User Interface Races:
Sporting Competition for Power Users
Head, Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory
Department of Computer Science
Draft: October 16, 1988
Published as:
Competition
can be a powerful stimulant to high performance. Car or boat races, rodeos, tennis matches,
and chess tournaments are lively sporting events that encourage high levels of
skill, training, mastery, and accomplishment.
Marathons and 100-yard dashes focus on physical ability, while chess
tournaments and spelling bees are intellectually oriented. Yacht racing or rodeo events combine
intellectual, physical, and technological challenges. In almost every field there are acknowledged
masters who have won the admiration of their colleagues by facing the
competition and winning.
The
computer field has it share of challenges in terms of marketing competition and
the race to build the fastest supercomputer.
A more refined contest is the Annual Computer Chess Championship
sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery. Supporters assert that these are good fun,
good publicity, and even that such contests help advance
research goals.
I
propose user interface races for the same reasons: fun, publicity, and
the advancement of user interface research.
I think that it would be a nice addition to computer conferences and
expos if there were public user interface races. The media always like a good contest, the
participants would have fun and win prizes, and I suggest that we would all
learn a lot about what makes for successful user interfaces.
I
have tried a user interface race with my students in an advanced Computer
Science Department seminar on User Interface Design at the
1)
type in an 81 word quote from a textbook.
2)
put the words in alphabetical order with one word per line, except duplicate
words should be repeated on the same line.
3)
repeat part (2)
The
times ranged from 1 min 48 secs to 6 min 56 secs for part (1), basically demonstrating a moderate three
to one ratio in typing speed. For part
(2) there was an enormous range from 3 min 8 secs to
49 min 30 secs revealing a dramatic difference in
tools and skill. Finally, for part (3)
the range was from 2 min 30 secs to 47 min 3 secs, but more than half of the users cut their times by
40%.
This
data was the basis for a lively discussion about which strategies and tools
were most efficient, predictions of performance as a function to text length,
guesses about the impact of using a mouse, arguments about which macro
facilities would be best, and discussions about screen sizes, fonts, multiple
windows, pointing devices, response times, display rates, function keys,
keyboard design, etc. We had several conjectures
about what facilities should be added to word processors to speed this
task. The student with the fastest time
for part (3) received a box of candies and in a non-competitive spirit he
offered to share it with the entire class.
Students repeated the three parts once on a
IBM-like command environment and once on a Macintosh-like WYSIWYG enivronment, but no clear winner emerged here. The fastest times were usually with
facilities that permitted macro creation or had some sorting capability.
It
was a successful class exercise, but I would like to encourage user interface
races in more public places with well organized rules, serious prizes, and judges. Adherence to the rules would have to be
checked, penalties would have to applied for errors in
the completed product or for violations in the rules, and there would have to
be appeals processes.
A variety of races
Let
me suggest a few user interface races, recognizing that these can be refined
and that others may come up with more satisfying challenges:
* Word
processor word shuffle: Each participant receives a file containing a
standard text such as a quote, poem, or song.
They can use whatever word processor and hardware they prefer, but
cannot exit to a programming language.
The goal is to put the words in ascending order of length, one word per
line, except that duplicate words appear on the same line. Words of the same length (number of
characters), should be alphabetically arranged.
Penalty of five seconds for each error in placement. The winner is the person who completes the
task in the shortest time.
*
Directory handler descrambler: Each participant receives a hierarchical
directory with 26 files distributed throughout three levels. The files are named AA through ZZ and contain a single line with the name of a person
beginning with A through Z (for example, Albert through Zelda). The goal is to print the full list of names
in alphabetic order, one per line, in the shortest amount of time.
*
Graphic editor gambit: Each participant starts with a blank screen and must
draw a version of the word ONE from the back of the US $1 bill (complete with
shading and shadow) in letters 2 inches high.
(Other possible drawings might the logos of a computer company, famous
pictures such as Robert Indiana's LOVE, a state or city flag, or a technical
drawing such as a circuit diagram or flowchart.) Each contestant gets five minutes and the
judges rate the quality on a 1.0 to 6.0 scale (similar to figure skating).
*
Spreadsheet superstar showdown: Each participant starts with a blank
spreadsheet and constructs a personal budget sheet for a 12 month year (labelled across the top with the full names of the months),
with categories down the side for (INCOME, HOUSING, FOOD, ENTERTAINMENT,
TRANSPORTATION, and SAVINGS). Housing is
a constant cost of $800/month, food costs $16 times the number of days in the
month, entertainment costs $150/month in the spring and fall and $80/month in
winter and summer, transportation costs $240/month except for during August
when a vacation trip increases the amount to $800. Income is fixed at $2,000/month, so you can
compute savings as the difference between expenses and income. Compute row and column sums. Winner is the first to compute the full
spreadsheet.
*Communications
chain competition: This is a form of
team competition. There are equal
numbers of memebers in each team, say 6. The lead participant for each team sends a
message with the time of day and their name on a single line. The next person adds their name and the time. The team passes the growing message around
till all team members have added their name and the time. The winning team is the first to get the full
message sent back to the lead participant.
*
Networking challenge: Another
communications challenge could involve people remotely connected. Each participant gets a modem and
communications software and can send messages to whatever bulletin boards or
mail systems they know asking for people to reply by sending their name and
birthdates. The first person to get 100
responses is the winner. This one has
the danger of clogging some nets so some precautions should be taken.
*
Database query quiz: Prepare a database with two columns and 1000
rows. The first column should contain a
randomly chosen letter (A-Z) and the second column should contain a randomly
chosen (0-9). Participants must produce
a three column database with the first two columns indicating letter-number
pairs that occur more than once and the third column containing the actual
frequency.
*
Charting contest: Produce a labelled bar chart
showing yesterday's minimum, maximum, and average temperatures (three vertical
bars) at 6 cities. The six city names must appear under each bar, the x-axis
must be labelled, and there must be a title
"Yesterday's temperatures".
Of course, organizers
can create their own races, just as gold course designers create their own
challenges to attract players. We all
have to learn about what makes for a good or bad user interface race.
Future fantasy
Who know's maybe someday you'll turn on the television and
hear: This is Howard Cosell
broadcasting from beautiful College Park, Maryland where today we will witness
the finals at the International Word Processing and Spreadsheet Olympics...