The Current Technological Strengths and Weaknesses - Essay Example

1. Current computer systems are increasing required to support communication and collaboration across networks. Critically discuss the current technological strengths and weaknesses. Examine usability design approaches that could be employed when designing future technology to ensure that it supports "communication that is deep, coherent and productive". Erickson T. & Kellogg W.A., Social Translucence: Designing Systems that Support Social Processes, in HCI in the New Millennium, edited by Carroll J.M., 2002, Addison Wesley Illustrate your answer suitably with examples taken from research and personal experience. Supporting communication and collaboration across networks is really one of the most important applications of the contemporary computer systems. But due to the fact that interface of most computer systems has limited range of expressions, users has no opportunities to interact with them as with real people. Current tools, such as email, mailing lists, chat rooms, discussion phorums have substantial shortcomings. Their interface is designed only for delivery of simple ideas, without emotions, gestures or face expressions. Of course people can use so-called smiles (primitive pictures with emotions, such as smile or sadness), but every system has its own predefined set of smiles and does not allow user to insert custom image instantly. At the same time in a physical world people can easily express emotions in a discussion over a meal or a drink, meeting up at a conference or having a special offer pointed out to you by behaviour of a stranger. Social information in a physical world is transmitted on many levels. Most of these levels are lost in digital environment, hence socially blind. Therefore need of expression of social information arises, for example mood, condition, some feelings. So people can see emotional reaction of their interlocutors, not only what they express in words. This social information may be applied to knowledge management to make users' activities visible to others. There is three design approaches that could be employed here: realist, mimetic, and abstract. The realist approach involves trying to project social information from the physical domain into or through the digital domain. Examples are teleconferencing systems and media space research. The realist approach is a straightforward answer to the question; it minimizes the difficulty of producing and interpreting social signals. However current technology places very strict limits on the resolution of teleconferencing and video space systems. The mimetic approach tries to represent social cues from the physical world, as literally as possible, in the digital domain. The mimetic approach is exemplified by graphical MUDs and virtual reality systems, and uses virtual environments and avatars of various degrees of realism to mimic the physical world. Work here ranges from attempts to implement a virtual physics to the considerably looser representations of social information found in the 2-D and 3-D avatars found in various graphical MUDs and 3-D VRML worlds. While the use of mimetic representations decreases some of the bandwidth requirements of such systems, in this sort of system social signals must be consciously produced via users manipulating their avatars. The abstract approach involves portraying social information in ways that are not closely tied to their physical analogs. Exemplars of the abstract approach include AROMA, the Out to Lunch system (which uses abstract sonic cues to indicate socially salient activity), and Chat Circles (which uses abstract visual representations). This approach also includes the use of text to portray social information. Text has proved surprisingly powerful as a means for conveying social information, so the abstract approach scales well, both textual and abstract graphical representations being relatively compact. (Erickson and Kellogg, 2002) 3. Using your knowledge and experience, explain how the application of context and domain modelling could be used to help establish a proper understanding of the user's needs and tasks for a system being analysed prior to development. According to the Penguin English Dictionary (1969) context can be defined as "passages which immediately precede or follow a given extract from a written work; general setting (of remark, experience etc), surrounding and connected circumstances" From this it can be seen that a model of a process or some technology needs to reflect the situation within which it will be used. The Context Model is created as part of SSADM, where the system is represented in its environment. Context models are also used to reflect the social and organisational culture, policies and procedures that affect the work that is modelled. It could be thought that the context of the work affects human-computer interaction but it lies beyond the interface. The dictionary defines Domain as "estate, lands held in possession; district under control; sphere of influence". (Penguin English Dictionary 1969) Much interface design is moving away from generic interfaces towards domain specific application interfaces where knowledge of specific work domains - organisations, work culture and work processes - is as important as more traditional interface design theories. There is a knowledge modelling method (Cornwell, n.d.) in which a generic task (e.g., diagnosis, design, control) is decomposed into subtasks. The subtasks identify what needs to be done, but not how. Rather, the subtask may be implemented by one of a set of alternative methods. These methods may in turn be decomposed into a set of subtasks, which in turn can be implemented by one of a set of alternative methods. The task-structured analysis method is intended to be employed at the time of domain analysis, leaving the system architect to choose an optimal method for each subtask at the time of design of a specific system. In theory, the separation of task model from application domain model would enable to reuse the domain ontology for various tasks. However, the domain model needs to describe a task-specific view of the domain. For example, there must be different views of a distributed web system presented to a customer, technical personnel and other computer systems. 4. Many Systems Analysis and Design (SAD) approaches seem to view HCI as little more than a way to create an attractive interface and yet SAD methods do not always result in a successful implementation. HCI design philosophy encourages designers to view the user as a human being and notes that humans are incredibly diverse in their abilities. In addition HCI notes that users undertake tasks, they do not just exploit system functionality. Critically discuss those aspects of HCI design philosophy that, in your view, should be added to existing SAD methods in order to improve their effectiveness. Use of scenarios or use cases is one of widely used approach to systems design. For example, Use Case Analysis is part of Rational Unified Process that is widely used for computer systems design. Analysis of possible scenarios here helps designer to evaluate systems functionality and to produce functional requirements. Context analysis is used for evaluation of work environment; it may take the form of Context Model in Rational Unified Process (RUP). A Context Model (often it is a Data Flow Diagram) shows how the system fits into its overall environment. There are other models in RUP. A Domain Model (often a Class Diagram or Data Diagram) depicts major business classes or entities. A Task Model (often an Activity Diagram) depicts a high-level overview of the business process to be supported by the system. HCI design can be created having in mind rules of Shneiderman that are applicable in most interactive systems after being properly refined, extended, and interpreted: 1 Strive for consistency. 2 Enable frequent users to use shortcuts. 3 Offer informative feedback. 4 Design dialog to yield closure. 5 Offer simple error handling. 6 Permit easy reversal of actions. 7 Support internal locus of control. 8 Reduce short-term memory load. 5. Using examples from your own experience, critically evaluate the need for effective icon design to aid good web site navigation. Icons are small pictorial symbols used on computer menus, windows, and screens representing certain capabilities of the system. An icon may be any symbol, image or pictograph used to represent a concept, idea or physical object. There are a number ways in which an icon can represent its underlying concept: Resemblance - icons present a direct or analogous image of the function or concept itself. Thus, the road sign for "falling rocks" presents a clear resemblance of the roadside hazard. The trashcan on the Macintosh desktop is another example of an icon resembling its function. Exemplar - icons provide examples to represent their meaning such as a knife and fork used in the public information sign to represent "restaurant services". The image shows the most basic attribute of what is done in a restaurant i.e. eating. Symbolic - icons are used to convey the underlying referent that is at a higher level of abstraction than the image itself e.g. the picture of a wine glass with a fracture to convey the concept of fragility. Arbitrary - icons bear no relationship to their intended meaning so the association must be learned e.g. the bio-hazard sign consisting of three partially overlaid circles. Note that arbitrary icons should not be regarded as poor designs, even though they must be learned. Such symbols may be chosen to be as unique and/or compact such as a red no entry sign with a white horizontal bar, designed to avoid dangerous misinterpretation. However there are a number of techniques in icon design that should be avoided. For example, too abstract icons are bad because they do not provide a simple way of information representation. Further, icons that contain the text draw the eyes, but such icon is harder to identify. Moreover, text should be avoided in icons because sometimes it makes the icons difficult to translate. Then, random icons that have no association with the system should never be used and will likely serve to confuse the user more than help them. It is found out that person can easily perceive from 5 to 11 items at the same time, so it is not recommended to place more icons in one menu or toolbar. Also, cultural background can affect interpretation. For example, Moslem populations do not use the Red Cross symbol for medical facilities. Similarly, a "thumbs up" symbol, representing OK, is regarded as a crude gesture in certain countries. Furthermore, the use of images, which use exclusively gender specific representations, should not be used. References Cornwell, P. (n.d.). 'Scoping the Task and Application Domain for Knowledge Acquisition.'. The University of Maine (online). Available: http://www.cs.umaine.edu/ftp/wisr/wisr9/final-papers/Cornwell.html (10 April 2006) EMMUS (1999). 'Multimedia and the User-Centred Design Process'. European MultiMedia Usability Services (online). Available: http://www.ucc.ie/hfrg/emmus/guidelines/d37icons.html (10 April 2006) Erickson T. & Kellogg W.A.. edited by Carroll J.M.. (2002). 'Social Translucence: Designing Systems that Support Social Processes, in HCI in the New Millenium': Addison Wesley Penguin English Dictionary (1969). Penguin Books Ltd Shneiderman, Ben. (1998). 'Designing the User Interface'. Addison Wesley, Third Edition Read More