Thesis (M.S.E.)--University of Washington, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [64]-70). Issued also electronically via World Wide Web in PDF and PostScript formats.

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 2009. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 127-130). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.S. in computer science)--Washington State University, December 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 98-103).

The thesis discusses the question of how unfamiliar computing systems, particularly those with graphical user interfaces, are learned and used. In particular, the approach of basing the design and behaviour of on-screen objects in the system's model world on a coherent theme and employing a metaphor is explored. The drawbacks, as well as the advantages, of this approach are reviewed and presented. The use of metaphors is also contrasted with other forms of users' mental models of interactive systems, and the need to provide a system image from which useful mental models can be developed is presented. Metaphors are placed in the context of users' understanding of interactive systems and novel application is made of the Qualitative Process Theory (QPT) qualitative reasoning model to reason about the behaviour of on-screen objects, the underlying system functionality, and the relationship between the two. This analysis supports reevaluation of the domains between which user interface metaphors are said to form mappings. A novel user interface design, entitled Medusa, that adopts guidelines for the design of metaphor-based systems, and for helping the user develop successful mental models, based on the QPT analysis and an empirical study of a popular metaphor-based system, is described. The first Medusa design is critiqued using well-founded usability inspection method. Employing the Lakoff/lohnson theory, a revised verSIOn of the Medusa user interface is described that derives its application semantics and dialogue structures from the entailments of the knowledge structures that ground understanding of the interface metaphor and that capture notions of embodiment in interaction with computing devices that QPT descriptions cannot. Design guidelines from influential existing work, and new methods of reasoning about metaphor-based designs, are presented with a number of novel graphical user interface designs intended to overcome the failings of existing systems and design approaches.

The thesis work is centered on five objectives. These objectives are among the main factors in the field of electronic information display technologies. They are namely display optical efficiency, crosstalk, resolution, power consumption and switchable 2D/3D capability. The thesis findings and the different levels of success are covered in detail in chapters 4 through chapter 8. They are then summarized in discussion and conclusion chapter using measurable quantities in tabular format. Specifically, with respect to optical efficiency three different solutions were applied. The first raised optical efficiency by 60%. The second solution raised optical efficiency to 90%. The third solution eliminated the need for backlighting altogether as well as remove pixel circuitry from optical light path. With respect to image crosstalk, two solutions were applied. One method reduced crosstalk by 51% while the other method eliminated crosstalk to zero percent in the viewing zones. With respect to resolution two methods were applied. One method increased 3D display resolution by limiting the reduction of the native display resolution by only half regardless of the number of concurrent 3D viewers. The other method increased display resolution 900%. With respect to power consumption two methods were applied. The first method eliminated the need for backlighting and also reduced the number of thin film transistors [TFTs] needed by 60% for the same display resolution. The second method increased display brightness by 60% without increasing power consumption. Finally with respect to 2D/3D switchable display an optical module was designed that successfully enable a conventional 2D display to become a switchable 2D/3D display.

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Improving communication between people and computer applications is a major concern of Human–Computer Interaction. One possible way of improving such communication is to capitalise on the way human beings use speech and gesture in a complementary manner, exploiting the redundancy of information between the input modes of a system. Redundant data input entered into a computer system through multiple modes, provides considerable scope for the resolution of error and ambiguity in the input message.

The purpose of the research described within this thesis is to provide information that can be used to improve the quality of programs and the productivity of the software industry. To fulfil this purpose, the thesis is concerned with the order in which software engineers construct solutions to software problems, the factors that influence the order in which software engineers construct solutions, and the effectiveness of constructing a solution in a particular order. Control strategies describe the order in which solutions are constructed. Four empirical studies investigating control strategies were undertaken to answer the concerns of the thesis. The aim of the first two studies was to observe the global control strategies employed by software engineers. The two studies collected verbal reports and keystroke behaviour of software engineers using Prolog and C. The results showed that software engineers used a combination of Top-Down control strategies to solve a software problem. A Children-First Top-Down control strategy was used during the initial stages of solving a complex sub-problem, while a Depth-First Top-Down control strategy was used to solve simple sub-problems. Occasionally software engineers diverged from a Top-Down control strategy. There were eight types of divergences (such as working pursuing pre-requisites) that frequently occurred within the context of six different activities (such as making alternations to a solution). The third study investigated the choice of local control strategies that supplement global control strategies. When software engineers were presented with a series of subproblems to complete, they chose to complete the four sub-problems in the order that they were presented. The software engineers did not choose to pursue the series of sub-problems in any alternative order, such as the order of Easiest-First, or AnalogiesFirst. The fourth study investigated the environmental factors that influence the software engineers' choice of global control strategies. The study also investigated whether software engineers using the Breadth-First control strategy produced better results than software engineers using alternative control strategies. Three different text editors were produced to determine under what circumstance software engineers would use the Breadth-First control strategy. The editors also recorded the behaviour of the software engineers. The software engineers would only use the Breadth-First control strategy when the text editor forced them to follow the Breadth-First control strategy. However, the performance of the software engineers was better when they were forced to use the Breadth-First control strategy than when they used their preferred control strategies.

Incorporating the collective problem-solving skills of non-experts could ac- celerate the advancement of scientific research. Citizen science games leverage puzzles to present computationally difficult problems to players. Such games typ- ically map the scientific problem to game mechanics and visual feed-back helps players improve their solutions. Like games for entertainment, citizen science games intend to capture and retain player attention. “Juicy” game design refers to augmented visual feedback systems that give a game personality without modi- fying fundamental game mechanics. A “juicy” game feels alive and polished. This thesis explores the use of “juicy” game design applied to the citizen science genre. We present the results of a user study in its effect on player motivation with a prototypical citizen science game inspired by clustering-based E. coli bacterial strain analysis.

Realistic lighting models are an important component of modern computer generated, interactive 3D applications. One of the more difficult to emulate aspects of real-world lighting is the concept of indirect lighting, often referred to as global illumination in computer graphics. Balancing speed and accuracy requires carefully considered trade-offs to achieve plausible results and acceptable framerates. We present a novel technique of supporting global illumination within the constraints of the new DirectX Raytracing (DXR) API used with DirectX 12. By pre-computing spherical textures to approximate the diffuse color of dynamic objects, we build a smaller set of approximate geometry used for second bounce lighting calculations for diffuse light rays. This speeds up both the necessary intersection tests and the amount of geometry that needs to be updated within the GPU's acceleration structure. Our results show that our approach for diffuse bounced light is faster than using the conservative mesh for triangle-ray intersection in some cases. Since we are using this technique for diffuse bounced light the lower resolution of the spheres is close to the quality of traditional raytracing techniques for most materials.