Jean-Luc Vinot

Revisiting visual interface programming: creating GUI tools for designers and programmers

Involving graphic designers in the large-scale development of user interfaces requires tools that provide more graphical flexibility and support efficient software processes. These requirements were analysed and used in the design of the TkZ-inc graphical library and the IntuiKit interface design environment. More flexibility is obtained through a wider palette of visual techniques and support for iterative construction of images, composition and parametric displays. More efficient processes are obtained with the use of the SVG standard to import graphics, support for linking graphics and behaviour, and a unifying model-driven architecture. We describe the corresponding features of our tools, and show their use in the development of an application for airports. Benefits include a wider access to high quality visual interfaces for specialised applications, and shorter prototyping and development cycles for multidisciplinary teams.

Legible, are you sure?: an experimentation-based typographical design in safety-critical context

Designing Safety-critical interfaces entails proving the safety and operational usability of each component. Largely taken for granted in everyday interface design, the typographical component, through its legibility and aesthetics, weighs heavily on the ubiquitous reading task at the heart of most visualizations and interactions. In this paper, we present a research project whose goal is the creation of a new typeface to display textual information on future aircraft interfaces. After an initial task analysis leading to the definition of specific needs, requirements and design principles, the design constantly evolves from an iterative cycle of design and experimentation. We present three experiments (laboratory and cockpit) used mainly to validate initial choices and fine-tune font properties. Results confirm the importance of rigorously testing the typographical component as a part of text output evaluation in interactive systems.

An automatic generation of schematic maps to display flight routes for air traffic controllers: structure and color optimization

Aircraft must follow strict Air Traffic Control (ATC) rules. One of these rules is that aircraft have to fly over pre-defined Flight Routes (FR). Current ATC visualizations do not display FRs because they are numerous and run into each other, and thus spoil the visualization. The schematic views for metro maps are used to maximize the transmission of relevant information (lines, metro stops) of network visualization. In this paper, we will focus on two different issues. First, we show how we transposed mathematical constraints used to produce metro maps into the specific field of ATC. The view produced is a context compatible, 2D picture of a schematic maps view for Air Traffic Control. Second, we propose to investigate the generation and placement of colors to be assigned to lines of the network. The first step is to find as many colors as lines of the network. These colors must be perceptually as distinct as possible, and available in the vocabulary of colors. The second step is to solve the NP-complete problem of the optimal assignment of these colors so that close lines have the most perceptively distant color. Finally, we assess the map produced through experimentation to validate its quality.

Méthodes et outils de conception participative avec des utilisateurs non-voyants

Participatory Design is a process for the design of interactive systems integrating the user in all design phases. However it is based on the assumption that users are in possess of their full physical capabilities, in particular the visual sense, and thus is for the most part not adapted for working with visually impaired people. In this article we present an approach for using participatory design when working with blind people. We start with an analysis of the existing methods, in which we discuss their limits concerning accessibility for the blind, and the peculiarities of blind users. Afterwards we present how we have adapted the classical design methods during our design process and we show the results of our project. We conclude with some recommendations and future working propositions.

Tangible augmented reality for air traffic control

Air traffic control procedures, skills, and systems have co-evolved over decades in a design process involving controllers, programmers, and paper/electronic technologies. Tangible interaction combined with augmented reality is well suited for supporting ATC. Developing these systems is challenging yet feasible. Tangible augmented interactors should be conceived of as continuous physical/virtual artifacts.

The accident of flight AF447 Rio-Paris: a case study for HCI research

On 2009, June 1st, flight AF447 from Rio to Paris crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. The safety and legal investigations have concluded that human factors played an important role in the accident. Observing that a number of elements from the report written by the French Office of Investigations for Civil Aviation Safety may be assimilated to known concepts from HCI, we propose to use the report as a case study for HCI research. After introducing the aeronautical vocabulary required to its understanding, we extract the HCI-related elements from the report, and assimilate, organize and translate them into conceptual frameworks from the Model of Action and Epistemology. We hope to foster further research aiming at a more formal modeling of the accident, or to foster the identification of possible improvements of the onboard systems.

Could tangibility improve the safety of touch-based interaction?: exploring a new physical design space for pilot-system interfaces

Touchscreen technologies will most probably replace current instrument panels in future aeronautical cockpits. However, while safety and performance require interactive instruments to maximize the perception, action and collaboration spaces offered to pilots, the literature highlights the limits of touch-based interaction regarding these aspects. Our objective is thus to explore how tangible embodied interaction (TEI), associated with a touch-based flight deck device, could address this issue. In this paper, we contribute a structured design space for pilot-system interactions based on an analysis of the design properties of physical interaction as described in the literature, and on relevant usability, safety and industrial requirements.

3D visualization to mitigate weather hazards in the flight deck: Findings from a user study

In this paper, we report on our exploration of 3D representations to support temporal navigation. We ground our discussion in a user study on the design of a tool that helps airliner pilots to manage dangerous and tall thunderstorm cells. The tool enables pilots to visualize thunderstorm cells, navigate into meteorological predictions in the near future and evaluate safe paths. The visualization is provided on the dual 2D horizontal/vertical view that is already used on the flight deck. In lieu of the standard 2D vertical view, the tool uses a 3D view that facilitates tracking of cells sliding along time slots and altitudes. The user navigates along two dimensions, heading and time slots, thanks to a rotary knob-button. The design is grounded in field studies with pilots. Prototypes have been iteratively evaluated during design walkthrough sessions with pilots. From the preliminary results of this study, we draw research questions related to the need of 3D in the cockpit navigation displays.

Représentations écologiques de données temporelles: exemples et apports

In this paper, we focus on the specific design space of temporal data visualizations. Whereas most visualizations do not take into account the special semantic of temporal data, we depict ecological representations of the time that may be reuse by practitioners and we explain why their specific semantic helps users perceiving information. Furthermore, ecological designs create emerging data. Thanks to our characterization model, we show how to analyze such visualization and how to assess its efficiency in term of a number of the emerging information. This model and this assessment help designer to understand their design space, to compare designs.

Effets des paramètres graphiques sur la perception visuelle: expérimentations sur la forme, la surface, l'orientation des objets et la définition des ecrans

User interfaces of critical systems, such as air traffic control displays, use graphical objects to code for an ever increasing amount of information. This evolution brings forth concerns about the detection and identification of the displayed objects, in particular for small size objects. First, graphic properties of the interface should include some knowledge about the interplay between colour, shape and size interactions, and the visual perception. Second, the redesign of any interactive system should take into account the particularities of the evolving software and hardware display technology (pixel size and structure, for example) in order to preserve crucial aspects of the initial visual display. The two experiments described in this paper are aiming towards building a more systematic knowledge of graphic properties interactions per se, and their changes as a function of display technologies. More precisely, we examined the effect of the object size, shape and luminosity, as well as its contrast with the background. Results show that object perception is dependent upon its size, its contrast with the background and the overall luminosity of the background. Furthermore, for small size objects, interactions between pixel luminosities and pixel arrangement greatly influence their perception by the human eye.