The UAN (User Action Notation) is a task- and user-oriented behavioral representation technique for specifying interface designs that is used to communicate interface designs, support task analysis, and facilitate usability evaluation. A UAN interface description is made up of several linked sheets of paper containing task descriptions, notes, and sketches. UAN users have reported that writing and reading these designs is difficult. It is our hypothesis that these problems in usability are not inherent in the notation itself, but rather that effective use of UAN is hampered by the manual manipulation necessitated by pencil and paper. QUANTUM (Quick User Action Notation Tool for User interface Management), a software tool to facilitate writing and reading of UAN for user interface design, was developed through an iterative process based on formative evaluation by expert UAN users. QUANTUM supports development of a graph-based representation of a task abstraction hierarchy for a user interface design, with each node representing a user task. Task description windows for each task node allow entry of UAN in a tabular, spreadsheet-like format. Task libraries enable designers to build archives of task descriptions, enabling their reuse in other interface design projects. Note addenda containing explanatory text, screen sketches, design questions, and/or audio/video can be placed anywhere within a design description. These features, not afforded by pencil and paper, give QUANTUM a functional advantage over such media. Expert evaluators used in qualitative formative evaluation of the QUANTUM prototype indicated a strong preference over pencil and paper for using QUANTUM to produce UAN task descriptions. As a result of this work, we claim that QUANTUM improves usability of the UAN. / Master of Science

It is generally acknowledged that the production of quality user interfaces requires a thorough understanding of the user and that this involves evaluating the system by observing the user using the system, or by performing human factors experiments. Such methods traditionally involve the use of videotape, protocol analysis, critical incident analysis, etc. These methods require time consuming analyses and may be invasive. In addition, the data obtained through such methods represent a relatively small portion of the use of a system. An alternative approach is to record all user input and system output onto a file, i.e., log the user session. Such transcripts can be collected automatically and over a long period of time. Unfortunately, this produces voluminous amounts of data. There is therefore a need for tools and techniques that allow an evaluator to extract from such data potential performance and usability problems. It is hypothesized that repetition of user actions is an important indicator of potential user interface problems. This research reports on the use of the repetition indicator as a means of studying user session transcripts in the evaluation of user interfaces. The dissertation discusses the algorithms involved, the interactive tool constructed, the results of an extensive application of the technique in the evaluation of a large image-processing system, and extensions and refinements to the technique. Evidence suggests that the hypothesis is justified and that such a technique is convincingly useful. / Ph. D.

The user interface development process occurs in a behavioral domain and in a constructional domain. The development process in the behavioral domain focuses on the "look and feel" of the user interface and its behavior in response to user actions. The development process in the constructional domain focuses on developing software to implement the user interface. Although one may attempt to design a user interface from a constructional view, it is important to concentrate design efforts in the behavioral domain to improve software usability. User Action Notation (UAN) is a useful technique for representing user interaction designs in the behavioral domain. Primary abstractions in UAN-expressed designs are user tasks. Information about interface objects is encapsulated in user task descriptions and scenarios. Primary abstractions in a GUI such as Motif™ are interface objects. Motif implements objects' behavior and appearance using system functions that are encapsulated within pre-defined object classes. Therefore, user interaction developers and software developers must communicate well to translate UAN-expressed interaction designs into Motif-based software designs. Translation is not trivial since it is a translation between two significantly different domains. This thesis contributes to understanding of the user interface development process by developing a foundation to assist translation of user interaction designs into Motif-based software designs. This thesis develops the foundation as follows: 1. Adapt UAN for use with Motif. 2. Summarize Motif concepts about objects and object relationships. 3. Develop new approaches for discussing objects and object relationships. 4. Develop a partial translation guide containing VAN descriptions of selected Motif abstractions. / Master of Science

"In order to make large applications that manage multi-attribute data usable, they must have an effective user interface. Application data and data relationships must be displayed in a manner that is useful for a particular user while still following principles of user interface design. A User Interface Management System (UIMS) is an application independent data presentation system which isolates the interface portion of the application and can allow a high level of customization. A presentation description language can be used to control the UIMS and allow maximum flexibility. This thesis investigates a UIMS controlled by a language that allows a user to easily describe the application data and data relationships at a high level of abstraction. The UIMS uses this language to structure application data and augment it with properties. A rule-based system then uses the augmented data along with graphical design knowledge to determine the content, layout and details of the interface used to display the data. Finally, a graphical interface is generated to present the data. A system to provide this functionality was designed and implemented. Experiences with the system showed this approach to be valid and provided ideas for future work. "

Thesis (MAppSc in Computer and Information Science)--University of South Australia, 1995

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Waikato, 2007. / Title from PDF cover (viewed April 1, 2008) Includes bibliographical references (p. [339]-343)

This thesis discusses guidelines for developers of Augmented User Interfaces that can be used by illiterate and semi-literate users. To discover how illiterate and semi-literate users intuitively understand interaction with a computer, a series of Wizard of Oz experiments were conducted. In the first Wizard of Oz study, users were presented with a standard desktop computer, fitted with a number of input devices to determine how they assume interaction should occur. This study found that the users preferred the use of speech and gestures which mirrored findings from other researchers. The study also found that users struggled to understand the tab metaphor which is used frequently in applications. From these findings, a localised culturally-relevant tab interface was developed to determine the feasibility of localised Graphical User Interface components. A second study was undertaken to compare the localised tab interface with the traditional tabbed interface. This study collected both quantitative and qualitative data from the participants. It found that users could interact with a localised tabbed interface faster and more accurately than with the traditional counterparts. More importantly, users stated that they intuitively understood the localised interface component, whereas they did not understand the traditional tab metaphor. These user studies have shown that the use of self-explanatory animations, video feedback, localised tabbed interface metaphors and voice output have a positive impact on enabling illiterate and semi-literate users to access information. / TeX / Adobe Acrobat 9.51 Paper Capture Plug-in

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Technology, Information Technology, Durban University of Technology, 2012. / This thesis reports on original exploratory study that is aimed at contributing towards understanding of factors that influence Africa users support for alternative object metaphors for user interface icons. One of the great impediments for efficient utilization of information systems is the existing gap between system designs that typically follow western cues for crafting user interfaces and actual users who use those systems within their diverse cultural frames. The problem remains important because of the wider penetration of information systems, which serve as modern technology tools to improve service provisioning worldwide. In order to overcome the problem of optimum utilization of information systems, previous studies have proposed culturally adaptive user interfaces. The basic principle behind culture adaptive interfaces is to develop intelligent user interfaces that can automatically adapt to user contexts. However, the challenges with the new proposals for adaptive user interfaces are how to best model information about users, how to access the cultural background of individual users and empirically examine the effects of culture on user interface preferences. In order to properly contribute to solving these problems, an exploratory study was conducted to empirically establish African rural users support for alternative village object metaphors, examine effects of culture on user support and investigate response characteristic among culturally diverse user groups. The synthesis of bodystorming and cultural probes methodology was applied to engage the participation of African rural users in the study. Technology support model was developed to measure user knowledge, comprehension, skills, performance and support for alternative African village metaphors as interface icons. The partial least square analytic modelling technique and finite mixture path segmentation model were used to test a set of research hypotheses and detect heterogeneity in 71 respondent data generated. Experimental results of this study show that human cognitive factors of technology knowledge, comprehension and performance influence African users support for alternative village object metaphors as interface icons. However, skill factor is not found to influence user support for alternative African village object metaphors. The factor of culture is found to moderate the effects of comprehension on user support and effects of user performance on user support. This study also identifies three segments of African users that result in heterogeneity within the inner path model.

Thesis (M. Tech.: Information Technology)-Dept. of Information Technology, Durban Institute of Technology, 2005 xiv, 170, [20] leaves / This study examines the efficiency, ease of use and ease of understanding of user interface designs implemented in current e-commerce websites. Four South African based e-commerce websites formed the test cases of this study. Selection of the test cases was based on the results and conclusions of previous surveys conducted by an independent research institution. The outcome of that survey identified the most popular e-commerce websites among South African internet users.

Thesis (MScEng (Electrical and Electronic Engineering))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / In this thesis we present a human-computer interface (HCI) system for disabled persons using only a basic web camera. Mouse movements are simulated by small movements of the head, while clicks are simulated by eye blinks. In this study, a system capable of face tracking, eye detection (including iris detection), blink detection and finally skin detection and face recognition has been developed. A detection method based on Haar-like features are used to detect the face and eyes. Once the eyes have been detected, a support vector machines classifier is used to detect whether the eye is open or closed (for use in blink detection). Skin detection is done using K-means clustering, while Eigenfaces is used for face recognition. It is concluded that using a web camera as a human-computer interface can be a viable input method for the severely disabled.