Class Meeting 5 February 10, 2009 CSC 8570 -- USI Class Meeting 5 February 10, 2009

Opening Questions Who among you has read at least three Harry Potter books? Who among you is a Sudoku puzzle addict? Or solver? What is a “natural algorithm”? What is the pattern and hidden meaning in the research team names?

Research Project Short presentation One spokesperson Five minutes Hypotheses, variables, initial experimental design Questions and comments from the audience

Research Teams Aspen: Chris, Jon, Matt Bailey: Andrew, Katie, Joseph Conifer: Lindsay, Nareg, Nawar Durango: Alvin, Scott, Tony Estes Park: Andrew, Anton, Keith

Research Project Issues Add to bibliography – goal is at least 15 references Design experiment Create experimental tools Complete IRB form Start writing first two sections Dates IRB form finished no later than 2/24 Progress Report 1 due 3/10

Summary of Some Ideas User goals Mental models GUEPs Cognitive dimensions

User Goals Based on last week’s discussion and other sources, here’s a list of user goals. Users want systems that: Are powerful, meaning fast and efficient Have proper functionality

User Goals (2) Minimize the possibility for (tragic) errors Allow easy recovery from misdirected actions Are easily learned and easily relearned Fit a cognitive model based on past experience

User Goals (3) Are easy to maintain, including set up Are flexible Stimulate creative problem solving Are personally satisfying

Mental Models As theories: Constructed by humans Based on their world experience What they believe to be true about particular domains, devices, or systems

Mental Models As problems spaces Mental structures (ideas, concepts, virtual worlds) Contain possible states Searchable so that users can plan their behaviors (paths from one state to the next converging on a solution)

Relating GUEPs and CDs Match the 14 cognitive dimensions to the 9 GUEPs looking for overlapping and orthogonal ideas. Summarize the results by creating a 14 by 9 array whose cell entries describe the relationship between the ith CD and the jth GUEP

A Lengthy Example iPods at the ready What is your mental model of an iPod? What do you believe to be true about an iPod? How would you describe the problem space associated with an iPod?

iPod (2) What tasks do you want to accomplish with an iPod? Described in high level terms In a different context, “I want fresh tomatoes from my garden on my salad.”

iPod (3) What operators are available? Physical keys or widgets Virtual widgets on the interface

iPod (4) What notation do we use for widget interaction? Do we need to expand Card & Moran or Raskin & Beck?

iPod (3) Preparing for task analysis Tasks vs. goals Hierarchical task analysis vs. GOMS ConcurTaskTrees http://giove.cnuce.cnr.it/ctte.html

ConcurTaskTrees Task Types Action Example User No system interaction Read a message Abstraction Complex User session Application No user interaction Perform a database query Interaction User and system together Click a button

ConcurTaskTrees Operators Connection [ T1 ] Optional [ ] T1 * Iterative * Syntax Description Icon Unary Operators Temporal Operators Icon Description Syntax [] Choice T1 [] T2 |=| Order Independency T1 |=| T2 ||| Concurrent T1 ||| T2 |[ ]| Concurrent with information exchange T1 |[ ]| T2 [> Disabling T1 [> T2 |> Suspend/Resume T1 |> T2 >> Enabling T1 >> T2 [] >> Enabling with information exchange T1 [] >> T2

Synthesizing Edge and Blackwell Referring to your concept map: What is its structure? What is its shape? What is its top-level concept?

Leave Behind Concept map of the Edge and Blackwell paper

Next Time Continue work on research project, completing experimental material and IRB form Catch up on reading Button Exercise (see below)

Button Exercise For your assigned two buttons on Windows Explorer, determine for each Its syntax (hover, click, drag, etc.) Its semantics (what happens for each kind of syntax) Which cognitive dimensions and which GUEPs its behavior exemplifies. Hand in your written report next time.

Button Assignment Back Forward Search Folders Views Go Name Size Type Date modified X (right of Folders) ↓ (next to dialog box) View File Tools

Research Team Meetings