Julie Barnes

A comparison of the usability and effectiveness of web-based delivery of instructions for inherently-3D construction tasks on handheld and desktop computers

Since its inception, VRML has held out the promise of initiating a quantum leap in web deliverable content and applications. However, the promise has yet to be realized. In this paper, we consider the problem of the web-based delivery of instructions for inherently-3D construction tasks. We describe a presentation that we built using VRML and discuss a comparative study of the effectiveness of the presentation when viewed using both a traditional desktop environment and also a handheld PDA. The study was both quantitative and qualitative and examined the effect of the user interface and delivery technology on overall task success, user interaction level, and task success for inherently 3D steps.

Two for One: Squeezing Human-Computer Interaction and Software Engineering into a Core Computer Science Course

The final report of the Joint Task Force on Computing Curricula (CC2001) suggests that an updated computer science curricula must reflect the broadening nature of our discipline. Two areas that are included in the CC2001 are software engineering (SE) and human-computer interaction (HCI). While the first inclination might be to incorporate HCI concepts into a traditional SE course, we propose a different approach. This paper outlines a project-oriented HCI course in which we are able to emphasize some SE notions in the context of HCI concepts. Our course is also a maturation class for our students because they are exposed to a number of non-programming computer science activities, including project specification, software and interface design, user testing, prototyping and use of guidelines. We include an overview of course content that illustrates our approach. We also describe our coverage of specific CC2001 knowledge units and provide some feedback data for our course.

Implementations of the CC′01 human – computer interaction guidelines using Bloom's taxonomy

In todays technology-laden society human – computer interaction (HCI) is an important knowledge area for computer scientists and software engineers. This paper surveys existing approaches to incorporate HCI into computer science (CS) and such related issues as the perceived gap between the interests of the HCI community and the needs of CS educators. It presents several implementations of the HCI subset of the CC′01 curricular guidelines, targeting CS educators with varying degrees of HCI expertise. These implementations include course/module outlines from freshman to graduate levels, suggested texts, and project ideas and issues, such as programming languages and environments. Most importantly, each outline incorporates Blooms taxonomy to identify the depth of knowledge to be mastered by students. This paper condenses collaborative contributions of 26 HCI/CS educators aiming to improve HCI coverage in mainstream CS curricula.

Turing the tables: introducing software engineering concepts in a user interface design course

The most recent report of the Computing Curricula 2001 (CC2001) suggests that updated curricula must reflect the broadening nature of our discipline. Two areas that are included in the strawman draft of CC2001 are software engineering (SE) and human-computer interaction (HC). While the first inclination might be to incorporate these minimal HC concepts in a traditional SE course, we propose a different approach. This paper outlines a project oriented HC course in which we are able to emphasize SE in the context of HC concepts. We include an overview of course content that illustrates our approach.

Teaching human-computer interaction: reports from the trenches

Most schools introduce HCI into the CS curriculum through a bootstrapping process. There are many excellent HCI programs at universities around the world, and some new faculty with HCI graduate degrees are starting to appear. But the extreme shortage of faculty forces most schools now starting to teach HCI to use the time-honored method of learning a subject by teaching it.Consensus: Insert HCI into any opening you can find. Learn more about the subject yourself. Let colleagues get comfortable with the idea. A required course in HCI may be some years off, or maybe you will never do exactly that, but you will have laid the foundation for getting HCI into your curriculum.

No User Left Behind: Including Accessibility in Student Projects and the Impact on CS Students’ Attitudes

Usability and accessibility have become increasingly important in computing curricula. This article briefly reviews how these concepts may be included in existing courses. The authors conducted a survey of student attitudes toward these issues at the start and end of a usability engineering course that included a group project with an accessibility component. Results of the survey indicate that students’ awareness of issues related to usability and accessibility are increased after taking the course and completing the project. Our work and results are potentially valuable to CS educators in three ways: (1) They validate the usefulness of the survey instrument in assessing pedagogies in usability engineering, (2) They provide useful insights into the attitudes of CS majors relative to the important topics of usability and accessibility, and (3) They point to possible benefits of including usability and accessibility topics into CS curricula.

Benefits of automating data translation

A description is given of the Integrated Chameleon Architecture, (ICA), a special software environment that automatically generates translation code, eliminating the error-prone process of writing and updating code, and enforces completeness in the high-level translator specification and correctness in the translated data. Two sets of translaters developed using ICA are examined. The first set translates ICAs user manual from the La Tex markup language to Troff markup macros. The second translates documents encoded in schemes like Refer (from the roff macro family) and Bibtex (La Texs bibliographic package) into an encoding conventional imposed by a central bibliographic database for human-machine interaction.<<ETX>>

Building User-Controlled 3D Models and Animations for Inherently-3D Construction Tasks: Which Tool, Which Representation?

In this paper, we first define a class of problems that we have dubbed inherently-3D, which we believe should lend themselves to solutions that include user-controlled 3D models and animations. We next give a comparative discussion of two tools that we used to create presentations: Cosmo?Worlds and Flash. The presentations included text, pictures, and user-controlled 3D models or animations. We evaluated the two tools along two dimensions: 1) how well the tools support presentation development and 2) the effectiveness of the resultant presentations. From the first evaluation, we concluded that Flash in its current form was the more complete development environment. For a developer to integrate VRML into cohesive presentations required a more comprehensive development environment than is currently available with Cosmo?Worlds. From our second evaluation, based on our usability study, we have made two conclusions. First, our users were quite successful in completing the inherently-3D construction task, regardless of which presentation (Shockwave or VRML) they saw. Second, we found that enhancing the VRML models and including multiple perspectives in Shockwave animations were equally effective at reducing errors as compared to a more primitive VRML. Based on our results we believe that for tasks of the 3D-complexity that we used, Flash is the clear choice. Flash was easier to use to develop the presentations and the presentation was as effective as the model that we built with Cosmo?Worlds and Java. Finally, we postulate a relationship between inherently-3D task complexity and the relative effectiveness of the VRML presentation.

Mobility Matters: Identifying Cognitive Demands That Are Sensitive to Orientation

Prior studies have shown benefits of interactions on mobile devices. Device mobility itself changes the nature of the user experience; interactions on mobile devices may present better support for cognition. To better understand cognitive demands related to mobility, the current study investigated presentations on a mobile device for a three-dimensional construction task. The task imposed considerable cognitive load, particularly in demands for mental rotation; individual differences in spatial ability are known to interact with these demands. This study specifically investigated mobile device orientations and participants’ spatial ability. Subjects with low spatial ability were able to complete the task more effectively when shown the presentation in a favorable orientation. Individuals who saw the presentation in an unfavorable orientation and those of low spatial ability, were differentially disadvantaged. We conclude that mobility can reduce cognitive load by limiting demands for spatial processing relating to reorientation.

How do i line up?: reducing mental transformations to improve performance

Mobile devices and visual-spatial presentations of information are pervasive, especially for tasks in which the mobile device can be moved to close proximity of the task. This mobility allows the user to offload mental workload by allowing physical transformations of the device. In this study, we compared a fixed mobile device, a non-fixed mobile device, and a fixed desktop display to determine the effects imposed by the mental workload of transforming the frames of reference into alignment. Our results indicate that allowing the user to manipulate the devices position can influence performance by reducing the need for mental transformations.