Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!batcomputer!cornell!uw-beaver!milton!hlab
From: chalmers@europarc.xerox.com (Matthew Chalmers)
Subject: Re: Human Factors and VR
Message-ID: <1991Apr3.192358.11790@milton.u.washington.edu>
Sender: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu (Human Int. Technology Lab)
Organization: Rank Xerox EuroPARC, Cambridge, UK
References:  <1991Apr2.223640.26210@milton.u.washington.edu>
Date:   Wed, 3 Apr 1991 05:43:07 PST
Approved: cyberoid@milton.u.washington.edu



In article <1991Apr2.223640.26210@milton.u.washington.edu>, pat@jupiter.risc.roc
kwell.com (Pete Tinker) writes:
> 
> I think that human factors concerns are *the* most important aspect of our
> work.  I'm "selling" VR internally to groups that want dramatic 
> demonstrations of their projects to customers and potential customers, but 
> my longer-term research focus is concerned with using virtual space as an 
> "information space."
>...
> This work raises many questions about the effective use of the (potentially
> limitless) display area (volume) of virtual space, and about how it can 
> benefit users in critical situations.
> 
> A big issue for me, then, is how we can capitalize on the practical potential
> benefits of virtual space without hindering the information flow to a user at
> the same time.  VR *can* be used in many applications, but there are few 
> (IMHO) for which it's clearly better than more conventional approaches.  
> Placing someone in a virtual environment is fun for a while, but if it 
> doesn't help do the job it won't gain much acceptance.  That's where human 
> factors research comes in.
> 

I think this is very true.. largely because my own preferences are similar. 
It made me think of some other issues that I'd like to open up for discussion.

It is interesting to compare the types of information display discussed in 
standard graphics texts - often 2D or 3D and 'physically based' - with
those discussed in texts on more general information display - statistical
and multidimensional information. Obviously there are similarities but the
variety of techniques, context-specificity and such are greater than I, as 
a computer scientist, expected. Their description and generation becomes 
less like the the analytical style seen in such books as Foley & van Dam, and
more like the exemplar-based styles of craft and art books.

I'm saying this as I have just finished reading a remarkably fine book, called
`Envisioning Information' by Edward Tufte. A superb text on the more general
craft of information display, it seems (to me) to reinforce the idea that some
level of aesthetic judgement is essential when trying to build useful
information displays. People understand information displays better when they
are well-crafted, where I mean 'craft'. 

When trying to design a system to display non-physically based information,
how much context-dependent skill and knowledge is needed by the system designer
or programmer? This ties in with the human factors point of Pete Tinker. He
points out that we ought to consider basic Human Factors research when putting
together VR systems. I think that this does not only mean the factors of the 
individual e.g. display sizes, but also the factors of the group of which that
individual is a member. In the area of Human Factors/CHI/CSCW there seems to be
an increasing awareness of the importance of social issues and how systems are
made more effective by taking into account the context of the system. Apart
from the issues of what people in a group will want to and be able to use 
something like a VR system, there is also the issue of the subjective and 
aesthetic rules of information interpretation.

I think that in the long run, we as system designers will have to take account
of these things. Right now I am interested in these issues but (surprise) have
no magical solutions or prescriptions. I just wanted to raise these points to
see what people thought about them and whether other people were interested or
actively working in them.

Regards,

-- Matthew