The Visual Display of Quantitative Information

Cognitive engineering

We present a technique for evaluating the usability and effectiveness of ambient displays. Ambient displays are abstract and aesthetic peripheral displays portraying non-critical information on the periphery of a user's attention. Although many innovative displays have been published, little existing work has focused on their evaluation, in part because evaluation of ambient displays is difficult and costly. We adapted a low-cost evaluation technique, heuristic evaluation, for use with ambient displays. With the help of ambient display designers, we defined a modified set of heuristics. We compared the performance of Nielsen's heuristics and our heuristics on two ambient displays. Evaluators using our heuristics found more, severe problems than evaluators using Nielsen's heuristics. Additionally, when using our heuristics, 3-5 evaluators were able to identify 40--60% of known usability issues. This implies that heuristic evaluation is an effective technique for identifying usability issues with ambient displays.

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Heuristic evaluation of ambient displays

https://interruptions.net/literature/Bailey-CHB06_1.pdf

On the need for attention-aware systems : Measuring effects of interruption on task performance, error rate, and affective state

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/stvr.247

Problem frames: analyzing and structuring software development problems. By Michael Jackson. Published by Addison‐Wesley, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A., ACM Press Series, 2001. ISBN: 0‐201‐59627‐X, 390 pages. Price: U.K. ?32.95, U.S.A. $49.99, soft cover.

Addressing the need to tailor usability evaluation methods (UEMs) and promote effective reuse of HCI knowledge for computing activities undertaken in divided-attention situations, we present the foundations of a unifying model that can guide evaluation efforts for notification systems. Often implemented as ubiquitous systems or within a small portion of the traditional desktop, notification systems typically deliver information of interest in a parallel, multitasking approach, extraneous or supplemental to a user's attention priority. Such systems represent a difficult challenge to evaluate meaningfully. We introduce a design model of user goals based on blends of three critical parameters---interruption, reaction, and comprehension. Categorization possibilities form a logical, descriptive design space for notification systems, rooted in human information processing theory. This model allows conceptualization of distinct action models for at least eight classes of notification systems, which we describe and analyze with a human information processing model. System classification regions immediately suggest useful empirical and analytical evaluation metrics from related literature. We present a case study that demonstrates how these techniques can assist an evaluator in adapting traditional UEMs for notification and other multitasking systems. We explain why using the design model categorization scheme enabled us to generate evaluation results that are more relevant for the system redesign than the results of the original exploration done by the system's designers.

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A model for notification systems evaluation—assessing user goals for multitasking activity

Why is the attentive user interface paradigm important for human-computer interaction? The human attention system is so sensitive to various methods of notification that traditional design involves too much compromise and guesswork.

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Attuning notification design to user goals and attention costs

Designing and evaluating notification systems represents an emerging challenge in the study of human-computer interaction. Users rely on notification systems to present potentially interruptive information in an efficient and effective manner to enable appropriate reaction and comprehension. Little is known about the effects of these systems on ongoing computer tasks. As the research community strives to understand information design suitable for opposing usage goals, few existing efforts lend themselves to extensibility.However, three often conflicting design objectives are interruption to primary tasks, reaction to specific notifications, and comprehension of information over time. Based on these competing parameters, we propose a unifying research theme for the field that defines success in notification systems design as achieving the desirable balance between attention and utility. This paradigm distinguishes notification systems research from traditional HCI by centering on the limitations of the human attention system.In a series of experiments that demonstrate this research approach and investigate use of animated text in secondary displays, we describe two empirical investigations focused on the three critical parameters during a browsing task. The first experiment compares tickering, blasting, and fading text, finding that tickering text is best for supporting deeper comprehension, fading best facilitates reaction, and, compared to the control condition, none of the animated displays are interruptive to the browsing task. The second experiment investigates fading and tickering animation in greater detail with similar tasks--at two different speeds and sizes. Here, we found smaller displays allowed better reaction but were more interruptive, while slower displays provides increased comprehension. Overall, the slow fade appears to be the best secondary display animation type tested. Focusing research and user studies within this field on critical parameters such as interruption, reaction, and comprehension will increase cohesion among design and evaluation efforts for notification systems.

https://www.cc.gatech.edu/~john.stasko/papers/ijhcs03.pdf

Establishing tradeoffs that leverage attention for utility: empirically evaluating information display in notification systems

Reacting to challenges that have been observed in human-computer interaction (HCI) education, as well as the multidisciplinary design, science, and engineering underpinnings, we investigate a pedagogical approach based on case methods. Our study of various case method techniques in an undergraduate HCI class provides insights into challenges that can be expected in the employment of case methods, student learning outcomes, and considerations for HCI curriculum planning. In general, case methods show great promise with a wide variety of topics, and we present broad recommendations for future work that will improve integration of HCI professional practice, research, and education.

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Design, science, and engineering topics?: teaching HCI with a unified method

The experience of preparing interface design knowledge to be reusable allows reflection on the process, potential and general challenges of effectively and efficiently using this knowledge in design tasks. With an interest in crafting a catalog for design claims that would implement recent reuse theory in the human-computer interaction field, we developed and implemented a unique process of creating reusable content for notification systems - interfaces used for multitasking. This process, which we describe and illustrate, extends previous work on capturing metadata related to design claims. The data and metadata are stored in the catalog, which is intended to be accessible to other designers for reuse in other domains. The multitask nature of our catalog subject matter highlights a major challenges faced in reuse: the generalization specific and contextual information (claims). The challenge of balancing abstraction with specificity to ensure both meaningful and domain-independent data is also addressed. We believe that our approach can generalize to other reuse projects that strive for cross-domain knowledge application.

/pdf/generalizing-interface-design-knowledge-lessons-learned-from-52aketmq2z.pdf

C. M. Chewar

Papers

A model for notification systems evaluation—assessing user goals for multitasking activity

Attuning notification design to user goals and attention costs

Establishing tradeoffs that leverage attention for utility: empirically evaluating information display in notification systems

Design, science, and engineering topics?: teaching HCI with a unified method

Generalizing interface design knowledge: lessons learned from developing a claims library