Human interaction with intelligent systems: an overview and bibliography
ACM SIGART Bulletin
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To make plan-based expert systems more accessible to end users we should develop interfaces that make the functionality of the planner seem natural and immediately understandable. In particular, we should design a graphical language and interface for the acquisition and display of plan knowledge, where the intended users are domain experts and novices. Lack of previous computer experience should not affect their performance. On the basis of existing theories in cognitive science and from our own experimental research, we propose a model of the user''s view of tasks. The model postulates the domain experts'' ability to recall relevant parts of self performed tasks. The validity of the model is demonstrated in a paper-and-pencil experiment involving 153 subjects. Employing an extended cognitive systems engineering approach we use the model, a stage process model of knowledge acquisition, and requirements from the plan formalism to specify DACRON, a visual language for plan acquisition and display embedded in a direct manipulation interface. DACRON supports the acquisition of plan knowledge by providing graphical representa- tions of domain entities from the users'' point of view. DACRON checks the consistency of specified units and graphically aids the debugging process. DACRON also allows the animated presentation of results of the planning process and its results. To evaluate the usability of DACRON and the relevance of the acquired and displayed knowl- edge, experimental studies involving 39 users are conducted. The studies show that over 90% of the subjects can easily use DACRON to enter knowledge, and 80% of the entered knowledge is relevant and correct. In the case of knowledge display, subjects are able to use the displayed knowledge effortlessly and apply it to solve 95% of the problems presented to them.