User Interface

This study investigated the design and evaluation of a sonification, created for an astronomer who studies exosolar accretion discs. User design methods were applied to sonify data that could allow the classification of accretion discs. The sonification was developed over three stages: a requirements gathering exercise that inquired about the astronomer’s work and the data, design and development, as well as an evaluation. Twenty datasets were sonified and analysed. The sonification effectively represented the accretion discs allowing the astronomer to commence a preliminary, comparative classification. Multiple parameter mappings provide rich auditory stimuli. Spatial mapping and movement allow for easier identification of fast changes and peaks in the data which improved the understanding of the extent of these changes.

Substantial cognitive skills such reading, writing and learning are dismantled and deformed to suit the nonlinear experience of a digital text that is developed on and transmitted by singular medium — device’s screen. The textuality within digital media urges for new ways of information reproduction, dissemination and consumption. Methods that, simultaneously are dealing with the burden of information overload and the limitations inherited from previous typographic media.

The advent of new typographic standard — OpenType Font Variations appears as a necessary consequence and a natural drive towards a redefinition of digital typography.

The relevance of this study is to speculate about conceptual possibilities that arise, not realistic promises and the implicit theoretical understanding of the processes that are collaterally intertwined.

Öz: Bilgi ve iletişim teknolojilerindeki gelişmelerin yaşandığı bilişim çağı ile birlikte bilgisa- yar, bilgisayar ağları ile hücresel (mobil) iletişim teknolojilerinin altyapılarında görülen hızlı ilerlemeler, bireylere sınırsız veri erişimi konusunda imkan sağlamıştır. Bu çağda bilgi akta- rımı, zamandan ve mekandan bağımsız olarak dijital ortamda gerçekleştirilirken; oyunlar, kitap, dergi gibi basılı yayınlar, müziksel yapıtlar, videolar, görseller vb. dijitalleşerek elekt- ronik ortamda kullanıcılara sunulmaktadır. Bu kadar çok enformasyonun yeni teknolojiler (medyalar) aracılığı ile bireylere sunulması ve teknolojinin giderek karmaşık bir hal alması dijital arayüz tasarımlarının kolay anlaşılabilir olmasını gerektirmiştir. Bu nedenle dijital or- tamlardaki arayüz tasarımlarında kullanıcıların kolay algılayabileceği mimetik bir tasarım anlayışından bir başka deyişle “skemorfik tasarım anlayışı”ndan söz edilmeye başlanmıştır. Bu çalışma ile skemorfik tasarım anlayışının dijital arayüz tasarımlarında kullanıcılara nasıl sunulduğu ele alınarak, olumlu ve olumsuz yönleri üzerinde durulacaktır.
Anahtar Sözcükler: Skemorfizm, Skemorf, Dijital Ortam, Kullanıcı Arayüz Tasarımı.

Abstract: With the computer age, many developments in information and communication technologies have been witnessed; particularly, thanks to fast developments in computer, computer network and cellular communication technologies, today individuals can get access to limitless data. Today, while information transfer is done in digital media non- spatially and independent of time, games, printed materials such as books and magazines, musical compositions, videos, visuals etc. have been digitalized and are at users’ disposal.

The fact that this much information is accessible through innovative media and that tech- nology is becoming more and more complicated makes skeuomorphic it essential that digital interface designs be simple enough to be understood by users. Therefore, a mimetic design approach, which can easily be grasped and controlled by users, is applied in the design of interfaces in digital media. This study deals with positive and negative aspects of skeuomorphic design approach and how this approach is presented to users.
Keywords: Skeuomorphism, Skeuomorph, Digital Media, User Interface Design.

Shouldn't the future be a place where our graphical interfaces disencumber computer use? We should be developing a library of graphical presentation and interface techniques relative to where they are useful. We should work to make things respect the ergonomic and psychophysical realities of people. We should work to make things that look like what they do or represent. When these goals over constrain design, we need good teaching tools - prosthetics - to help the user share the designer's vision. When should the user interface should slink out of the way to allow us to focus our attention on our tasks and when should it be stylish and playful? The sea-green institutional paint of the 50s was supposed be a relaxing color. Interfaces also might suffer from being offensively bland. We choose and use things to make a social statement of status, style, and knowledge. This paper discusses how tools should give designers the latitude to create brand and style statements, while mak...

This paper reports on a study of evaluating and generating requirements for the user interface of a digital library. The study involved observation of librarians using the digital library, working on information finding problems on behalf of clients of the library. The study showed that librarians, familiar with the particular digital library system and with information retrieval work in general, possess a repertoire of relatively simple, yet effective, strategies for carrying out searches, and that non-librarians tend not to deploy the same strategies. After ...

The cycle from one release of a software product to the next is becoming shorter andshorter. Especially for custom software products (nonstandard software), implementationproductivity needs to be increased. The reuse of prefabricated software components and theimplementation of reusable and extensible software are of great importance. The objectorientedprogramming paradigm has already proven to fulfill these demands in the area ofgraphical user

Abstract—The proliferation of computer devices and wireless networks allows the users to access information and collaborate with others from anywhere, using the device that best matches the current context. Device capabilities constrain the application implementation, which implies that the user interface and the shared information will differ across devices. Some shared information may be omitted or abstracted to fit the device capabilities and, as a result, the application state differs on different devices. Therefore, there arises a problem ...

Larger display surfaces are becoming increasingly available due to multi-monitor capability built into many systems, in addition to the rapid decrease in their costs. However, little is known about the performance benefits of using these larger surfaces compared to traditional single-monitor displays. In addition, it is not clear that current software designs and interaction techniques have been properly tuned for

The recognition of symbols in graphic documents is an intensive research activity in the community of pattern recognition and document analysis. A key issue in the interpretation of maps, engineering drawings, diagrams, etc. is the recognition of domain dependent symbols according to a symbol database. In this work we first review the most outstanding symbol recognition methods from two different points of view: application domains and pattern recognition methods. In the second part of the paper, open and unaddressed problems involved in symbol recognition are described, analyzing their current state of art and discussing future research challenges. Thus, issues such as symbol representation, matching, segmentation, learning, scalability of recognition methods and performance evaluation are addressed in this work. Finally, we discuss the perspectives of symbol recognition concerning to new paradigms such as user interfaces in handheld computers or document database and WWW indexing by graphical content.

In this paper, we introduce the concept of a transactional pattern for specifying flexible and reliable composite Web services. A transactional pattern is a convergence concept between workflow patterns and advanced transactional models; thus it combines workflow flexibility and transaction reliability. Designers can simply connect together transactional patterns to define a composite Web service. In relation, we provide techniques to ensure control and transactional consistency of such services.

Harnessing human computation through crowdsourcing offers a new approach to solving complex problems, especially those that are relatively easy for humans but difficult for computers. Micro-tasking platforms such as Amazon Mechanical Turk have attracted large, on-demand workforces of millions of workers as well as hundreds of thousands of job requesters. Achieving high quality results and minimizing the total task execution times are the two of the main goals of these crowdsourcing systems. Drawing on cognitive load theory and usability design principles, we study the effects of different user interface designs on performance and the latency of crowdsourcing systems. Our results indicate that complex and poorly designed user interfaces contributed to lower worker performance and increased task latency.

Abstract. In this paper we describe the principles of the design and development of an intelligent query interface, done in the context of the SEWASIE (SEmantic Webs and AgentS in Integrated Economies) European 1ST project. The SEWASIE project aims at enabling a uniform access to heterogeneous data sources through an integrated ontology. The query interface is meant to support a user in formulating a precise query-which best captures her/his information needs-even in the case of complete ignorance of the vocabulary of the ...

The increasing population of older people is leading to growing healthcare demands. Stroke is the commonest cause of severe disability in developed countries leaving one third of patients with long term disability. Rehabilitation is the cornerstone of recovery. Lack of rehabilitation manpower resources can limit recovery of limb function. However, technology can assist rehabilitation staff to deliver greater intensity of

This program presents the OPAC enhancements especially two pioneer features developed by the WSU Libraries, dynamic map direction for each item on OPAC, and a link to Amazon.com added to provide users with access to each book’s location, book reviews, cover image and publishing information. It discusses the redesign process including: the OPAC Committee's investigation of new voyager features, examination of the current OPAC based on usability guidelines, comparison of different OPAC systems from various university libraries, listening to opinions given by reference librarians and library staff, and library-wide user surveys and user tests. It will also show how a blog is used to coordinate committee and library-wide activities and opinions.

Presented at the Tri-conference, Topeka, KS, April 13, 2007.

Der Begriff des Interface kategorisiert die Ausprägungsstufen einer kommunikationsstabilisierenden Schnittstelle als Interaktionsmechanismus, wobei die Interaktion von maschinellen Komponenten (Hardware, Software) sowie die vielfältigen Interaktionen zwischen UserIn und Maschine zur Geltung gebracht werden.