Implications For Interface Design Research Articles

Exploring learning outcomes and psycho-emotional experiences of undergraduate students in digital literacy training and support using Web-based assessment platforms

Integrating Web-based platforms into student learning assessment has gained increasing attention among researchers and instructors. However, limited research addresses the practical challenges of involving undergraduates in creating of Web-based assessment platforms. This study investigates the effects of this process on students’ learning outcomes and their psycho-emotional experiences, focusing on motivation and engagement. A comparative study involving 156 students revealed that those using the Kahoot! platform achieved significantly better learning outcomes and displayed higher motivation and emotional engagement than those using Google Forms. This also highlights the role of interface design in improving Web-based assessment platforms, with implications for user interface design.

Acceptance of Tele-Technology-Based Mind-Body Classes for Individuals With Mild Cognitive Impairment

Individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) face many challenges, including cognitive declines and reduced independence which are associated with poor health outcomes. Although there is no cure for MCI, mind-body exercise classes may improve cognitive function and reduce risk of falls (Wayne, Yeh, & Mehta, 2018). However, such classes are often not accessible for individuals with MCI due to lack of transportation, fear of being stigmatized, or inability to find instructors who have experience working with individuals with MCI (Hobson & Middleton, 2008; Rimmer, 2005). Tele-technology, such as video-conferencing software, has the potential to remove barriers to participation by allowing individuals to attend classes from home. The goal of this study was to assess the feasibility of using tele-technology to deliver mind-body classes to individuals with MCI. We evaluated technology acceptance and usability for OneClick.chat, a web-based video-conferencing platform designed for older adults. Stakeholders (4 subject matter experts, 2 individuals with MCI, and 2 care partners) participated in a user study that included questionnaires and a short interview. The technology acceptance data indicate that OneClick.chat was perceived as easy to use. Some individuals expressed privacy and security concerns which could be addressed with additional education and support. These findings have implications for interface design, education, and training for deployment of tele-technology delivered mind-body classes for those with MCI.

Do women and extroverts perceive interactivity differently than men and introverts? Role of individual differences in responses to HCI vs. CMC interactivity

Websites, social media, mobile apps and indeed most internet platforms offer two distinct kinds of interactivity: one that involves interacting with the system, or what is commonly known as human-computer interaction (HCI), and another that involves interacting with other users, or computer-mediated communication (CMC). Are some people drawn toward one more than the other? And, is this indicative of one's social orientation? We decided to find out by examining whether extroverts and females are more likely to favor the latter type of interactivity, given their greater emphasis on relational aspects of communication. Through a between-subjects experiment with four conditions (Interactivity with HCI tools vs. CMC tools vs. HCI + CMC tools vs. Control), this research examined how extraversion and gender moderate the psychological effects of message interactivity on a movie news site. Results suggest that interactivity with CMC tools leads to a greater psychological perception of interactivity than interactivity with HCI tools. Moreover, extraversion positively predicts website attitudes for both interactivity types individually, yet it negatively predicts website attitudes when the website affords both together. The study also found a three-way interaction between interactivity, extraversion, and gender on perceived interactivity, revealing that extraversion helps males perceive more interactivity in HCI tools while it helps females perceive more interactivity in CMC tools. Theoretical implications for interactivity literature and practical implications for interface design are discussed.

Describing the sounds of nature: Using onomatopoeia to classify bird calls for citizen science.

Bird call libraries are difficult to collect yet vital for bio-acoustics studies. A potential solution is citizen science labelling of calls. However, acoustic annotation techniques are still relatively undeveloped and in parallel, citizen science initiatives struggle with maintaining participant engagement, while increasing efficiency and accuracy. This study explores the use of an under-utilised and theoretically engaging and intuitive means of sound categorisation: onomatopoeia. To learn if onomatopoeia was a reliable means of categorisation, an online experiment was conducted. Participants sourced from Amazon mTurk (N = 104) ranked how well twelve onomatopoeic words described acoustic recordings of ten native Australian bird calls. Of the ten bird calls, repeated measures ANOVA revealed that five of these had single descriptors ranked significantly higher than all others, while the remaining calls had multiple descriptors that were rated significantly higher than others. Agreement as assessed by Kendall's W shows that overall, raters agreed regarding the suitability and unsuitability of the descriptors used across all bird calls. Further analysis of the spread of responses using frequency charts confirms this and indicates that agreement on which descriptors were unsuitable was pronounced throughout, and that stronger agreement of suitable singular descriptions was matched with greater rater confidence. This demonstrates that onomatopoeia may be reliably used to classify bird calls by non-expert listeners, adding to the suite of methods used in classification of biological sounds. Interface design implications for acoustic annotation are discussed.

Comparison of Common Ground Models for Human--Computer Dialogue

Common ground processes [26] can improve performance in communication tasks [72, 42, 43, 24], and understanding these processes will likely benefit human--computer dialogue interfaces. However, there are multiple proposed theories with different implications for interface design. Fusaroli and Tylén [40] achieved a direct comparison by designing two models: one based on alignment theory and the other based on complementarity theory that encapsulated interpersonal synergy and audience design. The current research used these models, extending them to differentiate between interpersonal synergy and audience design. Few studies have tested multiple common ground models against tasks representative of envisioned human--computer interaction (HCI) applications. We report on four such tests, which allowed examination of generalizability of findings. Results supported the complementarity models over the alignment model, and were suggestive of the audience design variant of complementarity, providing guidance for HCI design that differs from contemporary approaches.

Ecological Interface Design: Thirty-Plus Years of Refinement, Progress, and Potential.

The objective is to provide a review of ecological interface design (EID), to illustrate its value to human factors/ergonomics, and to identify areas for future research and development. EID uses mature interface technologies to provide decision making and problem solving support. A variety of theoretical concepts and analytical tools have been developed to meet the associated challenges. EID provides support that is simultaneously grounded in the practical realities of a work domain and tailored to human capabilities and limitations. EID's theoretical foundation is discussed briefly. Concrete examples of ecological and traditional interfaces are provided. Different categories of work domains are described, as well as the associated implications for interface design. A targeted literature review is conducted and the experimental outcomes are summarized. A representative evaluation is discussed, and interpretations of performance are provided. The evidence reveals that EID has been remarkably successful in significantly improving performance for work domains with constraints that are law driven (e.g., process control). In contrast, work domains that are intent-driven (e.g., information retrieval) have, by and large, been ignored. Also, few studies have addressed nonvisual displays. EID has not yet realized its potential to improve safety and efficiency across the entire continuum of work domains. EID provides a single integrated framework that is (a) sufficiently comprehensive to deal with complicated work domains and (b) capable of producing innovative support that will generalize to actual work settings.

The motor intentional core of situation awareness

The situated approach to situation awareness (SA) claims that system operators often offload information instead of constructing detailed, stable and internal representations of dynamic situations. Offloading, which can be more or less deliberate, is the attenuation of internal processes in favor of augmenting external ones. Operators do this to minimise costly internal processing and storage. This paper uses empirical evidence and phenomenological analysis to argue that situated SA presupposes a motor intentional core. This core refers to embodied skills whose function is to present states of the system as being a certain way. They include, for example, the skillful eye scan patterns of experts and various epistemic actions that involve manipulating objects in the physical world to make information available to other cognitive processes. Through these motor intentional skills, offloaded information can be accessed on an as-needed basis. We discuss metrics for assessing the motor intentional core, as well as implications for interface design and the training of system operators, arguing that many motor intentional skills can be taught directly.

Effect of Cursor Orientation on Left- and Right-Hand Mouse Control

Many factors, such as cursor orientation, cursor shape, and direction of movement have previously been found to impact human performance in graphical user interfaces. However, the majority of, if not all, previous research has focused on right-hand mouse control of cursors. The current study examined both left and right hand mouse control of cursor with a 2 (response hand; left vs. right) x 3 (cursor type; left-oriented arrow, right-oriented arrow, and neutral-orientated crosshairs) x 8 (target location) within-subjects design. The purpose was to examine the effects of response hand and cursor orientation on performance of moving cursors into different target locations. Results showed that there was a difference in the three cursor types for right handed individuals, as well as in left- and right-hand mouse control for right-handed, left-handed, and ambidextrous individuals. Implications for interface design and future research are discussed.

Helping older adults conquer digital tablets

Purpose Three questions were asked about voluntary peer group meetings attended by older adults who wanted to improve their competence with digital tablets: What did people need to learn? Could interface changes reduce cognitive demands? Which elements of the meetings enhanced their success? Method From May 2013 adults aged 50+ belonging to a UK branch of the University of the Third Age met once a month. 76 people attended at least one meeting during a 27 month period. They were helped to use their tablets and interface design implications were noted. The elements within meetings (for instance, discussion, demonstration, practice, etc.) were modified as problems arose. Results and Discussion Average monthly attendance grew from 11 to 15 but 63% of the attendees dropped out after one or more meetings. Necessary learning included finger gestures, distributing attention, and multiple routes to similar goals. Complete beginners needed individual help before benefitting from the group. The important elements of meetings were consistent with cognitive learning theories: reducing distraction by increasing group homogeneity (separating iPad and Android users); including a projected demonstration of new procedures as an advanced organiser; aiding memory through a printed handout. Group cohesion was enhanced through discussion and by putting handouts on the group’s web page so absentees could stay informed. Conclusions Digital tablets offer viable internet access for older adults but pose learning challenges that would be fewer if interface design better supported cognitive processes such as memory and attention. Within group meetings of older adults a balance between social and instructional activities enhances satisfaction.

Una aproximació ontològica de la interfície d’Internet i les implicacions en el disseny.

La seva estructura d'Internet no és uniforme ni ordenada en el sentit de “prevista”, sinó que més aviat és adaptable i caòtica. El punt de contacte entre l’emissor i el receptor final de la informació digital és la interfície. La forma habitual de la interfície és la de pantalla.La interfície no ofereix una connexió neutre en cap de les dues direccions de la comunicació a la xarxa. El control de l’aparença de la interfície condicionarà aquesta comunicació. En un mitjà sincrètic com Internet, el disseny de la interfície té influència en el desplaçament dels centres de poder.

A Situated Approach to the Understanding of Dynamic Situations

Situation awareness (SA) is an operator’s understanding of “what is going on” as he or she manages a complex, dynamic system. In what follows, the case for a situated approach to SA is presented. It claims operators rely on interactions between internal and external representations to maintain their understanding of situations. It is argued that this approach allows researchers to capture two different types of SA—one where operators store SA information directly and one where the information is offloaded but the operator internally represents where to access it from the world and can do so quickly. This position takes a broader unit of analysis on SA than the widely cited Three-Level Model, which claims that only if information is stored internally does it count as SA. We also discuss how to assess SA in situated agents, focusing on the Situation Present Assessment Method (SPAM). We end by discussing some of the potentially fruitful research questions that arise as a result of taking a situated approach as well as implications for interface design.

Automation Complacency

Automation complacency has been considered by some to result from a state of mindlessness. An attentional framework offered by Parasuraman and Manzey (2010) has suggested that automation bias and complacency may be overlapping functions of the same central cognitive process, with attentional resources as the shared mechanism. Non-invasive brain stimulation methods present novel ways to manipulate attentional resources and influence operator allocation of attention. Study results indicate that positive stimulation affects complex task performance, although not necessarily evenly across task function. Stimulation effects on complacency potential may be modulated by an operator’s automation bias. This has broad implications for interface design, as well cognitive theory of human-automation interaction.

Supervisory-level interruption recovery in time-critical control tasks

This paper investigates the effectiveness of providing interruption recovery assistance in the form of an interactive visual timeline of historical events on a peripheral display in support of team supervision in time-critical settings. As interruptions can have detrimental effects on task performance, particularly in time-critical work environments, there is growing interest in the design of tools to assist people in resuming their pre-interruption activity. A user study was conducted to evaluate the use of an interactive event timeline that provides assistance to human supervisors in time-critical settings. The study was conducted in an experimental platform that emulated a team of operators and a mission commander performing a time-critical unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) mission. The study results showed that providing interruption assistance enabled people to recover from interruptions faster and more accurately. These results have implications for interface design that could be adopted in similar time-critical environments such as air-traffic control, process control, and first responders.

Predictivity of system delays shortens human response time

System delays considerably affect users' experience and performance. Research on the psychological effects of system delays has focused on delay length and variability. We introduce delay predictivity as a new factor profoundly affecting user performance. A system delay is predictive when its duration is informative about the nature of consecutive interaction events. We report an experiment (N=122) where short delays were differently distributed across two alternative target stimuli in a choice response task. We manipulated variability and predictivity of delays. For one group of participants the delays were of constant duration. For three other groups the delays were variable, but differed in predictivity. They were either non-predictive, probabilistically predictive (they predicted the targets with a probability of 0.8), or deterministically predictive. Performance with constant delays was superior to performance with variable non-predictive or with probabilistically predictive delays. Surprisingly, participants with deterministically predictive delays outperformed participants in all other groups. This has important implications for interface design, whenever there is some degree of freedom in scheduling system delays. Best performance is achieved with predictive delays, but only when deterministic predictivity can be achieved. Otherwise, constant delays are to be preferred over variable ones.

Looking or Listening?

We conducted an experiment with 22 participants to investigate the effect of presentation style of a secondary task on a 1-D tracking task that simulated gap control in driving. Participants operated the tracking task with a foot pedal while performing a secondary task (counting vowels in a list of multiple letters) under conditions involving different modalities (audio/ visual), presentation styles (simultaneous/ sequential), task complexity (the number of distractors), and time dependency (list length). Our results showed that audio conditions with a longer and/or more complex secondary task did not improve primary (tracking) task performance, even though eye gaze dwelling time on the primary monitor in these cases tended to be substantially longer than the corresponding times in visual conditions. For a more complex version of the secondary task (longer list lengths) visual presentation of the task all at once (simultaneously) led to better performance then sequential presentation (whether visual or auditory). When given a choice people also tended to prefer simultaneous visual presentation of the secondary task. We discuss the effect of presentation modality of the secondary task in terms of its implications for user interface design in vehicles.

Emotions in the Twitterverse and Implications for User Interface Design

Emotions in the Twitterverse and Implications for User Interface Design

Evaluation of different speech and touch interfaces to in-vehicle music retrieval systems

In-vehicle music retrieval systems are becoming more and more popular. Previous studies have shown that they pose a real hazard to drivers when the interface is a tactile one which requires multiple entries and a combination of manual control and visual feedback. Voice interfaces exist as an alternative. Such interfaces can require either multiple or single conversational turns. In this study, each of 17 participants between the ages of 18 and 30 years old was asked to use three different music retrieval systems (one with a multiple entry touch interface, the iPod™, one with a multiple turn voice interface, interface B, and one with a single turn voice interface, interface C) while driving through a virtual world. Measures of secondary task performance, eye behavior, vehicle control, and workload were recorded. When compared with the touch interface, the voice interfaces reduced the total time drivers spent with their eyes off the forward roadway, especially in prolonged glances, as well as both the total number of glances away from the forward roadway and the perceived workload. Furthermore, when compared with driving without a secondary task, both voice interfaces did not significantly impact hazard anticipation, the frequency of long glances away from the forward roadway, or vehicle control. The multiple turn voice interface (B) significantly increased both the time it took drivers to complete the task and the workload. The implications for interface design and safety are discussed.

Interacting in 3D Space: Comparison of a 3D Two-handed Interface to a Keyboard-and-mouse Interface for Medical 3D Image Manipulation

Interacting with computer-generated 3-dimensional (3D) data can pose challenges in the control of 3D objects and navigation in 3D space. The traditional mouse-driven interfaces are limited to controlling two degrees of freedom (DOF) at a time. The current research examines the efficacy of a two-handed interface (THI), “iMedic,” that uses two 6-DOF controllers that afford a more direct style of manipulation of 3D medical imagery. The iMedic interface employs a 3D “multi-touch” type of interaction for manipulation of objects, and self-navigation in space. Medical 3D images of human anatomy from computer tomography (CT) scans were used as a testbed in comparing the two interface: the THI, and a traditional keyboard-and-mouse interface (KMI) commonly used in medical imaging contexts. Novice system users with medical background used each system to carry out navigation, visual search, and measurement tasks with abstract synthetic and realistic anatomical objects. Results indicate that for novice users, there was no clear advantage to either interface in subjective or objective measures. However, a case study of an experienced user showed clear advantages in all tasks using the THI. Reasons for the findings are examined, and interface design implications are discussed.

Interacting in 3D Space: Comparison of a 3D Two-handed Interface to a Keyboard-and-mouse Interface for Medical 3D Image Manipulation

Interacting with computer-generated 3-dimensional (3D) data can pose challenges in the control of 3D objects and navigation in 3D space. The traditional mouse-driven interfaces are limited to controlling two degrees of freedom (DOF) at a time. The current research examines the efficacy of a two-handed interface (THI), “iMedic,” that uses two 6-DOF controllers that afford a more direct style of manipulation of 3D medical imagery. The iMedic interface employs a 3D “multi-touch” type of interaction for manipulation of objects, and self-navigation in space. Medical 3D images of human anatomy from computer tomography (CT) scans were used as a testbed in comparing the two interface: the THI, and a traditional keyboard-and-mouse interface (KMI) commonly used in medical imaging contexts. Novice system users with medical background used each system to carry out navigation, visual search, and measurement tasks with abstract synthetic and realistic anatomical objects. Results indicate that for novice users, there was no clear advantage to either interface in subjective or objective measures. However, a case study of an experienced user showed clear advantages in all tasks using the THI. Reasons for the findings are examined, and interface design implications are discussed.

Compatibility effects based on stimulus and response numerosity

Four choice reaction time experiments documented a stimulus-response (S-R) compatibility effect involving the numbers of stimuli and responses. In Experiment 1, the stimulus consisted of one or two tones, and the correct response was either one or two taps of a response key. Responses were much faster with a compatible S-R assignment, in which the number of taps matched the number of tones, than with an incompatible assignment in which these numbers mismatched. Experiments 2 and 3 replicated this effect, using visual stimuli and bimodal stimuli, respectively, suggesting that auditory/manual rhythmic compatibility is not essential to it. Experiment 4 showed that an analogous but smaller effect is obtained when stimuli are the digits 1 and 2. This new numerosity-based compatibility effect has general theoretical implications regarding the mechanisms responsible for compatibility effects and practical implications for interface design.