Steering Group

Past work

Ideas From Visits Strategies –what are strategies –how do they relate to interactional properties Discreet states & transition events –a clearer way of understanding trajectories

Current Position Mutuality Properties such as familiarity & lucidity State potential

Mutuality –State 0: B is unaware that event e exists. –State 1: B is aware that e exists. –State 2: B recognises e as being of a particular type. –State 3: B understands the content of e. –State 4: B understands what actions are associated with e.

Familiarity How easy is it for an agent to become familiar with another agent in terms of: –structure –content –coverage Related to mutuality

Lucidity How sane and rational is the interaction? Related to the concept of predictability Exploration requires less lucid interaction –  gaining familiarity can never be completely lucid

State Potential Set of possible events for each agent Relation to event potential important Discriminability between possible events important

Methodology ‘bottom-up’/ integrating –looking for interesting properties from studies –understanding these in terms of the framework –evolving the framework –consolidating the framework with more generic principles

Searching & Browsing see later slides

Study 75 min video recorded session (30 mins used) with feedback Experienced academic user in their office Real user tasks - to find information on:  usability of digital libraries  European cognitive modelling and its relationship to HCI  usability of calendars and diaries  the relationship between AI and HCI

Example: Blind Alleys

Blind Alleys cont. conference list ANNA IJAL IFA ICMS

Lucidity Example [- ACM Dl search results page with several articles ticked] I’ve clicked these things now and I haven’t got a clue what I’m meant to do with them. Hmm. I don’t know what a binder is… [> clicks and holds on binder link] [< browser pops up menu of possible actions – open page etc.] … help… [> releases mouse] [< page is replaced with page containing list of articles selected] … please choose a binder from your bookshelf. I don’t have a binder, and I don’t have a bookshelf as far as I’m aware. Errm OK I’d better just have a quick shuft through… [> clicks on first article in list] [< page is replaced with abstract of first article] … I guess.

Future Directions How do strategies relate to properties –e.g. hub and spokes browsing vs. spokes browsing What are generic: –properties –strategies How to input to design

RIDL

Our focus Digital libraries –range of usability challenges –relatively well defined set of user tasks –typically designed with a particular user population in mind Interaction –communication between agents –move away from task based perspectives

Interaction Framework

Searching & Browsing Seen as fundamental activities in libraries Simplistic –Searching looking for something in particular –Browsing looking for something of interest

Searching Complex - not just one-shot (O’Day et al.) Single searches evolve into: –monitoring a topic over time –information-gathering –exploring a topic in an undirected way Relies on –browsing of results –maintenance of queries over time

Browsing 3 main purposes (Gutwin et al. 99): –Collection evaluation What’s in this collection? –Subject exploration How well does this collection cover area X? –Query exploration What kind of queries will succeed in area X?

Implications for Interaction Multiple ways of meeting objective Easy to discriminate between possibilities Support for extended interaction over time

Interaction Properties Mutuality –how well do agents understand each other? Familiarity –how easy is it for an agent to become familiar with another agent in terms of: structure content coverage

Examples see before

Conclusions Need to support extended searching & browsing Need better ways of conveying content Need support for browsing structure