<p>The inability of standard cognitive science, the information-processing approach, to provide theoretical underpinnings for designing usable computer-based systems has already been noted in the literature. It has further been noted, with varying degrees of clarity, that the breakdown of standard cognitive science in this respect is not an independent event, but that it rather is coupled with the spreading of computer use, that is, the appearance of personal computers, which brought into plain view the incommensurability of humans and present-day computers, and the difficulty in "interfacing" them to each other. In this work, the insufficiency of standard cognitive science is investigated towards demonstrating that it lies in the fallacious assumption and reliance on mental representations as formally defined physical entities on which mental operations are performed. It is further argued that, if the formal approach within cognitive science is seriously taken, then cognitive science cannot account for some important cognitive processes, namely abstraction and interpretation.</p><p>In its empirical part, this study is related to a concrete development project. With respect to a possible application within it, some newer cognitive theories are reviewed and discussed, namely those that take into account environment, society, situation, and artefacts. Based on these considerations and the theoretical findings regarding standard cognitive science, a method for designing user interface is proposed and applied. Inspired by phenomenology and bearing similarities with nondirective counselling, it is referred to as "user-directed" method. Possible approaches to assessment of its validity are discussed.</p>

<p>This project aims to investigate the impact of culture on the results of established methods of usability testing. The production and use of technologically advanced information and communication applications are no longer restricted to the Western world, and there are indications that usability testing procedures developed for use in, e.g., Europe or the US do not give reliable results in countries such as India, China or Malaysia. This project is an in-depth investigation of the cultural specifics that go into usability test situations in three countries: Denmark, India and China. In a second phase we want to explore possible developments of the testing methods in order to avoid cultural bias and produce comparable results across countries of the world</p> / This research is a part of project of Culturalusability. http://culturalusability.cbs.dk/

<p>This study has been carried out as a part of the EC funded project, SMARTDOC IST-2000-28137, with the objective of developing application components that provide highly interactive visualization and collaboration functionalities. The low-level components from the graphics library AVS OpenViz 2.0 are used as the development basis. The application components can be inserted into electronic documents that allow embedded controls such as web documents or Microsoft Word or PowerPoint documents. Instead of displaying results as static images, a SMARTDOC component provides the ability to visualize data and interact with it inside the document. </p><p>Although the principal goal of the SMARTDOC project is to create components in a number of different application domains this study concentrates on developing a medical imaging application component in collaboration with the project partners AETmed and professor Alan Jackson at the University of Manchester. By incorporating the application component into patient reports, the clinicians are provided the ability to interact with the 3D data that is described in the reports. To improve the usability of the component, it makes use of a visual user interface (VUI), which gives the user the ability to interact and change parameters directly in the visualization process. </p><p>Collaborative work over geographical distances is an area that is becoming increasingly common and thus more interesting. As the availability of bandwidth has increased and the communication technologies have advanced, many companies express their interest for this new practical method of work. A company with offices in different countries would benefit from collaborative techniques providing closer cooperation within the company. Specialized institutions and laboratories could gather much experience and information through collaborative research. Medical imaging and visualization technique are areas where distinct disciplines such as networking, user interfaces and 3D visualization naturally can be fused together in order to develop collaborative environments. The visualization components developed within the SMARTDOC project will be the foundation for collaborative application components integrated with the Microsoft DirectX^® multimedia library. In the medical imaging area, collaborative work can be used to improve diagnoses, journaling and teaching. </p><p>This study focuses on developing a prototype of an interactive visualization component for 3D medical imaging and creating a collaborative environment using a multimedia library originally meant for network gaming.</p>

<p>Denna rapport är en beskrivning av ett examensarbete utfört vid SPM Instrument AB i Strängnäs. SPM Instrument utvecklar och tillverkar produkter för konditionsmätning av maskiner. </p><p>Målet var att skapa en cd-presentation i redigeringsprogrammet Macromedia Flash 5.0, som på ett enkelt sätt med rörliga bilder förklarar en konditionsmätningsmetod som kallas för Stöt Puls Metoden.</p><p>Uppgiften löstes genom att först inhämta information om Stöt Puls Metoden, sedan utformades Flash-filmen och slutligen testades och utvecklades filmen tills dess att jag och SPM Instrument var nöjda. </p> / <p>This report describes a final-year project performed at SPM Instrument AB in Strängnäs. The company develop and manufacture products for condition monitoring of machinery equipment. </p><p>The goal was to create a cd-presentation in the computer software Macromedia Flash 5.0, with moving pictures which explains a condition monitoring method that is called the Shoke Pulse Method. </p><p>The task was solved by first finding out information about the Shoke Pulse Method, then the Flash-movie was created and finally the movie was tested and developed until both I and SPM Instrument was satisfied.</p>

<p>This diploma work has been done as a part of the EC funded projects, MUSIC VK1- CT-2000-00058 and SmartDoc IST-2000-28137. The objective was to create an intuitive and easy to use visualization of flood forecasting data provided in the MUSIC project. This visualization is focused on the Visual User Interface and is built on small, reusable components. The visualization, FloodViewer, is small enough to ensure the possibility of distribution via the Internet, yet capable of enabling collaboration possibilities and embedment in electronic documents of the entire visualization. Thus, FloodViewer has been developed in three versions for different purposes. </p><p>Analysis and report generation (FloodViewer ) Collaborative analysis (FloodViewerNet ) Presentation and documentation (FloodViewerX).</p>

I have in this thesis studied how guidelines for organizing information in a custom- made user interface could be made. Teletal is service with a special designed user interface were information is stored. The purpose of this study is to encourage a consistent organization, and management of information in a user interface. The methods used in this study are as follows – qualitative interviews and two card-sorting tests, of which one was closed and the other open. The purpose with the methods used was to identify existing problems with the user interface and to test categories. Based on existing knowledge and principles, I have constructed guidelines for how to organize information. / I det här examensarbetet har jag studerat hur riktlinjer för organisering av information i ett specialutformat användargränssnitt kan tas fram. Teletal är en tjänst som har ett specialutformat användargränssnitt där information lagras. Syftet med studien är att främja konsekvent organisering, hantering och användning av informationen i användargränssnittet. I min studie har jag använt mig av tre metoder – kvalitativ intervju och två card sorting-tester, varav den ena var öppen och den andra stängd. Syftet med metoderna var att identifiera nuvarande problem med användargränssnittet, och att testa kategorier. Utifrån det aktuella kunskapsläget och principer, har jag arbetat fram riktlinjer om hur organiseringen bör ske.

The Mobile phone has contributed to massive changes in the way that human beings communicate with each other and is a technology that is a part of society’s globalization. Opinions differ in the area of user interface where some feel that mobile phones exclude users such as senior citizens or users with an intellectual or a physical disability. Universal Design –‘design for all’, is a vision that intends to bring about settings, products and services that suits as many people as possible irrespective of an individual’s needs and prospects. The criteria for ‘design for all’ are among other things flexibility, user friendliness, comprehensibility and a high tolerance for mistakes. The purpose of this essay is to investigate the mobile phones graphic user-interface from the theory of a universal design. From this general purpose the study look more closely at senior citizens perspective of mobile phones graphic user-interface. A qualitative study in the form of 4 interviews was used. All of the individuals that participated in the study felt that the mobile phone is a very good and beneficial invention. Mobile phones bring about a feeling of security and safety since it is felt that is always possible to reach family and friends in the event of a crisis. It is difficult to provide a interface that is Universal, because every individual is unique. Every individual has a different opinion on what is Universal Design and what is not. People have different needs of using the mobile phone and that’s one of the reasons why it’s difficult to provide a universal design of the graphical user interface of a mobile phone.

The target of this project was to generate a prototype, which would model the elements of the user interface based on the information flow specification. The system is programmed using MS Visual Basic for Applications, its’ graphical environment is MS Visio 2000 and the elements of GUI for modeling are taken from MS Visio 2000 stencil WUI (wui.vss). The created module allows for easy modeling of graphical user interface elements for the data source, which is selected from the database. The processing stages of the data sources are illustrated using MS Visio 2000 documents’ windows, – one window for each stage. In the database, the elements of GUI are associated with the data source processing stages they are related to, i.e. the ones that they are present in. It means, that when working with the system, after selecting the desired data source and its processing stages one wants to model, the system generates the forms with associated GUI elements. This work was being done in the order of the scientific group of Information systems design, which analyses the design of the Information systems in the wide context of requirements engineering, process and data structures specification. This designed and realized model is going to be a part of a CASE tool meant for designing computerized information systems. Once the CASE tool is finished, it is planned to use it for educational purposes in Kaunas University of Technology in the department of Information systems. It is going to... [to full text]

This paper is an analysis of creative opportunities of graphical user interface software of computer mathematics systems. There were two computer mathematics systems chosen: Matlab 7, Maple 10 and Mathematica 5.2 for this work. In order to compare the creative opportunities of graphical user interface software in computer mathematics systems and universal programming languages, C++ Builder 6 system was chosen. In line, there were four application programs groups created in mathematics systems and in C++ Builder system. The process of creating these programs, the peculiarities of the codes and the final result were compared. To sum up, computer mathematics systems may be used for creating application programs. Classical programming tasks may be implemented in these programs. Moreover, computer mathematics systems used for creating software cannot be changed by any other program that needs classical programming constructions, analytic computations and creating of graphical user interface.

Atkuriamosios grafikos priemonės leidžia sukurti trimatę vartotojo sąsają, panaudojant įvarius trimačius modelius. Darbo tikslas: Trimačių modelių aprašymo kalbų analizė ir trimatės vartotojo sąsajos modelio sukūrimas. Darbo uždaviniai: išnagrinėti literatūrą apie trimatės vartotojo sąsajos kūrimą, atlikti atkuriamosios grafikos priemonių, skirtų kurti trimačius objektus, analizę bei pagrindinių virtualios realybės aprašymo kalbų analizę, pasinaudojant atkuriamosios grafikos priemonėmis sukurti trimatė vartotojo sąsajos modelį – trimatį tinklalapį. Trimatė vartotojo sąsaja gali būti kuriama pasinaudojant X3D priemonėmis arba naudojantis atskiromis programomis, skirtomis kurti trimačius objektus (pavyzdžiui, CAD, 3ds max, Maya) juos vėliau apjungiant. Virtuali realybė aprašoma VRML bei X3D kalbomis. / Objectives of the work: Literature analysis on use and construction of the three-dimensional connections, analysis of graphic tools used for construction of the three dimensional objects, the analysis of main computer languages for building the virtual reality, and establishing a model/web site of three dimensional connections by implementing investigated tools for three dimensional graphics. Reference base: Different tools for construction, modulation and data processing of the three dimensional environments, literature references. Three dimensional connections could be established by implementing X3D tools or by first using the programs for construction of three dimensional objects (for example CAD, 3ds max, Maya) and connecting them later. Virtual reality could be described using VRML and X3D languages.