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Refinding is Not Finding Again
Get PDFA challenging problem for Internet users today is how to refind information that they have seen before. We believe that finding and refinding are different user activities and require different types of support. The problem of how to find information on the web is studied extensively---new search algorithms, support for natural language queries, and innovative document indexing techniques are common topics in information retrieval research; visualizations of documents, and task support for finding are topics in human-computer interaction. But refinding has only recently begun to receive attention. In this article, we present evidence to support the claim that information refinding is a different activity than information finding. We present results that show how refinding is different from finding and suggest ways to improve web information seeking tools and designs tosupport refinding information
Unification of Problem Solving Environment Implementation Layers with XML
No full textThis paper describes how XML is used to unify the implementation layers of a problem solving environment WBCSim. WBCSim is a Web based simulation system designed to increase the productivity of wood scientists conducting research on wood-based composites manufacturing processes. WBCSim serves as a prototypical example for the design, construction, and evaluation of small-scale problem solving environments. WBCSim supports five process models. A XML datasheet is tailored for each model. The WBCSim interface layer, server scripts and database management system all use this XML datasheet to improve the usability and maintainability of the three layers--client, server, developer--comprising the WBCSim system. A detailed description of the WBCSim system architecture is presented along with a typical scenario of usage
Designing Attention-Centric Notification Systems: Five HCI Challenges
Get PDFThrough an examination of the emerging domain of cognitive systems, with a
focus on attention-centric cognitive systems used for notification, this document explores
the human-computer interaction challenges that must be addressed for successful
interface design. This document asserts that with compatible tools and methods, user
notification requirements and interface usability can be abstracted, expressed, and
compared with critical parameter ratings; that is, even novice designers can assess
attention cost factors to determine target parameter levels for new system development.
With a general understanding of the user tasks supported by the notification system, a
designer can access the repository of design knowledge for appropriate information and
interaction design techniques (e.g., use of color, audio features, animation, screen size,
transition of states, etc), which have analytically and empirically derived ratings.
Furthermore, usability evaluation methods, provided to designers as part of the integrated
system, are adaptable to specific combinations of targeted parameter levels. User testing
results can be conveniently added back into the design knowledge repository and
compared to target parameter levels to determine design success and build reusable HCI
knowledge.
This approach is discussed in greater detail as we describe five HCI challenges
relating to cognitive system development: (1) convenient access to basic research and
guidelines, (2) requirements engineering methods for notification interfaces, (3) better
and more usable predictive modeling for pre-attentive and dual-task interfaces, (4)
standard empirical evaluation procedures for notification systems, and (5) conceptual
frameworks for organizing reusable design and software components.
This document also describes our initial work toward building infrastructure to
overcome these five challenges, focused on notification system development. We
described LINK-UP, a design environment grounded on years of theory and method
development within HCI, providing a mechanism to integrate interdisciplinary expertise
from the cognitive systems research community. Claims allow convenient access to
basic research and guidelines, while modules parallel a lifecycle development iteration
and provide a process for requirements engineering guided by this basic research. The
activities carried out through LINK-UP provide access to and interaction with reusable
design components organized based on our framework. We think that this approach may
provide the scientific basis necessary for exciting interdisciplinary advancement through
many fields of design, with notification systems serving as an initial model.
A version of this document will appear as chapter 3 in the book Cognitive
Systems: Human Cognitive Models in Systems Design edited by Chris Forsythe, Michael
Bernard, and Timothy Goldsmith resulting from a workshop led by the editors in summer
2003. The authors are grateful for the input of the workshop organizers and conference
attendees in the preparation of this document
Global/Local Iteration for Blended Composite Laminate Panel Structure Optimization Subproblems
Get PDFComposite panel structure optimization is commonly decomposed into panel optimization subproblems. Previous work applied a guide based design approach to the problem for a structure where the local loads were assumed to be fixed for each panel throughout the design process. This paper examines the application of guide based design to a more realistic representation of the structure where the local loads for each panel are determined through a global level analysis that is coupled with the stacking sequence for every design panel. A small problem is selected for which an exhaustive search of the subproblem design space verifies the optimality of the solution found through the global/local iteration process introduced in this work. The efficient discovery of solutions to these guide based design subproblems creates an opportunity to incorporate the solutions into a global level optimization process. A parallel genetic algorithm is proposed to control global optimization in which evaluating the fitness of each member of the population requires the solution of a guide based design subproblem where parallelism is solely within fitness evaluations. Results are presented for a wingbox design problem and compared with known solutions for the same problem to demonstrate weight reductions in a problem thought to already be near optimally solved
Algorithms for Feature Selection in Rank-Order Spaces
Get PDFThe problem of feature selection in supervised learning situations is considered, where all features are drawn from a common domain and are best interpreted via ordinal comparisons with other features, rather than as numerical values. In particular, each instance is a member of a space of ranked features. This problem is pertinent in electoral, financial, and bioinformatics contexts, where features denote assessments in terms of counts, ratings, or rankings. Four algorithms for feature selection in such rank-order spaces are presented; two are information-theoretic, and two are order-theoretic. These algorithms are empirically evaluated against both synthetic and real world datasets. The main results of this paper are (i) characterization of relationships and equivalences between different feature selection strategies with respect to the spaces in which they operate, and the distributions they seek to approximate; (ii) identification of computationally simple and efficient strategies that perform surprisingly well; and (iii) a feasibility study of order-theoretic feature selection for large scale datasets
Incremental, Semi-automatic, Mapping-Based Integration of Heterogeneous Collections into Archaeological Digital Libraries: Megiddo Case Study
Get PDFAutomation is an important issue when integrating heterogeneous collections into archaeological digital libraries. We propose an incremental approach through intermediary- and mapping-based techniques. A visual schema mapping tool within the 5S framework allows semi-automatic mapping and in-cremental global schema enrichment. 5S also helped speed up development of a new multi-dimensional browsing service. Our approach helps integrate the Me-giddo excavation data into a growing union archaeological DL, ETANA-DL
Spiraling Toward Usability: An Integrated Design Environment and Management System
Get PDFDecades of innovation in designing usable (and unusable) interfaces have resulted in a plethora of guidelines, usability engineering methods, and other design tools. However, novice developers often have difficulty selecting and utilizing theory-based design tools in a coherent design process. This work introduces an integrated design environment and knowledge management system, LINK-UP. The central design record (CDR) module, provides tools to enable a guided, coherent development process. The CDR aims to prevent breakdowns occurring between design and evaluation phases both within the development team and during design knowledge reuse processes. We report on results from three case studies illustrating novice designers use of LINK-UP. A design knowledge IDE incorporating a CDR can help novice developers craft interfaces in a methodical fashion, while applying, verifying, and producing reusable design knowledge. Although LINK-UP supports a specific design domain, our IDE approach can transfer to other domains
An End-User Development Perspective on State-of-the-Art Web Development Tools
Get PDFWe reviewed and analyzed nine commercially available web development tools from the perspective of suitability for end-user development to compare and contrast alternative and best-of-breed approaches for particular problem areas within web application development (Getting Started, Workflow, Level of Abstraction, Layout, Database, Application Logic, Testing and Debugging, Learning and Scaling, Security, Collaboration, and Deployment). End-user development involves the creation of dynamic websites with support for features like authentication, conditional display, and searching/sorting by casual web developers who have some experience creating static websites but little or no programming knowledge. We found that current tools do not lack functionality, but rather have a variety of problems in ease of use for end users who are nonprogrammers. In particular, while many tools offer wizards and other features designed to facilitate specific aspects of end-user development, none of the tools that we reviewed supports a holistic approach to web application development. We discuss the implications of these problems and conclude with recommendations for the design of improved web development tools that would lower the entry barrier into web programming
Requirements Gathering and Modeling of Domain-Specific Digital Libraries with the 5S Framework: An Archaeological Case Study with ETANA
Get PDFRequirements gathering and conceptual modeling are essential for the customization of digital libraries (DLs), to help attend the needs of target com-munities. In this paper, we show how to apply the 5S (Streams, Structures, Spaces, Scenarios, and Societies) formal framework to support both tasks. The intuitive nature of the framework allows for easy and systematic requirements analysis, while its formal nature ensures the precision and correctness required for semi-automatic DL generation. More specifically, we show how 5S can help us define a domain-specific DL metamodel in the field of archaeology. Finally, an archaeological DL case study (from the ETANA project) yields informal and formal descriptions of two DL models (instances of the metamodel)
Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Cloning Techniques for Architectural Virtual Environments
Get PDFWe made the first attempt towards building effective domain-specific interaction techniques for a cloning task. Five interaction techniques were designed and evaluated considering different aspects of domain requirements and human limitations. We demonstrated their effectiveness of designed techniques in two usability studies. The results suggested that no single technique is best for all task conditions. Techniques designed for cloning improved the domain task performance profoundly. The work suggests a further direction: passing domain knowledge to the design process to increase the usefulness of VEs