Fast Access to Function and Multilingualism Cognitive requirements for a really international virtual experience Radu Luchianov: No-frills poster session, 12Sept2003, Carleton University, Ottawa

Research objectives Design: Implement theory in functional prototypes Test: Verify/Validate theoretical and practical assumptions Design Theory (MonDoc) Existing technology Experiment

Target results Maintenance End-user Designer Programmer Tester Collaboration Function Reply- interaction Mutual comprehension Expression Form CreationIdeaPrototype Use Continuous specialization Currently dissociated System side User side

Layers of interaction Representation based on abstraction –Form follow function –Function is context- based Unexpected effects –Cross-layer feature interactions due to label scarcity or: –Memory effects on action recall Continuous system feedback (conceptual and perceptual) Implicit knowledge (perceptual and conceptual) Explicit knowledge Goal analysis (mostly sub-conscious) Current goal Possible uses Uses for a specific task Use at a given moment Functionality Prototype implementation Prototype functional description Theoretical assumptions Design Theory Action Theory Personal experience

Expected results (based on informal observation during development) Expected data on the use of eastcree.org stories DB V1 is the first version of the interface (as seen in the publication DB) V2 is the current version (which uses functionality layering) Learn time: considered until user reports comfortable use of the interface (+no more questions asked) Find time: on successful retrieval of sought record description Additional variables considered: –no.of unsuccessful retrievals, –Language (En,Fr,NC,SC)

Some stumbling blocks for Fast Access –Complexity vs. reduced perceptual load –Fixed context for landmark-based orientation vs. –General reluctance to Virtual media –Computer-oriented NLP research vs. pragmatic interaction –Open Source copyright issues for Multilingualism –Different grammatical rules –Uncharted cultural differences (inter- and intra- group) –Inaccessibility to functional and formal differences in designers and end-users –Current technological hiatus (Unicode)

Interactive examples Monade (TBD) eastcree.org: –read-along –stories database graph editor MoStaCon