Human-Computer Interactionand Prototype Demos

Session 8

INFM 718N

Web-Enabled Databases

Agenda

• HCI

• Team meetings

• Prototype demos

Database

Server-side Programming

Interchange Language

Client-side Programming

Web Browser

Client Hardware

Server Hardware (PC, Unix)

(MySQL)

(PHP)

(HTML, XML)

(JavaScript)

(IE, Firefox)

(PC)

Bus

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sru

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Inte

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ion

Des

ign

Inte

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• Relational normalization• Structured programming• Software patterns• Object-oriented design• Functional decomposition

Human-Computer Communication

Task System

Mental Models SightSound

HandsVoice

Task User

Software Models KeyboardMouse

DisplaySpeaker

Human

Computer

Mental Models

• How the user thinks the machine works– What actions can be taken?

– What results are expected from an action?

– How should system output be interpreted?

• Mental models exist at many levels– Hardware/operating system/network

– Application programs

– Information resources

Interaction Design

• Play to the strengths of machine and human

• Place the locus of control with the user

• Make it easy to do the right thing

• Support multiple interaction styles

Strengths

• Machine– Speed

– Storage

– Repeatability

• Human– Initiative

– Flexibility

– Recognition

Taylor’s Information Needs

• Visceral– What you really want to know

• Conscious– What you recognize that you want to know

• Formalized – How you articulate what you want to know

• Compromised – How you express what you want to know to a system

[Taylor 68]

Belkin’s ASK model

• Users are concerned with a problem

• But do not clearly understand– the problem itself– the information need to solve the problem

Anomalous State of Knowledge

• Need clarification process to form a query

[Belkin 80, Belkin, Oddy, Brooks 82]

Query Formulation Interaction Styles

• Command Language

• Form Fill-in

• Menu Selection

• Direct Manipulation

• Natural Language

Credit: Marti Hearst

WIMP Interfaces

• Windows– Spatial context

• Icons– Direct manipulation

• Menus– Hierarchy

• Pointing devices– Spatial interaction

GUI Components

• Windows (and panels)– Resize, drag, iconify, scroll, destroy

• Selectors – Menu bars, pulldown lists

• Buttons– Labeled buttons, radio buttons, checkboxes

• Icons– Text, images

Direct Manipulation

• Select a metaphor– Desktop, CD player, map, …

• Use icons to represent conceptual objects– Watch out for cultural differences

• Manipulate those objects – Select (e.g., left click, right click, double click)– Move (e.g., drag and drop)

Menus• Conserve screen space by hiding functions

– Menu bar, pop-up

• Can hierarchically structured– By application’s logic– By convention (e.g., where is the print function?)

• Tradeoff between breadth and depth– Too deep can become hard to find things– Too broad becomes direct manipulation

Dynamic Queries

• What to do when menus become too deep?– Merge keyboard and direct manipulation

• Select menu items by typing part of a word– After each letter, update the menu– Once the word is displayed, user can click on it

• Example: Google Suggest

Uses of Result Sets

• Find the answer to a question

• Learn what you are really looking for

• Learn things that can yield improved the queries

• Learn about query language through “probing”

• Learn that what you are looking for doesn’t exist

Display Modalities

• Graphical– 1-D vs. 2-D vs. 3-D vs. immersive– Depicting objects

• Size, color, orientation, motion, mouseover

– Coupled views– Jump vs. pan/zoom/fisheye

• Spoken

• Auditory

Color

• Design for monochrome displays– Provides assured access for color blind users

• Add muted colors where they help– Useful for rapid recognition of categories– Limit to 4 colors per screen (7 per application)

• Pay attention to readability– “Similar” colors look different on another display– Different systems may have different defaults

Size

• Don’t make icons too small– Fitts’ Law: Time = f(distance, size)

• Size can be used to illustrate quantity– Scale size coding by at least 1.5

• No more than 4 font sizes

Animation• Drill down

– Mouseover tool tips, menu expansion

• Illustration– Change over time, icon behavior (on mouseover)

• Display space reuse– Ticker tape, slide show

• Visible transitions

• 3-D visualization– E-archivarius demo

• Attention management (once!)

Ben’s “Seamless Interface” Principles• Informative feedback• Easy reversal• User in control

– Anticipatable outcomes– Explainable results– Browsable content

• Limited working memory load– Query context– Path suspension

• Alternatives for novices and experts– Scaffolding

Doug’s Synergistic Interaction Principles• Interdependence with process

– Co-design with search strategy– Importance of response time

• System initiative– Guided process– Exposing the structure of knowledge

• Support for reasoning– Meaningful dimensions– Representation of uncertainty

• Synergy between querying and browsing– Strength of language

• Easily learned– Familiar metaphors (timelines, ranked lists, maps)

Things That Help

• Show the query in the selection interface– It provides context for the display

• Explain what the system has done– It is hard to control a tool you don’t understand

• Complement what the system has done– Users add value by doing things the system can’t– Expose the information users need to do this

Form-Based Query Specification (Melvyl)

Credit: Marti Hearst

Form-based Query Specification (Infoseek)

Credit: Marti Hearst

Starfield

Constructing Starfield Displays

• Two attributes determine the position– Can be dynamically selected from a list

• Numeric position attributes work best– Date, length, rating, …

• Other attributes can affect the display– Displayed as color, size, shape, orientation, …

• Each point can represent a cluster

Dynamic Queries:• IVEE/Spotfire/Filmfinder (Ahlberg &

Shneiderman 93)

Putting It All Together

• http://www.philipglass.com/

Graphical Design Critique

• Select any 3 GUI’s you know and can use here– e.g., Windows XP, Google, USMAI catalog

• Work in in groups of 3 to critique each– Using IBM design guidelines

• http://www-3.ibm.com/ibm/easy/eou_ext.nsf/publish/6

– What are the 3 best features of each?– What are the 3 principal weaknesses of each?