TheoryDriven Design in HCI

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Theory-Driven Design in HCI

• Mary Czerwinski
• Microsoft Research

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Overview

• Why theory, especially now?
• Brief history of HCI, psychology and theory
• The importance/role of theory
• Examples of theory-driven research
• How to do theory
• Summary of benefits of theory to HCI

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Why is it a good time to revisit theory?
Yesterday
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Dichotic Listening Task (Cherry, 1953)
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Cocktail Party Phenomenon

• Cocktail party problem
• How is it that out of a sea of voices we can
  focus on a single conversation?
• Cocktail party effect
• Moray (1959)
• While you are usually unaware of identity of
  words in a non-attended conversation
• A notable exception is your name

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Attenuation Theory of Attention (Treisman, 1960)

• Blocking out the irrelevant content easy until.
• Its semantically meaningful or important to you

Hey, Mary!
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Guidelines for Speech Communication Applications,
Cockpits, etc.

• Provide a mechanism to pull one voice into
  focus
• Mostly focusing on physical attributes of the
  message
• Do not present too much information
  simultaneously
• Provide enough time for the user to fully fuse
  streams if necessary

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80s and 90s Personal Computer
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User-Centered Theories in HCI

• The Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction, by
  Card, Moran and Newell (1983)
• Simon and Newells contributions to psychology,
  AI and HCI
• Cognitive and perceptual psychology theories
  codified into guidelines
• A LOT of theory from this era is used in HCI
  design practice today

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And Then, Time Stood Still

• Advances to GUI desktops arguably stalled
• Lots of evolution on designs but less new theory
• Do we need it?
• Where are the breakthroughs?

Evolution
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Today Ubicomp
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Theoretical Guidance Missing

• Social proxemics and etiquette?
• Multi-cursor interaction?
• New mental models?
• New metrics for productivity and acceptance?
• New artifacts?
• Privacy?
• New input approaches?

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Tomorrow Today

• Brain-computer interaction devices like BrainGate
• Controlling objects with thought is becoming a
  reality
• Good sciencenew theories?

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VeriChip

• FDA approved implantable chips
• RFID tags
• Rooted in the skin for accessing medical records
• Privacy issues are becoming pervasive in our
  research
• Philosophy-gtTheory-?

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A Tools Stage of HCI

• (Painting by Zdenek Burian)
• Cro Magnons occurred 40,000 years ago
• Hunted mainly with spears, (bow and arrows were
  later developed).
• Made tools from blades of Flint stone, used for
  preparing animal skins.

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ShneidermanWhy Theories in HCI?

• Descriptive clarify terms, key concepts
• Explanatory reveal relationships and processes
• Predictive about performance and situations
• Prescriptive convey guidance for decision making
  in design by recording best practice
• Generative enable practitioners to create,
  invent or discover something new

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Examples of Theory-Driven Research

• Just a few examples
• Not exhaustive!
• Still, a tough task to identify well-known
  examples across all types of theory

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Explanatory Theory Example

• Normans seven stage model from POET (1988)
• An approximate model with a continuous feedback
  loop
• Forming the goal
• Forming the intention
• Specifying the action
• Executing the action
• Perceiving the state of the world
• Interpreting the state of the world
• Evaluating the outcome

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Using the model predictively

• Miyata Norman (1986)
• Predicted interruptions between task execution
  and evaluation as less harmful when multitasking
• Untested
• In 2000, we decided to test this using IM and
  multiple tasks
• Examined planning, execution and evaluation
  phases of tasks

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Attention-Based Principles of Notifications

• Early in a task was the worst time to interrupt
  if you want user to remember
• Make notifications situation-aware
• Look for cognitive breakpoints in users
  interactions.
• When possible, use smart monitoring
• Monitor the user (what stage in task?)
• Content of interruptionsimilar is better
• Obvious privacy issues, etc.

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Predictive Theory Examples

• Large display research (Tan, Czerwinski
  Robertson, 2001-2003)
• Most early research carried out around cockpit
  design
• New hardware often necessitates the need for new
  software/interaction
• Serendipitous gender and spatial cognition
  findings based on theories of perception and
  cognition

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Dsharp Display
43"
11"
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Prescriptive Theory Examples

• Example Gestalt Theory of Perception
  (similarity, closure, good continuity,
  proximity/figure-ground)
• Example Feature Integration Theory (Triesman et
  al., 80s), guided visual search and pop out
  effects
• Utilized well in design guidelines today

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Information Visualizer System
Analysis
Goals
UI Artifacts
COST STRUCTURE OF INFORMATION
INFORMATION WORKSPACE
ANIMATED GUI
Larger Workspace Denser Workspace
Access Costs
3D/Rooms Interactive Objects Cognitive Coprocessor
Interaction Costs
Highly Interactive
INFORMATION VISUALIZATIONS
Assimilation Costs
Information Visualization
CASE STUDIES
EXPLOIT HUMAN PERCEPTION
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• ACT-IF (Pirolli Card 99)
• Theory based on information foraging, sensemaking
  and the scatter/gather approach
• Published in Psychology Review

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Scatter/Gather Document Browser
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Generative Theory Examples

• Shneiderman The future of HCI must be tied to
  more effective generative theories that enable
  HCI to become the bright shining source of
  innovation a much stronger role than the
  usability testers and refiners of ideas initiated
  by others.

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Buxtons 3-State Model of Graphical Input (1990)

• Model inspired Mackinlay, Card Robertson (1991)
  to write A Semantic Analysis of the Design Space
  of Input Devices
• Hinckley et al. (1998) extended the ideas to add
  notation for continuous properties during state
  transitions of devices

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Pointing and Fitts law The abcs of user
interfaces (Predictive and Generative)

• Fitts law

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Zhai et al. Laws of actions

• Pointing
• Crossing
• Steering
• Thank you Shumin!

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Crossing more than dotting the is
Accot Zhai 2002

• Why crossing?
• increasing interaction vocabulary
• Pen based computing
• How does crossing compare with pointing?
• What is the theoretical foundation of crossing?

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Systematic comparison
Accot Zhai, CHI 2002
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Crossing-based interfaces
Accot Zhai 2003
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Law of steering
Accot Zhai 1997, 1999, 2001)
Rashevsky 1959, Drury 1971 Accot Zhai, 1997,
1999, 2001
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Law of Steering - General form
TC a b IDC
W(s)
ds
C
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Computing off the desktop

• Desktop computing workstation interface
  foundation
• Large and personal display
• Input device (mouse)
• Typewriter keyboard

• HCI Frontier beyond the desktop
• Interfaces without display-mouse-keyboard tripod
• Numerous difficult challenges

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Zhai, Hunter, Smith 2000 Zhai, Sue, Accot 2002,
Drews

• Alphabetically Tuned and Optimized Mobile
  Interface Keyboard
• (ATOMIK)

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Limitations and hints from ATOMIK

• Tapping one key at a time tedious. The stylus
  can be more expressive and dexterous.
• Does not utilize language redundancy/statistical
  intelligence.
• People tend to remember the pattern of a whole
  word, not individual letters.

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Zhai et al.--Shark
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Metrics DevelopmentSubjective Duration
Assessment

• HCI and iterative usability metrics
• Performance (task times, success rates)
• Preference (user satisfaction questionnaires)
• Usually correlated, but not always
• Users notoriously positive w/ratings
• Neilsen Levy (1994) need an average of 5 on a
  7 point scale

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Ziegarnik Effect (1927)

• People remember uncompleted tasks better than
  completed
• Weybrew (1984) used time estimation
• People overestimate time on unfinished tasks
• People underestimate time on completed tasks
• Van Bergen (1968) task has to be engaging or
  more difficult to get the effect

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Spool (2001)

• Found a strong correlation between perceived
  download time and whether users successfully
  completed their tasks on a site
• When people accomplish task on a site, they
  perceive that site to be fast, and vice versa
• Goes against emphasis on fast download times
  only, need to support users task most

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MSN StudySDA Better Predictor of Difficulty than
User Satisfaction
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So Are We in Good Shape?

• Obviously, great work has come out of theory in
  HCI
• Do we need more?

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Why I Think Tomorrows HCI Needs Theory

• Weve come full circle
• Many new tools used both singly and by multiple
  people
• Theory is one of the most important things we
  should be doing as a discipline
• Not everyone needs to do it, but some of us have
  to!
• A way to guarantee progress
• Invite new disciplines to work with us
• Cognitive neuroscientists, biologists, ethicists?

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How to Do Theory?

• Whittaker, Terveen Nardi (2000)
• Adopt a reference task agenda
• A set of well-defined tasks that candidate
  systems could be evaluated against like TREC
• Even skeptics (Landauer, Carroll et al., Bannon)
  agree on the importance of having an adequate 
  descriptive base for HCI as a prerequisite for
  more theory development

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Engestroms Activity System Model (1987)

• Most human activities are collective ones taking
  place in rich social environments
• Model used to explain collective activities and
  cooperative work, including cultural conventions
  and established rules

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Activity Theory and HCI

• Transformation of tools, rules and divisions of
  labor is key
• Utilized more in CSCW community
• Exacty how Activity Theory is operationalized in
  studies is a common problem
• Can provide a framework to reinterpret the
  concept of user needs and society

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Challenges to Theory Building

• Advancing technology
• Influence of individual differences
• Contextual effects
• Longitudinal effects
• New metrics needed
• But paradigms exist that can be leveraged

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Its Good for Your Career!

• Top 10 Most Frequently Cited CHI Authors
• Stu Card (484 citations)
• Bill Buxton (351)
• Thomas Moran (344)
• Ben Shneiderman (322)
• Hiroshi Ishii (298)
• Brad Myers (287)
• Jakob Nielsen (286)
• Allen Newell (222)
• Jock Mackinlay (217)
• George Robertson (215)

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Conclusion

• Benefits of a theoretical approach to HCI
• Move our community toward a solid, scientific
  discipline
• Identify gaps in the design space
• Engage in a communal discussion about design
• Career advancement
• Innovation

Holy Grail for HCI
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Thank You!
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Tom Ericksons Poem

• Theory Theory A Designer's View Theory weary,
  theory leery, why can't I be theory cheery? I
  often try out little bits, wheresoever they might
  fit. (Affordances are very pliable, though what
  they add is quite deniable.) The sages call this
  bricolage, the promiscuous prefer menage... A
  savage, I, my mind's pragmatic, I keep what's
  good, discard dogmatic.
• //
• Oddly now, I'm theory cheery -- I find I have a
  theory theory! Neither holy grail, nor deep
  disgrace, theory's useful in its place,
  (Framing, talking, predicting, bonding, evoking
  discourse--Others responding) Like goals and
  methods, plans and actions, theory's situated,
  not pure abstraction. So make your theory a
  public way, where passers by may pause and stay