General purpose graphical interfaces for data exploration are typically based on manual visualization and interaction specifications. While designing manual specification can be very expressive, it demands high efforts to make effective decisions, therefore reducing exploratory speed. Instead, principled automated designs can increase exploratory speed, decrease learning efforts, help avoid ineffective decisions, and therefore better support data analytics novices. Towards these goals, we present Keshif, a new systematic design for tabular data exploration. To summarize a given dataset, Keshif aggregates records by value within attribute summaries, and visualizes aggregate characteristics using a consistent design based on data types. To reveal data distribution details, Keshif features three complementary linked selections: highlighting, filtering, and comparison. Keshif further increases expressiveness through aggregate metrics, absolute/part-of scale modes, calculated attributes, and saved selections, all working in synchrony. Its automated design approach also simplifies authoring of dashboards composed of summaries and individual records from raw data using fluid interaction. We show examples selected from datasets from diverse domains. Our study with novices shows that after exploring raw data for 15 minutes, our participants reached close to 30 data insights on average, comparable to other studies with skilled users using more complex tools.

Programming-by-Example (PBE) enables users to create programs without writing a line of code. However, there is little research on people's ability to accomplish complex tasks by providing examples, which is the key to successful PBE solutions. This paper presents an online user study, which reports observations on how well people decompose complex tasks, and disambiguate sub-tasks. Our findings suggest that disambiguation and decomposition are difficult for inexperienced users. We identify seven types of mistakes made, and suggest new opportunities for actionable feedback based on unsuccessful examples, with design implications for future PBE systems.

Datasets commonly include multi-value (set-typed) attributes that describe set memberships over elements, such as genres per movie or courses taken per student. Set-typed attributes describe rich relations across elements, sets, and the set intersections. Increasing the number of sets results in a combinatorial growth of relations and creates scalability challenges. Exploratory tasks (e.g. selection, comparison) have commonly been designed in separation for set-typed attributes, which reduces interface consistency. To improve on scalability and to support rich, contextual exploration of set-typed data, we present AggreSet. AggreSet creates aggregations for each data dimension: sets, set-degrees, set-pair intersections, and other attributes. It visualizes the element count per aggregate using a matrix plot for set-pair intersections, and histograms for set lists, set-degrees and other attributes. Its non-overlapping visual design is scalable to numerous and large sets. AggreSet supports selection, filtering, and comparison as core exploratory tasks. It allows analysis of set relations inluding subsets, disjoint sets and set intersection strength, and also features perceptual set ordering for detecting patterns in set matrices. Its interaction is designed for rich and rapid data exploration. We demonstrate results on a wide range of datasets from different domains with varying characteristics, and report on expert reviews and a case study using student enrollment and degree data with assistant deans at a major public university.

research-article Share on Introduction to Online Learning at Scale Editors: Benjamin B. Bederson View Profile , Daniel M. Russell View Profile , Scott Klemmer View Profile Authors Info & Claims ACM Transactions on Computer-Human InteractionVolume 22Issue 2April 2015 Article No.: 5pp 1–3https://doi.org/10.1145/2737794Published:15 April 2015Publication History 6citation477DownloadsMetricsTotal Citations6Total Downloads477Last 12 Months28Last 6 weeks2 Get Citation AlertsNew Citation Alert added!This alert has been successfully added and will be sent to:You will be notified whenever a record that you have chosen has been cited.To manage your alert preferences, click on the button below.Manage my Alerts New Citation Alert!Please log in to your account Save to BinderSave to BinderCreate a New BinderNameCancelCreateExport CitationPublisher SiteGet Access

The wealth of resources online has empowered individuals and businesses with an unprecedented volume of information to aid in decision making processes. However, finding the many details needed for a non-trivial decision can be very labor-intensive. We present AskSheet, a general system that leverages human computation to acquire the inputs to an arbitrary decision spreadsheet provided by the user. The key innovation is the ability to prioritize the inputs by analyzing the user's spreadsheet formulas to calculate value of information for each of the blanks. By directing workers to find the details that impact the end result most, it results in a conclusive decision without gathering all of the inputs.

We use visual analytics to explore participation in five MOOCs at the University of Maryland. In some of these courses, our analysis reveals interesting clustering patterns of student behavior. For other courses, visualizations provide "color" to help us better understand the range of student behavior.

An enormous potential exists for solving certain classes of computational problems through rich collaboration among crowds of humans supported by computers. Solutions to these problems used to involve human professionals, who are expensive to hire or difficult to find. Despite significant advances, fully automatic systems still have much room for improvement. Recent research has involved recruiting large crowds of skilled humans (“crowdsourcing”), but crowdsourcing solutions are still restricted by the availability of those skilled human participants. With translation, for example, professional translators incur a high cost and are not always available; machine translation systems have been greatly improved recently but still can only provide passable translation; and crowdsourced translation is limited by the availability of bilingual humans. This article describes crowdsourced monolingual translation, where monolingual translation is translation performed by monolingual people. Crowdsourced monolingual translation is a collaborative form of translation performed by two crowds of people who speak the source or the target language, respectively, with machine translation as the mediating device. This article describes a general protocol to handle crowdsourced monolingual translation and analyzes three systems that implemented the protocol. These systems were studied in various settings and were found to supply significant improvement in quality over both machine translation and monolingual editing of machine translation output (“postediting”).

Targeted paraphrasing is a new approach to the problem of obtaining cost-effective, reasonable quality translation, which makes use of simple and inexpensive human computations by monolingual speakers in combination with machine translation. The key insight behind the process is that it is possible to spot likely translation errors with only monolingual knowledge of the target language, and it is possible to generate alternative ways to say the same thing (i.e., paraphrases) with only monolingual knowledge of the source language. Formal evaluation demonstrates that this approach can yield substantial improvements in translation quality, and the idea has been integrated into a broader framework for monolingual collaborative translation that produces fully accurate, fully fluent translations for a majority of sentences in a real-world translation task, with no involvement of human bilingual speakers.

Today’s mobile devices are equipped with a variety of tools that enable users to capture and share their daily experiences. However, designing authoring tools that effectively integrate the discrete media-capture components of mobile devices to enable rich expression---especially by children---remains a challenge. Evaluating such tools authentically, as they are being used in-situ, can be even more challenging. We detail a long-term, multimethod study on the use of StoryKit, a mobile storytelling application. By taking advantage of a public distribution channel, we were able to evaluate StoryKit’s use on a scale beyond that usually found in lab settings or limited field trials. Our results show that StoryKit’s simple but well-integrated interface attracted a high number of dedicated users in education contexts at all levels, including children with special learning needs. We include a discussion of the challenges and opportunities that similar “in the wild” studies hold for HCI research.

In this paper, we report our experience deploying the MonoTrans Widgets system in a public setting. Our work follows a line of crowd-sourced monolingual translation systems, and it is the first attempt to deploy such a system "in the wild". The results are promising, but we also found out that simultaneously drawing from multiple crowds with different expertise and sizes poses unique problems in the design of such crowd-sourcing systems.

In this paper, we present MonoTrans2, a new user interface to support monolingual translation; that is, translation by people who speak only the source or target language, but not both. Compared to previous systems, MonoTrans2 supports multiple edits in parallel, and shorter tasks with less translation context. In an experiment translating children's books, we show that MonoTrans2 is able to substantially close the gap between machine translation and human bilingual translations. The percentage of sentences rated 5 out of 5 for fluency and adequacy by both bilingual evaluators in our study increased from 10% for Google Translate output to 68% for MonoTrans2.

The rapid growth of human computation within research and industry has produced many novel ideas aimed at organizing web users to do great things. However, the growth is not adequately supported by a framework with which to understand each new system in the context of the old. We classify human computation systems to help identify parallels between different systems and reveal "holes" in the existing work as opportunities for new research. Since human computation is often confused with "crowdsourcing" and other terms, we explore the position of human computation with respect to these related topics.

Contextual help is effective for learning how to use GUIs by showing instructions and highlights on the actual interface rather than in a separate viewer. However, end-users and third-party tech support typically cannot create contextual help to assist other users because it requires programming skill and source code access. We present a creation tool for contextual help that allows users to apply common computer skills-taking screenshots and writing simple scripts. We perform pixel analysis on screenshots to make this tool applicable to a wide range of applications and platforms without source code access. We evaluated the tool's usability with three groups of participants: developers, in-structors, and tech support. We further validated the applicability of our tool with 60 real tasks supported by the tech support of a university campus.

Zoomable user interfaces (ZUIs) have received a significant amount of attention in the 18 years since they were introduced. They have enjoyed some success, and elements of ZUIs are widely used in computers today, although the grand vision of a zoomable desktop has not materialised. This paper describes the premise and promise of ZUIs along with their challenges. It describes design guidelines, and offers a cautionary tale about research and innovation.

Zoomable User Interfaces (ZUIs), now over 15 years old, are an interface approach for searching and browsing visual information spatially. ZUIs organize information on a large flat surface with animated transitions to show movement through space. They have been the subject of research in the areas of implementation, design approach, efficacy, and application. And now they are commercially available in a number of domains. But at the same time, they are not used as widely as early researchers envisioned.

Informal educational experiences with grandparents and other older adults can be an important component of children's education, especially in circumstances where high quality educational services and facilities are not readily available. Mobile devices offer unique capabilities to support such interactions. We report on an ongoing participatory design project with an intergenerational design group to create mobile applications for reading and editing books, or even creating all new stories on an Apple iPhone.

Supporting one-handed thumb operation of touchscreen-based mobile devices presents a challenging tradeoff between visual expressivity and ease of interaction. ThumbSpace and Shift---two new application-independent, software-based interaction techniques---address this tradeoff in significantly different ways. ThumbSpace addresses distant objects while Shift addresses small object occlusion. We present two extensive, comparative user studies. The first compares ThumbSpace and Shift to peripheral hardware (directional pad and scrollwheel) and direct touchscreen input for selecting objects while standing and walking. The data favored the Shift design overall, but suggested ThumbSpace is promising for distant objects. Our second study examines the benefits and learnability of combining Shift and ThumbSpace on a device with a larger screen (3.5"). We found their combined use offered users better overall speed and accuracy in hitting small targets (3.6 mm2) than using either method alone.

Displaying scanned book pages in a web browser is difficult, due to an array of characteristics of the common user's configuration that compound to yield text that is degraded and illegibly small. For books which contain only text, this can often be solved by using OCR or manual transcription to extract and present the text alone, or by magnifying the page and presenting it in a scrolling panel. Books with rich illustrations, especially children's picture books, present a greater challenge because their enjoyment is dependent on reading the text in the context of the full page with its illustrations. We have created two novel prototypes for solving this problem by magnifying just the text, without magnifying the entire page. We present the results of a user study of these techniques. Users found our prototypes to be more effective than the dominant interface type for reading this kind of material and, in some cases, even preferable to the physical book itself.

The vision of ubiquitous digital photos has arrived. Yet, despite their broad popularity, significant shortfalls remain in the tools used to manage them. We believe that with a bit more creativity and effort, the photo industry can solve many of these problems, offering tools which better support accurate, rapid, and safe shared annotations with comfortable and efficient browsing and search. In this article, we review a number of projects of ours and others on interfaces for photo management. We describe the problems that we see in existing tools and our vision for improving them.

Managing a large number of digital photos is a challenging task for casual users. Personal photos often don’t have rich metadata, or additional information associated with them. However, available metadata can play a crucial role in managing photos. Labeling the semantic content of photos (i.e., annotating them), can increase the amount of metadata and facilitate efficient management. However, manual annotation is tedious and labor intensive while automatic metadata extraction techniques often generate inaccurate and irrelevant results. This paper describes a semi-automatic annotation strategy that takes advantage of human and computer strengths. The semi-automatic approach enables users to efficiently update automatically obtained metadata interactively and incrementally. Even though automatically identified metadata are compromised with inaccurate recognition errors, the process of correcting inaccurate information can be faster and easier than manually adding new metadata from scratch. In this paper, we introduce two photo clustering algorithms for generating meaningful photo groups: (1) Hierarchical event clustering; and (2) Clothing based person recognition, which assumes that people who wear similar clothing and appear in photos taken in one day are very likely to be the same person. To explore our semi-automatic strategies, we designed and implemented a prototype called SAPHARI (Semi-Automatic PHoto Annotation and Recognition Interface). The prototype provides an annotation framework which focuses on making bulk annotations on automatically identified photo groups. The prototype automatically creates photo clusters based on events, people, and file metadata so that users can easily bulk annotation photos. We performed a series of user studies to investigate the effectiveness and usability of the semi-automatic annotation techniques when applied to personal photo collections. The results show that users were able to make annotations significantly faster with event clustering using SAPHARI. We also found that users clearly preferred the semi-automatic approaches.

Abstract Elementary‐age children (ages 6–11) are among the largest user groups of computers and the Internet. Therefore, it is important to design searching and browsing tools that support them. However, many interfaces for children do not consider their skills and preferences. Children are capable of creating Boolean queries using category browsers, but have difficulty with the hierarchies used in many category‐browsing interfaces because different branches of the hierarchy must be navigated sequentially and top‐level categories are often too abstract for them to understand. Based on previous research, the authors believe using a flat category structure, where only leaf‐level categories are available and can be viewed simultaneously, might better support children. However, this design introduces many more items on the screen and the need for paging or scrolling, all potential usability problems. To evaluate these tradeoffs, the authors conducted two studies with children searching and browsing using two types of category browsers in the International Children's Digital Library. Their results suggest that a flat, simultaneous interface provides advantages over a hierarchical, sequential interface for children in both Boolean searching and casual browsing. These results add to our understanding of children's searching and browsing skills and preferences, and possibly serve as guidelines for other children's interface designers.

Elementary-age children (ages 6--11) are among the largest user groups of computers and the Internet, so it is important to design searching and browsing tools to support them. However, many such tools do not consider their skills and preferences. In this paper, we present the design rationale and process for creating the searching and browsing tool for the International Children's Digital Library (ICDL), the results from a user study evaluating it, and the challenges and possibilities it presents for other children's interfaces.

This paper describes a two-phase study conducted to determine optimal target sizes for one-handed thumb use of mobile handheld devices equipped with a touch-sensitive screen. Similar studies have provided recommendations for target sizes when using a mobile device with two hands plus a stylus, and interacting with a desktop-sized display with an index finger, but never for thumbs when holding a small device in a single hand. The first phase explored the required target size for single-target (discrete) pointing tasks, such as activating buttons, radio buttons or checkboxes. The second phase investigated optimal sizes for widgets used for tasks that involve a sequence of taps (serial), such as text entry. Since holding a device in one hand constrains thumb movement, we varied target positions to determine if performance depended on screen location. The results showed that while speed generally improved as targets grew, there were no significant differences in error rate between target sizes =9.6 mm in discrete tasks and targets =7.7 mm in serial tasks. Along with subjective ratings and the findings on hit response variability, we found that target size of 9.2 mm for discrete tasks and targets of 9.6 mm for serial tasks should be sufficiently large for one-handed thumb use on touchscreen-based handhelds without degrading performance and preference.

We describe the design and use of a system facilitating the sharing of calendar information between remotely located, multi-generational family members. Most previous work in this area involves software enabling younger family members to monitor their parents. We have found, however, that older adults are equally if not more interested in the activities of younger family members. The major obstacle preventing them from participating in information sharing is the technology itself. Therefore, we developed a multi-layered interface approach that offers simple interaction to older users. In our system, users can choose to enter information into a computerized calendar or write it by hand on digital paper calendars. All of the information is automatically shared among everyone in the distributed family. By making the interface more accessible to older users, we promote symmetrical sharing of information among both older and younger family members. We present our participatory design process, describe the user interface, and report on an exploratory field study in three households of an extended family.

Despite extensive research, it is still difficult to produce effective interactive layouts for large graphs. Dense layout and occlusion make food webs, ontologies, and social networks difficult to understand and interact with. We propose a new interactive Visual Analytics component called TreePlus that is based on a tree-style layout. TreePlus reveals the missing graph structure with visualization and interaction while maintaining good readability. To support exploration of the local structure of the graph and gathering of information from the extensive reading of labels, we use a guiding metaphor of "Plant a seed and watch it grow." It allows users to start with a node and expand the graph as needed, which complements the classic overview techniques that can be effective at (but often limited to) revealing clusters. We describe our design goals, describe the interface, and report on a controlled user study with 28 participants comparing TreePlus with a traditional graph interface for six tasks. In general, the advantage of TreePlus over the traditional interface increased as the density of the displayed data increased. Participants also reported higher levels of confidence in their answers with TreePlus and most of them preferred TreePlus.

We present two interfaces to support one-handed thumb use for PDAs and cell phones. Both use Scalable User Interface (ScUI) techniques to support multiple devices with different resolutions and aspect ratios. The designs use variations of zooming interface techniques to provide multiple views of application data: AppLens uses tabular fisheye to access nine applications, while LaunchTile uses pure zoom to access thirty-six applications. We introduce two sets of thumb gestures, each representing different philosophies for one-handed interaction. We conducted two studies to evaluate our designs. In the first study, we explored whether users could learn and execute the AppLens gesture set with minimal training. Participants performed more accurately and efficiently using gestures for directional navigation than using gestures for object interaction. In the second study, we gathered user reactions to each interface, as well as comparative preferences. With minimal exposure to each design, most users favored AppLens's tabular fisheye interface.

Biodiversity databases have recently become widely available to the public and to other researchers. To retrieve information from these resources, users must understand the underlying data schemas even though they often are not content experts. Many other domains share this problem. We developed an interface, TaxonTree, to visualize the taxonomic hierarchy of animal names. We applied integrated searching and browsing so that users need not have complete knowledge either of appropriate keywords or the organization of the data. Our qualitative user study of TaxonTree in an undergraduate course is the first to describe usage patterns in the biodiversity domain. We found that tree-based interaction and visualization aided users ' understanding of the data. Most users approached biodiversity data by browsing, using common, general knowledge rather than the scientific keyword expertise necessary to search using traditional interfaces. Users with different levels of interest in the domain had different interaction preferences.

Small devices such as Palm and Pocket PC have gained wide popularity with the advance and affordability of mobile technologies. Image browsers are among popular software applications on small devices. The limitations introduced by these devices such as screen resolution, processing power and storage impose a challenge for multimedia applications designed for larger displays to adapt to small screens. For an image browser, layout of images and navigation between them are critical factors of the users' experience.Motivated by these challenges, we developed Pocket PhotoMesa: an image browser for the pocket pc that employs quantum strip Treemaps for laying out images and Zoomable User Interfaces for navigation. In this paper, we discuss the development of Pocket PhotoMesa and we describe a usability study comparing the performance and users' experience using Pocket PhotoMesa and ACDSee image browser (a current commercial offering) for the Pocket PC.

The SlideBar is a physical linear input device for absolute position control of 1° of freedom, consisting of a physical slider with a graspable knob positioned near or attached to the keyboard. Its range of motion is directly mapped to a one dimensional input widget such as a scrollbar. The SlideBar provides absolute position control in one dimension, is usable in the non-dominant hand in conjunction with a pointing device, and offers constrained passive haptic feedback. These characteristics make the device appropriate for the common class of tasks characterized by one-dimensional input and constrained range of operation. An empirical study of three devices (SlideBar, mouse controlled scrollbar, and mousewheel) shows that for common scrolling tasks, the SlideBar has a significant advantage over a standard mouse controlled scrollbar in user preference. In addition, users tended to prefer it over the mousewheel (without statistical significance).

Abstract Motivation: Despite substantial efforts to develop and populate the back-ends of biological databases, front-ends to these systems often rely on taxonomic expertise. This research applies techniques from human–computer interaction research to the biodiversity domain. Results: We developed an interactive node-link tool, TaxonTree, illustrating the value of a carefully designed interaction model, animation, and integrated searching and browsing towards retrieval of biological names and other information. Users tested the tool using a new, large integrated dataset of animal names with phylogenetic-based and classification-based tree structures. These techniques also translated well for a tool, DoubleTree, to allow comparison of trees using coupled interaction. Our approaches will be useful not only for biological data but as general portal interfaces. Availability: Working versions of TaxonTree and DoubleTree and video demonstrations of DoubleTree are available at http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/biodiversity Supplementary information: All datasets and folk tree illustration are available at http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/biodiversity

Abstract Collaborating in small groups can be beneficial to children's learning and socializing. However, there is currently little computer support for children's collaborative activities. This was our motivation for building KidPad, a collaborative storytelling tool for children. KidPad provides children with drawing, typing, and hyperlinking capabilities in a large, two‐dimensional canvas. It supports collaboration by accepting input from multiple mice. In building KidPad, we developed solutions to problems common to all single‐display groupware applications for children: using an intuitive user interface metaphor that can support collaboration, and obtaining input from multiple devices. We addressed the need for an appropriate user interface metaphor by using the local tools metaphor. In developing the concept of local tools we learned about the importance of addressing the issue of global modes. Our solution for obtaining input from multiple devices was MID, an architecture written in Java. In building MID, we learned about the importance of building flexible architectures that can support a wide range of applications and devices in a consistent manner, and that are easy to extend and use by programmers. This paper describes our work on local tools and MID in the context of building KidPad, and aims to provide developers with valuable insights into how to develop collaborative applications for children. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Calendar applications for small handheld devices are growing in popularity. This led us to develop DateLens, a novel calendar interface for PDAs designed to support complex tasks. It uses a fisheye representation coupled with compact overviews to give the big picture in a small space. The interface also gives users control over the visible time period, as well as supporting integrated search to discover patterns and outliers. Designed with device scalability in mind, DateLens currently runs on desktop computers as well as PDAs. Two user studies were conducted to examine the viability of DateLens as a replacement for traditional calendar visualizations. In the first study, non-PDA users performed complex tasks significantly faster with DateLens than with the Microsoft Pocket PC 2002 TM calendar (using a PDA emulator). In addition, they rated DateLens as being easier to use than the default calendar application for a majority of the tasks. In the second study, the participants were expert Pocket PC users and the software was run on their own devices. Again, DateLens performed significantly faster for the complex tasks, and there were satisfaction differences favoring each calendar for different kinds of tasks. From these studies, it is clear that DateLens is superior for more complex tasks such as those associated with longer time periods. For daily event tracking, users familiar with the default Pocket PC calendar strongly preferred its daily view and behaviors.

Several experiments by psychologists and human factors researchers have shown that when young children execute pointing tasks, they perform at levels below older children and adults. However, these experiments have not provided user interface designers with an understanding of the severity or the nature of the difficulties young children have when using input devices. To address this need, we conducted a study to gain a better understanding of 4 and 5 year-old children's use of mice. We compared the performance of thirteen 4 year-olds, thirteen 5 year-olds and thirteen young adults in point-and-click tasks. Plots of the paths taken by the participants show severe differences between adults' and preschool children's ability to control the mouse. We were not surprised then to find age had a significant effect on accuracy, target reentry, and efficiency. We also found that target size had a significant effect on accuracy and target reentry. Measuring movement time at four different times (first entering target, last entering target, pressing button, releasing button) yielded the result that Fitts' law models children well only up to the time they first enter the target. Overall, we found that the difference between the performance of children and adults was large enough to warrant user interface interactions designed specifically for preschool children. The results additionally suggest that children need the most help once they get close to targets.

Here, we analyze toolkit designs for building graphical applications with rich user interfaces, comparing polylithic and monolithic toolkit-based solutions. Polylithic toolkits encourage extension by composition and follow a design philosophy similar to 3D scene graphs supported by toolkits including JavaSD and Openlnventor. Monolithic toolkits, on the other hand, encourage extension by inheritance, and are more akin to 2D graphical user interface toolkits such as Swing or MFC. We describe Jazz (a polylithic toolkit) and Piccolo (a monolithic toolkit), each of which we built to support interactive 2D structured graphics applications in general, and zoomable user interface applications in particular. We examine the trade offs of each approach in terms of performance, memory requirements, and programmability. We conclude that a polylithic approach is most suitable for toolkit builders, visual design software where code is automatically generated, and application builders where there is much customization of the toolkit. Correspondingly, we find that monolithic approaches appear to be best for application builders where there is not much customization of the toolkit.

This paper presents a case study of the first three months of a new intergenerational design team with children ages 10--13. It discusses the research and design methods used for working with children of this age group, the challenges and opportunities of starting a new team, and the lessons learned.

With recent troubles in U.S. elections, there has been a nationwide push to update voting systems. Municipalities are investing heavily in electronic voting systems, many of which use a touch screen. These systems offer the promise of faster and more accurate voting, but the current reality is that they are fraught with usability and systemic problems. This paper surveys issues relating to usability of electronic voting systems and reports on a series of studies, including one with 415 voters using new systems that the State of Maryland purchased. Our analysis shows these systems work well, but have several problems, and many voters have concerns about them.

We describe a new method for use in the process of co-designing technologies with users called technology probes. Technology probes are simple, flexible, adaptable technologies with three interdisciplinary goals: the social science goal of understanding the needs and desires of users in a real-world setting, the engineering goal of field-testing the technology, and the design goal of inspiring users and researchers to think about new technologies. We present the results of designing and deploying two technology probes, the messageProbe and the videoProbe, with diverse families in France, Sweden, and the U.S. We conclude with our plans for creating new technologies for and with families based on our experiences.

Thumbnail images provide users of image retrieval and browsing systems with a method for quickly scanning large numbers of images. Recognizing the objects in an image is important in many retrieval tasks, but thumbnails generated by shrinking the original image often render objects illegible. We study the ability of computer vision systems to detect key components of images so that automated cropping, prior to shrinking, can render objects more recognizable. We evaluate automatic cropping techniques 1) based on a general method that detects salient portions of images, and 2) based on automatic face detection. Our user study shows that these methods result in small thumbnails that are substantially more recognizable and easier to find in the context of visual search.

Reading books plays an important role in children's cognitive and social development. However, many children do not have access to diverse collections of books due to the limited resources of their community libraries. We have begun to address this issue by creating a large-scale digital archive of children's books, the International Children's Digital Library (ICDL). In this paper we discuss our initial efforts in building the ICDL, concentrating on the design of innovative digital book readers.

We present OZONE (Zoomable Ontology Navigator), for searching and browsing ontological information. OZONE visualizes query conditions and provides interactive, guided browsing for DAML (DARPA Agent Markup Language) ontologies on the Web. To visually represent objects in DAML, we define a visual model for its classes, properties and relationships between them. Properties can be expanded into classes for query refinement. The visual query can be formulated incrementally as users explore class and property structures interactively. Zoomable interface techniques are employed for effective navigation and usability.

The literature on information visualization establishes the usability of interfaces with an overview of the information space, but for zoomable user interfaces, results are mixed. We compare zoomable user interfaces with and without an overview to understand the navigation patterns and usability of these interfaces. Thirty-two subjects solved navigation and browsing tasks on two maps. We found no difference between interfaces in subjects' ability to solve tasks correctly. Eighty percent of the subjects preferred the interface with an overview, stating that it supported navigation and helped keep track of their position on the map. However, subjects were faster with the interface without an overview when using one of the two maps. We conjecture that this difference was due to the organization of that map in multiple levels, which rendered the overview unnecessary by providing richer navigation cues through semantic zooming. The combination of that map and the interface without an overview also improved subjects' recall of objects on the map. Subjects who switched between the overview and the detail windows used more time, suggesting that integration of overview and detail windows adds complexity and requires additional mental and motor effort.

Treemaps, a space-filling method for visualizing large hierarchical data sets, are receiving increasing attention. Several algorithms have been previously proposed to create more useful displays by controlling the aspect ratios of the rectangles that make up a treemap. While these algorithms do improve visibility of small items in a single layout, they introduce instability over time in the display of dynamically changing data, fail to preserve order of the underlying data, and create layouts that are difficult to visually search. In addition, continuous treemap algorithms are not suitable for displaying fixed-sized objects within them, such as images.This paper introduces a new "strip" treemap algorithm which addresses these shortcomings, and analyzes other "pivot" algorithms we recently developed showing the trade-offs between them. These ordered treemap algorithms ensure that items near each other in the given order will be near each other in the treemap layout. Using experimental evidence from Monte Carlo trials and from actual stock market data, we show that, compared to other layout algorithms, ordered treemaps are more stable, while maintaining relatively favorable aspect ratios of the constituent rectangles. A user study with 20 participants clarifies the human performance benefits of the new algorithms. Finally, we present quantum treemap algorithms, which modify the layout of the continuous treemap algorithms to generate rectangles that are integral multiples of an input object size. The quantum treemap algorithm has been applied to PhotoMesa, an application that supports browsing of large numbers of images.

PhotoMesa is a zoomable image browser that uses a novel treemap algorithm to present large numbers of images grouped by directory, or other available metadata. It uses a new interaction technique for zoomable user interfaces designed for novices and family use that makes it straightforward to navigate through the space of images, and impossible to get lost.PhotoMesa groups images using one of two new algorithms that lay out groups of objects in a 2D space-filling manner. Quantum treemaps are designed for laying out images or other objects of indivisible (quantum) size. They are a variation on existing treemap algorithms in that they guarantee that every generated rectangle will have a width and height that are an integral multiple of an input object size. Bubblemaps also fill space with groups of quantum-sized objects, but generate non-rectangular blobs, and utilize space more efficiently.

We describe the iterative design of two collaborative storytelling technologies for young children, KidPad and the Klump. We focus on the idea of designing interfaces to subtly encourage collaboration so that children are invited to discover the added benefits of working together. This idea has been motivated by our experiences of using early versions of our technologies in schools in Sweden and the UK. We compare the approach of encouraging collaboration with other approaches to synchronizing shared interfaces. We describe how we have revised the technologies to encourage collaboration and to reflect design suggestions made by the children themselves.

Article Fisheye menus Share on Author: Benjamin B. Bederson Human-Computer Interaction Lab, Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, Computer Science Department, University of Maryland, College Park, MD Human-Computer Interaction Lab, Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, Computer Science Department, University of Maryland, College Park, MDView Profile Authors Info & Claims UIST '00: Proceedings of the 13th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technologyNovember 2000 Pages 217–225https://doi.org/10.1145/354401.354782Published:01 November 2000 142citation2,375DownloadsMetricsTotal Citations142Total Downloads2,375Last 12 Months66Last 6 weeks16 Get Citation AlertsNew Citation Alert added!This alert has been successfully added and will be sent to:You will be notified whenever a record that you have chosen has been cited.To manage your alert preferences, click on the button below.Manage my AlertsNew Citation Alert!Please log in to your account Save to BinderSave to BinderCreate a New BinderNameCancelCreateExport CitationPublisher SiteGet Access

Abstract : In this paper the authors investigate the use of scene graphs as a general approach for implementing two-dimensional (2D) graphical applications, and in particular Zoomable User Interfaces (ZUIs). Scene graphs are typically found in three-dimensional (3D) graphics packages such as Sun's Java3D and SGI's OpenInventor. They have not been widely adopted by 2D graphical user interface toolkits. To explore the effectiveness of scene graph techniques, the authors have developed Jazz, a general-purpose 2D scene graph toolkit. Jazz is implemented in Java using Java2D, and runs on all platforms that support Java 2. This paper describes Jazz and the lessons we learned using Jazz for ZUIs. It also discusses how 2D scene graphs can be applied to other application areas. (5 figures, 27 refs.)

We introduce a model for supporting collaborative work between people that are physically close to each other. We call this model Single Display Groupware (SDG). In this paper, we describe the model, comparing it to more traditional remote collaboration, We describe the requirements that SDG places on computer technology, and our understanding of the benefits and costs of SDG systems. Finally, we describe a prototype SDG system that we built and the results of a usability test we ran with 60 elementary school children.

No abstract available.

We are investigating a novel user interface paradigm based on zooming, in which users are presented with a zooming view of a huge planar information surface. We have developed a system called Pad++ to explore this approach. The implementation of Pad++ is related to real-time 3D graphics systems and to 2D windowing systems. However, the zooming nature of Pad++ requires new approaches to rendering, screen management, and spatial indexing. In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of the Pad++ engine, focusing in particular on rendering and data structure issues. Our goal is to present useful techniques that can be adopted in other real-time graphical systems, and also to discuss how 2D zooming systems differ from other graphical systems. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Article KidPad: a design collaboration between children, technologists, and educators Share on Authors: Allison Druin Computer Science Department/College of Education, University of New Mexico, Farris Engineering Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico Computer Science Department/College of Education, University of New Mexico, Farris Engineering Center, Albuquerque, New MexicoView Profile , Jason Stewart Computer Science Department/College of Education, University of New Mexico, Farris Engineering Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico Computer Science Department/College of Education, University of New Mexico, Farris Engineering Center, Albuquerque, New MexicoView Profile , David Proft Computer Science Department/College of Education, University of New Mexico, Farris Engineering Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico Computer Science Department/College of Education, University of New Mexico, Farris Engineering Center, Albuquerque, New MexicoView Profile , Ben Bederson Computer Science Department/College of Education, University of New Mexico, Farris Engineering Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico Computer Science Department/College of Education, University of New Mexico, Farris Engineering Center, Albuquerque, New MexicoView Profile , Jim Hollan Computer Science Department/College of Education, University of New Mexico, Farris Engineering Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico Computer Science Department/College of Education, University of New Mexico, Farris Engineering Center, Albuquerque, New MexicoView Profile Authors Info & Claims CHI '97: Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human factors in computing systemsMarch 1997 Pages 463–470https://doi.org/10.1145/258549.258866Published:27 March 1997 90citation2,232DownloadsMetricsTotal Citations90Total Downloads2,232Last 12 Months62Last 6 weeks8 Get Citation AlertsNew Citation Alert added!This alert has been successfully added and will be sent to:You will be notified whenever a record that you have chosen has been cited.To manage your alert preferences, click on the button below.Manage my AlertsNew Citation Alert!Please log in to your account Save to BinderSave to BinderCreate a New BinderNameCancelCreateExport CitationPublisher SiteGet Access

No abstract available.

Big information worlds cause big problems for interfaces.There is too much to see.They are hard to navigate.An armada of techniques has been proposed to present the many scales of information needed.Space-scale diagrams provide an analytic framework for much of this work.By representing both a spatial world and its different magnifications explicitly, the diagrams allow the direct visualization and analysis of important scale related issues for interfaces.

We describe the current status of Pad++, a zooming graphical interface that we are exploring as an alternative to traditional window and icon-based approaches to interface design. We discuss the motivation for Pad++, describe the implementation, and present prototype applications. In addition, we introduce an informational physics strategy for interface design and briefly compare it with metaphor-based design strategies.

A visualization goal is to simplify the analysis of large-quantity, numerical data by rendering the data as an image that can be intuitively manipulated. The question the article addresses is whether or not virtual reality techniques are the cure-all to the dilemma of visualizing increasing amounts of data. It determines the usefulness of techniques available today and in the near future that will ease the problem of visualizing complex data. In regards to visualization, the article discusses characteristics of virtual reality systems, data in three-dimensional environments, augmented reality, and virtual reality market opportunities.>

A pan-tilt mechanism is a computer-controlled actuator designed to point an object such as a camera sensor. For applications in active vision, a pan-tilt mechanism should be accurate, fast, small, inexpensive and have low power requirements. The authors have designed and constructed a new type of actuator meeting these requirements, which incorporates both pan and tilt into a single, two-degree-of-freedom device. The spherical pointing motor (SPM) consists of three orthogonal motor windings in a permanent magnetic field, configured to move a small camera mounted on a gimbal. It is an absolute positioning device and is run open-loop. The SPM is capable of panning and tilting a load of 15 grams, for example a CCD image sensor, at rotational velocities of several hundred degrees per second with a repeatability of .15/spl deg/. The authors have also built a miniature camera consisting of a single CCD sensor chip and miniature lens assembly that fits on the rotor of this motor. In this paper, the authors discuss the theory of the SPM, which includes its basic electromagnetic principles, and derive the relationship between applied currents and resultant motor position. The authors present an automatic calibration procedure and discuss open- and closed-loop control strategies. Finally, the authors present the physical characteristics and results of their prototype.>

The authors have developed a prototype miniaturized active vision system whose sensor architecture is based on a logarithmically structured space-variant pixel geometry. This system integrates a CCD sensor, miniature pan-tilt actuator, controller, general purpose processors and display. Due to the ability of space-variant sensors to cover large work-spaces yet provide high acuity with an extremely small number of pixels, space-variant active vision system architectures provide the potential for radical reductions in system size and cost. The authors describe a prototype space-variant active vision system which performs tasks such as moving object tracking and functions as a video telephone. The potential application domains for systems of this type include vision systems for mobile robots and robot manipulators, traffic monitoring systems, security and surveillance, and consumer video communications.>

The authors investigate two small robotic pan-tilt devices that differ from the conventional motor-on-motor design. The Platform Pantilt is based on a parallel linkage actuated by two small DC linear stepper motors. The spherical pointing motor (SPM) is a two-axis actuator built using three orthogonal motor windings. The SPM is controlled open-loop and is capable of panning and tilting a load of 15 grams, for example a CCD image sensor, at rotational velocities up to 600 degrees /sec. It is 4*5*6 cm and weight 160 grams. A subminiature camera consisting of a single CCD sensor chip and a lens assembly that fits on the rotor of this motor have also been built.>

Presents a robotic video telephone application of the Cortex-1 miniaturized space-variant active vision system. The embedded processor architecture of Cortex-1 enables it to implement a variety of functions not found in conventional video telephones, for example the camera tracks moving users with its pantilt mechanism. The authors also report an analog channel coding scheme to transmit logmap video images through band-limited analog channels such as the public switched telephone network (PSTN). The transmitter divides the frequency band into 768 channels, and modulates two values in quadrature on each channel. Some channels are reserved for special calibration signals enabling the receiver to recover both the phase and magnitude of the transmitted signal. The remaining channels carry pixel intensities.>