Philip D. Gray

Bio: Philip D. Gray is an academic researcher from University of Glasgow. The author has contributed to research in topics: User interface & User interface design. The author has an hindex of 23, co-authored 89 publications receiving 2253 citations.

Putting the feel in ’look and feel‘

Abstract: Haptic devices are now commercially available and thus touch has become a potentially realistic solution to a variety of interaction design challenges. We report on an investigation of the use of touch as a way of reducing visual overload in the conventional desktop. In a two-phase study, we investigated the use of the PHANToM haptic device as a means of interacting with a conventional graphical user interface. The first experiment compared the effects of four different haptic augmentations on usability in a simple targeting task. The second experiment involved a more ecologically-oriented searching and scrolling task. Results indicated that the haptic effects did not improve users performance in terms of task completion time. However, the number of errors made was significantly reduced. Subjective workload measures showed that participants perceived many aspects of workload as significantly less with haptics. The results are described and the implications for the use of haptics in user interface design are discussed.

Modelling and Using Sensed Context Information in the Design of Interactive Applications

Abstract: We present a way of analyzing sensed context information formulated to help in the generation, documentation and assessment of the designs of context-aware applications. Starting with a model of sensed context that accounts for the particular characteristics of sensing, we develop a method for expressing requirements for sensed context information in terms of relevant quality attributes plus properties of the sensors that supply the information. We demonstrate on an example how this approach permits the systematic exploration of the design space of context sensing along dimensions pertinent to software development. Returning to our model of sensed context, we examine how it can be supported by a modular software architecture for context sensing that promotes separation between context sensing, user interaction, and application concerns.

Temporal aspects of tasks in the user action notation

Abstract: The need for communication among a multiplicity of cooperating roles in user interface development translates into the need for a common set of interface design representation techniques. The important difference between design of the interaction part of the interface and design of the interface software calls for representation techniques with a behavioral view - a view that focuses on user interaction rather than on the software. The User Action Notation (UAN) is a user- and task-oriented notation that describes physical (and other) behavior of the user and interface as they perform a task together. The primary abstraction of the UAN is a user task. The work reported here addresses the need to identify temporal relationships within user task descriptions and to express explicitly and precisely how designers view temporal relationships among those tasks. Drawing on simple temporal concepts such as events in time and preceding and overlapping of time intervals, we identify basic temporal relationships among tasks: sequence, waiting, repeated disjunction, order independence, interruptibility, one-way interleavability, mutual interleavability, and concurrency. The UAN temporal relations, through the notion of modal logic, offer an explicit and precise representation of the specific kinds of temporal behavior that can occur in asynchronous user interaction without the need to detail all cases that might result.

Affective feedback: an investigation into the role of emotions in the information seeking process

Abstract: User feedback is considered to be a critical element in the information seeking process. An important aspect of the feedback cycle is relevance assessment that has progressively become a popular practice in web searching activities and interactive information retrieval (IR). The value of relevance assessment lies in the disambiguation of the user's information need, which is achieved by applying various feedback techniques. Such techniques vary from explicit to implicit and help determine the relevance of the retrieved documents.The former type of feedback is usually obtained through the explicit and intended indication of documents as relevant (positive feedback) or irrelevant (negative feedback). Explicit feedback is a robust method for improving a system's overall retrieval performance and producing better query reformulations [1], at the expense of users' cognitive resources. On the other hand, implicit feedback techniques tend to collect information on search behavior in a more intelligent and unobtrusive manner. By doing so, they disengage the users from the cognitive burden of document rating and relevance judgments. Information-seeking activities such as reading time, saving, printing, selecting and referencing have been all treated as indicators of relevance, despite the lack of sufficient evidence to support their effectiveness [2].Besides their apparent differences, both categories of feedback techniques determine document relevance with respect to the cognitive and situational levels of the interactive dialogue that occurs between the user and the retrieval system [5]. However, this approach does not account for the dynamic interplay and adaptation that takes place between the different dialogue levels, but most importantly it does not consider the affective dimension of interaction. Users interact with intentions, motivations and feelings apart from real-life problems and information objects, which are all critical aspects of cognition and decision-making [3][4]. By evaluating users' affective response towards an information object (e.g. a document), prior and post to their exposure to it, a more accurate understanding of the object's properties and degree of relevance to the current information need may be facilitated. Furthermore, systems that can detect and respond accordingly to user emotions could potentially improve the naturalness of human-computer interaction and progressively optimize their retrieval strategy. The current study investigates the role of emotions in the information seeking process, as the latter are communicated through multi-modal interaction, and reconsiders relevance feedback with respect to what occurs on the affective level of interaction as well.

Using Landmarks to Support Older People in Navigation

Abstract: Although landmarks are an integral aspect of navigation, they have rarely been used within electronic navigation aids. This paper describes the design of a pedestrian navigation aid for a handheld computer, which guides the user along a route using photographs of landmarks, together with audio and text instructions that reference these landmarks. This aid was designed with older users in mind who often find their mobility hampered by declines in sensory, cognitive and motor abilities. It was tested against the standard paper map for the test area with both younger and older people and their performance and subjective workload were measured. The results show that such an aid can significantly outperform a paper-based map and that older people derive substantially more benefit from it than do younger people.

Situations and Attitudes.

Abstract: In this provocative book, Barwise and Perry tackle the slippery subject of \"meaning, \" a subject that has long vexed linguists, language philosophers, and logicians.

A Context Modeling Survey

Abstract: Context-awareness is one of the drivers of the ubiquitous computing paradigm, whereas a well designed model is a key accessor to the context in any context-aware system This paper provides a survey of the the most relevant current approaches to modeling context for ubiquitous computing Numerous approaches are reviewed, classified relative to their core elements and evaluated with respect to their appropriateness for ubiquitous computing

Augmented visual, auditory, haptic, and multimodal feedback in motor learning: A review

Abstract: It is generally accepted that augmented feedback, provided by a human expert or a technical display, effectively enhances motor learning. However, discussion of the way to most effectively provide augmented feedback has been controversial. Related studies have focused primarily on simple or artificial tasks enhanced by visual feedback. Recently, technical advances have made it possible also to investigate more complex, realistic motor tasks and to implement not only visual, but also auditory, haptic, or multimodal augmented feedback. The aim of this review is to address the potential of augmented unimodal and multimodal feedback in the framework of motor learning theories. The review addresses the reasons for the different impacts of feedback strategies within or between the visual, auditory, and haptic modalities and the challenges that need to be overcome to provide appropriate feedback in these modalities, either in isolation or in combination. Accordingly, the design criteria for successful visual, auditory, haptic, and multimodal feedback are elaborated.