Use of Landmarks to Improve Spatial Learning and Revisitation in Computer Interfaces

Efficient spatial location learning and remembering are just as important for two-dimensional Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) as they are for real environments where locations are revisited multiple times. Rapid spatial memory development in GUIs, however, can be difficult because these interfaces often lack adequate landmarks that have been predominantly used by people to learn and recall real-life locations. In the absence of sufficient landmarks in GUIs, artificially created visual objects (i.e., artificial landmarks) could be used as landmarks to support spatial memory development of spatial locations. In order to understand how spatial memory development occurs in GUIs and explore ways to assist users’ efficient location learning and recalling in GUIs, I carried out five studies exploring the use of landmarks in GUIs – one study that investigated interfaces of four standard desktop applications: Microsoft Word, Facebook, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Reader, and other four that tested artificial landmarks augmented two prototype desktop GUIs against non-landmarked versions: command selection interfaces and linear document viewers; in addition, I tested landmarks’ use in variants of these interfaces that varied in the number of command sets (small, medium, and large) and types of linear documents (textual and video). Results indicate that GUIs’ existing features and design elements can be reliable landmarks in GUIs that provide spatial benefits similar to real environments. I also show that artificial landmarks can significantly improve spatial memory development of GUIs, allowing support for rapid spatial location learning and remembering in GUIs. Overall, this dissertation reveals that landmarks can be a valuable addition to graphical systems to improve the memorability and usability of GUIs

IMPROVING REVISITATION IN LONG DOCUMENTS WITH TWO-LEVEL ARTIFICIAL-LANDMARK SCROLLBARS

Revisitation – returning to previously-visited locations in a document – is commonly done in the digital world. While linear navigation controls provide a spatial representation of the document and allow effective navigation in short documents, they are not effective in long documents, particularly for revisitation. Bookmarks, search and history dialogs, and “read wear” (visual marks left as the user interacts with the document) can all assist revisitation; however, for long documents all of these tools are limited in terms of effort, clutter, and interpretability. Inspired by visual cues such as coloured edges and “thumb indents” in hardcopy books, recent work has proposed artificial landmarks to help users build up natural spatial memory for the locations in a document; in long documents, however, this technique is also limited because of the number of pages each landmark represents. To address this problem, this thesis proposes a Double-Scrollbar design that uses two columns of artificial landmarks that can provide greater specificity for spatial memory and revisitation in long documents. We developed three versions of landmark-augmented Double-Scrollbar, using icons, letters, and digits as landmarks. To assess the performance and usability of the Double-Scrollbar design, two studies were conducted with 21 participants, each visiting and revisiting pages of a long document using each of the new designs, as well as a single-column design and a standard scrollbar. Results showed that two levels of icon landmarks were significantly better for assisting revisitation, and were preferred by participants. The two-level artificial-landmark scrollbar is a new way of improving revisitation in long documents by assisting the formation of more precise spatial memories about document locations

Improving Multi-Touch Interactions Using Hands as Landmarks

Efficient command selection is just as important for multi-touch devices as it is for traditional interfaces that follow the Windows-Icons-Menus-Pointers (WIMP) model, but rapid selection in touch interfaces can be difficult because these systems often lack the mechanisms that have been used for expert shortcuts in desktop systems (such as keyboards shortcuts). Although interaction techniques based on spatial memory can improve the situation by allowing fast revisitation from memory, the lack of landmarks often makes it hard to remember command locations in a large set. One potential landmark that could be used in touch interfaces, however, is people’s hands and fingers: these provide an external reference frame that is well known and always present when interacting with a touch display. To explore the use of hands as landmarks for improving command selection, we designed hand-centric techniques called HandMark menus. We implemented HandMark menus for two platforms – one version that allows bimanual operation for digital tables and another that uses single-handed serial operation for handheld tablets; in addition, we developed variants for both platforms that support different numbers of commands. We tested the new techniques against standard selection methods including tabbed menus and popup toolbars. The results of the studies show that HandMark menus perform well (in several cases significantly faster than standard methods), and that they support the development of spatial memory. Overall, this thesis demonstrates that people’s intimate knowledge of their hands can be the basis for fast interaction techniques that improve performance and usability of multi-touch systems

Effects of Visual Distinctiveness on Learning and Retrieval in Icon Toolbars

Learnability is important in graphical interfaces because it supports the user’s transition to expertise. One aspect of GUI learnability is the degree to which the icons in toolbars and ribbons are identifiable and memorable–but current "flat" and "subtle" designs that promote strong visual consistency could hinder learning by reducing visual distinctiveness within a set of icons. There is little known, however, about the effects of visual distinctiveness of icons on selection performance and memorability. To address this gap, we carried out two studies using several icon sets with different degrees of visual distinctiveness, and compared how quickly people could learn and retrieve the icons. Our first study found no evidence that increasing colour or shape distinctiveness improved learning, but found that icons with concrete imagery were easier to learn. Our second study found similar results: there was no effect of increasing either colour or shape distinctiveness, but there was again a clear improvement for icons with recognizable imagery. Our results show that visual characteristics appear to affect UI learnability much less than the meaning of the icons' representations

Supporting exploratory browsing with visualization of social interaction history

This thesis is concerned with the design, development, and evaluation of information visualization tools for supporting exploratory browsing. Information retrieval (IR) systems currently do not support browsing well. Responding to user queries, IR systems typically compute relevance scores of documents and then present the document surrogates to users in order of relevance. Other systems such as email clients and discussion forums simply arrange messages in reverse chronological order. Using these systems, people cannot gain an overview of a collection easily, nor do they receive adequate support for finding potentially useful items in the collection. This thesis explores the feasibility of using social interaction history to improve exploratory browsing. Social interaction history refers to traces of interaction among users in an information space, such as discussions that happen in the blogosphere or online newspapers through the commenting facility. The basic hypothesis of this work is that social interaction history can serve as a good indicator of the potential value of information items. Therefore, visualization of social interaction history would offer navigational cues for finding potentially valuable information items in a collection. To test this basic hypothesis, I conducted three studies. First, I ran statistical analysis of a social media data set. The results showed that there were positive relationships between traces of social interaction and the degree of interestingness of web articles. Second, I conducted a feasibility study to collect initial feedback about the potential of social interaction history to support information exploration. Comments from the participants were in line with the research hypothesis. Finally, I conducted a summative evaluation to measure how well visualization of social interaction history can improve exploratory browsing. The results showed that visualization of social interaction history was able to help users find interesting articles, to reduce wasted effort, and to increase user satisfaction with the visualization tool

Practical, appropriate, empirically-validated guidelines for designing educational games

There has recently been a great deal of interest in the potential of computer games to function as innovative educational tools. However, there is very little evidence of games fulfilling that potential. Indeed, the process of merging the disparate goals of education and games design appears problematic, and there are currently no practical guidelines for how to do so in a coherent manner. In this paper, we describe the successful, empirically validated teaching methods developed by behavioural psychologists and point out how they are uniquely suited to take advantage of the benefits that games offer to education. We conclude by proposing some practical steps for designing educational games, based on the techniques of Applied Behaviour Analysis. It is intended that this paper can both focus educational games designers on the features of games that are genuinely useful for education, and also introduce a successful form of teaching that this audience may not yet be familiar with

Spatial Hypermedia as a programming environment

This thesis investigates the possibilities opened to a programmer when their programming environment not only utilises Spatial Hypermedia functionality, but embraces it as a core component. Designed and built to explore these possibilities, SpIDER (standing for Spatial Integrated Development Environment Research) is an IDE featuring not only traditional functionality such as content assist and debugging support but also multimedia integration and free-form spatial code layout. Such functionality allows programmers to visually communicate aspects of the intent and structure of their code that would be tedious—and in some cases impossible—to achieve in conventional IDEs. Drawing from literature on Spatial Memory, the design of SpIDER has been driven by the desire to improve the programming experience while also providing a flexible authoring environment for software development. The programmer’s use of Spatial Memory is promoted, in particular, by: utilising fixed sized authoring canvases; providing the capacity for landmarks; exploiting a hierarchical linking system; and having well defined occlusion and spatial stability of authored code. The key challenge in implementing SpIDER was to devise an algorithm to bridge the gap between spatially expressed source code, and the serial text forms required by compilers. This challenge was met by developing an algorithm that we have called the flow walker. We validated this algorithm through user testing to establish that participants’ interpretation of the meaning of spatially laid out code matched the flow walker’s implementation. SpIDER can be obtained at: https://sourceforge.net/projects/spatial-ide-research-spide

Designing Search User Interfaces for Visually Impaired Searchers: A User-centred Approach

PhDThe Web has been a blessing for visually impaired users as with the help of assistive technologies such as screen readers, they can access previously inaccessible information independently. However, for screen reader users, web-based information seeking can still be challenging as web pages are mainly designed for visual interaction. This affects visually impaired users’ perception of theWeb as an information space as well as their experience of search interfaces. The aim of this thesis is therefore to consider visually impaired users’ information seeking behaviour, abilities and interactions via screen readers in the design of a search interface to support complex information seeking. We first conduct a review of how visually impaired users navigate the Web using screen readers. We highlight the strategies employed, the challenges encountered and the solutions to enhance web navigation through screen readers. We then investigate the information seeking behaviour of visually impaired users on the Web through an observational study and we compare this behaviour to that of sighted users to examine the impact of screen reader interaction on the information seeking process. To engage visually impaired users in the design process, we propose and evaluate a novel participatory approach based on a narrative scenario and a dialogue-led interaction to verify user requirements and to brainstorm design ideas. The development of the search interface is informed by the requirements gathered from the observational study and is supported through the inclusion of visually impaired users in the design process. We implement and evaluate the proposed search interface with novel features to support visually impaired users for complex information seeking. This thesis shows that considerations for information seeking behaviour and users’ abilities and mode of interaction contribute significantly to the design of search user interfaces to ensure that interface components are accessible as well as usable

Paratextualizing Games

Gaming no longer only takes place as a ›closed interactive experience‹ in front of TV screens, but also as broadcast on streaming platforms or as cultural events in exhibition centers and e-sport arenas. The popularization of new technologies, forms of expression, and online services has had a considerable influence on the academic and journalistic discourse about games. This anthology examines which paratexts gaming cultures have produced - i.e., in which forms and formats and through which channels we talk (and write) about games - as well as the way in which paratexts influence the development of games. How is knowledge about games generated and shaped today and how do boundaries between (popular) criticism, journalism, and scholarship have started to blur? In short: How does the paratext change the text

DIVE on the internet

This dissertation reports research and development of a platform for Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVEs). It has particularly focused on two major challenges: supporting the rapid development of scalable applications and easing their deployment on the Internet. This work employs a research method based on prototyping and refinement and promotes the use of this method for application development. A number of the solutions herein are in line with other CVE systems. One of the strengths of this work consists in a global approach to the issues raised by CVEs and the recognition that such complex problems are best tackled using a multi-disciplinary approach that understands both user and system requirements. CVE application deployment is aided by an overlay network that is able to complement any IP multicast infrastructure in place. Apart from complementing a weakly deployed worldwide multicast, this infrastructure provides for a certain degree of introspection, remote controlling and visualisation. As such, it forms an important aid in assessing the scalability of running applications. This scalability is further facilitated by specialised object distribution algorithms and an open framework for the implementation of novel partitioning techniques. CVE application development is eased by a scripting language, which enables rapid development and favours experimentation. This scripting language interfaces many aspects of the system and enables the prototyping of distribution-related components as well as user interfaces. It is the key construct of a distributed environment to which components, written in different languages, connect and onto which they operate in a network abstracted manner. The solutions proposed are exemplified and strengthened by three collaborative applications. The Dive room system is a virtual environment modelled after the room metaphor and supporting asynchronous and synchronous cooperative work. WebPath is a companion application to a Web browser that seeks to make the current history of page visits more visible and usable. Finally, the London travel demonstrator supports travellers by providing an environment where they can explore the city, utilise group collaboration facilities, rehearse particular journeys and access tourist information data