CMSC 838G - Spring 2003
Prof Guimbretiere

Advanced usability: People, paper and computer


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The goal of the project is for you to produce a research paper suitable for submission to a conference. Project can be conducted either by yourself or as part of a small team and you have the choice of doing either an implementation or a user study project.

Schedule:

Feb 13: Project proposal;
Mar 6: Bibliography review & presentation to class;
Apr 3: Design and methods & presentation to class;
Apr 24: Preliminary results & presentation to class;
May 15: Final project & presentation to class.

Implementation Projects

Here are some examples of possible projects.

  • Recent research papers [Accot, Winograd] proposed that while most interface are point-and-click, one could design an interface based on crossing 1D features on the screen. Such an interface will be well suited for pen based system. Design a simple application (text editor, photo editor, drawing program) which interface does not use menus or buttons but instead, crossing widgets. The requirements are to specify needs, implement the software, perform a simple usability study, and write a short paper describing what you built, and what the results of the study are.

  • Using the Anoto pen system, design a new, paper based, digital calendar system. With this system, users could enjoy both the advantage of a paper calendar (size, weight...) and of a digital calendar (easy to share between members of a group, easy to send to others...). Users will be managing their appointment on a paper based calendar using the Anoto pen, and this information will be automatically translated to a digital format at synchronization time. The goal of this project is to design a new calendar layout as well as command gesture set to let people manage their appointment on a paper calendar. 

  • Both TabletPC and Anoto advocates are pushing forward the capability of both systems to let users record all annotations made during their everyday life. For this feature to go beyond what paper can offer, users should be able to rapidly search and recover information present in annotations. Design a notes management system that will let users search and explore their notes to retrieve specific annotations.

  • In their CHI'98 paper "Squeeze me, hold me, tilt me! An exploration of manipulative user" Harrison et al. presented a new set of manipulative user interfaces. Following their lead, design a new interface mechanism (either software or software+hardware) letting people flip through a digital document as they will with a paper based documents.

  • One of the great aspect of paper is that it is easy to reorient using one's non-dominant hand [Fitzmaurice 99]. Using a DiamondTouch sensing surface, and a digital pen (such as a Mimio or EBeam pen), implement a digital sketching tool which will let users orient their artwork with their non-dominant hand while drawing with their dominant hand using a pen. For more realism the system can use a front projected digital table.

Empirical Studies

Here are some examples of possible projects..

  • Scrolling is a very important part of current user interfaces. At the last CHI, a paper [Hinckley] presented new finding on users behavior while scrolling. Using this study as a starting point, design a new study showing how combining zooming and scrolling [Igarashi] might help user go through large documents.

  • We will soon be starting the interactive digital table project. One of the key goal of this project is to design a user interface as easy to use as paper. Design and run an ethnographic study showing how people are handling paper during meetings. Key questions will include: What kind of documents do people bring to meetings? How do they annotate them during meetings? How do people interact while working together on a document? How do they move paper around?  What happen to the pieces of paper at the end of the meeting?

  • What is the best way to proofread a documents? There are many parameters involved in proofreading a document: Should one first proofread and then correct, or is it better to proofread and correct a the same time? Should one proofread on the screen or is it better to proofread on paper then make the correction on the screen? While proofreading is it better to use a keyboard or is it better to use a pen? Design a user study that will help us understand better the key factors involved in the proofreading task.

  • Recent research papers [Accot, Winograd] proposed that while most interface are point-and-click, one could design an interface based on crossing 1D features on the screen. Such an interface will be well suited for pen based system. While simple goal crossing tasks are well understood, their composition is not. Propose a model for goal crossing composition and run a user study to validate your analysis.

 

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