FOXEA@VTCC1 (07/23/88)
IRList Digest Friday, 22 July 1988 Volume 4 : Issue 40
Today's Topics:
Discussion - Metamorph from Thunderstone/EPI (see V4 #35)
- Online costs effect search style (see V3 #38)
- Pedagogical model for IRS (see V4 #39)
Announcement - User Interface Strategies '88 (short & long versions)
News addresses are
Internet or CSNET: fox@vtopus.cs.vt.edu or fox@fox.cs.vt.edu
BITNET: foxea@vtvax3.bitnet (soon will be foxea@vtcc1)
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Date: Thu, 07 Jul 88 19:15:07 CST
From: Tung-Ying Chang <EC6C6003@TWNMOE10>
Subject: ... Metamorph ...
Dear Professor Fox,
. . . I am very glad that I receive Volume 4 issue 35 which
concerning US high technology and Metamorph.
Somebody tell me that Metamorph is a smart software program. It is very
fast and very expensive ($5,000). However, I like to know further information
about this program. ...
Regards.
Tung-Ying Chang
[Note: I have had several other comments about Metamorph. I recall
attending a meeting in May 1986 in which Michael Pincus spoke of his
product. None of the people I knew there understood what he was
saying and there were no real technical details. I have read the
article in Defense Science that was covered in V4 #35, and a packet
of other materials sent to me which include the following:
"Metamorph: Knowledge Management Through Text Understanding"
"Metamorph Version 2.1 Description and Specifications"
News article in "MIS Week", V8 #1, Jan. 5, 1987
I still have very little technical details. They claim to have
250,000 English morphemes, with some linkages stored in either matrix
or semantic network form. They take input queries and documents and
can perform rapid string searches and pattern matching, and can build
either into their frame/semantic network form. They do matching of these
networks very quickly for searching - the document database is not
pre-indexed but is processed sequentially against the query
representation. They claim 500,000 characters/second search rate on
a PC/AT. I wonder if that is good if one compares to a system that
uses an index - it does not sound that great for databases where
repeated searches are made.
All of this allows correlations between queries and documents.
The features they claim include: "natural language control", "extensive
linguistic knowledge base", "richer information retrieval". The
advantages they claim include: "enhanced expert capability from available
human resources". The discussion talks about a "CATEGORY NETWORK
organized hierarchically with many CROSS-LINKS" and "REASONING".
I do not know of any comparisons of Metamorph with experimental
retrieval systems, regarding effectiveness. Does anyone else?
If anyone has technical details, please advise, but I prefer to not
discuss commercial systems unless there is something new that we can
all understand, and I doubt we can do more than guess at how this
works with the available information. - Ed.]
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Date: Thu, 21 Jul 88 09:36:54 CST
From: Jeff Huestis <C81350JH@WUVMD>
Subject: Re: Do online costs effect search style?
To: Bill Joel <JZEM@MARIST>
I think there are a lot of people who agree with you. There have been some
papers published on searching as a "learning process" which seem to bear
on what you're saying. The two names that jump first to mind are Bruce
Croft and Abraham Bookstein. However, really, the whole point of interactive
systems like DIALOG, ORBIT, SDC, etc. was search refinement based on the
results. Your analogy to searching the stacks is apropos. People in
IR tend to ignore what goes on in libraries, I suppose because librarians
generally don't know anything about IR (I can say that because I'm a librarian
:-)). Ed's comment about the impact of CD-ROM is probably on the money, as
regards what will happen in libraries to improve the cost issue itself. But
I think the iterative, adaptive nature of searching is a more interesting
aspect of your query. While it's not a new subject, it should get new
attention under the rubric of Hypermedia.
If you're interested, I think I have some citations to Croft, Bookstein,
etc., and can send them to you.
--Regards,
Jeff Huestis
Washington University (St. Louis)
(c81350jh@wuvmd.bitnet)
cc: IRLIST
[Note: there is some work starting on how to evaluate entire
interactive sessions; J. Tague gave a good presentation at the
recently SIGIR conference about some of that work. - Ed]
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Date: Fri, 22 Jul 88 09:15:22 CST
From: Jeff Huestis <C81350JH@WUVMD>
Subject: Re: Pedagogical Model for IRS
To: Avigail Oren <C37@TAUNOS>
This is in response to your query in the latest IRLIST. It seems to me
that what you are asking about is a new question with respect to "IR" as
that term is generally used (ie., a research discipline), and very old as
it relates to library practice, especially in regard to the command that
high school students have of the mechanisms of literature searching, manual
or automated. The paper which Ed mentioned, by Marcia Bates, is an excellent
place to start, for searching strategies in a library online catalog, but that
tool is almost totally divorced from the world of IR proper.
Bates doesn't get very heavily into the
needs of naive users. The key word you should be looking for in modeling
naive users is "bibliographic instruction", an area of specialization in
library practice, on which there is a tremendous amount of literature. Your
local librarians should be able to help you with that. As regards
bibliographic instruction in an online catalog environment, I suggest you
look at the work that Brian Nielson and Betsy Baker have been doing at
Northwestern University. If you need help finding citations, let me know.
Let me add that I find the idea of carrying bibliographic instruction
into a "real" IRS very exciting. Good luck!
--Regards,
Jeffrey C. Huestis
Head, Library Systems Services
Washington University, St. Louis, MO
c81350jh@wuvmd.bitnet
cc: IRLIST
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Date: Thu, 7 Jul 88 07:16:55 EDT
From: Ben Shneiderman <ben@mimsy.umd.edu>
Subject: a notice about User Interfaces
Would you post this notice ... on IRLIST...I think it should be
relevant ...
We are eager to make a big splash with this show and promote User Interface
concerns...do you have any other mechanisms for distributing the announcement?
Or suggestions for us?
[Note: perhaps others will re-distribute this or try to make
local arrangements for receiving the course. - Ed.]
Thanks...Ben
___________________________
User Interface Strategies '88
A two-day national satellite TV course October 5 and 12, 1988
Organized by Ben Shneiderman, University of Maryland
Presenting
Thomas Malone, MIT
Donald Norman, University of California, San Diego
James Foley, George Washington University
This course is produced by the University of Maryland Instructional
Television (ITV) System and broadcast nationwide at more than 200 sites
on the AMCEE/NTU (National Technological University) Satellite
Network. For a copy of the full brochure and information on attending at
an AMCEE site in your area or at an ITV site in the Washington, DC
area, call the University of Maryland ITV office at (301) 454-8955. You
may consider arranging a private showing as a special event for your
organization, university, or company.
Overview: New user interfaces ideas have engaged many researchers,
designers, programmers, and users in the past year. These four leaders of
the field offer their perspectives on why the user interface is a central
focus for expanding the application of computers. Each will offer his
vision and suggest exciting opportunities for next year's developments.
Demonstrations, new software tools, guiding principles, emerging
theories, and empirical results will be presented.
Intended audience: User interface designers, programmers, software
engineers, human factors specialists, managers of computer, information,
and communications projects, trainers, etc.
---- October 5, 1988 -------------------------------------------------
Ben Shneiderman, University of Maryland
Lecture 1: INTRODUCTION: User Interfaces Strategies
Lecture 2: HYPERTEXT: Hype or Help?
Thomas W. Malone, MIT
Lecture 3: COMPUTER-SUPPORTED COOPERATIVE WORK:
Using information technology for coordination
Lecture 4: COMPUTER-SUPPORTED COOPERATIVE WORK:
Design principles and applications
Discussion Hour
---- October 12, 1988 -----------------------------------------------
Donald A. Norman, University of California, San Diego
Lecture 5: USER CENTERED SYSTEM DESIGN:
Emphasizing usability and understandability
Lecture 6: Practical principles for designers
Jim Foley, George Washington University
Lecture 7: Software tools for designing and implementing user-computer
interfaces
Lecture 8: User Interface Management Systems (UIMSs)
Discussion Hour
****** A longer version follows for those interested ************
----- October 5, 1988 ----------------------------------
INTRODUCTION: NEW USER INTERFACE STRATEGIES
AND HYPERTEXT
Ben Shneiderman, University of Maryland
Why user interface issues are now recognized as the vital force
The three pillars: (1) Usability labs & interactive testing, (2) User interface
management systems, (3) Guidelines documents & standards
New menus, clever input devices, sharper displays, more color,
teleoperation, collaboration
UI vs AI: User interface goes a step beyond artificial intelligence
Hypertext: Hype or Help? Understanding new medias: When and how to
use hypertext. User interface design for hypertext; Automatic importing and
exporting
Ben Shneiderman is an Associate Professor in the Department of
Computer Science, Head of the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory,
and Member of the Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, all at the
University of Maryland at College Park. Dr. Shneiderman is the author of
Software Psychology: Human Factors in Computer and Information
Systems (1980) and Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective
Human-Computer Interaction (1987).
COMPUTER SUPPORTED COOPERATIVE WORK:
USING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR COORDINATION
Thomas W. Malone, MIT
New applications have begun to appear that help people work together more
productively. Organizations are beginning to use new systems to (a)
increase coordination of design teams, (b) solicit input on new projects from
diverse sources, and (c) display and manipulate information more
effectively in face-to-face meetings. These new applications (often called
computer supported cooperative work or groupware) are likely to become
widespread in the next few years.
Types of groupware (face-to-face vs. remote; simultaneous vs. delayed).
Electronic meeting rooms (e.g., Xerox Colab, MCC, Univ. of Arizona,
Univ. of Michigan).
Asynchronous coordination tools (e.g., electronic messaging, collaborative
authoring, Information Lens (demo will be made), Coordinator).
Guidelines for designing organizational interfaces: (importance of
semi-formal systems, incremental adoption paths, user autonomy,
social and political factors).
Thomas W. Malone is the Douglas Drane Career Development Associate
Professor of Information Technology and Management at the MIT School
of Management. He serves on the editorial boards of Human-Computer
Interaction, Information Systems Research, MIS Quarterly, and
Organizational Science. Before joining the MIT faculty, Professor Malone
was a research scientist at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC).
----- October 12, 1988 ---------------------------------------------
USER CENTERED SYSTEM DESIGN:
EMPHASIZING USABILITY AND UNDERSTANDABILITY
Donald A. Norman, University of California, San Diego
The emphasis is on ways to make new devices easy to understand and easy
to use. This is done, to a large extent, by making the information necessary
to do the task available, thus minimizing the memory burden and learning
time. The ideal is that when one does a task, the knowledge required
should be that of the task: as much as possible, the tool itself should be
invisible.
The Seven Stages of Action: (1) Forming the goal; (2) Forming the
intention; (3) Specifying an action; (4) Executing the action; (5) Perceiving
the system state; (6) Interpreting the system state; (7) Evaluating the
outcome.
Direct Manipulation and the Model World Metaphor
Making the computer invisible -- letting the user work directly on the task.
Seven Principles for Transforming Difficult Tasks Into Simple Ones: (1)
Use Both Knowledge in the World and in the Head. (2) Simplify the
Structure of Tasks. (3) Make Things Visible: Bridge the Gulfs of Execution
and Evaluation. (4) Get the Mappings Right. (5) Exploit the Power of
Constraints, Both Natural and Artificial. (6) Design for Error. (7) When All
Else Fails, Standardize.
Donald A. Norman is Professor of Psychology at the University of
California, San Diego, where he is Director of the Institute for Cognitive
Science and chair of the interdisciplinary PhD program in Cognitive
Science. Prof. Norman received a BS degree from MIT and a MS degree
from the University of Pennsylvania, both in Electrical Engineering. His
doctorate, from the University of Pennsylvania, is in Psychology. He has
published extensively in journals and books, and is the author or co-author
of eight books. His most recent book (published in Spring, 1988), is The
Psychology of Everyday Things.
TOOLS FOR DESIGNING AND IMPLEMENTING
USER-COMPUTER INTERFACES
James D. Foley, The George Washington University
Design and implementation of successful user interfaces is facilitated by
appropriate software tools. The tools enhance designer and programmer
productivity, and simplify user interface refinement as experience is gained
with early users. The tools can also enforce user interface design precepts
by incorporating design decisions into the interface.
Graphics subroutine packages.
Window managers - client-server model of X Windows, services to the
application programmer.
Interaction technique libraries - procedures for presenting menus, dialogue
boxes, scroll bars, etc.
Application frameworks, such as Apple's MacApp.
Rapid prototyping systems - quick design of interactive system prototypes
by non-programmers.
User Interface Management Systems - higher-level specification, automatic
implementation.
Expert system tools - to give designer guidance/feedback on design, to give
user help and guidance.
Several system-building tools will be demonstrated (GWU's UIDE,
Help-by example, either Prototyper on the Mac or Bricklin's demo program
on the PC).
James Foley is Professor and chairman-elect at the Department of EE &
CS, George Washington University. He is co-author, with A. vanDam, of
Fundamentals of Interactive Computer Graphics. His article "Interfaces for
Advanced Computing" appeared in the October 1987 Scientific American.
Foley is an associate editor of Transactions on Graphics, and a fellow of the
IEEE.
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END OF IRList Digest
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