We present a new user interface for the common morphing tool found in animation packages. Previously this interface has been based on the features of the underlying algorithm, with little regard to how artists actually use this feature. By careful design and analysis of a user study, we were able to design a novel user interface that greatly enhances the usability of the morphing tool for animation. Our improvements come in three areas: First, we replicate the artists' own ad-hoc annotation language and interaction techniques in the user interface. Second, we make the user experience more fluid and editable, to support exploration and iteration. Finally, we use the artists' morph expectations to redesign the morph algorithm itself to be more predictable. We conclude by discussing how our user study technique could help other interface design tasks.

We describe some common problems experienced by users of computer-based text chat, and show how many of these problems relate to the loss of timing-specific information. We suggest that thinking of chat as a real-time streaming media data type, with status and channel indicators, might solve some of these problems. We then present a number of alternative chat interfaces along with results from user studies comparing and contrasting them both with each other and with the standard chat interface. These studies show some potential, but indicate that more work needs to be done.