Details

Seminars 1 & 3: Human-Centered Design Meets Cognitive Load Theory: Designing Interfaces that Help People Think
Seminar 2: Implicit User-Adaptive System Engagement in Speech, Pen and Multimodal Systems
Speaker: Prof. Sharon Oviatt, Incaa Designs, Washington

Locations and times

This seminar will take place at the following locations and dates:

• Melbourne (talk 1)
Date: 3-4pm March 3rd 2008
Location: IDEA lab, University of Melbourne, level 4 111 Barry St, Carlton, Victoria
Contact: Frank Vetere, f.vetere@unimelb.edu.au

• Brisbane (talk 2)
Date: 2-3pm March 4th 2008
Location:General Purpose South (Building 78) Room 420 (78-420), University of Queensland, St Lucia Campus, Brisbane
Contact: Penny Sanderson, psanderson@itee.uq.edu.au

• Sydney (talk 3)
Date: 3-4pm March 5th 2008
Location:Seminar Room, Bay 15 Locomotive Workshop (NICTA), Australian Technology Park, Eveleigh, Sydney
Contact: Fang Chen, fang.chen@nicta.com.au

Overview

The design of effective interfaces is a cross disciplinary research area. It involves HCI, Psychology, Communication Science, Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Science, Computer Science, Linguistics and Speech Science, Sociology and many other fields. Professor Sharon Oviatt has achieved remarkable and groundbreaking work in HCI and cognitive science. She applies both her computer science and experimental psychology background to the field and through her many years of theoretical, design and development experience can offer a varied and specialist insight. She is a highly awarded researcher and holds eminent positions both in academia and industry.

Talks 1 & 3: Human-Centered Design Meets Cognitive Load Theory: Designing Interfaces that Help People Think (Presentation Slides)

Historically, the development of computer systems has been primarily a technology-driven phenomenon, with technologists believing that "users can adapt" to whatever they build. Human-centered design advocates that a more promising and enduring approach is to model users' natural behavior to begin with so that interfaces can be designed that are more intuitive, easier to learn, and freer of performance errors. In this talk, I illustrate different user-centered design principles and specific strategies, as well as their advantages and the manner in which they enhance users' performance. I also summarize recent research findings comparing the performance characteristics of different educational interfaces that were based on user-centered design principles. One theme throughout is human-centered design that minimizes users' cognitive load, which effectively frees up mental resources for performing better while also remaining more attuned to the world around them.

Talk 2: Implicit User-Adaptive System Engagement in Speech, Pen and Multimodal Systems (Presentation Slides)

As emphasis is placed on developing mobile, educational, and other applications that minimize cognitive load on users, it is becoming more essential to base interface design on implicit engagement techniques so users can remain focused on their tasks. In this research, data were collected with 12 pairs of students who solved complex math problems using a tutorial system that they engaged over 100 times per session entirely implicitly via speech amplitude or pen pressure cues. Results revealed that users spontaneously, reliably, and substantially adapted these forms of communicative energy to designate and repair an intended interlocutor in a computer-mediated group setting. This behavior was harnessed to achieve system engagement accuracies of 75-86%, with accuracies highest using speech amplitude. However, students had limited awareness of their own adaptations. Finally, while continually using these implicit engagement techniques, students maintained their performance level at solving complex mathematics problems throughout a one-hour session.