Tech Reports in Computer Science and Engineering

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Author: search.filters.author.Plaisant, Catherine

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    Improving Accessibility and Usability of Geo-referenced Statistical Data
    (2003-06-04) Zhao, Haixia; Plaisant, Catherine; Shneiderman, Ben
    Several technology breakthroughs are needed to achieve the goals of universal accessibility and usability. These goals are especially challenging in the case of geo-referenced statistical data that many U.S. government agencies supply. We present technical and user-interface design challenges in accommodating users with low-end technology (slow network connection and low-end machine) and users who are blind or vision-impaired. Our solutions are presented and future work is discussed. (UMIACS-TR-2003-37) (HCIL-2003-11)
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    New Approaches to Help Users Get Started with Visual Interfaces: Multi-Layered Interfaces and Integrated Initial Guidance
    (2003-06-04) Kang, Hyunmo; Plaisant, Catherine; Shneiderman, Ben
    We are investigating new ways to help users learn to use public access interactive tools, in particular for the visual exploration of government statistics. Our work led to a series of interfaces using multi-layered design and a new help method called Integrated Initial Guidance. Multi-layer designs structure an interface so that a simpler interface is available for users to get started and more complex features are accessed as users move through the more advanced layers. Integrated Initial Guidance provides help within the working interface, right at the start of the application. Using the metaphor of ^sticky notes^ overlaid on top of the functional interface locates the main widgets, demonstrates their manipulation, and explains the resulting actions using preset animation of the interface. Additional sticky notes lead to example tasks, also being executed step by step within the interface itself. Usability testing with 12 participants led to refined designs and guidelines for the design of Integrated Initial Guidance interfaces. (UMIACS-TR-2003-36) (HCIL-2003-10)
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    Data Exploration with Paired Hierarchical Visualizations: Initial Designs of PairTrees
    (2003-06-04) Kules, Bill; Shneiderman, Ben; Plaisant, Catherine
    Paired hierarchical visualizations (PairTrees) integrate treemaps, node-link diagrams, choropleth maps and other information visualization techniques to support exploration of hierarchical data sets at multiple levels of abstraction. This paper describes several novel applications of PairTrees in the econometric and health statistics domains, as well as some challenges and trade-offs inherent in the technique. (UMIACS-TR-2003-35) (HCIL-2003-09)
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    Family Calendar Survey
    (2003-01-21) Hutchinson, Hilary; Bederson, Benjamin B.; Plaisant, Catherine; Druin, Allison
    Beginning in late July 2002, we conducted a survey about people's personal and family calendaring habits. By the end of September, we had over 400 responses, which are summarized below. The survey was conducted to help inform our work in designing new technologies for families, motivated in part by our work on the interLiving project. InterLiving is a 3 year, European Union-funded project where we work with distributed, multi-generational families as design partners to create new technologies (see http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/interliving for details). The survey was administered from a web page (https://www.cs.umd.edu/users/hilary/survey/survey.htm), and participants were solicited via a "chain-mail" email approach. We began by sending a request to fill out a survey to our friends, families, and colleagues. We asked that they forward the request on to their friends, family and colleagues as well. While we realize that this was an imperfect approach, we believed that the respondents would be representative of the users we are initially targeting in our research on family calendaring and coordination - individuals who are already making relatively heavy use of computers at home and/or work. The results seem to validate this assumption. Many of our respondents likely come from the HCI community as the mailing went to our large lab mailing list. We may have some pollution in the data as a result of people in the same household (e.g. husband and wife) both filling out the survey. Despite these issues, the results we got were helpful in eliciting a number of important findings, namely that people rely on multiple calendars, many of which are still paper. (UMIACS-TR-2002-92) (HCIL-TR-2002-21)
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    Technology Probes: Inspiring Design for and with Families
    (2003-01-21) Hutchinson, Hilary; Bederson, Benjamin B.; Druin, Allison; Plaisant, Catherine; Mackay, Wendy; Evans, Helen; Hansen, Heiko
    We describe a new methodology for designing technologies for and with families called technology probes. Technology probes are simple, flexible, adaptable technologies introduced into families' homes with three interdisciplinary goals: the social science goal of collecting data about the use of the technology in a real-world setting, the engineering goal of field-testing the technology, and the design goal of inspiring users and designers to think about new technologies. We present the results of designing and deploying two technology probes, the MessageProbe and the VideoProbe, with families in France, Sweden, and the U.S. We conclude with our plans for creating new technologies based on our experiences. Keywords Design Methods, Computer Mediated Communication, Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), Home, Ethnography, Participatory Design and Cooperative Design, User Studies and Fieldwork (UMIACS-TR-2002-87) (HCIL-TR-2002-16)
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    SpaceTree: Supporting Exploration in Large Node Link Tree, Design Evolution and Empirical Evaluation
    (2003-01-21) Plaisant, Catherine; Grosjean, Jesse; Bederson, Benjamin B.
    We present a novel tree browser that builds on the conventional node link tree diagrams. It adds dynamic rescaling of branches of the tree to best fit the available screen space, optimized camera movement, and the use of preview icons summarizing the topology of the branches that cannot be expanded. In addition, it includes integrated search and filter functions. This paper reflects on the evolution of the design and highlights the principles that emerged from it. A controlled experiment showed benefits for navigation to already previously visited nodes and estimation of overall tree topology. (UMIACS-TR-2002-40) (HCIL-TR-2002-05)
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    Immediate Usability: Kiosk design principles from the CHI 2001 Photo Library
    (2003-01-21) Kules, Bill; Kang, Hyunmo; Plaisant, Catherine; Rose, Anne; Shneiderman, Ben
    This paper describes a novel set of design principles and guidelines for ensuring the immediate usability of public access systems. These principles and guidelines were formulated while developing PhotoFinder Kiosk, a community photo library. Attendees of CHI 2001 successfully used the tool to browse and annotate collections of photographs spanning 20 years of CHI and related conferences, producing a richly annotated photo history of the field of human-computer interaction. We used observations and log data to evaluate the tool and refine the guidelines. They provide specific guidance for practitioners, as well as a useful framework for additional research in public access interfaces. Keywords Photo collection, community photo library, group annotation, public access system, direct annotation, direct manipulation, drag-and-drop, immediate usability, zero-trial learning, walk-up-and-use, casual use. (UMIACS-TR-2001-71) (HCIL-TR-2001-23)
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    Vehicle Speed Information Displays for Public Websites A Survey of User Preferences
    (2000-10-09) Plaisant, Catherine; Bhamidipati, Phanikumar
    The paper reports on a study comparing alternative presentations of freeway speed data on maps. The goal of the study was to inform the design of displays of real time speed data over the Internet to the general public. Subjects were presented with a series of displays and asked to rate their preferences. We looked at different choices of color (3 colors, 6 colors or a continuous range), and proposed line, sensor, and segment representations of the speed data. We also collected feedback on more complex displays such as comparison between current and "normal" speeds, and a chart of speed variation over a period of time at given locations. (Also cross-referenced as HCIL-TR-2000-23) (Also cross-referenced as UMIACS-TR-2000-73)
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    A Storytelling Robot for Pediatric Rehabilitation
    (2000-10-06) Plaisant, Catherine; Druin, Allison; Lathan, Corinna; Dakhane, Kapil; Edwards, Kris; Vice, Jack Maxwell; Montemayor, Jaime
    We are developing a prototype storytelling robot for use with children in rehabilitation. Children can remotely control a large furry robot by using a variety of body sensors adapted to their disability or rehabilitation goal. In doing so, they can teach the robot to act out emotions (e.g. sad, happy, excited) and then write stories using the storytelling software and include those emotions in the story. The story can then be "played" by the remote controlled robot, which acts out the story and the emotions. We believe that this robot can motivate the children and help them reach their therapy goals through therapeutic play, either by exercising muscles or joints (e.g. for physically challenges children) or by reflecting on the expression of emotions (e.g. for autistic children). We use an innovative design methodology involving children as design partners. (Also cross-referenced as UMIACS-TR-2000-65)
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    The Design of History Mechanisms and their Use in Collaborative Educational Simulations
    (1999-08-25) Plaisant, Catherine; Rose, Anne; Rubloff, Gary; Salter, Richard; Shneiderman, Ben
    Reviewing past events has been useful in many domains. Videotapes and flight data recorders provide nvaluable technological help to sports coaches or aviation engineers. Similarly, providing learners with a readable recording of their actions may help them monitor their behavior, reflect on their progress, and experiment with revisions of their experiences. It may also facilitate active collaboration among dispersed learning communities. Learning histories can help students and professionals make more effective use of digital library searching, word processing tasks, computer-assisted design tools, electronic performance support systems, and web navigation. This paper describes the design space and discusses the challenges of implementing learning histories. It presents guidelines for creating effective implementations, and the design tradeoffs between sparse and dense history records. The paper also presents a first implementation of learning histories for a simulation-based engineering learning environment called SimPLE (Simulated Processes in a Learning Environment) for the case of a semiconductor fabrication module, and reports on early user evaluation of learning histories implemented within SimPLE. Also cross-referenced as UMIACS-TR-99-34