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Planning procedural advice
labels and artwork must be manipulated or require manual cutting and pasting. This process can greatly increase translation cost and can affect time to market for the entire product, simply by increasing the amount of time for translation. This study was designed to investigate the effect of three different hardware installation guide formats on user performance and user preference. The installation guides used for testing were for the Digital LN03 Laser Printer TM. Participants in the study included speakers of English (UK), French, German and Dutch. The subjective and objective data collected were used to develop a set of recommendations. The recommendations include guidelines for original writers, graphic artists, translators, the layout of guides, and the process by which they are produced. The factor that is found to have the most influence on the usability of the installation guides is the quality of the original documentation. The collection of recommendations produced reflects this finding. 22.6.23 (122083)
Gilbert, G.N., and Jirotka, M. Planning procedural advice. Interacting with Computers, 1990, 2.3, 3 1 3 - 3 2 9 , 18 refs. A planner which generates advice about the procedures which should be carried out by a human agent in order to achieve a goal is described. The fact that the agent is a person, not a robot, makes it possible to develop plans cooperatively with the user in the course of a dialogue, but imposes special requirements on the planner. The planner should be capable of taking advantage of the user's knowledge and abilities; of providing partial plans; of planning even in the absence of complete knowledge about the user's current state; of re-planning when the execution does not succeed or the situation changes; and of providing explanations of its advice. The paper considers the implications of these requirements on the design of such an advisory planner, implemented as part of the 'Advice System', a knowledge-based system for advising members of the public about welfare benefits. 22:6.24 (122123)
Di Georgio, C., and Marzano, G. Casual-user interfaces: A research on intelligent interaction in touristic environments. In: Proc 13th Int Syrup on Human Factors in Telecommunications, Turin, 1 0 - 1 4 September 1990, pp 4 7 7 - 4 8 2 , 6 refs. A casual-user information system is a system devoted to supplying
420
Applied Ergonomics
heterogeneous users with general information in places such as airports, railway stations, fairs, museums and other crowded areas. The users of these systems are often unable to express correctly their information needs, either because they may n o t know the system usage or because their very problem is vague. Consequently, in a casual-user environment many difficulties arise in designing a proper m a n - m a c h i n e interface and in fixing immediate and flexible dialogue strategy. The authors distinguish between two kinds of casual-user information systems: those in which the information items are single news or data which are directly accessed in a typical data retrieval process, and those documentary systems whose goal is to provide information through the conceptual service over large multimedia databases. In this paper the authors focus on the latter, describing some of their most characterising features. They then present a multimedia touristic information system in which different retrieval techniques are combined to achieve the best performance over a suitable set of 'user-profiles'.
22.6.25 (122442)
Fay, D., Hurwitz, J., and Teare, S. The use of low-fidelity prototypes in user interface design. In: Proc 13th Int Syrup on Human Factors in Telecommunications, Turin, 1 0 - 1 4 Sep 1990, pp 2 3 - 3 1 , 3 refs. In rapid prototyping of a user interface, design ideas are tested out on potential users with a prototype that is relatively quick and inexpensive to construct. In building the prototype, a designer often has to choose between representational accuracy and cost. At one extreme of this trade-off is the high-fidelity prototype which represents the designer's ideas so accurately that it is hard to tell from a real product, but can be expensive and time-consuming to produce. At the other extreme is the low-fidelity prototype, which can be as inexpensive as a few paper and pencil sketches, but has the potential to misrepresent a design seriously. Choosing between them can be difficult for the practising designer because, at present, we have almost no information about how fidelity affects users' reactions to an interface. This paper reports a study designed to explore this issue. It compared users' evaluations of a user interface conveyed by either a high-fidelity or low-fidelity prototype. The high-fidelity prototype was a fully-interactive highly-refined representation of a service, while the low-fidelity prototype consisted of rough paper-and-pencil sketches. The
December 1991
results showed that users' reactions to the two prototypes were generally similar. However, for one feature, the audio feedback system, they were strikingly different. Subjects who saw the high-fidelity prototype wanted this feature while those who saw the lowfidelity prototype did not. It is concluded that caution needs to be exercised in basing design decisions on users' reactions to tow-fidelity prototypes.
Display and control design 22.6.26 (122197)
Hess, R.A. Analysing manipulator and feel system effects in aircraft flight control.
IEEE Trans on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, 1990, 2 0 . 4 , 9 2 3 - 9 3 1 , 16 refs. The response characteristics of modern highly-augmented aircraft have reached the point where the vehicle and control system dynamics have begun to interact adversely with the actuation dynamics of the human pilot. Actuation dynamics include the characteristics of both the pilot's neuromuscular system and those of the manipulator and feel system by which he imparts his will to the aircraft. To address this problem, a simple pilot/vehicle model is developed that can be used both to interpret pertinent flight test and simulation results and to serve as a tractable tool for assessing proposed changes in manipulator-feel system characteristics. The model hypothesises proprioceptive information to be a fundamental feedback quantity in the pilot's ability to adopt the compensation characteristics required by the crossover model of the human pilot. The model includes manipulator-feel system dynamics, vestibular (motion) feedback and a rudimentary form of biodynamic feedback. Simple frequency domain control system analysis techniques are applied to the study of manipulator and force feel system effects and to an analysis of the roll ratchet phenomenon.
22.6.27 (122157)
Blandel, M. Minitel keyboard ergonomics. In: Proc 13th Int Syrup on Human Factors in Telecommunications, Turin, 1 0 - 1 4 Sept 1990, pp 5 9 - 6 9 , 10 refs. In order to upgrade the Minitel, several ergonomics studies have been carried out by the CCETT and DACT-DPT. This study has been carried out with a view to changing
Gilbert, G.N., and Jirotka, M. Planning procedural advice. Interacting with Computers, 1990, 2.3, 3 1 3 - 3 2 9 , 18 refs. A planner which generates advice about the procedures which should be carried out by a human agent in order to achieve a goal is described. The fact that the agent is a person, not a robot, makes it possible to develop plans cooperatively with the user in the course of a dialogue, but imposes special requirements on the planner. The planner should be capable of taking advantage of the user's knowledge and abilities; of providing partial plans; of planning even in the absence of complete knowledge about the user's current state; of re-planning when the execution does not succeed or the situation changes; and of providing explanations of its advice. The paper considers the implications of these requirements on the design of such an advisory planner, implemented as part of the 'Advice System', a knowledge-based system for advising members of the public about welfare benefits. 22:6.24 (122123)
Di Georgio, C., and Marzano, G. Casual-user interfaces: A research on intelligent interaction in touristic environments. In: Proc 13th Int Syrup on Human Factors in Telecommunications, Turin, 1 0 - 1 4 September 1990, pp 4 7 7 - 4 8 2 , 6 refs. A casual-user information system is a system devoted to supplying
420
Applied Ergonomics
heterogeneous users with general information in places such as airports, railway stations, fairs, museums and other crowded areas. The users of these systems are often unable to express correctly their information needs, either because they may n o t know the system usage or because their very problem is vague. Consequently, in a casual-user environment many difficulties arise in designing a proper m a n - m a c h i n e interface and in fixing immediate and flexible dialogue strategy. The authors distinguish between two kinds of casual-user information systems: those in which the information items are single news or data which are directly accessed in a typical data retrieval process, and those documentary systems whose goal is to provide information through the conceptual service over large multimedia databases. In this paper the authors focus on the latter, describing some of their most characterising features. They then present a multimedia touristic information system in which different retrieval techniques are combined to achieve the best performance over a suitable set of 'user-profiles'.
22.6.25 (122442)
Fay, D., Hurwitz, J., and Teare, S. The use of low-fidelity prototypes in user interface design. In: Proc 13th Int Syrup on Human Factors in Telecommunications, Turin, 1 0 - 1 4 Sep 1990, pp 2 3 - 3 1 , 3 refs. In rapid prototyping of a user interface, design ideas are tested out on potential users with a prototype that is relatively quick and inexpensive to construct. In building the prototype, a designer often has to choose between representational accuracy and cost. At one extreme of this trade-off is the high-fidelity prototype which represents the designer's ideas so accurately that it is hard to tell from a real product, but can be expensive and time-consuming to produce. At the other extreme is the low-fidelity prototype, which can be as inexpensive as a few paper and pencil sketches, but has the potential to misrepresent a design seriously. Choosing between them can be difficult for the practising designer because, at present, we have almost no information about how fidelity affects users' reactions to an interface. This paper reports a study designed to explore this issue. It compared users' evaluations of a user interface conveyed by either a high-fidelity or low-fidelity prototype. The high-fidelity prototype was a fully-interactive highly-refined representation of a service, while the low-fidelity prototype consisted of rough paper-and-pencil sketches. The
December 1991
results showed that users' reactions to the two prototypes were generally similar. However, for one feature, the audio feedback system, they were strikingly different. Subjects who saw the high-fidelity prototype wanted this feature while those who saw the lowfidelity prototype did not. It is concluded that caution needs to be exercised in basing design decisions on users' reactions to tow-fidelity prototypes.
Display and control design 22.6.26 (122197)
Hess, R.A. Analysing manipulator and feel system effects in aircraft flight control.
IEEE Trans on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, 1990, 2 0 . 4 , 9 2 3 - 9 3 1 , 16 refs. The response characteristics of modern highly-augmented aircraft have reached the point where the vehicle and control system dynamics have begun to interact adversely with the actuation dynamics of the human pilot. Actuation dynamics include the characteristics of both the pilot's neuromuscular system and those of the manipulator and feel system by which he imparts his will to the aircraft. To address this problem, a simple pilot/vehicle model is developed that can be used both to interpret pertinent flight test and simulation results and to serve as a tractable tool for assessing proposed changes in manipulator-feel system characteristics. The model hypothesises proprioceptive information to be a fundamental feedback quantity in the pilot's ability to adopt the compensation characteristics required by the crossover model of the human pilot. The model includes manipulator-feel system dynamics, vestibular (motion) feedback and a rudimentary form of biodynamic feedback. Simple frequency domain control system analysis techniques are applied to the study of manipulator and force feel system effects and to an analysis of the roll ratchet phenomenon.
22.6.27 (122157)
Blandel, M. Minitel keyboard ergonomics. In: Proc 13th Int Syrup on Human Factors in Telecommunications, Turin, 1 0 - 1 4 Sept 1990, pp 5 9 - 6 9 , 10 refs. In order to upgrade the Minitel, several ergonomics studies have been carried out by the CCETT and DACT-DPT. This study has been carried out with a view to changing