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Soft machines: A philosophy of user-computer interface design
Abstract
Machines and computer systems differ in many characteristics that have important consequences for the user. Machines are special-purpose, have forms suggestive of their functions, are operated with controls in obvious one-to-one correspondence with their actions, and the consequences of the actions on visible objects are immediately and readily apparent. By contrast, computer systems are general-purpose, have inscrutable form, are operated symbolically via a keyboard with no obvious correspondence between keys and actions, and typically operate on invisible objects with consequences that are not immediately or readily apparent. The characteristics possessed by machines, but typically absent in computer systems, aid learning, use and transfer among machines. But “hard,” physical machines have limitations: they are inflexible, and their complexity can overwhelm us. We have built in our laboratory “soft machine” interfaces for computer systems to capitalize on the good characteristics of machines and overcome their limitations. A soft machine is implemented using the synergistic combination of real-time computer graphics to display “soft controls,” and a touch screen to make soft controls operable like conventional hard controls.
... Fog of War is a form of progressive disclosure (Nakatani & Rohrlich, 1983;Springer & Whittaker, 2019). Games with an exploration component often enforce Fog of War to limit players' record of the world to the areas they have explored. ...
... Otherwise, the user can't easily adapt to the machine. Nakatani [16] constructed a laboratory-based soft machine interface using a synergistic combination of realtime computer graphics and touch screen with some specific soft controls. Schmandt [17] developed a soft machine using color graphics and touch screen to communicate with the user. ...
Nowadays, the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) is setting new goals for production and impacting on industrial values. Although integrating Industry 4.0 will automate the production process and reduce the involvement of manpower in industries but the inclusion of effective Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is required to ensure the efficiency, effectiveness, and user satisfaction towards a system developed for adopting the Industry 4.0 paradigm in an industry. Therefore, the objective of this research is to assess the significance of considering HCI and usability issues at the early stage of developing any software system from Industry 4.0 perspective. To attain this objective, a prototypical application was developed to automate the lime production, control, and monitoring system from the Industry 4.0 perspective. Later, the system was evaluated by 9 participants (evaluators) using the Cognitive Walkthrough approach, and the prototype was refined based on its outcomes. The refined system was again evaluated by 11 participants following the Cognitive Walkthrough and showed that the usability improved due to considering the usability evaluation at the early stage of the development process of the application.
... Progressive disclosure has a long history in UI research, dating back to the Xerox Star and early word processing systems [14,61,74]. The original concept involved hiding advanced interface controls; allowing users to make fewer initial errors and learn the system more effectively [14]. ...
As we increasingly delegate important decisions to intelligent systems, it is essential that users understand how algorithmic decisions are made. Prior work has often taken a technocentric approach to transparency. In contrast, we explore empirical user-centric methods to better understand user reactions to transparent systems. We assess user reactions to transparency in two studies. In Study 1, users anticipated that a more transparent system would perform better, but retracted this evaluation after experience with the system. Qualitative data suggest this arose because transparency is distracting and undermines simple heuristics users form about system operation. Study 2 explored these effects in depth, suggesting that users may benefit from initially simplified feedback that hides potential system errors and assists users in building working heuristics about system operation. We use these findings to motivate new progressive disclosure principles for transparency in intelligent systems.
... Progressive disclosure has a long history in UI research, dating back to the Xerox Star and early word processing systems [14,59,72]. The original concept involved hiding advanced interface controls; allowing users to make fewer initial errors and learn the system more effectively [14]. ...
As we increasingly delegate important decisions to intelligent systems, it is essential that users understand how algorithmic decisions are made. Prior work has often taken a technocentric approach to transparency. In contrast, we explore empirical user-centric methods to better understand user reactions to transparent systems. We assess user reactions to global and incremental feedback in two studies. In Study 1, users anticipated that the more transparent incremental system would perform better, but retracted this evaluation after experience with the system. Qualitative data suggest this may arise because incremental feedback is distracting and undermines simple heuristics users form about system operation. Study 2 explored these effects in depth, suggesting that users may benefit from initially simplified feedback that hides potential system errors and assists users in building working heuristics about system operation. We use these findings to motivate new progressive disclosure principles for transparency in intelligent systems.
The fast aging of many western and eastern societies and their increasing reliance on information technology create a compelling need to reconsider older users’ interactions with computers. Changes in perceptual and motor skill capabilities that often accompany the aging process bring important implications for the design of information input devices. This paper summarizes the results of a laboratory study with different information input device. Three different input devices; mouse, touch screen and eye-gaze; were analyzed concerning efficiency, effectiveness and mental workload with respect to the age group of the computer user. The results derived from data of 90 subjects between 20 and 75 years show that regardless of participant’s age group the best performance in terms of short execution time results from touch screen information input. This effect is even more pronounced for the elderly.
Human factors efforts can contribute to product design at every design phase from conception through evaluation of a product in the field. Early human factors involvement has certain advantages. The major advantage is that it can have greater “leverage” by influencing more far-reaching aspects of a product. Input at later design phases, on the other hand, may delay product schedules or require a major re-design effort. Input at earlier stages can diminish these problems. As a case example, a needs finding study for a voice output workstation for the blind is described. Users of these workstations participated in a semi-structured interview to determine their needs. Results identified specific features needed. The findings also indicated that the original scope of the project, word processing, should be broadened to include other applications.
Voice technology is just beginning to gain a foothold in the information processing world. Applications such as voice mail, credit verification, order entry and airline reservation systems are slowly being introduced. Critics of voice systems frequently point out their limitations with little understanding of their power or advantages. One key determinant of the success or failure of voice systems is the USER INTERFACE. It is important that the dialogue structure, prompts, system feedback and error messages be designed based on user input, testing and evaluation.
Another key determinant of the success of voice systems is the careful matching of users, tasks and environment to the technology. Voice technology is often broken down into 3 major categories.
Speech compression. Processing allows analog patterns of human speech to be digitized. Once stored in digital form, the information can be transmitted and played back.
Common Applications: Voice Mail, Voice Annotation.
Text-to-Speech. Processing allows computer-stored text to be translated and retrieved via a “synthesized” voice.
Common applications: Remote retrieval of information (E-Mail, Calendar Appointments), Aids to Visually or Vocally Handicapped.
Speech Recognition. Processing allows analog patterns of human speech to be translated into their text-based equivalent or into computer commands.
Common Applications: Data Entry, Voice Activated Typewriter.
An experimental graphical control specification system, called Panther, has been written in C for UNIX®-based applications. Unlike similar systems, which focus on combining interaction techniques, Panther allows the specification of low-level interactions by invoking user-selectable subroutines for input-device transitions. A Panther interface is specified in a textual table as a set of hierarchically nested regions . Regions can model any control device, such as menu buttons, slider-bars, switches, alphanumeric displays, or even combinations of other regions. Panther does not rely on special hardware, extensive software, or interprocess communication.
Touching gesture interaction is considered as a natural and intuitive interaction way that attracts increasing attention. However, current gesture-based interaction desktop systems are all based on specific tasks; there are few studies of touching gesture interaction on its generalized definition and design. In this paper, we primarily make an integral investigation on the previous literature and survey the possible conditions of natural gestures based on multi-touch interaction for the single user. And then we discuss the benefits of gestures among the direct-touch, bimanual and unimanual interaction respectively. At last, we present some suggestion and promising directions for future research. ICIC International
Four devices are evaluated with respect to how rapidly they can be used to select text on a CRT display. The mouse is found to be fastest on all counts and also to have the lowest error rates. It is shown that variations in positioning time with the mouse and joystick are accounted for by Fitts' Law. In the case of the mouse, the measured Fitts's Law slope constant is close to that found in other eye-hand tasks leading to the conclusion that positioning time with this device is almost the minimal achievable. Positioning time for key devices is shown to be proportional to the number of keystrokes which must be typed.
A set of pushbuttons on a console may appear to have computer-generated labels temporarily inscribed on them if the button set and computed display are optically combined, for example, by means of a semitransparent mirror. This combines the flexibility of light buttons with the tactile and kinesthetic feel of physical pushbuttons; it permits a user to interact more directly with a computer program, or a computer-mediated operation, in what subjectively becomes an intimately shared space.
A console of this design can serve alternately as a typewriter, computer terminal, text editor, telephone operator's console, or computer-assisted instruction terminal. Each usage may have several modes of operation: training, verbose, abbreviated, and/or special-privilege. Switching from one mode or use to another is done by changing the software rather than hardware; each program controls in its own way the momentary details of visibility, position, label, significance, and function of all buttons.
Several demonstrations are described, including a prototype of a proposed Traffic Service Position System (tsps) console, and an interactive computer terminal resembling a Picturephone® set with a Touch-Tone® pad. Also suggested are combinations of computed displays with x-y tablets and other input devices.
This study examines the effect of several graphical input devices on human performance in a cursor positioning task. The light pen, touchscreen, force joystick, position joystick, data tablet, trackboard, and keyboard are the input devices tested. There are two main objectives in the study: (1) to obtain a quantitative measure of user performance for a wide range of input devices, and (2) to provide design guidelines for the development of new input devices. This second goal is reached by determining the effect of two device features on user performance: whether a switch is used to “enter” the cursor position, and (2) whether the user's eyes and hands work together or separately. Performance is evaluated in terms of speed, accuracy, and subjective factors.
An abstract is not available.
Presents and discusses data, principles, and design practices for human engineering. Topics covered include the visual and auditory presentation of information and the design of controls, work areas, and training systems and devices. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Apple's Lisa: A Personal Office System
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Xerox Introduces 'Intelligent Copier The
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