Institute for Systems Research Technical Reports
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/4376
This archive contains a collection of reports generated by the faculty and students of the Institute for Systems Research (ISR), a permanent, interdisciplinary research unit in the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland. ISR-based projects are conducted through partnerships with industry and government, bringing together faculty and students from multiple academic departments and colleges across the university.
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Item Supporting Creativity with Advanced Information-Abundant User Interfaces(1999) Shneiderman, Ben; ISRA challenge for human-computer interaction researchers and user interface designers is to construct information technologies that support creativity. This ambitious goal can be attained if designers build on an adequate understanding of creative processes. This paper describes a model of creativity, the four-phase genex framework for generating excellence:- Collect: learn from previous works stored in digital libraries, the web, etc.
- Relate: consult with peers and mentors at early, middle and late stages
- Create: explore, compose, discover, and evaluate possible solutions
- Donate: disseminate the results and contribute to the digital libraries, the web, etc.
Within this integrated framework, there are eight activities that require human-computer interaction research and advanced user interface design. This paper concentrates on techniques of information visualization that support creative work by enabling users to find relevant information resources, identify desired items in a set, or discover patterns in a collection. It describes information visualization methods and proposes five questions for the future: generality, integration, perceptual foundations, cognitive principles, and collaboration.
Item Interface and Data Architecture for Query Preview in Network Information Systems(1997) Doan, Khoa; Plaisant, Catherine; Shneiderman, Ben; Bruns, Tom; ISRThere are numerous problems associated with formulating queries on networked information systems. These include data diversity, data complexity, network growth, varied user base, and slow network access. This paper proposes a new approach to a network query user interface which consists of two phases: query preview and query Refinement. This new approach is based on the concepts of dynamic queries and query previews, which guides users in rapidly and dynamically eliminating undesired datasets, reducing the data volume to manageable size, and refining queries locally before submission over a network. Examples of 2 applications are given: a Restaurant Finder and prototype with NASA's Earth Observing Systems -- Data Information Systems (EOSDIS). Data architecture is discussed and user's feedback is presented. Dynamic queries and query previews provide solutions to many existing problems in querying networked information systems.Item Incremental Data Structures and Algorithms for Dynamic Query Interfaces(1997) Tanin, Egemen; Beigel, Richard; Shneiderman, Ben; ISRDynamic query interfaces (DQIs) are a recently developed form of database access that provides continuous realtime feedback to the user during the query formulation process. Previous work shows that DQIs are an elegant and powerful interface to small databases. Unfortunately, when applied to large databases, previous DQI algorithms slow to a crawl. We present a new approach to DQI algorithms that works well with large databases.Item Evaluating Spatial and Textual Style of Displays(1995) Shneiderman, Ben; Chimera, Richard; Jog, Ninog; Stimart, Ren; White, David; ISRThe next generation of Graphic User Interfaces (GUIs) will offer rapid access to perceptually-rich, information abundant, and cognitively consistent interfaces. These new GUIs will be subjected to usability tests and expert reviews, plus new analysis methods and novel metrics to help guide designers. We have developed and tested first generation concordance tools to help developers to review terminology, capitalization, and abbreviation. We have also developed a dialog box summary table to help developers spot patterns and identify possible inconsistencies in layout, color fonts, font size, font style, and ordering of widgets. In this study we also explored the use of metrics such as widget counts, balance, alignment, density, and aspect ratios to provide further clues about where redesigns might be appropriate. Preliminary experience with several commercial projects is encouraging.