R. St. Amant. User interface affordances in a planning representation. Human Computer Interaction, 14(3):317--354, 1999.  Home/Search   Document Details and Download   Summary   Related Articles   Check

....For example, a pencil is held in such a way that it fits the hand, ignoring less appropriate ways that it might be grasped. The pencil affords being held in this way as a result of its length, width, weight, and texture, all with respect to the size, configuration, and musculature of our hand [9]. Most of these properties and relationships are visible. The possible interaction with an object or an environmental feature can be determined simply by looking at it. Since the use of alternative tools to solve an analytical problem is investigated, the affordances of those tools may be seen as ....

St. Amant, R.: User interface affordances in a planning representation, Human-Computer Interaction, 14(3), pp. 317-354 (1999).

No context found.

R. St. Amant. User interface affordances in a planning representation. Human Computer Interaction, 14(3):317--354, 1999.

No context found.

Robert St. Amant. User interface affordances in a planning representation. Human Computer Interaction, 14(3):317--354, 1999.

.... artifact from the production of flint arrowheads to another archaeologist [19] At the level of visual and motor activities, it is possible to see tool use as a form of visually guided activity [4] This viewpoint provides some significant insights into tool use that we have only begun to explore [21, 24]. We are aware of no interactive software systems that incorporate a significant portion of the concepts outlined above. In our current research on the HabilisDraw system, described in the next section, we examine the potential benefits of incorporating some of the properties of physical tools ....

R. St. Amant. User interface affordances in a planning representation. Human Computer Interaction, 14(3):317--354, 1999.

.... best, use appropriate representations for communication, and effectively acquire and transfer authority for planning tasks [1, 5] A number of mixed initiative systems have been developed in planning and natural language processing research (e.g. TRAINS [11] TRIPS [12] COLLAGEN [23] AIDE [24, 25]) and significant progress has been made on abstract models of mixed initiative (e.g. 7] Nevertheless, although the broad outlines of the area are gradually becoming better understood, basic questions about user interaction techniques for mixedinitiative assistance remain open. The term ....

.... time; environmental response to a given action is the same if the action is repeated under the same conditions; actions are usually taken at the user s direction and pace, rather than those of the environment; the environment does not initiate activity, but rather only responds to user actions [25]. These properties reduce the space of user decisions to a more manageable level (e.g. time pressure, uncertainty, and environmental instability, including exogenous events, are abstracted away. Unfortunately, the same properties that help users solve problems working alone also limit the role ....

[Article contains additional citation context not shown here]

St. Amant, R. 1999. User interface affordances in a planning representation. Human Computer Interaction.

....intended by their designers, as above. # Tools provide rich cues about their appropriate use. The affordances of a tool become obvious in its use; the hammer is almost a canonical example. Comparable (though less compelling) examples of affordances can be found in current software environments [5, 20], but the case can be made that helpful cues for usage in interactive software are much weaker than they might be [6] # Tool use involves establishing and exploiting constraints between the user and the tool, the user and the environment, and the tool and the environment [22] The issue of ....

Robert St. Amant. User interface affordances in a planning representation. Human Computer Interaction, 14(3):317--354, 1999.

....in HCI, such as conceptual models, affordances, mapping, feedback, constraints, and visibility. For example, there remains a great deal of disagreement in both the theoretical and the practical literature about the concept of affordance, even today, decades after its introduction (Norman, 1999; St. Amant, 1999) . The same can be seen to a lesser extent in the treatment of concepts such as constraints and mental models (Gentner and Stevens, 1983) HCI instructors often introduce such concepts by way of examples in the design of physical artifacts. This article attempts to quantify the benefit of this ....

St. Amant, Robert 1999. User interface affordances in a planning representation. Human Computer Interaction 14(3):317--354.

....which we concentrate on the ability of an interactive environment to constrain and guide the behavior of a human user as well as provide guidance to an automated planner. Our work has some of the flavor of the ecological view of human computer interaction (HCI) Flach et al. 1995; J. Gibson 1979; St. Amant 1999). In humancomputer interaction circles, interface designers are encouraged to provide cues in their environments that indicate how objects can be used, in order to improve ease of use, reduce the need for instructions, and enhance familiarity with the interface. These cues are sometimes referred ....

.... generation, intelligent tutoring, and other tasks (Feiner McKeown 1991; Smith Bates 1989; Karp Feiner 1990; Seligmann Feiner 1991; Gleicher Witkin 1992; Phillips, Badler, Granieri 1992; Drucker Zelter 1994; 1995; Christianson et al. 1996; He, Cohen, Salesin 1996; Bares Lester 1997; 1999). Although some of these systems present a direct manipulation interface to the user, the camera is not considered a method for communication; instead, camera planning is simply used to orient the user s perspective in the virtual world. Our goal is slightly different, in that we want to support ....

St. Amant, R. 1999. User interface affordances in a planning representation. Human Computer Interaction. In press.

....static structure is insufficient for correct interpretation of information, explicit dynamic cues are supplied. The VISMAP ( visual manipulation ) system exploits such regularities to generate input for an external controller via visual processing (St. Amant and Zettlemoyer 2000; Zettlemoyer and St. Amant 1999; Zettlemoyer et al. 1999) VISMAP supports the control of an application through its graphical user interface, through the same medium as ordinary users. Input to VISMAP is a pixel level representation of the display; output is a description of the high level user interface components. Processing ....

.... view, plans are one resource people draw on in interacting with the world, but not at all the only one (Agre and Chapman 1990; Suchman 1987) This view has a natural appeal in human computer interaction circles (Flach et al. 1995; Gaver 1991; Kirlik et al. 1993; Norman 1991; Norman 1999; St. Amant 1999). User interface designers can build interaction features into the environment that facilitate specific types of behavior, by matching and constraining known properties of human perception, action, and cognition. Taking this observation a step further, agent developers can build autonomous systems ....

St. Amant, Robert 1999. User interface affordances in a planning representation. Human Computer Interaction 14(3):317--354.

....which we concentrate on the ability of an interactive environment to constrain and guide the behavior of a human user as well as provide guidance to an automated planner. Our work has some of the flavor of the ecological view of human computer interaction (HCI) Flach et al. 1995; J. Gibson 1979; St. Amant 1999). In human computer interaction circles, interface designers are encouraged to provide cues in their environments that indicate how objects can be used, in order to improve ease of use, reduce the need for instructions, and enhance familiarity with the interface. These cues are sometimes referred ....

.... generation, intelligent tutoring, and other tasks (Feiner McKeown 1991; Smith Bates 1989; Karp Feiner 1990; Seligmann Feiner 1991; Gleicher Witkin 1992; Phillips, Badler, Granieri 1992; Drucker Zelter 1994; 1995; Christianson et al. 1996; He, Cohen, Salesin 1996; Bares Lester 1997; 1999). Although some of these systems present a direct manipulation interface to the user, the camera is not considered a method for communication; instead, camera planning is simply used to orient the user s perspective in the virtual world. Our goal is slightly different, in that we want to support ....

St. Amant, R. 1999. User interface affordances in a planning representation. Human Computer Interaction.In press.

....interact with other applications through an application programming interface (API) or access to source code. We have developed a novel class of agents we call interface softbots, or ibots, that control interactive applications through the graphical user interface, as human users do (Zettlemoyer St. Amant 1999; Zettlemoyer, St. Amant, Dulberg 1999) Our ibots are based on a programmable substrate that provides sensors and effectors for this purpose. Sensor modules take pixel level input from the display, run the data through image processing algorithms, and build a structured representation of ....

....built into graphical user interfaces. Planners often abstract away the continuous, uncertain, dynamic, and unobservable properties of an environment, such that it becomes discrete, deterministic, static, and accessible properties associated with broad classes of modern graphical user interfaces (St. Amant 1999). In our most recent work (St. Amant Zettlemoyer 2000) we have developed a very simple hierarchical planner to control the perception and action components of an ibot. The planner can direct an ibot to take a wide variety of action sequences, ranging from selecting objects to choosing pulldown ....

[Article contains additional citation context not shown here]

St. Amant, R. 1999. User interface affordances in a planning representation. Human Computer Interaction 14(3):317--354.

.... and Simon, 1972] Problem spaces traditionally abstract away continuous, non deterministic, dynamic, and unobservable properties of an environment, such that it becomes discrete, deterministic, static, and accessible properties associated with broad classes of modern graphical user interfaces [St. Amant, 1999] . In view of such correspondences, we might expect cognitive models to routinely interact with the user interfaces of off the shelf applications. Perhaps surprisingly, this is not yet the case. For some cognitive modeling systems, visual input is generated via the look up c # 2000 Academic Press ....

.... modeling research [Polson, personal communication] We have developed a practical approach to visual processing and manual interaction for A SUBSTRATE FOR COGNITIVE MODELING 3 cognitive models in HCI, based on a novel type of interface agent that we call an interface softbot [Zettlemoyer and St. Amant, 1999; Zettlemoyer et al. 1999] An interface softbot, unlike the current generation of interface agents, controls an interactive system through the graphical user interface, as human users do, without relying on an application programming interface (API) or access to source code. To support this ....

[Article contains additional citation context not shown here]

St. Amant, Robert 1999. User interface affordances in a planning representation. Human Computer Interaction 14(3):317--354.

....a problem space. Problem spaces traditionally abstract away continuous, non deterministic, dynamic, and unobservable properties of an environment, such that it becomes discrete, deterministic, static, and accessible properties associated with broad classes of modern graphical user interfaces [St. Amant, 1999] . In view of such correspondences, we might expect cognitive models to routinely interact with the user interfaces of off the shelf applications. Perhaps surprisingly, this is not the case. For some cognitive modeling systems, visual input is generated via the look up of properties in a static, ....

....through a general purpose mechanism tailored to common cognitive modeling requirements. We have developed an approach to visual processing for cognitive models in HCI, based on a novel type of interface agent that we call an ibot, or interface softbot [Dulberg et al. 1999; Zettlemoyer and St. Amant, 1999; Zettlemoyer et al. 1999] An ibot, unlike the current generation of interface agents, controls an interactive system through the graphical user interface, as human users do, without relying on an application programming interface (API) or access to source code. We have developed a programmable ....

[Article contains additional citation context not shown here]

St. Amant, Robert 1999. User interface affordances in a planning representation. Human Computer Interaction 14(3):317--354.

Online articles have much greater impact   More about CiteSeer.IST   Add search form to your site   Submit documents   Feedback  

CiteSeer.IST - Copyright Penn State and NEC