Visual search is an important component of many human-computer interactions and a critical task in a variety of domains. These include screening for prohibited items in x-ray imagery of luggage in airports, identifying anomalies in medical imagery, and looking for unusual activity and changes over time in satellite imagery. Unlike many other human-machine interface tasks where a small error rate is quite acceptable, a crucial element of visual search tasks in these application areas is that a single mistake can have catastrophic consequences. Thus, any improvements in technology, interfaces, or human processes that can be made to aid visual search would be invaluable in these safety critical areas. Furthermore, even when one does not consider consequential activities such as cancer screening and airport security, most human-computer interactions involve some search component, and the impact of even small improvements is magnified by a high frequency of use. This thesis explores how some of these issues affect individuals' and teams' ability to perform visual searching tasks. Considerations such as group size and display configuration are examined, as are novel interfaces that aid search on tabletop and wall displays. The overarching goal of this work is to provide system designers with immediately implementable advice and guidelines on how to improve their systems in respect to visual search and to outline further research in this critical area.

Modern sonar systems have greatly improved their sensor technology and processing techniques, but little effort has been put into display design for sonar data. The enormous amount of acoustic data presented by the traditional frequency versus time display can be overwhelming for a sonar operator to monitor and analyze. The recent emphasis placed on networked underwater warfare also requires the operator to create and maintain awareness of the overall tactical picture in order to improve overall effectiveness in communication and sharing of critical data. In addition to regular sonar tasks, sonobuoy system operators must manage the deployment of sonobuoys and ensure proper functioning of deployed sonobuoys. This thesis examines an application of the Ecological Interface Design framework in the interface design of a sonobuoy system on board a maritime patrol aircraft. Background research for this thesis includes a literature review, interviews with subject matter experts, and an analysis of the decision making process of sonar operators from an information processing perspective. A work domain analysis was carried out, which yielded a dual domain model: the domain of sonobuoy management and the domain of tactical situation awareness address the two different aspects of the operator's work. Information requirements were drawn from the two models, which provided a basis for the generation of various unique interface concepts. These concepts covered both the needs to build a good tactical picture and manage sonobuoys as physical resources. The later requirement has generally been overlooked by previous sonobuoy interface designs. A number of interface concepts were further developed into an integrated display prototype for user testing. Demos created with the same prototype were also delivered to subject matter experts for their feedback. While the evaluation means are subjective and limited in their ability to draw solid comparisons with existing sonobuoy displays, positive results from both user testing and subject matter feedback indicated that the concepts developed here are intuitive to use and effective in communicating critical data and supporting the user’s awareness of the tactical events simulated. Subject matter experts also acknowledged the potential for these concepts to be included in future research and development for sonobuoy systems. This project was funded by the Industrial Postgraduate Scholarships (IPS) from Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the sponsorship of Humansystems Inc. at Guelph, Ontario.

One of the most significant developments in cockpit technology over the past several years is the emergence of a new cockpit architecture that uses cursor control devices and keyboards for interaction with individual and shared displays. This architecture has allowed for the design of cockpit interfaces with many advantages compared to traditional designs. However, there are a number of challenges associated with these new cockpits that should be addressed so that pilots will be able to take full advantage of the performance improvements available from the new designs. This thesis describes three of the major challenges associated with the new architecture: supporting awareness, assisting interruption recovery, and mitigating interaction conflicts. It also describes the analysis process used to identify these challenges and proposes an interface augmentation with the potential to address them. The proposed design uses visualizations of the history of operator interactions with the interface to provide cues to the pilots about where each of them has been (and is currently) interacting. This interaction data includes both visual (sourced from a gaze tracking system) and input (from the keyboard or cursor control device) information, and was communicated on the interface using dynamic borders around the relevant areas of the interface. This augmentation aimed to address the three identified challenges by providing pilots with: improved awareness of each other’s actions, visual cues of where they were working prior to an interruption and what has changed since, and clear indications of where each is working to allow them to avoid conflicts. A two-stage evaluation process was used to determine the utility of the interface concept in a cockpit context by developing a non-interactive video prototype and showing it to pilots. The results of the evaluation indicated that the design has sufficient potential to warrant further study, as evaluation in higher fidelity environments would help provide further evidence of its potential utility for live cockpit operations. Therefore, future work should include the development and evaluation of a fully interactive prototype for live cockpit operations, as well as further examination of the design concept’s potential for use as a training tool.

Modern sonar systems have greatly improved their sensor technology and processing techniques, but little effort has been put into display design for sonar data. The enormous amount of acoustic data presented by the traditional frequency versus time display can be overwhelming for a sonar operator to monitor and analyze. The recent emphasis placed on networked underwater warfare also requires the operator to create and maintain awareness of the overall tactical picture in order to improve overall effectiveness in communication and sharing of critical data. In addition to regular sonar tasks, sonobuoy system operators must manage the deployment of sonobuoys and ensure proper functioning of deployed sonobuoys. This thesis examines an application of the Ecological Interface Design framework in the interface design of a sonobuoy system on board a maritime patrol aircraft. Background research for this thesis includes a literature review, interviews with subject matter experts, and an analysis of the decision making process of sonar operators from an information processing perspective. A work domain analysis was carried out, which yielded a dual domain model: the domain of sonobuoy management and the domain of tactical situation awareness address the two different aspects of the operator's work. Information requirements were drawn from the two models, which provided a basis for the generation of various unique interface concepts. These concepts covered both the needs to build a good tactical picture and manage sonobuoys as physical resources. The later requirement has generally been overlooked by previous sonobuoy interface designs. A number of interface concepts were further developed into an integrated display prototype for user testing. Demos created with the same prototype were also delivered to subject matter experts for their feedback. While the evaluation means are subjective and limited in their ability to draw solid comparisons with existing sonobuoy displays, positive results from both user testing and subject matter feedback indicated that the concepts developed here are intuitive to use and effective in communicating critical data and supporting the user’s awareness of the tactical events simulated. Subject matter experts also acknowledged the potential for these concepts to be included in future research and development for sonobuoy systems. This project was funded by the Industrial Postgraduate Scholarships (IPS) from Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the sponsorship of Humansystems Inc. at Guelph, Ontario.

One of the most significant developments in cockpit technology over the past several years is the emergence of a new cockpit architecture that uses cursor control devices and keyboards for interaction with individual and shared displays. This architecture has allowed for the design of cockpit interfaces with many advantages compared to traditional designs. However, there are a number of challenges associated with these new cockpits that should be addressed so that pilots will be able to take full advantage of the performance improvements available from the new designs. This thesis describes three of the major challenges associated with the new architecture: supporting awareness, assisting interruption recovery, and mitigating interaction conflicts. It also describes the analysis process used to identify these challenges and proposes an interface augmentation with the potential to address them. The proposed design uses visualizations of the history of operator interactions with the interface to provide cues to the pilots about where each of them has been (and is currently) interacting. This interaction data includes both visual (sourced from a gaze tracking system) and input (from the keyboard or cursor control device) information, and was communicated on the interface using dynamic borders around the relevant areas of the interface. This augmentation aimed to address the three identified challenges by providing pilots with: improved awareness of each other’s actions, visual cues of where they were working prior to an interruption and what has changed since, and clear indications of where each is working to allow them to avoid conflicts. A two-stage evaluation process was used to determine the utility of the interface concept in a cockpit context by developing a non-interactive video prototype and showing it to pilots. The results of the evaluation indicated that the design has sufficient potential to warrant further study, as evaluation in higher fidelity environments would help provide further evidence of its potential utility for live cockpit operations. Therefore, future work should include the development and evaluation of a fully interactive prototype for live cockpit operations, as well as further examination of the design concept’s potential for use as a training tool.

This thesis is an investigation on the changing concept of space and its production, through a reconsideration of montage in the digital environment. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, collage and montage have been one of the key terms that lead the movements of art and architecture. Towards the end of the 80s, however, as a result of the introduction of the digital environment, the quality and quantity of methods of production and transfer of knowledge have increased and the flow of information has gained a noticeable importance. Through recent developments, the digital environment offers many opportunities for representation in architectural field as well as other professions. Montage, which is a technique for construction of a new meaning or entity throughout its history, now changes its character with the infinitely many opportunities digital environment proposes as well. Therefore, this thesis tries to examine the changing scope and formulation of montage in this specific environment through the example of digital compositing which is a recent design and production technique used in the field of photography and cinema. Digital compositing provides layering, editing and merging numerous elements in one frame. Through its inherent potential of decomposing time and juxtaposing different modes of realities, the concept of space and production and visualization techniques in the digital medium change also affecting the roles of the designer and the user in the process. Thus, this new formulation brings forward a new understanding of design process that acts as an interface both spatially and temporally.

This research recognizes the need for building simulation/performance tools that can easily be integrated into the building design process. The study examines available simulation tools and attempts to determine why these tools are not used by building designers/architects. Findings confirm that the complexity of simulation tools created by scientists, who are more technically oriented, discourages use by architects who are more visually oriented people. The evaluation and analysis of available simulation tools suggests a thorough research methodology for creating a new front-end interface that solves current usage problems. The research is limited to the interface design of the new front-end which is named Integrated Building Design Information Interface (IBDII). The new front end provides an interface that allows designers to make more informed decisions during the design process while providing a front-end that supports AutoCAD and permits a user interface where the mode of input is graphical and not numerical. Criteria for the new front-end interface enable the development of a series of mock-up interface designs that are responsive to the needs of architects. A working graphical user interface of the building information prototype is created and is then put through an empirical user testing. The usability testing establishs the usefulness, effectiveness, likeability and learnability of the developed interface design. The testing includes six factors which act as indicators of usability and provide suggestions for future developments. The testing evaluation ascertains that the interface is easy to learn and use. Findings also show that the best feature of integrated building design information front-end is its interface design and there is room for improvement in the way input is selected.

Computer simulations are increasingly recognized as educational tools that facilitate students' learning in a safe environment. However, the way in which the simulations are used can have considerable impact on learning outcomes. Some have argued that exploratory learning is an effective strategy for learning new materials; but others have expressed concern that allowing free exploration may result in less efficient, or even inaccurate, learning and therefore encourage more guided exploration. The purpose of this research is to compare learning outcomes of nursing students in a critical care course when using an interactive computer simulation designed to teach fundamentals of oxygenation management under two exploratory learning methods (free versus guided exploration). The conceptual framework for the study was derived from the Informatics Research Organizing Model. The experimental study used a pretest-posttest design. Students in an existing or just finished critical care course were invited to participate in the study. Following a pretest that included a paper and pencil assessment of students' oxygenation management knowledge and two computer-generated clinical scenarios, students were encouraged to learn about the simulation using either guided or free exploration. The Guided Exploration group was given tasks to achieve, while the Free Exploration group was asked to learn about the instructional oxygenation management simulation without any specific tasks. Students then completed a posttest that was identical to the pretest with the addition of one novel clinical scenario to assess knowledge transfer. The results of data analysis using paired t-tests showed no significant differences in learning in the post test for the total group. The independent t-test showed no differences in the mean score between the Free and Guided Exploration groups.

The verbal protocol method is used extensively in computer usability studies. This study was designed to test the feasibility of using the verbal protocol method as a means of conducting field research on the online catalogue. Ten undergraduate students conducted their own research on DRA’s Infogate. As they searched, they talked aloud about what keys they were pressing, what was happening on the screen, and their reactions. Transcripts of sessions were analyzed. A total of 65 different problems or comments were noted during search sessions, with 11 problems or comments noted in three or more sessions. This supports the hypothesis that the verbal protocol method is a valuable means of identifying common problems for users. It is suggested that the verbal protocol method offers great potential as a research tool in librarianship, for example in the area of interface design.

Research has studied information seeking behaviour and several models have been developed. Those models were further modified following the emergence of the web. At the beginning of the 2000s, research started focusing on the concept of a user task instead of an activity or a simple action. The studies conducted were aimed to categorize the user activities into high level tasks. Investigating the tasks identified is anticipated to assist with developing tools and applications that would help the user to accomplish those tasks. After categorizing the user information seeking activities into high-level tasks, research continued to investigate changes in the frequencies of the tasks identified. Changes in the user behaviour that accompanied the evolution of the web and its applications have been targeted for improving how users interact with tools intended for accomplishing user activities. However, there has been little emphasis on studying the high-level tasks identified in the case of the web. Even though those tasks differ substantially, users have been using the same web browsing model to accomplish most of the activities under each type of task. The research discussed in this dissertation is concerned with studying the task of information gathering which is also known as the informational task. This task was selected due to: 1) its high frequency on the web (between 48% and 61.25% of the overall tasks users perform); 2) its complexity and the ambiguity associated with the kind of activities that comprise the task; 3) the need for using multiple applications for accomplishing the requirements of this type of task; and 4) the necessity for collecting different types of data from different sources for satisfying the task requirements. The current state in research related to information gathering identifies this task based on a simple description of the user activities that distinguishes information gathering from other kinds of tasks. The research discussed in this dissertation: 1) provides a thorough definition of the task, 2) models its underlying subtasks (sets of related activities), and 3) investigates difficulties and issues associated with each subtask. The investigations lead to design recommendations that resulted in building specific features to be examined during information gathering tasks. The research concluded by providing final recommendations based on the findings which resulted from investigating those features.