May 8, 2012 @ 14:30, Room: 16AB
Chair: Mark Dunlop, University of Strathclyde, UK
Representing “too small to see” as “too small to see” with Temporal Representation - Paper
Contribution & Benefit: This study assessed how the interactions with a temporal representation with different supporting modalities can alter the way learners think about the sizes that are too small to see.
Abstract » Teaching and learning the vast range of the sizes of the objects that are too small to see with human eyes (called imperceptible objects) has been a challenging issue in education. Because representation is the only medium that learners can use to make sense of imperceptible phenomena, learners encounter challenges when trying to understand the range of imperceptible sizes. However, the conventional visual representations that are incorporated in many learning technologies tend to direct learners to overestimate the sizes of imperceptible objects. To address this issue, we designed a multimodal representation called “temporal-aural-visual representation (or TAVR) to provide students with an alternative way of perceiving and conceptualizing imperceptible sizes. In prior studies it was noticed that learners constructed more refined mental models of the vast range of imperceptible sizes through the TAVR-enhanced learning activity. In this paper, we introduce a recent study that explored how to best augment the temporal experience of the range of imperceptible sizes with supporting modalities.
ACMThe Case of the Missed Icon: Change Blindness on Mobile Devices - Paper
Contribution & Benefit: Presents evidence that change blindness occurs on small displays and is affected by interface designs. Can assist mobile application developers in improving the delivery of information through visual changes.
Abstract » Insights into human visual attention have benefited many areas of computing, but perhaps most significantly visualisation and UI design [3]. With the proliferation of mobile devices capable of supporting significantly complex applications on small screens, demands on mobile UI design and the user�s visual system are becoming greater. In this paper, we report results from an empirical study of human visual attention, specifically the Change Blindness phenomenon, on handheld mobile devices and its impact on mobile UI design. It is arguable that due to the small size of the screen - unlike a typical computer monitor - a greater visual coverage of the mobile device is possible, and that these phenomena may occur less frequently during the use of the device, or even that they may not occur at all. Our study shows otherwise.
We tested for Change Blindness (CB) and Inattentional Blindness (IB) in a single-modal, mobile context and attempted to establish factors in the application interface design that induce and/or reduce their occurrences. The results show that both CB and IB can and do occur while using mobile devices. The results also suggest that the number of separate attendable items on-screen is directly proportional to rates of CB. Newly inserted objects were correctly identified more often than changes applied to existing on-screen objects. These results suggest that it is important for mobile UI designers to take these aspects of visual attention into account when designing mobile applications that attempt to deliver information through visual changes or notifications.
ACMWe tested for Change Blindness (CB) and Inattentional Blindness (IB) in a single-modal, mobile context and attempted to establish factors in the application interface design that induce and/or reduce their occurrences. The results show that both CB and IB can and do occur while using mobile devices. The results also suggest that the number of separate attendable items on-screen is directly proportional to rates of CB. Newly inserted objects were correctly identified more often than changes applied to existing on-screen objects. These results suggest that it is important for mobile UI designers to take these aspects of visual attention into account when designing mobile applications that attempt to deliver information through visual changes or notifications.
The Bohemian Bookshelf: Supporting Serendipitous Book Discoveries through Information Visualization - Paper
Contribution & Benefit: This paper explores information visualizations as a means to support serendipity based on the case study of the Bohemian Bookshelf, a visualization that was designed to support serendipitous book discoveries.
Abstract » Serendipity, a trigger of exciting yet unexpected discoveries, is an important but comparatively neglected factor in information seeking, research, and ideation. We suggest that serendipity can be facilitated through visualization. To explore this, we introduce the Bohemian Bookshelf, which aims to support serendipitous discoveries in the context of digital book collections. The Bohemian Bookshelf consists of five interlinked visualizations each offering a unique overview of the collection. It aims at encouraging serendipity by (1) offering multiple visual access points to the collection, (2) highlighting adjacencies between books, (3) providing flexible visual pathways for exploring the collection, (4) enticing curiosity through abstract, metaphorical, and visually distinct representations of books, and (5) enabling a playful approach to information exploration. A deployment at a library revealed that visitors embraced this approach of utilizing visualization to support open-ended explorations and serendipitous discoveries. This encourages future explorations into promoting serendipity through information visualization.
ACMReactive Information Foraging: An Empirical Investigation of Theory-Based Recommender Systems for Programmers - Paper
Contribution & Benefit: Empirically investigates how programmers behave with different recommender systems based on Reactive Information Foraging Theory. Can assist tool builders in how to design recommender systems for programmers.
Abstract » Information Foraging Theory (IFT) has established itself as an important theory to explain how people seek information, but most work has focused more on the theory itself than on how best to apply it. In this paper, we investigate how to apply a reactive variant of IFT (Reactive IFT) to design IFT-based tools, with a special focus on such tools for ill-structured problems. Toward this end, we designed and implemented a variety of recommender algorithms to empirically investigate how to help people with the ill-structured problem of finding where to look for information while debugging source code. We varied the algorithms based on scent type supported (words alone vs. words + code structure), and based on use of foraging momentum to estimate rapidity of foragers' goal changes. Our empirical results showed that (1) using both words and code structure significantly improved the ability of the algorithms to recommend where software developers should look for information; (2) participants used recommendations to discover new places in the code and also as shortcuts to navigate to known places; and (3) low-momentum recommendations were significantly more useful than high-momentum recommendations, suggesting rapid and numerous goal changes in this type of setting. Overall, our contributions include two new recommendation algorithms, empirical evidence about when and why participants found IFT-based recommendations useful, and implications for the design of tools based on Reactive IFT.
ACM