Brent Reeves

Seeding, evolutionary growth and reseeding: supporting the incremental development of design environments

We describe an approach to acquiring information during the creation and use of domain-oriented design environments. Our model consists of three phases: seeding, evolutionary growth, and reseeding. A seed for a domainoriented design environment is created through a participatory design process between environment developers and domain designers by incorporating domain-specific knowledge into a domain-independent architecture for design environments. Evolutionary growth takes place as domain designers use the seeded environment to undertake specific projects. Reseeding is a process that reinvolves the environment developers to help domain designers better organize, formalize, and generalize knowledge added during the use phases,

Supporting indirect collaborative design with integrated knowledge-based design environments

We are developing a conceptual framework and a demonstration system for collaboration among members of design teams when direct communication among these members is impossible or impractical. Our research focuses on the long-term, indirect communication needs of project teams rather than the short-term needs of face-to-face communication or electronic mail. We address these needs with integrated, domain-oriented design environments. Our conceptual framework and our system-building efforts address two major issues: (a) How does individual work blend into project work (especially in large projects that span great distances and time)? and (b) What role do the work objects play in this coordination? We use a specific domain-oriented design environment (NETWORK-HYDRA-for the design of computer networks) to illustrate our approach, and we discuss HYDRA as the underlying domain-independent, multifaceted architecture for design environments.

Supporting communication between designers with artifact-centered evolving information spaces

The interaction of various design decisions and the communication of the rationale for decisions between designers are two problems that have not been solved by current systems supporting design. Through the observation of computer network designers we have developed a framework, system architecture, and prototype implementation for supporting this type of communication within an evolving information space centered around the artifact being designed. The importance of our approach is in the integration of the design of the artifact and the communication between the designers. XNETWORK, a knowledge-based design environment for computer network design, incorporates this artifact-centered communication as a method for the easy addition of network designers’ understanding about the design task.

Two-dimensional spatial positioning as a means for reflection in design

In the realm of computer support for design, developers have focused primarily on power and expressiveness that are important in framing a design solution. They assume that design is a series of calculated steps that lead to a clearly specified goal. The problem with this focus is that the resulting tools hinder the very process that is critical in early phases of a design task; the reflection-in-action process [15]. In the early phases, what is required as the most important ingredient for a design tool is the ability to interact in ways that require as little commitment as possible. This aspect is most evident in domains where two dimensions play a role, such as sketching in architecture. Surprisingly, it is equally true in linear domains such as writing. In this paper, we present our approach of using two-dimensional positioning of objects as a means for reflection in the early phases of a design task. Taking writing as an example, the ART (Amplifying Representational Talkback) system uses two dimensional positioning to support the early stages of the writing task. An eye-tracking user study illustrates important issues in the domain of computer support for design.

A case study of the evolution of Jun: an object-oriented open-source 3D multimedia library

Jun is a large open-source graphics and multimedia library. It is object-oriented and supports 3D geometry, topography and multimedia. This paper reviews the development of the Jun library from five perspectives: open-source, software evolution processes, development styles, technological support, and development data. It concludes with lessons learned from the perspective of a for-profit company providing open-source object-oriented software to the community.

Minimalist explanations in knowledge-based systems

Research in discourse comprehension and human-computer interaction indicates that good explanations are usually brief. A system that provides brief explanations, however, must plan for the case where brevity comes at the expense of understanding. Human-to-human dialogue is, to a large part, concerned with conversational repair and question-answer episodes; computer systems need to provide similar fallback techniques to their users. The authors have designed such an explanation system in the context of a knowledge-based critiquing system, LISP-CRITIC. The system provides several levels of explanations, specifically tailored to the user. If the initial, brief explanation is insufficient, the system positions the user at an appropriate point within a more complete, hypertext-based documentation system. Rather than attempting to design a system that can generate a perfect one-shot explanation for any given situation, this approach concentrates on matching the communication abilities provided by current computer technology to the cognitive needs of the human user.<<ETX>>

Beyond intelligent interfaces: exploring, analyzing, and creating success models of cooperative problem solving

Cooperative problem-solving systems are computer-based systems that augment a persons ability to create, reflect, design, decide, and reason. Our work focuses on supporting cooperative problem solving in the context of high-functionality computer systems. We show how the conceptual framework behind a given system determines crucial aspects of the systems behavior. Several systems are described that attempted to address specific shortcomings of prevailing assumptions, resulting in a new conceptual framework. To further test this resulting framework, we conducted an empirical study of a success model of cooperative problem solving between people in a large hardware store. The conceptual framework is instantiated in a number of new system-building efforts, which are described and discussed.

Knowledge-based cognitive support for multimedia information design

Abstract Needs and demands for multimedia authoring , which is to present information using various media including colour, sound, images or movies, have been increasingly recognized. The effects and impacts of using a variety of media should not be underestimated. This paper addresses cognitive issues in designing multimedia presentation and suggests a knowledge-based support approach. Based on theories of design, we provide a seeing-framing-seeing cycle as a process model to support multimedia authoring. eMMa (Environment for Multimedia Authoring) allows users to specify their design intention, delivers reusable multimedia components relevant to their current task, and critiques a partially constructed artefact. The paper presents a goal specification component (eMMa-Spec) and its delivery mechanisms. We conclude with a discussion of how the approach supports creative multimedia authoring and the evolution of a design knowledge-base.

Tacit knowledge: icebergs in collaborative design

This workshop provides a forum for discussing experiences and issues related to tacit knowledge [Polanyi 1967] in collaborative systems. Beginning with early CSCW systems, tacit knowledge of work practice, in terms of unspoken assumptions and exceptions, has posed difficult problems for system designers. Analyses by Ehn [1988], Grudin [t994] and others [Bullen and Bennett 1990] show that tacit knowledge continues to play a disturbingly large role in the problems most CSCW systems struggle with. Humans make excellent use of tacit knowledge. Anaphora, ellipses, unstated shared understanding are all used in the service of our collaborative relationships. But when human-human collaboration becomes human-computer-human collaboration, tacit knowledge becomes a problem.

Tacit knowledge (workshop session)(abstract only): icebergs in collaborative design

This full-day workshop provides a forum for discussion experiences and issues related to tacit knowledge in the use and design of collaborative systems. We invite attendees to discuss how to elicit tacit knowledge; the value of tacit knowledge to social practices; systems which support identifying, facilitating and revealing tacit knowledge; and difficulties and successes pertaining to the topic.