Visual information affordances
We have done two studies in this area. One of them is about ways of drawing
users attention to objects the computer programs (or agents if you like)
"think" the user should attend. This can be done by graphically masking
all but the highlighted objects. There are various masking techniques including
screening, bleaching (lowering contrast) and darkening (lowering brightness).
The research issue here is the trade-off between the "pop out" effect created
by masking and the legibility of the masked objects. The detail of our
study is reported in an INTERACT'97
paper (postscript).
As graphical user interfaces (GUI) become increasingly loaded, we spend
more time in searching objects (files, programs, etc.). Did you ever
have trouble to find programs whose name you could not recall? We are conducting
studies to identify the strength of various visual dimensions, such as
3D and spatial layout, in helping users to retrieve objects. We have
published two studies on this topic:
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Ark, W, Dryer, D.C, Selker, T., Zhai. S., Representation
matters: the effect of 3D objects and a spatial metaphor in a graphical
user interface, in H. Johnson,
N. Lawrence, C. Roast (Eds), People and Computers XIII, Proc of HCI'98,
Springer. pp 209 -219.
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Ark, W, Dryer, D.C, Selker, T., Zhai. S., Landmarks
to Aid Navigation in a Graphical User Interface, In Proc.
of Workshop on Personalized and Social Navigation in Information Space,
Stockholm, Sweden, March 6-7, 1998.