1,987 research outputs found
A study of spatial data models and their application to selecting information from pictorial databases
People have always used visual techniques to locate information in the space
surrounding them. However with the advent of powerful computer systems and
user-friendly interfaces it has become possible to extend such techniques to stored
pictorial information. Pictorial database systems have in the past primarily used
mathematical or textual search techniques to locate specific pictures contained
within such databases. However these techniques have largely relied upon complex
combinations of numeric and textual queries in order to find the required
pictures. Such techniques restrict users of pictorial databases to expressing what is
in essence a visual query in a numeric or character based form. What is required
is the ability to express such queries in a form that more closely matches the user's
visual memory or perception of the picture required. It is suggested in this thesis
that spatial techniques of search are important and that two of the most important
attributes of a picture are the spatial positions and the spatial relationships of
objects contained within such pictures. It is further suggested that a database
management system which allows users to indicate the nature of their query by
visually placing iconic representations of objects on an interface in spatially
appropriate positions, is a feasible method by which pictures might be found from
a pictorial database. This thesis undertakes a detailed study of spatial techniques
using a combination of historical evidence, psychological conclusions and practical
examples to demonstrate that the spatial metaphor is an important concept and that
pictures can be readily found by visually specifying the spatial positions and
relationships between objects contained within them
A User Interface Management System Generator
Much recent research has been focused on user interfaces. A major advance in interface design is the User Interface Management System (UIMS), which mediates between the application and the user.
Our research has resulted in a conceptual framework for interaction which permits the design and implementation of a UIMS generator system. This system, called Graphical User Interface Development Environment or GUIDE, allows an interface designer to specify interactively the user interface for an application.
The major issues addressed by this methodology are making interfaces implementable, modifiable and flexible, allowing for user variability, making interfaces consistent and allowing for application diversity within a user community.
The underlying goal of GUIDE is that interface designers should be able to specify interfaces as broadly as is possible with a manually-coded system. The specific goals of GUIDE are: The designer need not write any interface code. Action routines are provided by the designer or application implementator which implement the actions or operations of the application system. Action routines may have parameters. The designer is able to specify multiple control paths based on the state of the system and a profile of the user. Inclusion of help and prompt messages is as easy as possible. GUIDE\u27s own interface may be generated with GUIDE.
GUIDE goes beyond previous efforts in UIMS design in the full parameter specification provided in the interface for application actions, in the ability to reference application global items in the interface, and in the pervasiveness of conditions throughout the system. A parser is built into GUIDE to parse conditions and provide type-checking.
The GUIDE framework describes interfaces in terms of three components: what the user sees of the application world (user-defined pictures and user-defined picture classes) what the user can do (tasks and tools) what happens when the user does something (actions and decisions)
These three are combined to form contexts which describe the state of the interface at any time
Study of menu selection based on human information processing : spreading activation approach
The determination of the appropriate interface texts for efficient menu selection, based on information retrieval from long term memory, is important to web site design. A psychological theory, the spreading activation model, is used to explain the users\u27 information searching behavior in menu selection tasks. Two experiments were performed: a spreading activation test and an actual performance test with a real menu. In the first experiment, the degree of relatedness between two text labels in a menu was evaluated. By using two levels of menu structure, we investigated the user\u27s search for semantically related targets and for a known target respectively. The latter was determined by target locations and the number of menu items, allowing selection time to be predicted by Fitts\u27 law. On the other hand, the former was strongly dependent on each subject\u27s memory, and required a significant cognitive load. As seen in the total performance measure, semantic relations of text information played an important role in menu selection. Consequently, the semantic distance for related information was strongly correlated with error rate (r²=0.740) and total menu selection time (r²=0.751). In comparing the spreading activation test with actual performance, response time in the spreading activation test also showed a strong correlation with error rate (r²=0.736) which significantly affected menu selection. This study supports the use of interface languages for certain information structures and provides a semantic approach to the design of menus
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Embodying conversational characteristics in a graphical user interface
In the history of Intelligent Tutoring Systems, SOPHIE (Brown, Burton, and Bell, 1974), now considered a classic, contained many important ideas and features. One of these was its natural language user interface. Today, the trend has moved away from natural language interfaces towards graphical ones although the argument in favour of natural language user interfaces, both from Human Computer Interaction and natural language researchers, still persist. Is this argument correct?
This thesis explores this question by investigating how SOPHIE might be re-implemented with a graphical direct manipulation interface instead of a natural language one, with the goal of improving its standard of usability. It begins by analysing the features that seem to have been central to SOPHIE's usability. These, it argues, were not so much an ability to accept well formed complete English sentences, as an ability to accept and interpret correctly a wide range of abbreviated inputs.
Two models of interaction, Circuit 1, a pilot, and Circuit II, a fairly full implementation of SOPHIE were implemented and tested. Both employ free-order syntax that allows users to specify the components of a full command in any order. The combination of deixis and free-order syntax supported allows completely general ellipsis which achieves, in extended interaction sequences, the same economy and naturalness that SOPHIE achieved through its use of anaphora and ellipsis.
Whilst the free-order syntax. technique is little used at present in user interfaces, the results of observational studies conducted have shown that it saves users time and convenience. Thus, considering key linguistic features of a natural language user interface has shown how novel features can enhance the usability of direct manipulation interfaces. This thesis argues that user interfaces can be improved by employing structures found in natural language or at least conversation which can be constructed within direct manipulation interface styles.
This approach was further expanded to support topic shifts between different circuit contexts. Circuit II, like SOPHIE, supports three different topics: normal circuit behaviour, a circuit with an unknown fault, and circuits with user-hypothesised faults. Drawing on Reichman's (1981) work, Circuit II uses natural language cue phrases of the type "by the way", re-implemented in the direct manipulation style, to facilitate shifts between topics in a smoother and more natural way than SOPHIE which , used clumsy explicit commands
The Meaning of Movement: Using Motion Design to Enrich Words for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children
This thesis aims to address challenging areas of vocabulary for deaf and hard of hearing children by developing an open resource for students, parents, teachers, and content creators that utilizes motion to enhance written words for deaf and hard of hearing children. This research seeks to study the means of nonverbal communication such as body language expression and paralinguistic prosody (i.e., tone, intonation, volume, and pitch) qualities within the framework of graphic design through motion design. Body movement and expression are essential during face-to-face communication, but written language lacks such context clues. Additionally, the hard of hearing may not fully detect prosody within their range of hearing. This lack of information gathered through body language and paralanguage can be replicated with animated movement, which adds greater context to otherwise static text, enhancing insight into the meaning or use of a word. Seeing how a word in written form correlates with enhanced meaning through movement provides greater understanding and retention. This enhancement promotes improved communication in the world through graphic design. Motion design, specifically kinetic typography, offers a promising tool to help aid with language learning for continued exploration and development
Tablet Applications for the Elderly: Specific Usability Guidelines
While the world population is aging, the technological progress is steadily increasing. Smartphones and tablets belong to a growing market and even more people aged 65 and above are using such touch devices. However, with advancing age normal cognitive, sensory, perceptual and motor changes influence psychological and physical capabilities and therefore the way the elderly are able to use tablet-applications.
When designing tablet-applications for the elderly developers have to be supported in understanding these capabilities.
Therefore, this thesis provides a comprehensive compilation of usability guidelines in order to develop user-friendly tablet-applications for older people.
The development and testing of an exemplary tablet-application within this thesis shows how these guidelines can be brought into practice and how this realization is evaluated by test persons in this age group
The project \u201cInteractive Topography of Dante\u2019s Inferno\u201d : transfer of knowledge and design of didactic tools
The project \u201ctopography of Dante\u2019s inferno\u201d is an experiment on alternative mode of access to a complex text relying on an evident topographical structure. The artifact (a website) is designed with the aim of introducing young students (11\u201314 years old) to a text usually read and studied by older students (16\u201319 years old). The design of the artifact was based on the theories of Sinsem\ueda applied to interaction design, and the testing focused on (1) usability and (2) on the understanding of the topography of the poem as a precondition for understanding the text
Design and implementation of a tool for teaching programming
Ankara : The Department of Computer Engineering and Information Sciences and the Institute of Engineering and Sciences of Bilkent Univ. , 1988.Thesis (Master's) -- Bilkent University, 1988Includes bibliographical references.In this thesis, a survey on computer applications for teaching programming
and some graphical programming tools together with their underlying
environments has been carried out and a graphical Pascal teaching tool is
designed and implemented.
Graphical programming tools provide the user the ability to solve the
problems through the use of icons and symbols allowing very little text. Here,
a Pascal teaching tool is presented in a very user friendly environment to teach
programming through the use of flowcharts in a visual manner.Göktepe, MesutM.S
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