8773945
Changing the pace of search: Supporting background information seeking
Almost all Web searches are carried out while the user is sitting at a conventional desktop computer connected to the Internet. Although online, handheld, mobile search offers new possibilities, the fast-paced, focused style of interaction may not be appropriate for all user search needs. The authors explore an alternative, relaxed style for Web searching that asynchronously combines an offline handheld computer and an online desktop personal computer. They discuss the role and utility of such an approach, present a tool to meet these user needs, and discuss its relation to other systems.
39264003
HyperAT: HCI and Web Authoring
We review HCI problems with hypertext, and for authoring World Wide Web documents in particular. We suggest that a framework is required to understand the usability issues, and that these issues cannot be seen as psychological or computing: they are multi-disciplinary. We discuss HyperAT, a protorype authoring tool, being implemented to test these ideas.
22559047
Usability of digital libraries
3300534
Improving mobile internet usability
Mobile internet technologies, such as WAP, are important for pervasive, anytime, anywhere computing. Although much progress has been made in terms of technological innovation, many of mobile internet systems are difficult to use, lack flexibility and robustness. They give a poor user experience. Evaluation and theoretical analysis of usability combined with innovative design can achieve significant improvements in user performance and satisfaction. Using such multidisciplinary methods explains the negative reactions to WAP, and — more constructively — suggest ways of developing more effective and efficient devices and services.
3268647
A digital library of conversational expressions: helping profoundly disabled users communicate
Digital libraries are for everyone. This paper describes the development of a digital library for a user who has a profound physical disability that means she cannot communicate verbally, and cannot use conventional communication tools.
42586645
The music is the message
the music being played by her tiny mobile audio appliance. She's standing waiting for a train. Other commuters swarm nearby, headphones on, listening in more muted ways to the soundtracks they've chosen to accompany today's episode of their daily routine. Mobile music players—iPods, Walkmans and the like—are exciting for those of us involved in thinking about the future of mobile devices and services. Like the mobile phone—increasing numbers of which also sport a music player—these are gadgets that people actually desire, and aspire to own. They have vast storage capacities, increasingly sophisticated processors and pleasing, effective mechanisms for users to control their func-tionality. From click and jog wheels to high-resolution color displays, these players are far from being the impoverished devices that typified mobile platforms just a few years ago. And there are hundreds of millions of them in circulation—Apple sold five million in the first quarter of 2006 alone. But at the same time, these marvelous mobiles could be seen as an obstacle to the bright futures dreamt up in the research labs. How will people be able to make use of the ubiquitous computing infrastructure being envisaged, the anytime, everywhere access to information and services, when they are immersed in digital sound bubbles of their own choosing? Some mobile listeners, at first sight, certainly appear cut off. Another scene: A young man stares out of a train window, watching the long green fields flash by. His eyes are bright but still; his gaze betrays a mood of deep reflection. Listening to music on expensive , noise-reducing headphones, what is he thinking? Is he sadly contemplating a lover left or anticipating a longed-for meeting at his destination? How can we design mobile services that will fit this context? The conventional clumsy beeps, vibrations, and attention-seeking displays seem out of place. What opportunities are there to build more emphatic systems , systems to enhance the music and environmental experience or to provide ways for the listener to later reflect on the situations they've lived through in relation to the music they've heard? At other times, though, these sound bubbles seem more permeable, don't they? One of the photos of people listening to music available on a popular image-sharing site is entitled " Listening to Kim's iPod and talking to Joe! " A teenager holds a mobile phone to her left ear while wearing the distinctive white music-player headphones. Chatting and …
34512114
Nanomanipulator applications in education: the impact of haptic experiences on students' attitudes and concepts
This research investigated educational uses of the nanoManipulator (nM) that when connected to an atomic force microscope allows students to get tactile feedback and manipulate objects such as viruses that are nanometer-sized. Our research focused on documenting how haptic feedback impacted students' attitudes as well as their understandings of viruses. The study involved 209 middle and high schools students. Half of the students received haptic feedback during investigations and half had the same investigations with the haptic feedback blocked by the computer. The results showed that students' with haptic feedback had better attitudes towards the investigations and were more likely to develop 3-dimensional concepts of adenoviruses that were more morphologically accurate.
6541426
Wikifying your interface: facilitating community-based interface translation
We explore the application of a wiki-based technology and style of interaction to enabling the incremental translation of a collaborative application into a number of different languages, including variant English language interfaces better suited to the needs of particular user communities. The development work allows us to explore in more detail the design space of functionality and interfaces relating to tailoring, customization, personalization and localization, and the challenges of designing to support ongoing incremental contributions by members of different use communities.
6680702
Melting Objects
This paper describes a technique for producing realistic animations of melting objects. The work presented here introduces a method that accurately models both thermal flow and the latent heat during the phase change. The mechanism for energy transfer to the model is via both boundary conditions and radiation. Emphasis is made on accurately modelling the solid object and the method is particularly suited to rigid solids with complex surface geometry. The underlying objects are constructed using Volume Graphics modelling techniques (specifically voxelization), and a numerical simulation computes the time-dependent heat flow throughout the object. A technique for computing the phase transition is given, and details for rendering the melting objects are provided. The melting is controlled by material parameters, such as specific heat capacity, thermal conductivity, latent heat and temperature. Examples are given of melting ice and a plastic man.
32525185
Don't Emancipate, Exaggerate: Rhetoric, Reality and Reengineering
2264317
Web Mash-ups and Patchwork Prototyping: User-driven technological innovation with Web 2.0 and Open Source Software
The recent emergence of Web mash-ups and open source software is driving the development of new practices in software and systems development. In this paper we explore novel practices of user-driven innovation through an examination of several case studies which illustrate how users and developers are exploiting the proliferation of open APIs and open source systems. Developers can rapidly create proofs of concept that are robust enough for actual use by combining preexisting software components. The underlying programming processes involved make use of tried-and-true software development techniques, and may not appear innovative at first. However, the application of these practices and techniques to problem solving by non-programmers shows a high degree of creative innovation, giving rise to new ways of thinking about technology design and production