Institute for Systems Research

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Subject: search.filters.subject.human-computer interaction

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 15
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    Supporting Creativity with Advanced Information-Abundant User Interfaces
    (1999) Shneiderman, Ben; ISR
    A 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.

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    Interface and Data Architecture for Query Preview in Network Information Systems
    (1997) Doan, Khoa; Plaisant, Catherine; Shneiderman, Ben; Bruns, Tom; ISR
    There 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.
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    Elastic Windows: A Hierarchical Multi-Window World-Wide Web Browser
    (1997) Kandogan, Eser; Shneiderman, B.; ISR
    The World-Wide Web (WWW) is becoming an invaluable source for the information needs of many users. However, current browsers are still primitive, in that they do no support many of the navigation needs of users, as indicated by user studies. They do not provide an overview and a sense of location in the information structure being browsed. Also they do not facilitate the organization and filtering of information nor aid users in accessing already visited pages without much cognitive demands. In this paper, a new browsing interface is proposed with multiple hierarchical windows and efficient multiple windows operations. It provides a flexible organization where users can quickly organize, filter, and restructure the information on the screen as they reformulate their goals. Overviews can give the user a sense of location in the browsing history as well as provide fast access to a hierarchy of pages.
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    Incremental Data Structures and Algorithms for Dynamic Query Interfaces
    (1997) Tanin, Egemen; Beigel, Richard; Shneiderman, Ben; ISR
    Dynamic 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.
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    Elastic Windows: Evaluation of Multi-Window Operations
    (1997) Kandogan, Eser; Shneiderman, B.; ISR
    Most windowing systems follow the independent overlapping windows approach, which emerged as an answer to the needs of the 1980s' technology. Due to advances in computers and display technology, and increased information needs, modern users demand more functionality from window management systems. We proposed Elastic Windows with improved spatial layout and rapid multi- window operations as an alternative to current window management strategies for efficient personal role management [kandogan]. In this approach, multi-window operations are achieved by issuing operations on window groups hierarchically organized in a space- filing tiled layout. This paper describes the Elastic Windows interface briefly and then presents a study comparing user performance with Elastic Windows and traditional window management techniques for 2, 6, and 12 window situations. Elastic Windows users had statistically significantly faster performance for all 6 and 12 window situations, for task environment setup, task environment switching, and task execution. These results suggest promising possibilities for multiple window operations and hierarchical nesting, which can be applied to the next generation of tiled as well as overlapped window managers.
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    Visual & Textual Consistency Checking Tools for Graphical User Interfaces
    (1996) Mahajan, Rohit; Shneiderman, B.; ISR
    Designing a user interface with a consistent visual design and textual properties with current generation GUI development tools is cumbersome. SHERLOCK, a family of consistency checking tools, has been designed to evaluate visual design and textual properties of interface, make the GUI evaluation process less arduous, and aid usability testing. SHERLOCK includes a dialog box summary table to provide a compact overview of visual properties of hundreds of dialog boxes of the interface. Terminology specific tools, like Interface Concordance, Terminology Baskets and Interface Speller have been developed. Button specific tools including Button Concordance and Button Layout Table have been created to detect variant capitalization, distinct typefaces, distinct colors, variant button sizes and inconsistent button placements. This paper describes software architecture, data structures and the use of SHERLOCK. An experiment with 60 subjects to study the effects of inconsistent interface terminology on user's performance showed 10-25% speedup for consistent interfaces. SHERLOCK was tested with four commercial prototypes; the corresponding outputs, analysis and feedback from designers of these applications is presented.
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    Browsing Hierarchical Data with Multi-Level Dynamic Queries and Pruning
    (1995) Kumar, Harsha P.; Shneiderman, B.; ISR; CSHCN
    Users often must browse hierarchies with thousands of nodes in search of those that best match their information needs. The tree-browser visualization tool was specified, designed and developed for this purpose. This tool presents trees in two tightly-coupled views, one a detailed view and the other an overview. Users can use dynamic queries, a method for rapidly filtering data, to filter nodes at each level of the tree. The dynamic query panels are user-customizable. Subtrees of unselected nodes are pruned out, leading to compact views of relevant nodes.

    The software architecture, data structures and algorithms used to achieve this behavior are specified. Usability testing of the Tree-browser, done with 8 subjects, helped assess strengths and identify possible improvements. The Tree-browser was applied to the Network Management (600 nodes) and UniversityFinder (1100 nodes) application. Future research directions are suggested.

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    Query Previews in Networked Information Systems
    (1995) Doan, Khoa; Plaisant, C.; Shneiderman, B.; ISR; CSHCN
    In a networked information system, there are three major obstacles facing users in a querying process: network performance, data volume and data complexity. In order to overcome these obstacles, we propose a two-phase approach of dynamic query formulation by volume preview. The two phases are the Query Preview andQuery Refinement. In the Query Preview phase, users formulate an initial query by selecting desired attribute values. The volume of matching data sets is shown graphically on Query bars which aid users to rapidly eliminate undesired data sets, and focus on a manageable number of relevant data sets. Query previews also prevent wasted steps by eliminating zero-hit queries. When the estimated number of data sets is low enough, the initial query is submitted to the network, which returns the metadata of the data sets for further refinement in the Query Refinement phase. The two-phase approach to query formulation overcomes slow network performance, and reduces the data volume and data complexity problems. This approach is especially appropriate for users who prefer the exploratory method to discover data patterns and exceptions during the query formulation process. Using this approach, we have developed dynamic query user interfaces to allow users to formulate their queries across a networked environment.
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    Browsing Hierarchical Data with Multi-Level Dynamic Queries and Pruning
    (1995) Kumar, Harsha P.; Plaisant, C.; Shneiderman, B.; ISR; CSHCN
    User often must browse hierarchies with thousands of nodes in search of those that best match their information needs. The PDQ Tree-browser (Pruning with Dynamic Queries) visualization tool was specified, designed and developed for this purpose. This tool presents trees in two tightly-coupled views, one a detailed view and the other an overview. Users can use dynamic queries, a method for rapidly filtering data, to filter nodes at each level of the tree. The dynamic query panels are user-customizable. Subtrees of unselected nodes are pruned out, leading to compact views of relevant nodes. Usability testing of the PDQ Tree- browser, done with 8 subjects, helped asses strengths and identify possible improvement. The PDQ Tree-browser was used in Network Management (600 nodes) and University Finder (1100 nodes) applications. A controlled experiment, with 24 subjects, showed that pruning significantly improved performance speed and subjective user satisfaction. Future research directions are suggested.
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    User Controlled Overviews of an Image Library: A Case Study of the Visible Human
    (1995) North, C.; Shneiderman, B.; Plaisant, C.; ISR
    This paper proposes a user interface for remote access of the National Library of Medicine's Visible Human digital image library. Users can visualize the library, browse contents, locate data of interest, and retrieve desired images. The interface presents a pair of tightly coupled views into the library data. The overview image provides a global view of the overall search space, and the preview image provides details about high resolution images available for retrieval. To explore, the user sweeps the views through the search space and receives smooth, rapid, visual feedback of contents. Desired images are automatically downloaded over the Internet from the library. Library contents are indexed by meta-data consisting of automatically generated miniature visuals. The interface software is completely functional and freely available for public use at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/.