Increased automation in complex systems has led to changes in the human controller's role and to new types of technology-induced human error. Attempts to mitigate these errors have primarily involved giving more authority to the automation, enhancing operator training, or changing the interface. While these responses may be reasonable under many circumstances, an alternative is to redesign the automation in ways that do not reduce necessary or desirable functionality or to change functionality where the tradeoffs are judged to be acceptable. This paper describes an approach to detecting error-prone automation features early in the development process while significant changes can still be made to the conceptual design of the system. The information about such error-prone features can also be useful in the design of the operator interface, operational procedures, or operator training. Introduction Today's large, complex systems often incorporate both human and automated control and mon...

The growing volume of information poses interesting challenges and calls for tools that discover properties of data. Data mining has emerged as a discipline that contributes tools for data analysis, discovery of new knowledge, and autonomous decisionmaking. In this paper, the basic concepts of rough set theory and other aspects of data mining are introduced. The rough set theory offers a viable approach for extraction of decision rules from data sets. The extracted rules can be used for making predictions in the semiconductor industry and other applications. This contrasts other approaches such as regression analysis and neural networks where a single model is built. One of the goals of data mining is to extract meaningful knowledge. The power, generality, accuracy, and longevity of decision rules can be increased by the application of concepts from systems engineering and evolutionary computation introduced in this paper. A new rule-structuring algorithm is proposed. The concepts presented in the paper are illustrated with examples.

A contemporary approach to describing and theorizing about joint human endeavor is to posit “knowledge in common ” as a basis for awareness and coordination. Recent analysis has identified weaknesses in this approach even as it is typically employed in relatively simple task contexts. We suggest that in realistically complex circumstances, people share activities and not merely concepts. We describe a framework for understanding joint endeavor in terms of four facets of activity awareness: common ground, communities of practice, social capital, and human development. We illustrate the sort of analysis we favor with a scenario from emergency management, and consider implications and future directions for system design and empirical methods. 1.

The Internet has dramatically changed how people sell and buy goods. In recent years we have seen the emergence of electronic marketplaces that leverage information technology to create more efficient markets (e.g., online auctions) to bring together buyers and sellers with greater effectiveness at a massive scale. Despite the growing interest in and importance of such marketplaces, our understanding of how the design of the marketplace affects its use is still quite limited. This paper presents a detailed case study of a currently operational massive scale online auction marketplace. The main focus is to gain initial insights into the effects of the design of the marketplace. The results of the study point to several important considerations and implications not only for the design of online marketplaces but also for the design of large-scale websites where effective locating of information is key to user success. Keywords Electronic Marketplaces, Massive Scale Online Auctions, Online Market Design, Market Technostructure, Market Navigation, Item Display, Information Overload

Modern computer systems routinely present information to the user as a combination of text and diagrammatic images, described as "graphical user interfaces". Practitioners and researchers in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) generally believe that the value of these diagrammatic representations is derived from metaphorical reasoning; they communicate abstract information by depicting a physical situation from which the abstractions can be inferred. This assumption has been prevalent in HCI research for over 20 years, but has seldom been tested experimentally. This thesis analyses the reasons why diagrams are believed to assist with abstract reasoning. It then presents the results of a series of experiments testing the contribution of metaphor to comprehension, problem solving, explanation and memory tasks carried out using a range of different diagrams. The results indicate that explicit metaphors provide surprisingly little benefit for cognitive tasks using diagrams as an external re...

Previous research suggests that graphical metaphor should increase the usability of visual programming languages (VPLs) by providing an instructional aid when learning to use the language. This paper describes three experiments which manipulated the degree of metaphor in VPLs. In the first, an implicit pictorial metaphor was added to a dataflow language, while in the second and third an explicit explanatory metaphor was provided for diagrams showing computational concepts. In both cases, the performance of novices was compared to that of expert programmers, in order to judge the improvement in usability that might result from this instructional device. The resulting benefits of metaphor were smaller than expected, especially relative to the advantage of experience. This suggests that metaphor may not be an essential component in the usability of VPLs.

Abstract- Various methods can be used for evaluating human-robot interaction. The appropriateness of those evaluation methodologies depends on the roles that people assume in interacting with robots. In this paper we focus on developing an evaluation strategy for the bystander role. In this role, the person has no training in interacting with the robot and must develop a mental model to co-exist in the same environment with the robot. Keywords: Human- robot interaction, social interaction, user roles, mental models, conceptual models, intelligent systems. 1

This paper presents an object-oriented approach for the specification of graphical user interfaces. Specification starts with the analysis of the end user's operations. The user interface is then designed on the basis of this analysis. Operation analysis is followed by structure and component specification which presents the dialogue structure of the application and the contents of each dialogue. Visualization produces the final screen layouts, and task specification documents the usage of the user interface for the purpose of creating user's guides

This article reports the results of astudy that investigatedeffectsoffourusercharacteristicsonusers’mental models of information retrieval systems: educational and professional status, first language, academic background, and computer experience. The repertory grid technique was used in the study. Using this method, important components of information retrieval systems were represented by nine concepts, based on four IR experts ’ judgments. Users ’ mental models were represented by factor scores that were derived from users’ matricesofconceptratingsondifferentattributesofthe concepts. The study found that educational and professional status, academic background, and computer experience had significant effects in differentiating users on their factor scores. First language had aborderline effect, but the effect was not significant enough at � �0.05 level. Specific different views regarding IR systemsamongdifferentgroupsofusersaredescribedand discussed. Implications of the study for information science and IR system designs are suggested.

Abstract—Hypermedia is a broadly accepted technique to develop educational systems since its hypertext structure reflects a model of learning based on the students ’ semantic memory model and the use of multimedia provides interactive mechanisms that allow managing, manipulating, and organizing the lessons. A hypermedia electronic book called CIPP (Curso Interactivo de Programacion en Pascal) is introduced to help students learn the Pascal programming language and the empirical evaluation that was carried out to assess the book utility as an educational tool. One of the most encouraging results from this experience was that, at the end of the course, not only did most students agree with the didactic method which integrated lectures with the use of the electronic book, but also they felt motivated to continue learning Pascal by themselves. Index Terms—Computer-assisted learning, electronic books, evaluation, usability. I.