Showing papers presented at "Advanced Visual Interfaces in 1994"

Recognizing and interpreting diagrams in design

Abstract: Hand drawn diagrams are essential tools for thinking and communicating in the early phases of design, yet computer based drawing tools support diagramming and sketching only poorly. Key components of computational support for early design include recognition, interpretation, and management of diagrams. The paper describes the motivation for, implementation of, and initial experience with the “computer as cocktail napkin” project, a design environment based on diagrams. It explains low level recognition of glyphs, construction of higher-level recognizers, and routines for managing diagrams in the cocktail napkin prototype.

Visual techniques for traditional and multimedia layouts

Abstract: Character User Interfaces (CUI) generally display only pieces of text and semi-graphical objects, whereas Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) display interaction objects (IO) such as icons, check boxes, list boxes, radio buttons and push buttons. Traditional GUI do not often go beyond such existing IO. Multimedia GUI add interactive objects such as pictures, images, video sequences that could serve as a base for sophisticated user interaction. All these types of user interfaces have in common the problem of determining a basic layout of IO. The complexity of this problem is proportional to the variety of IO accessible for the designer. This paper summarises visual techniques exported from the area of visual design to be further exploited for user interface. These visual techniques provide the designer a wide range of means for laying out IO. A small set of guidelines for effectively applying these visual techniques is given.

Unifying views of interactors

Abstract: Interactors are components in the description of an interactive system that encapsulate a state, the events that manipulate the state, and the means by which the state is made perceivable to users of the system (the presentation) This paper concerns the relationship between the models of interactors that are being developed, at York and Pisa, in the context of Esprit Basic Research Action 7040 (Amodeus-2) The models differ in their expression of the three components of an interactor, and after relating the models to the informal notion of interactor we describe the context in which the view of interaction afforded by each model is appropriate

Towards a dynamic strategy for computer-aided visual placement

Abstract: This study is devoted to the layout problem in the TRIDENT project (Tools foR an Interactive Development ENvironmenT), which is dedicated to highly interactive business-oriented applications. In this project, the placement problem consists of a computer-aided visual placement of interaction objects (IO) included in a more composite IO called Presentation Unit (PU). Two strategies for placing IO within a PU are characterised and investigated: a static two-column based strategy and a dynamic right/bottom strategy. Each strategy decomposes the placement into three partially overlapping dimensions: localisation, dimensioning, and arrangement. A set of simple mathematical relationships is introduced to rate the quality of visual principles gained with the result of each strategy within the three dimensions. This rating shows that the lack of flexibility should lead us more towards a dynamic strategy for computer-aided visual placement.

Gql, a declarative graphical query language based on the functional data model

Abstract: We present in this paper Gql, a declarative graphical query language based on the functional data model. Gql queries are fully represented by a single diagram. Without containing any explicit boolean operators or logical quantifiers, Gql provides users of varying degrees of programming experience, with the same expressive power for retrieval as SQL. The design philosophy and characteristics of the language are discussed, and an informal presentation of Gql's constructs and semantics is given. Finally, gql_int, the implementation of an interface for the language, is described.

Data structures for dynamic queries: an analytical and experimental evaluation

Abstract: Dynamic Queries is a querying technique for doing range search on multi-key data sets. It is a direct manipulation mechanism where the query is formulated using graphical widgets and the results are displayed graphically preferably within 100 milliseconds.This paper evaluates four data structures, the multilist, the grid file, k-d tree and the quad tree used to organize data in high speed storage for dynamic queries. The effect of factors like size, distribution and dimensionality of data on the storage overhead and the speed of search is explored. Analytical models for estimating the storage and the search overheads are presented, and verified to be correct by empirical data. Results indicate that multilists are suitable for small (few thousand points) data sets irrespective of the data distribution. For large data sets the grid files are excellent for uniformly distributed data, and trees are good for skewed data distributions. There was no significant difference in performance between the tree structures.

Managing metaphors for advanced user interfaces

Abstract: User interface design includes designing metaphors, the essential terms, concepts, and images representing data, functions, tasks, roles, organizations, and people. Advanced user interfaces require consideration of new metaphors and repurposing of older ones. Awareness of semiotics principles can assist researchers in developing more efficient and effective ways to communicate to more diverse user groups.

VIPERS: a data flow visual programming environment based on the Tcl language

Abstract: This paper presents VIPERS, a new, general purpose, visual programming environment, based on an augmented data-flow model. The novel design peculiarity of VIPERS is the use of a fully programmable interpretive command language (Tcl) to define the flow graph operators, as well as to control the behaviour and the appearance of the whole programming environment. We show how such a choice, with its resulting synergies, can lead to a multifeatured, flexible and convenient programming environment, where the application developer's tasks are remarkably simplified.

Adaptive interaction with knowledge-based systems

Abstract: INTRODUCTION Decision support functions are now seen as one of the components of a more complex knowledge based qstern which performs several tasks. In knowledge based systems. modules mimiking the decision process are integrated with more traditional software components [I I]. This integration provides several advantages. Firstly. activation of decision support functions in the contest of routine and less ‘:intrusive’ tasks promotes their correct use. In addition. the information acquisition process is enriched. both qualitatively and quantitatively.

Automatic chunk detection in human-computer interaction

Abstract: This paper describes an algorithm to detect user's mental chunks by analysis of pause lengths in goal-directed human-computer interaction. Identifying and characterizing users' chunks can help in gauging the users' level of expertise. The algorithm described in this paper works with information collected by an automatic logging mechanism. Therefore, it is applicable to situations in which no human intervention is required to perform the analysis, such as adaptive interfaces. An empirical study was conducted to validate the algorithm, showing that mental chunks and their characteristics can indeed be inferred from analysis of human-computer interaction logs. Users performing a variety of goal-directed tasks were monitored. Using an automated logging tool, every command invoked, every operation performed with the input devices, as well as all system responses were recorded. Analysis of the interaction logs was performed by a program that implements a chunk detection algorithm that looks at command sequences and timings. The results support the hypothesis that a significant number of user mental chunks can be detected by our algorithm.

AWI: a workbench for semi-automated illustration design

Abstract: In this paper we present the system AWI (A Workbench for semi-automated Illustration design). AWI provides operationalizations of illustration techniques frequently used in technical illustration. Given that pure editing systems are too low-level, and that automatically generated illustrations are often suboptimal with regard to functional and aesthetic aspects, semi-automatism seems a reasonable way to produce effective illustrations more efficiently. Within such an approach the collaboration between user and system is twofold. While the user may have the system to provide a first draft which then will be refined through post editing, a user's draft may be evaluated and improved by the system as well. After an introduction of the essential concepts we base on, we give an outline of the workbench AWI. Examples serve to show the making of illustrations with AWI in a semi-automated manner. Finally we describe potential application areas for AWI.

Randomized graph drawing with heavy-duty preprocessing

Abstract: We present a graph drawing system for general undirected graphs with straight-line edges. It carries out a rather complex set of preprocessing steps, designed to produce a topologically good, but not necessarily nice-looking layout, which is then subjected to Davidson and Harel's simulated annealing beautification algorithm. The intermediate layout is planar for planar graphs and attempts to come close to planar for nonplanar graphs. The system's results are significantly better, and much faster, than what the annealing approach is able to achieve on its own.

Programming as problem solving: a participatory theater approach

Abstract: Spatial and temporal metaphors can play an important role in making the task of programming serve problem-solving processes. Visual programming research hopes to capitalize on innate human perceptual skills to make the programming task easier by using visualization to simplify program construction at the syntactic level. Instead, we advocate that the role of visualizations, and the consequent use of spatial metaphors, is not to simplify programming per se but instead to support the problem-solving process. To that end, environments endorsing spatial metaphors should support: creating and changing external representations of the problem, and opportunistic design strategies necessary for exploring problem spaces. We discuss problems with human-computer interaction schemes arising from the use of temporal metaphors. Direct-manipulation, on the one hand, can be too direct for controlling a number of autonomous processes such as cooperating agents. The complete delegation of tasks to agents, on the other hand, can leave users entirely in the role of passive observers. We propose a new approach, called the participatory theater metaphor, which combines the advantages of human computer interaction schemes based on direction manipulation and delegation and provides users with a continuous spectrum of control over their program behaviors.

Database schema evolution using EVER diagrams

Abstract: We present an approach to schema evolution through changes to the ER diagram representing the schema of a database. In order to facilitate changes to the ER schema we enhance the graphical constructs used in ER diagrams, and develop EVER, an EVolutionary ER diagram for specifying the derivation relationships between schema versions, relationships among attributes, and the conditions for maintaining consistent views of programs. In this paper, we demonstrate the mapping of the EVER diagram into an underlying database and the construction of database views for schema versions. Through the reconstruction of views after database reorganization, changes to an ER diagram can be made transparent to the application programs while all objects in the database remain accessible to the application programs. The EVER system can serve as a front-end for object-oriented databases.

BETTY: planning and generating animations for the visualization of movements and spatial relations

Abstract: In this work the problem of synthesizing an animation is regarded as a planning problem, and the result is an animation planner that, starting from a visualization goal, plans a script for an animation including all low-level camera and object motions. The system takes all decisions about camera positions, zooms, moves and cuts considering the actual context as well as some fundamental filmmaking rules. The script is then realized by a given animation system which computes the single frames and does the playback.BETTY is part of the multimodal user interface WIP, that investigates the plan-based automatic generation of multimodal operation instructions for technical devices.Presently, BETTY is able to compute animations to demonstrate movements, to localize parts of a device and to explode assemblies.

Using visual programming to extend the power of spreadsheet

Abstract: We describe a new means for representing computations in spreadsheets based on the visual, object-oriented data-flow language, Prograph, rather than textual arithmetic formulae. This mechanism is illustrated using various examples to show how common spreadsheet operation such as copying and extending formulae is more naturally represented. A formal syntax and semantics is presented. Suggestions are made for how this mechanism may be used to extend the range of applications of spreadsheets from the standard numerical calculations to areas such as symbolic computations and multimedia.

Semantics of visual languages

Abstract: The general syntactical model of Relation Grammars has been introduced to describe any kind of graphical languages. This paper describes a technique for the semantic analysis of visual languages specified by relation grammars. The technique is based on the definition of Attribute Relation Grammars (ARG), which are an extension of attribute context-free grammars to the case of non-linear grammars. We study the static properties of an ARG under which each sentence can be translated with a cost linear in the size of the sentence.

Designing and integrating user interfaces of geographic database applications

Abstract: In this paper, we investigate the problem of designing graphical geographic database user interfaces (GDUIs) and of integrating them into a database management system (DBMS). Geographic applications may vary widely but they all have common aspects due to the spatial component of their data: Geographic data are not standard and they require appropriate tools for (i) editing them (i.e., display and modify) and (ii) querying them. The conceptual problems encountered in designing GDUIs are partly due to the merger of two independent fields, geographic DBMSs on the one hand, and graphical user interfaces (GUIs) on the other hand. Although these areas have evolved considerably during the past ten years, only little effort has been made to understand the problems of connecting them in order to efficiently manipulate geographic data on a display. This issue raises the general problem of coupling a DBMS with specialized modules (in particular, the problem of strong vs. weak integration), and more generally the role of a DBMS in a specific application. After giving the functionalities that a GDUI should provide, we study the possible conceptual integrations between a GUI and a DBMS. Finally, a map editing model as well as a general and modular GDUI architecture are presented.

QBI: an iconic query system for inexpert users

Abstract: We present a general purpose query interface for inexpert users based on the manipulation of icons. The user perceives the reality of interest as structured in classes and attributes while the system internally maintains a schema rich of semantic information. The query language, fully visual, is based on the select and project paradigm that has been proven to be easy to understand. No path specification is required for composing a query. Automatic feedbacks based on natural language generation and cardinality constraints analysis help the user in specifying his/her requests.

Towards efficient parsing of diagrammatic languages

Abstract: Many models have been presented to specify visual languages and big efforts are being made to characterize a class of visual languages which is expressive enough and, at the same time, efficient to parse. Along this direction, the positional grammar model has been defined to extend the LR parsing techniques and parse efficiently not only the string languages but also iconic languages. In this paper, we present an extension of the positional grammar model in order to describe a wide variety of diagrammatic languages. We show that this new formalism allows the construction of an efficient LR-like parser for visual languages of very practical interest.

Automatic layout based on formal semantics

Abstract: The department Publication and Visualisation Environment (PaVE) at the Integrated Publication and Information Systems Institute (IPSI) is currently building a publishing environment for electronic reference works. As an example and in order to derive requirements for this publishing environment we are currently building an electronic prototype of the Dictionary of Art. The paper version will be published as a commercial product by Macmillan Publishers Ltd. in 1995. In addition to the extraction of facts from the texts of the Dictionary of Art and the representation of these facts in a network of information units (Object Network), one of the major tasks in building the prototype is the design of its end-user interface. Support will be provided for the end-user to retrieve facts from the object network. In order to provide an intuitive way of displaying and interacting with the query results, we intend to provide a graphical dialogue interface. The display of the query results requires the automatic visualisation of a portion of the object network. Automatic visualisation of query results is an important feature because it reflects the characteristics of individual data sets. We want to use automatic layout in the context of an interactive query-presentation process so that the diagrams not only serve to communicate information to the user, but also to allow him to specify further information requests based on presentation results. In this short paper we describe a knowledge-based automatic visualisation approach. The visualisation principle is to see the layout problem as an organisation process. Data regularities which can be described in terms of formal semantics as well as structural properties are the basic components for the construction of the data organisation. This organisation can be translated into the visual organisation of the final presentation.

Automatic generation of textual, audio, and animated help in UIDE: the User Interface Design

Abstract: Research on automatic help generation fails to match the advance in user interface technology With users and interfaces becoming increasingly sophisticated, generating help information must be presented with a close tie to the current work context Help research also needs to utilize the media technology to become effective in conveying information to users Our work on automatic generation of help from user interface specifications attempts to bridge the gaps, both between help and user interface making help truly sensitive to the interface context, and between the help media and the interface media making communication more direct and more effective Our work previously reported emphasized a shared knowledge representation for both user interface and help, and an architecture for automatic generation of context-sensitive animated help in Smalltalk-80 This paper presents a new integrated architecture in C++ which not only generates animation, but also audio as procedural help The architecture also uses the knowledge representation to automatically provide textual help of why an object in an interface is disabled

Style-based cut-and-paste in graphical editors

Abstract: Although great strides have been made in the last 10–15 years in the development of systems that use graphical representations, very little work has been done in developing systems that help users edit diagrams efficiently. This paper addresses the design of one such feature of a graphical editor, namely cut and paste. We show how knowledge of the syntax and semantics of the language being edited allows us to design a more intelligent cut-and-paste facility.

Bags and viewers: a metaphor for structuring a database browser

Abstract: The creative work of experts in many fields is increasingly coming to involve data held on computers. Conventional database query systems require precise knowledge of the structure of the database and of a query language such as SQL (Date 1989). Many experts who could benefit from using on-line data neither have, nor wish to acquire, substantial computer skills. Interfaces that allow data to be retrieved without such knowledge-e.g. based on “forms” (ORACLE 1986)-generally involve anticipating the user’s data needs. However, the data creative domain experts require at any moment, may depend on their interpretation of the data they have already retrieved, making very flexible but powerful query mechanisms essential.

The interface of the future

Abstract: The interface is gradually being recognised as the crucial component in a working computer system, perhaps cvcn its Achillcs’ heel...The global problem of communicating with and lhrough the interface with the application programs is vasl, incomplele and informal; on the other hand in order to come up with a viable interface for a community of users (perhaps working on similar tasks) a good formalisation of human-machine interaction must lx available.

A visual environment for multimedia object retrieval

Abstract: We present a graph-based object model that has been used as a uniform framework for direct manipulation of multimedia information. After a brief introduction motivating the need for abstraction and structuring mechanisms in hypermedia systems, we introduce the data model and the visual retrieval environment which, combining filtering, browsing and navigation techniques, provides an integrated view of the retrieval problem.

Integrating computer technology, people technology and application technology: strategies and case studies from Georgia Tech's Graphics, Visualization and Usability Center

Abstract: Making computers accessible and usable by every person represents the next and perhaps final great frontier in the computer/information revolution which has swept the world during the last half of this century. Hardware is inexpensive; software is increasingly producable; only the challenge of bringing the power of computers to everyone remains. Our Center’s vision is of a world in which individuals are empowered in their everyday pursuits by the use of computers; of a world in which computers are used as easily and effectively as are automobiles, stereos, and telephones. This vision requires effective communication of information between computers and people, as well as use of the computer to facilitate communication between individuals.

CSCW as a basis for interactive design semantics

Abstract: The paper describes a method for visual systems synthesis. It stresses the importance of meaningful objects at the interface and suggests that semantics be used to derive such meaningful objects. The paper makes a distinction between the semantics of the design process and the problem domain and suggests that problem domain semantic concepts become the operands of design concepts. The paper notes the dual role of CSCW both as a problem domain in its own right and as providing semantics to describe the design process itself. The paper defines a set of formal semantics for CSCW and then describes synthesis of CSCW systems. It then describes the design process and shows how CSCW semantics can be used to define and implement a general model of the design process.

Sychronizing video and event logs for usability studies

Abstract: This paper presents a simple but very powerful technique to support user interface evaluation, along with a prototype implementation of this technique. This technique provides tools to allow the user interface evaluator to combine event streams and video recording, analyzing the event stream to search for patterns of interesting or important user actions, then using the recorded timestamps associated with these actions to present only the sections of the video recording of interest. This allows, for example, all places where the user invokes a help system or a particular command to be observed without requiring the evaluator to manually search the recording or sit through long sessions of unrelated interactions. By combining the precise recording of automatic event trace capture with the rich contextual information that can be captured in a video and audio recording, this technique allows analyses to be performed that would not be practical with either media alone.

An information manipulation environment for monitoring parallel programs

Abstract: Information Manipulation Environments (IME) are metaphor based visual environments for the problem oriented presentation and manipulation of non standard application functions. An IME is also characterized by excessive usage of direct manipulative interaction techniques. Based on these features we present INHOUSE, which is an information manipulation environment for user oriented monitoring of parallel system behavior. The functionality of the system is shown by a small and consistent set of non-standard interaction objects reflecting the task oriented structure of the application. It provides an intuitive interaction philosophy for non-parallel programming experts.