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The members of the Teallach Project team are delighted to announce that the following distinguished researchers will be giving presentations at the Teallach Workshop:
Please note that the titles and abstracts are only tentative at this stage and will be subject to change. Select the speakers' names to read about them and the presentation they will be giving at the workshop.
| Title: | An Open Model-Based Interface Development System: The Teallach Approach |
| Abstract: | The aim of the Teallach project is to provide facilitates to support the systematic development of user interfaces to object databases in a way that provides some degree of database system and hardware platform independence. This aim is being addressed through the adoption of model-based interface development techniques, which are being adapted for use in an open setting - interfaces must be able to be constructed to existing database systems and using existing information visualisation facilities. The talk outlines experience to date in the Teallach project, indicating where limitations have been identified in existing model-based systems, and outlining a proposal for a model-based interface development environment for databases. |
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Professor Johnson is professor of Human Computer Interaction at the Department of Computer Studies at the Queen Mary & Westfield College, University of London. Professor Johnson joined QMW in 1984 before which he worked at the UCL Ergonomics Unit. He has a Ph.D. in Congnitive Psychology from Warwick University.
Professor Johnson has been involved in numerous research projects most of which have focused on modelling tasks and users. One such project involved the development of an Advanced Design Environment for prototyping with Task models (ADEPT). This work was done in collaboration with BAe, BMT and MJC. The team developed a framework, tools and method for model based user interface design, and a design environment - ADEPT - for constructing task models, user models and user interface designs (from which runnable user interfaces are produced). It is his work in this field which will provide the focus for his talk at the Teallach Workshop.
| Title: | ADEPT Then And Now |
| Abstract: | The ADEPT project started from our theoretical and methodological research on Task Knowledge Structures which identified what TKS are, how they might be analysed and modelled and how they might be used to support design (Johnson & Johnson 1989). The intention behind the ADEPT research was to investigate how these ideas about task modelling together with other work on user interface modelling and user modelling could each contribute to user interface design. The research investigated particular forms of models of users, tasks and user interfaces, and how these three can come together (Wilson, et al 1992). From these investigation we gained a clearer and deeper understanding that enabled us to establish Task Based Design (Johnson et al 1995) and to develop some initial guidelines for this (Wilson & Johnson 1996). The construction and use of the ADEPT tools was an important aid to this research in a number of ways. First, they enabled us to demonstrate that task modelling could be used in significant ways to arrive at user interface designs. Second, they caused us to reconsider how the various models interacted and in so doing made minimum use of a user modelling component. Third, the ADEPT tools also enabled us to focus more upon what the design decision being taken in moving from current tasks,to designed task, to interface designs were. Our present research continues to investigate the role of task and other forms of modelling in design in the form of principles to support design and representations and processes to involve users in design. In addition, we are investigating how these can be applied to the design of multimedia, collaborative environments. |
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Dr Lisa Tweedie works as a researcher within the Department of Electrical Engineering at Imperial College, London where she obtained her Ph.D. having previously studied for a degree in Human Psychology at the University of Aston, Birmingham. Her research interests include the innovation of interactive visualisation artifacts and their use as external representations of users problems.
Whilst working in the Applied Psychology Unit in Cambridge, Dr Tweedie developed the first version of the ANIMICs animations and was involved in the AMADEUS project. Her recent work at Imperial College include the Attribute Explorer which is a conceptual visualisation designed to present data from databases with many attributes, and DIVA - a notation to describe visualisations.
| Title: | Banishing Blinkers in Database Querying: An overview of some contextual presentation techniques |
| Abstract: | In many of today’s databases a user sets up query and is returned a result. There is usually little information provided about the context in which that result lies.... Were there many other similar results? What would have happened if I had changed my query slightly? Thus the user is forced to take a blinkered approach to querying. With the advent of fast graphical computers we can do much more to support the user than simply presenting the result of a query. The computer’s speed can be used to calculate additional meta-information and we can perform other searches local to the query. By presenting this additional data visually we can provide the user with an information rich display which provides a context for decision making. Such displays mean that the user can both actively information seek in a directed way and also opportunistically notice other trends that may not have considered. Such opportunistic behaviour is something at which humans are adept and should be supported in any query interface. In this talk I will demonstrate a number of interactive techniques which can be used to provide context during database querying. I will then consider ways that these techniques might be characterized. |
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Professor Benyon is professor of Human Computer Interaction at the Department of Computer Studies within Napier University in Edinburgh. Professor Benyon received a B.A. in Mathematics and Politics before going on to obtain an M.Sc. in Computing and Cognition and then his Ph.D. in Intelligence at the Interface. His research is based in human-computer interaction (HCI), particularly in the application of knowledge-based techniques to HCI.
Professor Benyon has a number of interests in the Fourth Framework Programme one of which is an initiative in cognitive science and human-computer interaction for the Entity-Relationship Modelling of Information Artefacts (ERMIA) project. Professor Benyon will focus on ERMIA for his presentation at the Teallach Workshop.
| Title: | Applications of Entity-Relationship Modelling of Information Artefacts |
| Abstract: | ERMIA (Entity-Relationship Modelling of Information Artefacts) provides an extension to entity-relationship modelling techniques to provide a structural representation of the interaction between people and "information artefacts". Such a representation may then be used to compare contrasting interface designs or identify potential usability problems in an existing system. A number of applications of the technique are presented in order to illustrate where and when ERMIA might be useful. One is an application of the technique to the area of theorem proving. We provide models of the conceptual structure of a theorem prover and then show how examination of these models, and comparison with a perceptual model of the interface to the theorem prover, highlights potential usability problems. |
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Dr Monk conducts research at the Department of Psychology within the University of York. His teaching specialities include data analysis and visualisation and human computer interaction. Dr Monk has published numerous readings on the relationship between humans and computers. In addition, he is chair of the British HCI Group.
Dr Monk's presentation at the Teallach Workshop will focus on ways in which the gap between task definitions and user interface design can be bridged.
| Title: | Fit For Purpose? Bridging the Gap Between Task Definition and User Interface Design |
| Abstract: | Many interfaces to database systems fail because they are not "fit for purpose". They do not allow the operators to work in the way they want to, or prevent someone else from doing what they want to. In this talk, I will outline an approach to preventing this kind of problem. It consists of:
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