Week 11

1
Computer Mediated Communications

• Week 11
• LBSC 690
• Information Technology

2
Agenda

• Human-computer interaction
• Computer mediated communications
• Computer-Supported Cooperative Work
• Educational computing

3
WIMP Interfaces

• Windows
• Spatial context
• Icons
• Direct manipulation
• Menus
• Hierarchy
• Pointing devices
• Spatial interaction

4
GUI Components

• Windows (and panels)
• Resize, drag, iconify, scroll, destroy
• Selectors
• Menu bars, pulldown lists
• Buttons
• Labeled buttons, radio buttons, checkboxes
• Icons (images)
• Select, open, drag, group

5
Direct Manipulation

• Select a metaphor
• Desktop, CD player, map,
• Use icons to represent conceptual objects
• Watch out for cultural differences
• Manipulate those objects with feedback
• Select (left/right/double click), move (drag/drop)

6
Spreadsheets Direct Manipulation
7
Menus

• Conserve screen space by hiding functions
• Menu bar, pop-up
• Can hierarchically structured
• By applications logic
• By convention (e.g., where is the print
  function?)
• Tradeoff between breadth and depth
• Too deep ? can become hard to find things
• Too broad ? becomes direct manipulation

8
Dynamic Queries

• What to do when menus become too deep
• Merges keyboard and direct manipulation
• Select menu items by typing part of a word
• After each letter, update the menu
• Once the word is displayed, user can click on it
• Example Windows help index

9
Language-Based Interfaces

• Command Entry
• Compact and flexible
• Powerful in the hands of expert users
• Difficult for novices to learn
• Natural Language
• Intuitive and expressive
• Ambiguity makes reliable interpretation difficult

10
Some Guidelines

• Informative feedback
• Easy reversal
• User in control
• Anticipatable outcomes
• Explainable results
• Browsable content
• Limited working memory load
• Query context
• Path suspension
• Alternatives for novices and experts
• Scaffolding

11
Aural Perception

• We respond to sounds without prior focus
• Lack of focus limits simultaneous stimuli
• Absolute amplitude pitch hard to interpret
• But changes stand out clearly
• Stereo effect provides a sense of direction
• Relative amplitude, phase difference

12
Speech Output

• Replay of digitized speech clips
• High fidelity, but limited vocabulary
• Speech Synthesis
• Generate spoken output from unrestricted input
• Based on pronunciation rules and lists of
  exceptions
• Sounds unnatural due to misplaced emphasis
• Prosody-guided speech synthesis
• Use pronunciation of similar words as a guide

13
Auditory Display

• Nonspeech audio output for user interfaces
• Same objectives as graphical output
• Alert the user to exceptional conditions
• Provide ubiquitous feedback
• Present information
• But different characteristics
• Effective even without focus
• Fairly low resolution

14
Auditory Display Design

• Need a metaphor
• Clock ticking, alarm bells, keyboard clicks, etc.
• Channel is easily overloaded
• Focus helps manage cognitive load
• Changes are more useful than values
• Pitch, amplitude, position, harmonics, etc.

15
An Auditory Image Display

• Display 2-D images using only sound
• Sweep from left to right every second
• Audible pause and click between sweeps
• Top pixels are high frequency, bottom are low
• Blind users can detect objects and motion
• Time indicates horizontal position
• Pitch indicates vertical position
• Sweep-to-sweep differences indicate motion

http//www.visualprosthesis.com/javoice.htm
16
Interactive Voice Response Systems

• Operate without graphical interfaces
• Hands-free operation (e.g., driving)
• Telephone access
• Built on three technologies
• Speech recognition (input)
• Text-to-speech (output)
• Dialog management (control)
• Example TellMe (1-800-555-TELL)

17
Dialogue Management

• User initiative
• System initiative
• Allows a smaller vocabulary
• Mixed initiative (e.g., barge in)

18
Interaction Design
San Francisco Oakland San Jose
Baltimore National Dulles
Anywhere else
Not a day
Where do you want to go?
What day do you want to travel?
Where are you departing from?
Another day
Anywhere else
Day when there are flights
Sorry
Wrong
Verification
Goodbye
Confirmed
19
Evaluation Measures

• Time to learn
• Speed of performance
• Error rate
• Retention over time
• Subjective satisfaction

20
Evaluation Approaches

• Extrinsic vs. intrinsic
• Formative vs. summative
• Human subjects vs. simulated users
• Deductive vs. abductive

21
Summary

• HCI design starts with user needs abilities
• Users have a wide range of both
• Users must understand their tools
• And these tools can learn about their user!
• Many techniques are available
• Direct manipulation, languages, menus, etc.
• Choosing the right technique is important
• LBSC 795 has this focus

22
Computer Mediated Communication
CMC refers to human communication via
computers--including computer network
communication on the Internet and the World Wide
Web. People interested in CMC study a range of
phenomena--from the dynamics of group
communication in Usenet news articles to how
people use hypertext to shape meaning.
from http//www.ibiblio.org/cmc/center.html
23
Describing CMC Applications

• How many participants?
• One or many
• When?
• Synchronous or asynchronous
• Where?
• Local or remote

24
Cooperative systems
Inspired by the table in Shneidermans Designing
user interfaces
25
Asynchronous Remote

• Email centralized storage
• Individual
• Mailing lists
• Usenet distributed storage
• Hierarchical organization
• comp.edu.languages.natural
• Archive groups.google.com
• Analysis research.microsoft.com/masmith/
• Threaded discussion lists
• Example http//discus.hope.edu/f05

26
Synchronous Remote

• Instant Messaging (IM)
• e.g., AIM, MSN Messenger
• Chat Rooms
• Whole lines are sent at a time
• e.g., chat.yahoo.com
• NetMeeting
• IMaudiovideowhiteboardshared applications
• MSN Messenger now includes these capabilities

27
Glass Wall

• Unplanned interactions
• Informal communication

28
Synchronous Local

• Meeting support systems
• Brainstorming
• Online review
• Annotated minutes
• Example
• Teaching theater student tools

29
Computer SupportedCooperative Work (CSCW)

• Work
• Grounded in the study of work processes
• Cooperative
• Assumes a shared objective, task
• Technology-supported
• Computers are just one type of tools used
• Groupware

30
Key Issues in CSCW

• Shared information space
• Group awareness
• Coordination
• Concurrency control
• Multi-user interfaces
• Heterogeneous environments

31
Case Study Virtual Reference

• Required functions
• System architecture
• Adoption

32
Case Study 2Your Project Team!

• Face to face meetings
• Teleconferences
• Shared workspace on WAM
• IM-synchronized work sessions
• NetMeeting?

33
Educational Computing

• Computer Assisted Education
• What most people think of first
• Computer Managed Instruction
• What most people really do first!
• Computer Mediated Communication
• All that CSCW stuff applied to education
• Computer-Based Multimedia
• Just another filmstrip machine?

34
Rationales

• Pedagogic
• Use computers to teach
• Vocational
• Computer programming is a skill like typing
• Social
• Computers are a part of the fabric of society
• Catalytic
• Computers are symbols of progress

35
Conditions for Success

• Most prerequisites are not computer-specific
• Need, know-how, time, commitment, leadership,
  incentives, expectations
• The most important barrier is time
• Teacher time is by far the most important factor

36
Alternatives

• Facilities
• Computer classrooms (e.g., teaching theaters)
• Computers IN classrooms (e.g., HBK 2119)
• Objectives
• Computer Literacy
• Not so in the Maryland teaching theaters
• Comparatively few technology classes

37
Discussion PointComputers as Educational Media

• What are the most salient characteristics
• Books
• Video
• Computers

38
Distance Education

• Correspondence courses
• Focus on dissemination and evaluation
• Instructional television
• Dissemination, interaction, and evaluation
• Computer-Assisted Instruction
• Same three functions w/ubiquitous technology