Improving users’ comprehension of changes with animation and sound: an empirical assessment

Animation or sound is often used in user interfaces as an attempt to improve users' perception and comprehension of evolving situations and support them in decision-making. However, empirical data establishing their real effectiveness on the comprehension of changes are still lacking. We have carried out an experiment using four combinations of visual and auditory feedback in a split attention task. The results not only confirm that such feedback improves the perception of changes, but they also demonstrate that animation and sound used alone or combined bring major improvements on the comprehension of a changing situation. Based on these results, we propose design guidelines about the most efficient combinations to be used in user interfaces

A descriptive model of visual scanning

International audienceWhen designing a representation, a designer implicitly formulates a sequence of visual tasks required to understand and use the representation effectively. This paper aims to make the sequence of visual tasks explicit, in order to help designers eliciting their design choices. In particular, we present a set of concepts to systematically analyze what a user must theoretically do to decipher representation. The analysis consists of a decomposition of the activity of scanning into elementary visualization operations. We show how the analysis applies to various existing representations, and how expected benefits can be expressed in terms of elementary operations. The set of elementary operations form the basis of a shared, common language for representation designers. The decomposition highlights the challenges encountered by a user when deciphering a representation, and helps designers to exhibit possible flaws in their design, justify their choices, and compare designs

Formulating the design rationale of visual representation

8pWhen designing a representation, a designer implicitly formulates a method required to understand and use the representation effectively. This paper aims at making the method explicit, in order to help designers elicit their design choices. In particular, we present a set of concepts to systematically analyze what a user must theoretically do visually to find information. The analysis consists in a decomposition of the activity of scanning into elementary visualization operations. We show how the analysis applies on various existing representation, and how expected benefits can be expressed in terms of elementary operations. The decomposition highlights the challenges encountered by a user when figuring out a representation, and helps designer to exhibit possible flaws in their design.The set of elementary operations form the basis of a shared, common language for representation designers

A process-oriented approach to the science of human-computer interaction

Since the birth of the field, HCI has defined itself both as a theory of therelations between humans and numerical systems and as a practical activity that aimsat building new interactive systems. However, HCI has not yet succeeded in discoveringa unified theoretical framework nor in building a strong link between both activities.Based on an analysis from various fields, we show that most of the difficulties come fromthe computational paradigm that is still used as a foundation of most of the theories inHCI. This brings us to proposing a new philosophical view on the science of HCI, basedon a process ontology. We show how it accounts for several phenomena related to HCIand unifies them. This approach lends itself to new ways of thinking and programminginteraction at di↵erent scales, which may help HCI scientists in their modelling and designactivities

L'évolution de Linux vers les nouvelles formes d'ordinateurs personnels

Les tablettes tactiles représentent une première étape dans l'évolution de la forme des ordinateurs depuis le poste de travail graphique vers une plus grande variété. Il faut adapter les systèmes d'exploitation à une plus grande variabilité des moyens d'entrée, et à la remise en cause d'hypothèses de base telles que la présence d'un clavier ou d'un unique pointeur de désignation. Cela demande donc de multiples évolutions dans Linux, qui doit continuer à faire fonctionner les applications existantes. La gestion des entrées, dans le noyau et le serveur X, est modifiée pour tenir compte de flux d'information plus complexes. La reconnaissance de gestes est introduite, tant pour simuler le clavier ou la souris que pour proposer de nouveaux styles d'interaction. De nouvelles conventions d'interaction adaptées aux tablettes sont en cours de définition dans la distribution Ubuntu. Des modifications plus profondes de la gestion des entrées pour préparer les prochaines évolutions sont à l'étude

Supporting air traffic control collaboration with a tabletop system

International audienceCollaboration is key to safety and efficiency in Air Traffic Control. Legacy paper-based systems enable seamless and non-verbal collaboration, but trends in new software and hardware for ATC tend to separate controllers more and more, which hinders collaboration. This paper presents a new interactive system designed to support collaboration in ATC. We ran a series of interviews and workshops to identify collaborative situations in ATC. From this analysis, we derived a set of requirements to support collaboration: support mutual awareness, communication and coordination, dynamic task allocation and simultaneous use with more than two people. We designed a set of new interactive tools to fulfill the requirements, by using a multi-user tabletop surface, appropriate feedthrough, and reified and partially-accomplishable actions. Preliminary evaluation shows that feedthrough is important, users benefit from a number of tools to communicate and coordinate their actions, and the tabletop is actually usable by three people both in tightly coupled tasks and parallel, individual activities. At a higher level, we also found that co-location is not enough to generate mutual awareness if users are not engaged in meaningful collaboration

Former les futurs concepteurs de systèmes Homme-Machine complexes

L'ingénierie des systèmes homme-machine implique la définition des besoins des utilisateurs en tant qu'éléments de l'architecture du système. Or l'analyse des pratiques industrielles dans la conception des systèmes complexes met en évidence des problèmes dans la prise en compte de l'utilisateur. Ces problèmes semblent insuffisamment traités par l'apport de cours d'analyse du besoin ou de conception d'IHM. En tant que formateurs de futurs concepteurs de systèmes homme-machine complexes, nous proposons une réponse à ces problèmes par la définition d'un nouvel enseignement en ingénierie des systèmes hommemachine complexes. Cet article présente la conception de cet enseignement, issue d'une réflexion sur les disciplines de l'analyse fonctionnelle, la conception participative et l'approche orientée objet, et menée à la lumière de quatre exigences : définir l'usage, susciter la co-évolution besoin-solution, définir de façon exhaustive les caractéristiques techniques, formaliser les besoins

Collaboration et tangibilité : de nouvelles perspectives pour le contrôle aérien.

Maintenant que les écrans tactiles sont largement répandus, se pose pour le contrôle aérien la question de les exploiter au mieux. Nous présentons deux démonstrateurs qui, en exploitant la tangibilité et le tactile multipoint, illustrent des opportunités de transition facilitée entre papier et numérique, et de meilleure gestion de la collaboration entre contrôleurs et avec les pilotes. Ces démonstrations esquissent un avenir possible pour les futurs systèmes sol -bord en aéronautique

Visual scanning as a reference framework for interactive representation design

International audienceWhen designing a representation, the designer implicitly formulates a sequence of visual tasks required to understand and use the representation effectively. This paper aims at making the sequence of visual tasks explicit in order to help designers elicit their design choices. In particular, we present a set of concepts to systematically analyse what a user must theoretically do to decipher representations. The analysis consists of a decomposition of the activity of scanning into elementary visualization operations. We show how the analysis applies to various existing representations, and how expected benefits can be expressed in terms of elementary operations. The set of elementary operations form the basis of a shared language for representation designers. The decomposition highlights the challenges encountered by a user when deciphering a representation and helps designers to exhibit possible flaws in their design, justify their choices, and compare designs. We also show that interaction with a representation can be considered as facilitation to perform the elementary operations

Ivy : un bus logiciel au service du développement de prototypes de systèmes interactifs

Ce document présente l'expérience acquise au cours du développement et de l'utilisation du bus logiciel Ivy, dans un cadre de prototypage de systèmes interactifs pour le contrôle du trafic aérien. Après une description du principe de fonctionnement de ce système, nous verrons comment cet outil a pu influer sur notre approche de problématiques IHM spécifiques comme la multimodalité, l'interaction répartie ou la mobilité. L'accent est porté sur les services rendus par ce bus pour le développement rapide de systèmes interactifs " légers ", facilement intégrables dans un banc de démonstration et basés sur la logique des langages de script. En présentant cet outil que nous utilisons depuis maintenant cinq ans, nous espérons partager ici une expérience utile pour la conception de futures architectures de systèmes interactifs à des fins de recherche prospective