our search for such an alternative, we have developed the Task Mapping Model, a substantively different approach to analysis for supporting the user interface design. We briefly describe the Task Mapping Model and give some examples illustrating its desirable characteristics