CHI

If the field of Human Factors in Computer Systems is to be a success it must develop design principles that are useful, principles that apply across a wide range of technologies. In the first part of this paper I discuss some the properties that useful ...

This paper will not advocate list of firm recommendations about document design because it is recognised that design decisions will vary with many factors. Instead, the present discussion will emphasize that when making these decisions it is necessary ...

Machines and computer systems differ in many characteristics that have important consequences for the user. Machines are special-purpose, have forms suggestive of their functions, are operated with controls in obvious one-to-one correspondence with ...

A measurably easy-to-use interface has been built using a novel technique. Novices attempted an electronic mail task using a command-line interface containing no help, no menus, no documentation, and no instruction. A hidden operator intercepted ...

It is useful to be able to specify a proposed human-computer interface formally before building it, particularly if a mockup suitable for testing can be obtained directly from the specification. A specification technique for user interfaces, based on ...

High quality human/computer interfaces have become a major topic of research. This paper describes a new method for modeling, designing, and developing dialogues, a method that has a strong formal basis and allows a uniform syntactic and semantic ...

Research into human-computer interaction (HCI) is mainly conducted by engineering psychologists, cognitive psychologists and computer scientists. The principal consumers of applied HCI research, on the other hand, are human factors practitioners and ...

A task analysis technique, called ETIT analysis, is introduced. It is based on the idea that tasks in the external world must be reformulated into the internal concepts of a computer system before the system can be used. The analysis is in the form of ...

Any system designed for people to use should be (a) easy to learn; (b) useful, i.e., contain functions people really need in their work; (c) easy to use; and (d) pleasant to use. In this note we present theoretical considerations and empirical data ...

Our analyses of the activities performed by users of computer systems show complex patterns of interleaved activities. Current human - computer interfaces provide little support for the kinds of problems users encounter when attempting to accomplish ...

Nearly everyone agrees that computer response time is very important to the users of interactive systems. Many papers have been written describing the bad effects of computer response times that are too long or too short, and many sets of “guidelines” ...

The impact of computer-based communication on group performance depends upon the structure enforced by the communication system. While the ability to introduce structures which enhance human communication processes has been applauded, research to ...

Message quality is a critical factor in influencing user acceptance of a program product. Good error messages can reduce the time and cost to create and maintain software, as well as help users learn about the product. We have developed a methodology ...

Integral to the design process of the Xerox 8010 “Star” workstation was constant concern for the user interface. The design was driven by principles of human cognition. Prototyping of ideas, paper-and-pencil analyses, and human-factors experiments with ...

A methodology is described for obtaining objective measures of product usability. The Playback program developed at the IBM Human Factors Center in San Jose collects performance data of the user interface without impact upon the user or the system being ...

This paper reports on a study investigating the strengths and weaknesses of questionnaires as software evaluation tools. Two major influences on the usefulness of questionnaire-based evaluation responses are examined: the administration of the ...

The Hermes Message System has evolved in response to the needs and criticisms of users. This paper gives examples of some less than successful features, many of which have been changed, so that future designers will know what didn't work, as well as ...

This paper addresses the feasibility of computerized record-keeping for low-budget volunteer organizations, and presents results of an experiment designed to determine a fast, reliable, and comfortable data entry technique for enabling non-computer-user ...

Consul and CUE are two systems that combine to support an interface to interactive computer services that is integrated across a variety of interface methods. Consul is an experimental natural language interface system designed to be customized to a set ...

A general method for describing the behavior of an interactive system is presented which is based on transition networks generalized enough to describe even very complex systems easily, as shown by an example description of a word processor. The key ...

When a human and computer perform similar tasks in parallel, it is important that an effective line of communication exist between the two entities. Since overt communication may add to the human's workload, an implicit method of communication is ...

The successful use of menu-based information retrieval systems depends critically on users understanding the category names and partitions used by system designers. Some of the problems in this endeavor are psychological and have to do with naming large ...

A variety of aspects of command names have been studied, such as suggestiveness, memorability, and the use of icons. A single framework for these disparate studies is desirable, and it is proposed that the concept of featural analysis prevalent in ...

Designing a human interface to a computer system is more art than science. Systematic research on the human interface to computer systems, when it is performed, is generally an after-the-fact evaluation of an almost finished product. This sort of ...

Donald Norman has claimed that UNIX has cryptic and inconsistent command names. As Michael Lesk has remarked, the lack of objective data makes it difficult to evaluate the significance of Norman's criticisms. In an effort to explore this controversy we ...

In Office Information Systems, the primary focus has been to integrate facilities for the communication and management of information. However, the human factors aspects of the design of office systems are equally important considerations if such office ...

C³ environments have increasingly incorporated computer controlled maps as decision aids. The design of map displays in space oriented C³ systems has taken on greater importance due to the complex spatial relationships among orbiting objects. The large ...

As the technology of rule-based inference mechanisms matures, knowledge acquisition—the creation, structuring, and verification of rules—becomes increasingly important. The accuracy and completeness of the rules in the knowledge base determine expert ...

Systematic differences in recognition/confusion due to font variation is estimated by using confusion matrices of the full 26 capital letters of the English alphabet in 5 × 7 dot matrix font and “Keepsake” conventional stroke font. Average correct ...

One of the more popular methods today for instructing software designers on how to structure man-display interfaces is with guidelines. Numerous design guidelines have been promulgated in the last several years (Engel and Granda, 1975; Ramsey and Atwood,...