User engineering principles for interactive systems
AFIPS '71 (Fall) Proceedings of the November 16-18, 1971, fall joint computer conference
Ada packages and the user's conceptual model
ACM SIGAda Ada Letters
ACM SIGCHI Bulletin
Some notes on the representation of the user's conceptual model
ACM SIGCHI Bulletin
Designing for the Next Generation: Generation-Y Expectations
Proceedings of the Symposium on Human Interface 2009 on ConferenceUniversal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. Part I: Held as Part of HCI International 2009
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One of the most active areas of current research in computer science is directly related to the actual and supposed behaviour of the so-called user. A measure of the importance of the user in the computer system may be estimated by the growth of the disciplines of 'Software Psychology' and 'Human Factors' (or 'Ergonomics'). It is customary to speak about the user, often with qualifications such as casual, naive, expert, etc. Such a generic term covers users from the systems programmer on the one hand to the casual SPSS user on the other. Hansen's famous principle "Know the User" [HANS71] seems, at first glance, to be an obvious piece of advice to the interactive systems designer. But when we realize that the user is human and we want to build a formal model of the user, then the aforementioned advice is very difficult to follow.In the Department of Computer Science we are engaged in research related to the user-computer interface with specific applications in the areas of OSCRLs (Operating System Command and Response Languages) and interactive computer graphics. One of the key ideas, around which a formal model of the user is being constructed, is that of the so-called user's conceptual model. The development of the formal model of the user is intended to provide knowledge base support for research in the domain of user-computer interaction. Because of its richness and inherently interactive nature, the INTERLISP programming enviroment was chosen to provide the necessary computer support for the research.The structure of the knowledge base is built on Minsky's concept of a frame [MINS75], which encapsulates the notion of a 'chunk' of knowledge. The frame also provides a convenient (and readable) semi-formalism in which to communicate the formal model of the user. Since any discussion of the user is bound to use a lot of 'vague' ideas and concepts, it seemed appropriate to rely on Fuzzy Set theory for some of the necessary mathematical support.