This study compared the results of a usability inspection conducted under two separate conditions: An explicit concurrent think-aloud that required explanations and silent working. 12 student analysts inspected two travel websites thinking-aloud and working in silence to produce a set of problem predictions. Overall, the silent working condition produced more initial predictions, but the think-aloud condition yielded a greater proportion of accurate predictions as revealed by falsification testing. The analysts used a range of problem discovery methods with system searching being favoured by the silent working condition and the more active, goal playing discovery method in the think-aloud condition. Thinking-aloud was also associated with a broader spread of knowledge resources.

This paper outlines the design and evaluation of a haptic interface intended to convey non audio-visual directions to an ATM (Automated Teller Machine) user. The haptic user interface is incorporated into an ATM test apparatus on the keypad. The system adopts a well known 'clock face' metaphor and is designed to provide haptic prompts to the user in the form of directions to the current active device, e.g. card reader or cash dispenser. Results of an evaluation of the device are reported that indicate that users with varying levels of visual impairment are able to appropriately detect, distinguish and act on the prompts given to them by the haptic keypad. As well as reporting on how participants performed in the evaluation we also report the results of a semi structured interview designed to find out how acceptable participants found the technology for use on a cash machine. As a further contribution the paper also presents observations on how participants place their hands on the haptic device and compare this with their performance.

We introduce four short films to analyse, display and make sense of mobile experience and mobile context for design purposes. The films were scripted and produced on the basis of diary and interview data looking at mobile texting and mobile social media use. We experience the making of the films as a way to understand, frame and focus the design space for researchers and designers. We reflect on our own process of making these short films and discuss the value of such an approach for mobile interaction design.

To better support usability practice, most usability research focuses on evaluation methods. New ideas in usability research are mostly proposed as new evaluation methods. Many publications describe experiments that compare methods. Comparisons may indicate that some methods have important deficiencies, and thus often advise usability practitioners to prefer a specific method in a particular situation. An expectation persists in human–computer interaction (HCI) that results about evaluation methods should be the standard “unit of contribution” rather than favoring larger units (e.g., usability work as a whole) or smaller ones (e.g., the impact of specific aspects of a method). This article argues that these foci on comparisons and method innovations ignore the reality that usability evaluation methods are loose incomplete collections of resources, which successful practitioners configure, adapt, and complement to match specific project circumstances. Through a review of existing research on methods and resources, resources associated with specific evaluation methods, and ones that can complement existing methods, or be used separately, are identified. Next, a generic classification scheme for evaluation resources is developed, and the scheme is extended with project specific resources that impact the effective use of methods. With these reviews and analyses in place, implications for research, teaching, and practice are derived. Throughout, the article draws on culinary analogies. A recipe is nothing without its ingredients, and just as the quality of what is cooked reflects the quality of its ingredients, so too does the quality of usability work reflect the quality of resources as configured and combined. A method, like a recipe, is at best a guide to action for those adopting approaches to usability that are new to them. As with culinary dishes, HCI needs to focus more on what gets cooked, and how it gets cooked, and not just on how recipes suggest that it could be cooked.

Principled knowledge is a mark of any established disciplinary practice. Its derivation and validation of varies across disciplines, but HCI has tended towards posthoc ('a posteriori') syntheses. We present an alternative a priori approach that is relatively compact and open to inspection. We use John Heskett's position on the origins of design outcomes to derive six metaprinciples for all design processes: receptiveness, expressivity, committedness, credibility, inclusiveness and improvability. Although very abstract, these meta-principles generate critical insights into existing HCI approaches, identifying gaps in suitability and coverage. Practical value is increased by progressive instantiation of meta-principles to create first craft-specific, and ultimately project-specific, Interaction Design principles. A worth-centred approach is adopted to illustrate progressive instantiation towards a framework of adapted and novel HCI approaches. The internal coherence of the six metaprinciples is shown to provide direct effective support for synergistic progressive instantiation.

At the CHI 2006 conference, one of the most talked about papers was Implications for Design [Dourish, P., 2006. Implications for design. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 541–550], which discussed how ethnographic contributions to HCI should be evaluated. It provided a timely context for considering González [González, V., 2006. The Nature of Managing Multiple Activities in the Workplace. Doctoral dissertation in Information and Computer Science, University of California, Irvine] doctoral dissertation on working spheres or engagements. This commentary thus gives equal attention to both, since Dourish’s position is critical to giving González’s a “fair hearing” as an ethnographic contribution for Human–Computer Interaction (HCI). However, to fully explore the implications for designing of working spheres/engagements, we must also adopt an understanding of contemporary design processes which is far richer than design teams being given insights, ideas and recommendations from ethnographers, usability evaluators and other ‘independent’ experts. The primary goal in these processes is to understand user value, business value, and value for non-commercial sponsors. Understanding activities is a secondary concern.

This special issue advances our understanding and exploitation of evaluation methods. It continues to move studies from methods to evaluators and their customers. Thoughtful studies show when and why methods have specific impacts, supporting a focus on ways to better target method use. It is also the case that a focus on how evaluation customers use usability results reveals the fit between methods and customers. However, evaluation and its influence on redesign is not solely a matter of evaluators and designers or developers. Evaluation and redesign are activities within broader system development contexts. Improvements need commitment and support from management. Organizational fervor for user-centered design is key to effective evaluation. Without management support, usability evaluation cannot be well planned, properly conducted, or effectively exploited, leaving usability specialists to just play with the interplay between design and evaluation. This article reviews contributions in this special issue, noting where they address specific factors in the interplay between design and evaluation and identifying factors that require more attention in future research.

We present two studies that have advanced the design of brain-body interfaces for use in the rehabilitation of individuals with severe neurological impairment due to traumatic brain injury. We first developed and evaluated an adaptive cursor acceleration algorithm based on screen areas. This improved the initial design, but was too inflexible to let users make the most of their highly varied abilities. Only some individuals were well served by this adaptive interface. We therefore developed and evaluated an approach based on personalized tile layouts. The rationales for both designs are presented, along with details of their implementation. Evaluation studies for each are reported, which show that we have extended the user population who can use our interfaces relative to previous studies. We have also extended the usable functionality for some of our user group. We thus claim that personalized tiling with discrete acceleration has allowed us to extend the usable functionality of brain-body interfaces to a wider population with traumatic brain injury, thus creating new options for neurorehabiliation.

The delivery of effective multimodal learning requires co-design of a context of delivery to structure the interface between a multimedia product and its broader learning environment. Also managers' cultural experiences in organisations have a profound impact upon learning, so it is important to consider organisational cultural influences. This paper explores the role within context of culture in multimedia delivery. It examines the nature of organisational culture and how this impacts upon the efficacy of multimedia for e-learning success in management education.

Current multimedia design guidelines support the development of effective multisensory interfaces but pay scant attention to the broader context in which educational multimedia is deployed. Here a multimodal approach was used to encourage senior managers to learn a complex management topic. Through co-design of multimedia with a learning context, otherwise inaccessible content was shown to have wide appeal. The aim of this short paper is to show that to confidently design effective multimedia learning experiences, it is necessary to co-design multimedia with a broader learning context.

Brain–body interfaces (BBIs) have been shown through a number of studies to be useful assistive technology devices for recreation and communication. However, severely motor impaired persons with no other means of interacting with their environment have had difficulties using the standard communication software for the Cyberlink, the commercially available BBI device which we used in our studies. We have therefore developed a simple Yes/No program, drawing on a range of design and evaluation approaches from Human–Computer Interaction research. This paper presents the first extensive evaluation of this program. Its evaluation combines formal assessments with observations from users, carers and technology and mental health professionals who are involved in the research. Our conclusions are that the performance of severely impaired individuals cannot be readily separated from that of novice unimpaired users, that worthwhile results can be achieved with the Yes/No program, but at the moment the cost of using a Cyberlink is too high for most assistive technology contexts. However, for severely impaired individuals, Cyberlink use may be the only form of recreation and communication available to them, and thus the current limitations of the technology are acceptable for this user population.

We summarise the results of the first studies to investigate the Cyberlink brain body interface as an assistive technology. Three phases of studies and a contextual inquiry were performed with a range of users. A focus group was formed from brain-injured users with locked-in syndrome who have no other method of communication or control of a computer than the Cyberlink. Versions of a Yes/No program were then created to allow communication and have achieved some success with the focus group. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how this program has been improved and what steps need to be taken to create communication programs for persons with severe motor impairment. As a result of our experiences, we have been able to develop a set of design guidelines for brain-body interface operated Yes/No programs. These are presented and justified on the basis of our experiences. We also raise some general issues for assistive technologies of this nature.

“Cogito, ergo sum”—“ I think, therefore I am” declared the seventeenth century philosopher René Descartes. Descartes’ experience of his thinking confirmed his existence, but almost four centuries on we are today more inclined to the position that “I feel, therefore I am”. In the first Star Trek series, Dr Spock thought feelings were only a detriment to thinking, and as such found it hard to understand human behaviour. Why then has the study of Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) hardly evolved beyond a Dr Spock view of the universe, when feeling is so obviously central to our humanity? If Descartes had been an early pioneer in HCI, he may well have changed his dictum to “I think, therefore this user interface is too hard”. While the real Descartes took thought as the proof of his existence, in most early HCI today it has been seen as potential evidence for usability problems! Interaction nirvana for many usability purists is attained by the transparency of effortless interaction, where problem solving and the attendant thought must be pared down to the absolute minimum (whatever that is). In this puritanical school of usability, we only interact to work and yet perversely we should not work to interact. If instrumental HCI had a Descartes style dictum, it would have to be “I interact, therefore I do”. Why else would anyone interact with a computer, except as part of an honest day's work?

Recent HCI research has produced analytic evaluation techniques which claim to predict potential usability problems for an interactive system.Validation of these methods has involved matching predicted problems against usability problems found during empirical user testing. This paper shows that the matching of predicted and actual problems requires careful attention, and that current approaches lack rigour or generality. Requirements for more rigorous and general matching procedures are presented. A solution to one key requirement is presented: a new report structure for usability problems.It is designed to improve the quality of matches made between usability problems found during empirical user testing and problems predicted by analytic methods. The use of this report format is placed within its design research context, an ongoing project on domain-specific methods for software visualizations.

Abstract This paper begins by examining the ‘classical’ raster‐based composition model, establishing its weakness, and developing a new composition algebra based on line drawing. It then examines the role of composition in the Hierarchical Display Model, demonstrates that the forms of composition assumed in this model are inadequate to deal correctly with the interactions of two‐dimensional representations of three‐dimensional objects, and shows that our composition algebra resolves this difficulty. The composition steps required can be packaged with the use of a single attribute which constrains the apparent order of composition. This attribute is associated with the object which is to be taken ‘out of order’, obviating any needsfor layers.

Apperley and Spence's Lean Cuisine is presented as a notation for early menu design, based on idealised definition of a meneme. This presentation is misleading. Rather, Lean Cuisine addresses one part of the design on the intended conceptual model for a system. Lean Cuisine is unnecessarily constrained by the arbitrary narrowing of what a meneme can be. The meneme and menu rationale behind Lean Cuisine is examined, and rejected in favour of an empirical requirementsbased approach. An architectural context is used to re-present the Lean Cuisine technique as an application modelling abstraction.