Conference Paper

Bringing icons to life

Authors:
To read the full-text of this research, you can request a copy directly from the authors.

Abstract

Icons are used increasingly in interfaces because they are compact "universal" pictographic representations of computer functionality and processing. Animated icons can bring to life symbols representing complete applications or functions within an application, thereby clarifying their meaning, demonstrating their capabilities, and even explaining their method of use. To test this hypothesis, we carried out an iterative design of a set of animated painting icons that appear in the HyperCard tool palette. The design discipline restricted the animations to 10 to 20 second sequences of 22×20 pixel bit maps. User testing was carried out on two interfaces - one with the static icons, one with the animated icons. The results showed significant benefit from the animations in clarifying the purpose and functionality of the icons.

No full-text available

Request Full-text Paper PDF

To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.

... Baecker et al. Baecker et al. (1991) expanded their classification with the addition of the categories Orientation and Interpretation, of animations. Nevertheless, the authors include an example taken from Myers (1984), shown in Figure 5. ...
... The metalinguistic function in explanatory texts is reflected in the principles that assert the need to provide explanatory and didactic aswww.rcommunicationr.org Next, we look for parallels between the ten functions of Baecker et al. (1991) ...
... We encountered difficulties when trying to link some of the functions proposed by Baecker et al. (1991) with the blocks from the guidelines, in particular, those of "History" and "Choice," which were both considered to be hypothetical in Baecker and Small's work (1990). The animation type "His- Baecker and Small highlight that this was technologically feasible at the time, but that its effectiveness needed to be verified empirically. ...
Article
Full-text available
Whenever a user performs a task or communicates via their computer or device, they are guided by visual cues to interact successfully with the interface. This human-computer interaction is, therefore, mediated by the communication established between designer and user through the texts, graphic elements, and animations that make up the visual design of the interface. Animation is an element of visual language of the graphical elements of an interface. This study aims to establish the functions of animation. We reviewed the literature and discussed the shortcomings identified in the existing taxonomies of functional animation. We then proposed an updated classification, partly inspired by the functions presented in Jakobson’s communication model. Based on a content analysis of the design guidelines from the leading mobile phone developers and comparing these sources, we propose the following list of categories: Identifying, Structural, Guide, Feedback, Didactic, Esthetic, and Emotive. This new taxonomy aims to contribute to the theoretical frameworks used in visual communication when studying interface design. It will be useful, for example, to help detect, classify, and assess the appropriateness of animations based on the functions they provide to an interface.
... The use of pictographic symbols to convey meaning is a classic of interface design, and more broadly of machine display design [ [154], [195]]; these are commonly referred to as icons. Although there was originally some debate about their effectiveness [ [112], [165], [200]], today icons are a major part of any interface, whatever the system or device, and have undoubtably greatly contributed to the success of personal computers. Huang et al. claim that "icons offer the perception of affordance, which can facilitate human-machine interaction in terms of ecological perception" [177]. ...
... The combination of motion (or animation) and icons can help clarify meaning, explain the purpose of a given tool, demonstrate its capabilities, and even convey its method of use [ [112], [115], [168]]. There are essentially two kinds of animated icons: icons that incorporate animated graphics and kineticons [168]. ...
... Baecker et al. propose some high-level considerations for the design of the first kind of animated icons [112]; they identify ten basic ways in which they can be useful, and illustrate these with relevant questions. ...
Thesis
Dans ce manuscrit, j’étudie quatre obstacles potentiels à l’engagement d’un internaute avec une interface de visualisation d’informations interactive. Ma question de recherche principale est : comment ces obstacles sont-ils susceptibles de limiter l’engagement de l’utilisateur dans l’exploration efficace de données et comment remédier à ces limitations ? Je définis les quatre obstacles en termes de sous-coûts de la perception et de l’exploration en me référant au modèle proposé par van Wijk ; ils sont : 1) un coût de littératie, 2) un coût d’interprétation du contexte, 3) un coût de perception d’interactivité et 4) un coût de motivation initiale à explorer des données. Pour chacun, j’adopte soit une approche expérimentale pour mesurer le coût en question, soit une approche design pour aider les internautes à le surmonter. J’évalue aussi l’effet de certains éléments de design de visualisation reconnus pour leurs qualités communicationnelles sur l’engagement des internautes à explorer des données.
... Although there was originally some debate about their effectiveness [8,26,36], today icons are a major part of any interface, whatever the system or device, and have undoubtably greatly contributed to the success of personal computers. Huang et al. claim that "icons offer the perception of affordance, which can facilitate human-machine interaction in terms of ecological perception" [33]. ...
... The combination of motion (or animation) and icons can help clarify meaning, explain the purpose of a given tool, demonstrate its capabilities, and even convey its method of use [8,10,29]. There are essentially two kinds of animated icons: icons that incorporate animated graphics and kineticons [29]. ...
... Baecker et al. propose some high-level considerations for the design of the first kind of animated icons [8]; they identify ten basic ways in which they can be useful, and illustrate these with relevant questions. ...
Article
Full-text available
In this article, we investigate methods for suggesting the interactivity of online visualizations embedded with text. We first assess the need for such methods by conducting three initial experiments on Amazon's Mechanical Turk. We then present a design space for Suggested Interactivity (i. e., visual cues used as perceived affordances-SI), based on a survey of 382 HTML5 and visualization websites. Finally, we assess the effectiveness of three SI cues we designed for suggesting the interactivity of bar charts embedded with text. Our results show that only one cue (SI3) was successful in inciting participants to interact with the visualizations, and we hypothesize this is because this particular cue provided feedforward.
... Children"s prior experience with technology has been reported to be the main predictor for their ability to interact with software (Budiu & Nielsen, 2010). The technological expertise of adult users also plays an important role in their success at interpreting alternative representations of information such as icons (Baecker, Small, & Mander, 1991). Certain interface elements such as the "Back" button in the browser were not used by younger children, but were relied upon by older children (Budiu & Nielsen, 2010), suggesting differences in mental models based on increasing technological expertise. ...
... Involving children in the design of the icons is recommended to provide relevant designs (McKnight & Read, 2009). Animated icons have been shown to help adult users decode their meanings better than static icons, but designing animations for abstract functions is a tricky proposition (Baecker, Small, & Mander, 1991). Children have been observed to be critical of animation in general, finding it distracting and superfluous. ...
... Research in design and evaluation of icons, similar to that performed with other demographics (Leung, McGrenere, & Graf, 2011), should be replicated for children. Further, icons could be animated to see if they attract attention and improve communicability (Baecker, Small, & Mander, 1991), for example, using a shrugging action for the "I don"t know" button. ...
... In a series of experiments, Barcenilla and Tijus (2002) analysed the responses of 134 participants to the question "what does it mean?" for 14 medicinal pictograms. The average correct response rate was 39 %. ...
... The results indicate that animation is useful in helping users identify a key's function. Because animation could be also an effective means of portraying complex processes evolving over time, Baecker, Small and Mander (1991) investigated the use of animated icons to improve comprehension of functions. They found that all users understood the icon's function after seeing the animation, but they also noted that some users did, in fact, make misinterpretations. ...
... landslides), (ii) typical examples or the use of specimens to represent categories (e.g. a book to represent a library), or (iii) symbolic icons, when an image is used to represent a higher level of abstraction than the image itself (e.g. a broken wine glass to show fragility). Similarly, in terms of the way the meaning is expressed, Barcenilla and Tijus (2002) distinguish figurative pictograms as being either (i) metonymic, when one element indicates the whole (e.g. a book for library, a knife and the fork for restaurant), (ii) metaphoric, when another object is used to express an intended meaning (e.g. a bomb for a computer bug), or (iii) categorical, when a pictogram indicates a category (e.g. a car for both cars and trucks). ...
Article
Pictograms form part of our daily lives through their use in medication, transport, computers, etc., because they indicate - in iconic form - places, directions, actions or constraints on actions in either the real world (a town, a road, etc.) or virtual space (computer desktop, Internet, etc.). This chapter is essentially a review of research on the pictogram effect, which can be summed up as follows: a pictogram is better than a label, and recognizing an image is easier than reading text (Norman, 1990). This review covers theoretical and experimental studies from linguistics, psychology and cognitive ergonomics on the design and validation, comprehension and usage of pictograms. Among the various methods, an emphasis is placed on classification and the creation of pictogram taxonomies as tools for homogenization and design.
... Tras descartar artículos que no resultan relevantes, reducimos las referencias del ámbito del diseño de interfaces a la ampliación de dos nuevos roles de la taxonomía original en Baecker et al. (1991); el trabajo realizado por Froehlich (Froehlich, 2010(Froehlich, , 2018Froehlich et al., 2013) y las funciones comunicativas que forman parte del modelo desarrollado por Novick et al. (2011). ...
... En una publicación posterior, en el que se recogen los resultados de un test de usuario realizado con interfaces que presentaban iconos animados, Baecker, Small y Mander añaden otras dos categorías: orientación e interpretación (Baecker et al., 1991). Estas dos funciones responderían a las preguntas ¿dónde estoy? ...
Article
Full-text available
El uso de animaciones en el diseño de interfaces ha experimentado un incremento vertiginoso en los últimos años. La animación ha pasado de ser denostada por los expertos en usabilidad a ser un elemento fundamental a la hora de configurar el diseño visual de las aplicaciones para móviles. Baecker y Small desarrollan en 1990 la que está considerada como la primera taxonomía general de la animación en la interfaz, recogiendo los usos presentes en las primeras interfaces gráficas de usuario. En este artículo revisamos la metodología seguida por los pioneros y analizamos la perspectiva adoptada por otros autores que elaboran taxonomías posteriores. El objetivo es establecer el método para abordar la elaboración de una taxonomía que recoja las funciones que puede desempeñar la animación para mejorar la usabilidad y la experiencia de usuario en teléfonos móviles inteligentes equipados con pantalla táctil. El análisis pone de manifiesto la importancia de establecer un método que ayude a tomar decisiones en cuanto al nivel de granularidad de las categorías y su nomenclatura, así como la conveniencia de definir un proceso de validación que respalde la propuesta.
... "Ideally, the meaning of an icon should be obvious to experienced users of a system, and also be evocative and self-evident to new users." [10] Icons were introduced into computer interfaces to represent data and functionality [111, page 22] enable a better recall of commands and to communicate a relatively large amount of information to the user in a compact form [76]. Unlike textual information, there are no clear rules or conventions in icon design, which means that they may be subject to misinterpretation or ambiguity. This could be a particular problem for older computer users if symbolic icons are used and not accompanied by additional verbal information, since recall is more difficult without the presence of cues [57,108]. ...
... Adding an attachment to a message "Do I drag this?" (Pointing to image on desktop) 10 Writing the body of a message "Touch here?" (Referring to body of message) Table 6.10: ...
Thesis
Improving computer interaction for older computer users.
... Several studies by Backer et al. investigating tutorials for application software support the thesis that dynamic visual representation is better than traditional static text [5,6]. Additionally, studies by Harrison indicate that visual online help is more effective than non-visualized texts and that written help is preferred over spoken instructions [9]. ...
... All participants were allowed to abort the experiment at any time if they wished but no participant used this opportunity. experiment planning 6 3.3 Procedure Figure 2 provides an overview of the procedure in our study. The actual steps where participants use tutorials are highlighted in light gray. ...
Article
Full-text available
Tutorials for software developers are supposed to help them to adapt to new tools quickly. While in the early days of computing, mostly text tutorials were available, nowadays software developers can choose among a huge number of tutorials for almost any popular software tool. However, almost no research was conducted to understand how text tutorials differ from other tutorials, which tutorial types are preferred and, especially, which tutorial types yield the best learning experience in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. To evaluate these questions, we converted a “proven” video tutorial for a novel software tool into a content-equivalent text tutorial. We then conducted an experiment in three groups where 42 undergraduate students from a software engineering course were commissioned to operate the software tool after using a tutorial: the first group was provided only with the video tutorial, the second group only with the text tutorial and the third group with both. Surprisingly, the differences in terms of efficiency are almost negligible: we could observe that participants using only the text tutorial completed the tutorial faster than the participants with the video tutorial. However, the participants using only the video tutorial applied the learned content faster, achieving roughly the same bottom line performance. We also found that if both tutorial types are offered, participants clearly prefer video tutorials for learning new content but text tutorials for looking up “missed” information. So while it would be ideal if software tool makers would offer both tutorial types, we think that it is more efficient to produce only text tutorials – provided you manage to motivate developers to use them.
... Ronald Baecker later worked with the Human Interface Group at Apple(Baecker, et al. 1991). 11 See for exampleBaecker & Small (1990),Baecker et al. (1991),Chang & Ungar (1993),Thomas & Calder (1995),Gonzalez (1996),Jeamsinkul & Poggenpohl (2002), andPetersen & Nielsen (2002). ...
... Ronald Baecker later worked with the Human Interface Group at Apple(Baecker, et al. 1991). 11 See for exampleBaecker & Small (1990),Baecker et al. (1991),Chang & Ungar (1993),Thomas & Calder (1995),Gonzalez (1996),Jeamsinkul & Poggenpohl (2002), andPetersen & Nielsen (2002). ...
Thesis
Full-text available
Samandrag Digitale produkt er ein stadig viktigare del av kulturen vår og er knytte til aktivitetar i arbeid, leik og fritid. Mange av desse aktivitetane skjer gjennom skjermbaserte grensesnitt, som dermed spelar ei viktig rolle i å aktivere og engasjere folk i deira daglege liv. Skjermbasert, visuell bevegelse er eit stadig meir framståande kjenneteikn ved mobiltelefonar, dataspel, operativsystem og nettsider. Denne avhandlinga presenterer 'kinetiske grensesnitt' som eit sentralt omgrep for å analysere skjermbaserte digitale produkt som er prega av visuell bevegelse. Av fleire konsept som er innførde for å forstå kinetiske grensesnitt, refererer 'navimasjon' til navigasjonshandlingar som er knytte saman med bevegelse. Skjermbaserte grensesnitt er konstruerte produkt, og må utformast av nokon. Design av grensesnitt spelar ei viktig rolle i å forme meiningar og aktivitetar som vert mogelege via digitale produkt. Det er underskot på designforsking og litteratur som tek føre seg kjenneteikna til kinetiske grensesnitt. Korleis kan vi forstå bruk av bevegelse i kinetiske grensesnitt, og kva er kjenneteikna og det kommunikative potensialet til slike grensesnitt? Korleis kan vi undersøke eit slikt fenomen som kontinuerleg er under utvikling, i og gjennom design? For å forstå desse nye mogelegheitene er det behov for studiar som fokuserer på det kinetiske grensesnittet som ein medierande og kulturell gjenstand i seg sjølv, og erkjenner at desse er situerte i sosiale og kulturelle kontekstar. Denne avhandlinga inneheld tre publiserte forskingstekstar, derav to rapporterer om mine eigne designeksperiment som er utført saman med ulike partnarar innan eit større forskingsprosjekt kalla RECORD. I tillegg er ein metarefleksjon ('kappe') lagt fram for å plassere og bygge vidare på desse publikasjonane. Ved å nytte 'forsking gjennom design' kombinerer studien tekstanalyse og tekstkonstruksjon gjennom eksperimentell designproduksjon. Nye analytiske omgrep og konsept er genererte ved å kombinere analyse og design; desse omgrepa er nødvendige både for å forstå og utforme kinetiske grensesnitt. Avhandlinga tek utgangspunkt i eit sosiokulturelt syn på design og analyse av grensesnitt, og nyttar sosialsemiotikk og omgrep frå aktivitetsteori. Dette synet understrekar verdien av det sosiale og kulturelle i menneskeleg aktivitet og meiningsskaping. Avhandlinga argumenterer for at kinetiske grensesnitt spelar fleire roller i moderne kultur og bruk, gjennom semiotisk mediering og instrumentell mediering. Grensesnitt er meiningsfulle og kulturelle gjenstandar som nyttar teikn eller semiotiske ressursar for å kommunisere gjennom utforming og bruk. Samtidig gjer dei det mogeleg å utføre aktivitetar og handlingar gjennom instrumentell mediering, på ein måte som liknar verktøy eller instrument. Eg kallar sambandet mellom desse rollene for dobbel mediering. Forholdet mellom instrumentell og semiotisk mediering er komplekst, og denne avhandlinga legg fram ein ny modell for å forstå det kinetiske grensesnittet som både verktøy og teikn. Dette synet er komplimentert med ei utgreiing om den dialogiske utvekslinga som skjer mellom brukarar og kinetiske grensesnitt, kalla dialogisk interaksjon. Det viktigaste bidraget til avhandlinga er ei rekke nye omgrep som er innførde for å analysere og konstruere kinetiske grensesnitt, for eksempel for sosiale media og surfing på Internett. Studien gjev kunnskap om kinetiske grensesnitt, og demonstrerer at det er mogeleg å konstruere teori og analytiske konsept ved å kombinere designeksperimentering og analyse. ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Abstract Digital artefacts pervade culture and social life in work, play and leisure. Many of these activities are carried out through screen-based interfaces, which therefore take on an important role in enabling and engaging people in their daily life. Screen-based visual movement is increasingly a key characteristic of mobile phones, gaming platforms, operating systems and websites. This thesis presents `kinetic interface' as a key concept for analysing screen-based digital artefacts that are characterised by visual movement. Among several concepts introduced for understanding kinetic interfaces, `navimation' refers to actions of navigation that are intertwined with movement. Screen-based interfaces are constructed artefacts; they have to be designed by someone. Interface design plays an important role in shaping mediated human activity and enabling meaning making. There is a lack of design research and literature on the features of kinetic interfaces. How can we understand the employment of movement in kinetic interfaces, and what are the features and communicative potentials of such interfaces? How may we investigate such a phenomenon that is still emerging, in and through design? In order to understand these emerging potentials, there is a need for studies that focus on the kinetic interface as a mediating and cultural artefact in its own right, recognising its situatedness in social and cultural contexts. This thesis includes three published research texts, two of which report on my own design experiments carried out with business partners within a larger research project called RECORD. In addition, a meta-reflection is presented so as to situate and extend these publications. Taking a `research by design' approach, the study combines textual analysis with textual construction through experimental design production. New analytical concepts are generated by combining analysis and design; these are needed for understanding as well as designing kinetic interfaces. The thesis adopts a sociocultural view on the design and analytical study of interfaces, informed by social semiotics and concepts from activity theory. This view emphasises the importance of social and cultural contexts in human activity and meaning making. The thesis argues that kinetic interfaces play multiple roles in modern culture and use, in terms of semiotic mediation and instrumental mediation. Interfaces are meaningful and cultural artefacts that employ signs or semiotic resources to communicate through their design in use. At the same time they enable activities to be carried out through instrumental mediation, much like tools or instruments. I call these related aspects double mediation. The relationship between instrumental and semiotic mediation is complex; this thesis suggests a new model for understanding the kinetic interface as both tool and sign. This view is complimented with an account of the dialogic exchanges taking place between users and kinetic interfaces, referred to as dialogic interaction. The main contribution of the thesis is a range of concepts that are introduced for analysing and constructing kinetic interfaces, for example in web browsing and social media. The study builds knowledge of kinetic interfaces, and demonstrates the possibility of constructing theory and concepts through design experimentation coupled with analysis.
... The notion of animated icons is not in itself innovative. Previous research has shown that the use of animation in icons can to increase the usefulness of icons in terms of clarification and ease of use [1,2,3] for mainstream users, but new applications of animation in the user interface may benefit the visually impaired population as well. ...
... When considering the specific testing designs for our experiment, we also took into account industry design standards for the ''conventional usages'' suggested by Norman (2002). For the affordance design in interactive InfoVis systems, we could specifically identify six common affordance types (Anwar et al. 2015;Baecker et al. 1991;Buxton 1990;Harrison et al. 2011;Tang et al. 2011) that are also used in interactive information visualizations: ...
Article
Full-text available
Given the thriving of information visualization systems, rich interactivity is expected and essential for users to acquire further and insightful information. Mouseover has been widely used to hint interactivity or details about the hovered elements. However, in a mouseover-click visualization system we designed based on a hierarchical Sankey diagram, we have observed that a mouseover effect interfered users from clicking items and hence reduced the efficacy of the interaction and hid the information in the next levels. This paper examined this situation and studied the effectiveness of different mouseover hints on affordance for inviting clicks. We identified four types of perceived affordances and created seven designs, adopting Mechanical Turk to measure the effectiveness. Results showed that five out of the seven designs significantly improved users’ click-through rate, whereas more than 60% of users failed to click the hovered elements for revealing the next level of information without proper affordance hints, even after they brushed over these elements for multiple times. By comparing the performance of different designs, we proposed guidelines that support the reliability and motivate the interactivity of visualization design. Graphic Abstract Open image in new window
... Other study (Horton, 1994), focuses on user characteristics (e.g., user intelligence, experience and cultural background) and in the domain in which the icon is found (e.g., User interface, mobile device, functions) as factors that influence icon usability. Similarly, there are a few other studies which explore the overall effects on icon usability of some of these characteristics, for example, animation (Baecker et al., 1991) and spacing and size (Lindberg and Näsänen, 2003). While most of these works are related to the physical characteristics, less is done on other aspects of icons characteristics and its effect on users' perception. ...
... For instance, MiME [18] suggests mid-air static hand postures by highlighting a shape similar to the posture within the command names or icons. Animated icons have also been designed to more explicitly convey the meaning of a command by previewing its result [5], and to demonstrate how to perform a complex task [8]. FatFont [30], though less related, is a worth mentioning clever example of spaceoptimized font (digits only), where the amount of dark pixels in a numeral character is proportional to the number it represents and where multi digits numbers are nested so that every number occupies the same visual space as a single digit. ...
Conference Paper
We propose a novel perspective on the design of toolbar buttons that aims to increase keyboard shortcut accessibility. IconHK implements this perspective by blending visual cues that convey keyboard shortcut information into toolbar buttons without denaturing the pictorial representation of their command. We introduce three design strategies to embed the hotkey, a visual encoding to convey the modifiers, and a magnification factor that determines the blending ratio between the pictogram of the button and the visual representation of the keyboard shortcut. Two studies examine the benefits of IconHK for end-users and provide insights from professional designers on the practicality of our approach for creating iconsets. Building on these insights, we develop a tool to assist designers in applying the IconHK design principle.
... The abovementioned studies focused on the design of static icons, and only a few studies have considered dynamic icons, which either changed icon backgrounds (Baecker, Small, & Mander, 1991) or added text hints when the mouse was within the icon (Alpert, 1991). Practical interaction usually involves multiple GUI elements (other than icons) and associated operations in the whole display (other than the icon area), however, which are usually covered in metaphors. ...
Article
Metaphors could be used to help older adults build mental models of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) applications and services and thereby reduce the number of interaction problems, but currently, metaphors generally are not tailored to these older adults, and their construction remains vague. Inspired by concrete icons, this study proposed concrete metaphors to help novice older adults understand ICT applications and services and retain their knowledge over time. A new communication application based on concrete metaphors was designed, developed, and comparatively tested against another application based on abstract metaphors over a period of 9 days. The results indicated that the application with concrete metaphors contributed to fewer perception and cognition errors, higher usage intention, higher satisfaction, and higher preference compared to the application with abstract metaphors. In addition, the advantage of concrete metaphors was lasting, unlike concrete icons. These findings indicated that concrete metaphors could be an icebreaker or stepping stone to draw novice older adults into the information society. To further increase the impact of concrete metaphors, representing real-world operations is an essential challenge.
... This is indicated by (2). Pressing on "MENU" in state (3) causes the interface to return to state (1). Again the transition between is animated as indicated by (2). ...
Conference Paper
Animated transitions are an important part of graphical user interface design practice. They can help to guide users' attention and highlight changes in the interface. However, there is only little empirical research on how such animated transitions influence the users' perception of an interface. We therefore aim to investigate how different animation principles for animated transitions in mobile applications influence perceived user experience. In this late breaking work we present the results of a pilot study in which we tested the suitability of different animated transitions for our main study. Moreover, we outline a tentative design and procedure of the main study. We plan to recruit over 250 participants that will rate different styles of animated transitions in regard to perceived pragmatic and hedonic quality. Our findings are expected to provide insights in users' perception of animation styles and therefore to have implications for graphical user interface design practice.
... • As interfaces devem fazer uso de ícones visuais intuitivos e animados de modo a transmitirem mais informação do que uma imagem estática [2,19]. ...
... Moving icons (animated icons) are simple gif animations with a little motion to spice up web pages or operating systems' GUI, e.g. a cauldron bubbles, a book pages turn, a letter flies to a mail box. The term MICONs (moving/animated icons) was first coined by Russell Sassnet (1986), and then Baecker (Baecker et al. 1991) made some initial steps in language animation with the idea of 'micons'. He used a set of atomic micons to describe a set of primitives (objects and events) and developed a general purpose graphical language, CD-Icon, based on Schank's CD (as discussed in section 2.1.4). ...
... Other animation effects such as flashing borders and title bars can focus the user's attention on a specific window. Animated icons, such as those described in Baecker, Small, and Mander (1991), also provide important state information to a user (e.g., progress indicators such as an hourglass with sand pouring through it or examples of an objects' behaviour). It is likely that animation will play a more important role in the future in helping the user integrate changing views of an information space displayed in a given window. ...
... animazioni (Baecker, Small e Mander, 1991) o il suono (Gaver W., 1986;Blattner, Sumikawa, e Greenberg, 1989;Gaver B., 1993). La modalità di azione sugli oggetti si sta velocemente modificando verso una maggiore naturalezza. ...
... In an extension of such modal representations, Henry et al. have described the use of multi-dimensional icons as a means of increasing the density of information presented in iconic models[173].In this case, the possible combinations of modal components are greatly increased through the provision of multiple viewing perspectives for a single icon. Similarly, Baecker et al. and Ludi et al. have reported on the use of animated icons to allow for increasedinformation density within a presentation model[174,175]. Within the biomedical domain, these types of icons are ideally suited for scenarios such as adverse event monitoring in multi-site or investigator clinical trials, where high-density information would be optimally presented via a single interface. In such instances, the provision of all possible multi-modal components relating to the various incoming data streams could lead to reduced usability. ...
... Animation is another way to enhance visual feedback, with progress bars as a typical example. Animation can, for example, help to clarify the meaning and purpose of an icon (Baecker et al., 1991). Furthermore, a shift between two conditions is easier to understand if the change is animated. ...
Thesis
Text entry by eye gaze is used by people with severe motor disabilities. An eye tracking device follows the user s eye movements, and a computer program analyzes the gaze behavior. To type by gaze, the user typically points at the characters on an on-screen keyboard by looking at them and selects them by means of dwell time, a prolonged gaze that separates an intentional command from casual viewing. The basic methods for producing text by gaze have been researched and in real-world use since the early 1980s; however, the design issues have not been studied in detail. Until recently, assistive eye tracking systems were used mostly by a small number of people who were totally paralyzed and for whom gaze control was a necessity and the only option. The technology and its usability have improved considerably, and several new systems have appeared on the market, making the technology available for a much wider group of users with varying need and abilities. Today, the eye tracker can be considered an optional assistive device worth considering since it provides easy and fast access to information technology by gaze alone. This thesis provides an extensive review of the research conducted in the area of gaze-based text entry. It summarizes results from several experiments that study various aspects of text entry by gaze. Results show that small improvements in the interface design can lead to significant improvements in user performance and satisfaction. For example, adding a simple "click" that confirms the selection by gaze can significantly improve the text entry speed over that of plain visual feedback. The improvement is small, but the effect accumulates in the repetitive task of text entry. An overview of different design solutions and guidelines derived from the research results are given. It is hoped that the thesis will provide a useful starting point for developers, researchers, and assistive technology professionals wishing to gain deeper insight into gaze-based text entry. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The permanent address of the publication is https://urn.fi/urn:isbn:978-951-44-7787-4
... • Enriching graphical representations: Some types of information are easier to visualize with movement. Baecker, Small, and Mander reported in an experiment in [63] that the comprehension of a set of icons increased from sixty two percent to one hundred percent by animating them. It is important that the icons are only animated when the user indicated a special interest in it (for example by placing the mouse over them). ...
... A few research studies report the benefits of implementing animation in software user interfaces [5][6][7][8]. The two main ...
Article
Full-text available
In this paper we report a study aimed at determining the effects of animation on usability and appeal of educational software user interfaces. Specifically, the study compares 3 interfaces developed for the Mathsigner™ program: a static interface, an interface with highlighting/sound feedback, and an interface that incorporates five Disney animation principles. The main objectives of the comparative study were to: (1) determine which interface is the most effective for the target users of Mathsigner™ (e.g., children ages 5-11), and (2) identify any Gender and Age differences in using the three interfaces. To accomplish these goals we have designed an experiment consisting of a cognitive walkthrough and a survey with rating questions. Sixteen children ages 7-11 participated in the study, ten males and six females. Results showed no significant interface effect on user task performance (e.g., task completion time and number of errors); however, interface differences were seen in rating of appeal, with the animated interface rated more 'likeable' than the other two. Task performance and rating of appeal were not affected significantly by Gender or Age of the subjects. Keywords—Animation, Animated interfaces, Educational Software, Human Computer Interaction, Multimedia.
... " [9]. Animation has been applied in user interface [17,26], data visualization [16,22,23], algorithm animation [30] and software visualization [6,32] areas. It is used to emphasize change, or to interpret a complex idea or relationship. ...
Article
ABSTRACT There are many software visualization tools available today to help software engineers to explore software systems. However, when a system is huge, some of these tools do not satisfy the exploration requirements. The big problem is that the techniques the tools use do not provide an effective display and access mechanism,to handle huge information spaces within the limitations imposed,by available screen space. To alleviate the problem, this thesis describes methods that help users to explore huge
... For, while a book or painting is surely static, an image that is generated by a computer on a graphics display is " permanent " only until it is erased or replaced by another (or, in the extreme case, until t.he machine is shut off). Baecker et al. have recently demonstrated a system in which icons become animated to help users understand their meanings [9]; Laurel et al. have developed another in which icons become more and more agitated as they vie for the user's attention [lo]. In contrast , certain sounds-the humming of an air conditioner or of a disk drive-remain unchanging for such long periods that they can surely be considered steady-state rather than transient, for all practical purposes. ...
... One way to make tools more comprehensible is to simulate their behavior. Baecker, Small, and Mander [2] showed that such a simulation makes the tools in HYPERCARD easier to use. Decomposing the task into manageable elements is an important step in the solution process. ...
... The notion of animated icons is not in itself innovative. Previous research has shown that the use of animation in icons can to increase the usefulness of icons in terms of clarification and ease of use [1, 2, 3] for mainstream users, but new applications of animation in the user interface may benefit the visually impaired population as well. ...
Article
Icons are commonplace in Graphical User Interfaces. These same components that are intended to make computers easy to use can make technology difficult to access for the visually impaired. Eliminating icons would be unrealistic, but re-examining icons is a starting point in increasing accessibility in GUIs. A project is underway where animation is being added to icons in order to assist visually impaired users who wish to access computing resources. Initially animated icons were not shown to be superior to static icons in terms of the size needed to identify them. This paper will present the analysis of some factors that influenced the results. The extent of the motion in the icons and the visual profile of the participants themselves contributed to the ability to identify animated icons. These insights will assist interface designers in developing more accessible Graphical User Interfaces.
... The WIMP interfaces of the 80's will give way to multi-modal, multi-media dialogues aided by quasi-intelligent programmed agents (Laurel, 1990b). Although reality will not quite match the fantasy of the Knowledge Navigator (Apple, 1988), the quality of the interface will change through the use of handwritten input, gestural input, audio input and output, animation (Baecker and Small, 1990; Baecker, Small, and Mander, 1991), and live and recorded video (CACM, 1989), and through ready access to gigabyte data bases such as research compendia and encyclopedias. The naturalness of direct manipulation will be augmented with the power of simple filing and retrieval agents that will scan data bases, digital archives, and electronic news sources. ...
Article
This paper and the accompanying invited talk focus on new paradigms for computing in the nineties, with emphasis on computer supported cooperative work (CSCW). We define CSCW as computer-assisted coor-dinated activity such as communication and problem solving carried out by a group of collaborating individ-uals. CSCW represents a paradigm shift for computer science, one in which human-human rather than human-machine communications and problem solving are emphasized. This paper describes the nature of work in CSCW, sketches the history of the field, and formulates some issues that are important to ensure progress and future success.
... By re-examining the GUI, the interface components themselves can be redesigned and updated to provide more access to computers by the partially sighted. In particular the animation of icons will be examined, as animation has been shown to increase the usefulness c£ icons in terms of clarification and ease of use [1, 2, 6]. ...
Article
Universal access to information is critical for universal participation in society. The Graphical User Interface is a mainstream means for accessing the computing resources needed to access information. These interfaces have become challenging to the visually impaired. Many partially sighted individuals posses residual vision. While the enlargement of screen content is important, enlargement alone will not address all of issues involving the utilization of GUIs. While icons are generally useful, animation increases the usefulness of the icons. The sizes of static and animated icons are compared in order to ascertain the impact of animation on icon size. INTRODUCTION Universal access to the dynamic information resources that have become a part of society, business, and education is vital for all citizens. The visually impaired, specifically the legally blind, are a significant and diverse population who is among those who need to access computing resources to participate in and be productive in society.
... These non human-like faceless visual indications are the product of animated cycles. Animation has shown importance in relation to user perception of dynamic relations [7] and understanding of functionality [1]. The cycles are functions of ghost identities and current capacities. ...
Article
This paper describes an interface for disembodied, location-specific conversational agents (DELCA) called 'Ghosts'. The design includes conversation dialogue and a novel, non-intrusive minimal dynamic visualization. The paper presents two discrete visualizations Ghost Wake and Animated Ghost Icons (AGI), which make use of the temporal dimension to increase spatial resolution. The paper argues that design for ambient intelligence must strive for a balance between visibility and non-intrusiveness.
... There is some specific research on the selection of icons for children's interfaces. Uden and Dix [12] and Baecker et al [13] both suggest that children prefer animated icons, and it is the case that animated icons can offer more information. ...
Article
Full-text available
This paper describes how the design of a novel writing interface for children was informed by requirements gathering. The derivation of a set of system requirements from observations of children using early prototypes of the interface and from modelling the system is described, and then two methods of gathering further requirements by surveying children are outlined. The relative advantages and disadvantages of each method are discussed. The children were not able to contribute to the full range of requirements necessary for a complete system, but they contributed fun requirements that the observational work failed to identify. A model of the child's relationship to interactive systems is used to discuss why this is the case.
Article
The representations of microgestures are essentials for researchers presenting their results through academic papers and system designers proposing tutorials to novice users. However, those representations remain disparate and inconsistent. As a first attempt to investigate how to best graphically represent microgestures, we created 21 designs, each depicting static and dynamic versions of 4 commonly used microgestures (tap, swipe, flex and hold). We first studied these designs in a quantitative online experiment with 45 participants. We then conducted a qualitative laboratory experiment in Augmented Reality with 16 participants. Based on the results, we provide design guidelines on which elements of a microgesture should be represented and how. In particular, it is recommended to represent the actuator and the trajectory of a microgesture. Also, although preferred by users, dynamic representations are not considered better than their static counterparts for depicting a microgesture and do not necessarily result in a better user recognition.
Article
This is the second part of the article published in Vol. 2(3) 1995 p.120. The meaning of a symbol is far from obvious, despite our intuitions. If we acknowledge this, we can then go on to develop teaching strategies which are based on the acceptance of this reality.
Article
This study addresses the question of whether there is value to the use of animation in icon design over and above that of attracting attention. Specifically, the study asks if there is any basis in human performance for recommending for or against the use of animation in icon design. The objective was to examine the effect of animation on icon comprehension and preference at two levels of complexity, as measured in the context of a supermarket-shopping computer program. Results suggest that animation can contribute to users' comprehension of icons that represent commands, and that this contribution may be greater for commands of higher levels of abstraction. Specifically, it appears that simple icons are more comprehensible than complex ones for commands of lower levels of abstraction, while complex icons are more comprehensible than simple ones for commands of higher levels of abstraction. Moreover, animation of complex icons that represent abstract commands may improve icon comprehension far more than animation of either simple or complex icons that represent less abstract commands. The notion that animation can be used intelligently to improve human performance in HCI is supported. Further research is encouraged to identify ways in which levels of command abstraction can be measured reliably, and to establish guidelines for the level of abstraction at which complexity and animation should be introduced into icon design.
Conference Paper
" In this work, we explore moveables, i.e., interactive papercraft that harness user interaction to generate visual effects. First, we present a survey of children's books that captured the state of the art of moveables. The results of this survey were synthesized into a moveable taxonomy and informed MoveableMaker, a new tool to assist users in designing, generating, and assembling moveable papercraft. MoveableMaker supports the creation and customization of a number of moveable effects and employs moveable-specific features including animated tooltips, automatic instruction generation, constraint-based rendering, techniques to reduce material waste, and so on. To understand how MoveableMaker encourages creativity and enhances the workflow when creating moveables, a series of exploratory workshops were conducted. The results of these explorations, including the content participants created and their impressions, are discussed, along with avenues for future research involving moveables.
Chapter
Grafische Fenstersysteme sind heute auf den meisten Computersystemen aller Größenordnungen zu finden. Fenstersysteme ermöglichen eine gute Abbildung computergestützter Prozesse in die menschliche Gedankenwelt. Vor allem ist es mit Fenstersystemen möglich, an mehreren Aufgaben gleichzeitig zu arbeiten. Es gibt viele Beispiele für die Notwendigkeit, parallel an mehreren Programmen zu arbeiten. So wird häufig ein Mail-Tool genutzt, um Teile aus einer Mail in ein Dokument zu integrieren. Datenbanken und Tabellenkalkulationsprogramme werden parallel genutzt, um Diagramme zu erstellen. Die Erstellung von Dokumenten erfordert oft die Integration von Bildern oder die Recherche nach Informationen im Internet.
Conference Paper
Modern mobile phone application interfaces have potential to support various age group users. Among the different age groups, older adults have been quite slow in adopting mobile phone applications and its interfaces. Limited research work has been carried out to investigate the graphical icons and examine its ease of use for various age group users. This paper presents an experimental study to determine the recognition rates of icons from two sets of users with different age groups i.e. younger adults (20 – 40 years) and older adults (+50 years). Users responded to a set of questions consisting of 40 icons obtained from two different brands of mobile phones. The findings reveal that recognition rates vary depending on how familiar the icons are to the users. The results from this study could be useful to support application developers to develop mobile phone applications interfaces that are more suitable for various age group users.
Article
Full-text available
Screen-based user interfaces now include dynamic and moving elements that transform the screen space and relations of mediated content. These changes place new demands on design as well as on our reading and use of such multimodal texts. Assuming a socio-cultural perspective on design, we discuss in this article the use of animation and visual motion in interface navigation as navimation. After presenting our Communication Design framework, we refer to relevant literature on navigation and motion. Three core concepts are introduced for the purpose of analysing selected interface examples using multimodal textual analysis informed by social semiotics. The analysis draws on concepts from multiple fields, including animation studies, 'new' media, interaction design, and human-computer interaction. Relations between time, space and motion are discussed and linked to wider debates concerning interface design.
Conference Paper
Recently advances in the design of general purpose SoC have revolutionized the conception of embedded systems, thanks to the availability of several, most of the time asymmetric, units of calculation. Nevertheless a deep knowledge of the internal hardware architecture of these multi-core SoC is required to efficiently benefit from its large computing performance. The current work, the SOSoC project, provides a Linux framework which offers the opportunity to application developers to optimize in a transparent way the execution of algorithms by dispatching tasks, dynamically or statically, among the various available cores to benefit a maximum from the available hardware.
Conference Paper
Modern mobile phone applications offer much support to various age group users. Unfortunately, there are still issues with the interfaces in terms of its learnability. Many users find it hard to learn and use the modern mobile phone application interfaces. Despite a lot of ongoing research examining the mobile phone applications interfaces learnability issues, very little research has explored on the difficulty faced by the users when interacting with graphical icons, the most important element of an interface. This paper presents an exploratory study to identify which icons characteristics support the initial icon usability for various age group users. Twenty five (25) test participants from two different age groups took part in the study. The first group consists of 12 younger adults (age 20-40) and the second consists of 13 older adults (age 50+). From the study findings, both age group users stated that there are issues with the existing mobile phone applications interfaces. The study reveals that specific icon characteristics - complexity (i.e. how difficult is icon to identify and interpret), familiarity (how familiar are users with the icon) and semantic distance could improve icon learnability. This led to a discussion on how the findings could help mobile phone application interface developers to develop mobile phone icons that best suits to the requirements of various age group users.
Article
Graphical User Interfaces used to be static, graphically representing one software state after the other. However, animated transitions between these static states are an integral part in modern user interfaces and processes for both their design and implementation remain a challenge for designers and developers. This paper proposes a Petri net model-based approach to support the design, implementation and validation of animated user interfaces by providing a complete and unambiguous description of the entire user interface including animations. A process for designing interactive systems focusing on animations is presented, along with a framework for the definition and implementation of animation in user interfaces. The framework proposes a two levels approach for defining a high-level view of an animation (focusing on animated objects, their properties to be animated and on the composition of animations) and a low-level one dealing with detailed aspects of animations such as timing and optimization. A case study (in the domain of interactive Television) elaborating the application of the presented process and framework exemplifies the contribution.
Article
Der Mensch nimmt die Ausgaben des Computers über verschiedene Kanäle wahr, verarbeitet und speichert sie. Von der Art der Präsentation, von der Zeit und den umgebenden Einflüssen hängt es ab, wie aufmerksam Informationen wahrgenommen, verarbeitet und eventuell auch längere Zeit behalten werden. Benutzer müssen wissen, wie Kommandos heißen oder zumindest wie sie diese aktivieren können und sie müssen entscheiden, auf welche Weise sie ihre Ziele erreichen wollen. Um die ablaufenden Prozesse zu verstehen, ist eine Beschäftigung mit den Grundlagen der kognitiven Psychologie nötig.
Article
This report is a review of the human factors literature on visual and auditory symbols. The review is the first step in an effort to develop a set of standard symbols for use throughout Airway Facilities. The topics included in the review are: general principles, experimental findings, and standard guidelines. The report also includes an annotated bibliography and a list of possible research topics suggested by gaps in the experimental findings. (AN)
Article
This paper concerns certain aspects of writing in the computer era, aspects that are relevant to linguists but should also be of interest to people working with computer graphics and the human‐computer interface.Technology changes patterns of communication by introducing new means of communication, but it also changes our notion of human communication. This can be noted from the history of writing: different writing systems seem to have inspired different conceptions of human language. Here, notions of what constitutes writing and written signs will be focussed on.The paper discusses how the material properties of writing affect the pattern of communication particularly at the ‘low’ level where signs are recognised and processed. Special attention is given to colour and animation in texts: the possibilities provided by a computerised writing surface are contrasted with a recently proposed theory of writing where spatiality (but not visuality) and stability are seen as the primary physical factors on which writing of any sort is founded.
Article
Animations can communicate movement, changes in status, and various other temporal changes more effectively than static images. The potential for the use of computer animations in training and education in laboratory settings is tremendous. For example, algorithm animations have been used in computer science to make visible the essential steps of an algorithm. The need exists for a systematic approach to categorize and evaluate the effectiveness of an animation with respect to the subject matter. The goal of an animation is to communicate a message to the user. The effectiveness of the animation is determined by the extent to which its message is understood by the user. To facilitate evaluations of animations, a taxonomy is presented that outlines the critical elements of the interaction scenario, the objects, and the animations involved in a view. Suggestions for its use in evaluation of animation views accompany the taxonomy.
Article
Iconic interfaces in operating systems and hypermedia knowledge bases have become the default standard. The content, purpose, or function implied by icons may be enhanced by making them more dynamic. Dynamlcons can use representational, abstract, or symbolic graphics to convey the categorical or functional information or inferences and implications about its referent. Conveying more information in the design of icons can make iconic interfaces even more efficient.
Article
Full-text available
A “percent-done progress indicator” is a graphical technique which allows the user to monitor the progress through the processing of a task. Progress indicators can be displayed on almost all types of output devices, and can be used with many different kinds of programs. Practical experience and formal experiments show that prograss indicators are an important and useful user-interface tool, and that they enhance the attractiveness and effectiveness of programs that incorporate them. This paper discusses why progress indicators are important. It includes the results of a formal experiment with progress indicators. One part of the experiment demonstrates that people prefer to have progress indicators. Another part attempted to replicate earlier findings to show that people prefer constant to variable response time in general, and then to show that this effect is reversed with progress indicators, but the results were not statistically significant. In fact, no significant preference for constant response time was shown, contrary to previously published results.
Article
This paper is concerned with the use of icons in human-computer interaction (HCI). Icons are pictographic representations of data or processes within a computer system, which have been used to replace commands and menus as the means by which the computer supports a dialogue with the end-user. They have been applied principally to graphics-based interfaces to operating systems, networks and document-processing software.The paper attempts to provide a more systematic treatment of icon interfaces than has hitherto been made, and to create a classification which it is hoped will be of use to the dialogue designer. The characteristics, advantages and disadvantages of icon-based dialogues are described. Metaphors, design alternatives, display structures and implementation factors are discussed, and there is a summary of some icon design guidelines drawn from a variety of sources. Some mention is also made of attempts by researchers to measure the effectiveness of icon designs empirically.