Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bgsuvax!instone
From: instone@bgsuvax.UUCP (Keith Instone)
Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: Tools for user interface RESEARCH
Message-ID: <4172@bgsuvax.UUCP>
Date: 23 May 89 18:00:31 GMT
References: <1085@dgbt.uucp>
Organization: Bowling Green State University B.G., Oh.
Lines: 85

From article <1085@dgbt.uucp>, by andrew@dgbt.uucp (Andrew Patrick):
> In article <4128@bgsuvax.UUCP> instone@bgsuvax.UUCP (Keith Instone) writes:
>>
>>Has anyone made a generic tool for user interface research?
>>
> An interesting question.  I'm not sure what you mean by a "tool for
> interface research".  It sounds like you mean a tool for testing
> interfaces.  That tool is the user -- the person.  The ultimate test
> of any user interface is the opinions and behaviour of the user.
> Thus, our generic "tool" is to sit people down and ask them what they
> think, and measure what they do.
> 
> This research "tool" is rather expensive, but I'm not sure that any
> other "tool" will do the job.
> 

Certainly you have to test interfaces with people. The problem I
am addressing (I think!) is how you get the interface in front
of the people in order to test it.

Why, you build the interface, of course.  And you write programs
to collect the data, like response time and error rate. And
you conduct experiments. THAT'S A LOT OF WORK.

I am sure people have tools to make this work easier. I am not
sure if people have made tools for generic (application and
system independent) research. Let me try to explain it better.

One tool for developing interfaces are UIMSs. As best as I can
fathom, they are used to design interfaces and to help in implementing
specific interfaces. Are they used for testing them? Isn't the 
general philosophy in UIMSs that they will crank out pretty
useful interfaces automatically? I don't know. Are UIMSs used extensively
for testing, or do they just use findings from other research
to make good interfaces?

Another tool is prototyping. You prototype certain systems. Your
testing will tell you what is best _for_that_situation_. The
results are hard to generalize because user interfaces are so
complex. Maybe prototyping is also used in more general ways,
if icons are useful or not, where to add color,
whatever. I don't know.

Let's say I want to study menus. It has been done many times,
so hopefully someone has made a tool to make this research as
painless as possible. Here is a wish list of what I want in my tool:

    o An underlying application. It should
      already be programmed. Maybe a simple file manipulation system
      for starters. Just something for the subjects to play with.

    o Easy modification of the interface to control for my variables.
      Maybe I am comparing pull down versus pop-up menus. Or
      liner versus pie. Or using different phrases in the menus. All
      these features have been programmed before. Why do it again?

    o Many types of interfaces supported. So I can try direct
      manipulation, form fill in, sounds, whatever. We don't want
      to be limited to the Macintosh style, for example.

    o Run on lots of systems. This tool would be for generic
      research, so the system shouldn't matter.

    o Invisible data collection. Just sit the subjects in front
      of the interface, let them do some work. Analyze the
      results.

    o Write my paper for me. Is this too much to ask? :^)

Can my wish come true? 

My motivation for the original question:
I have read articles about experiments
with interfaces. They say it was done on system X with your
ordinary software development tool Y. If it took 10 graduate
students 6 months to built the test system, then I am surprised
anyone does research at all! Maybe it didn't. I don't know.

So, to summarize, there are tools for developing interfaces. Are
there software tools for testing them? Are there software tools
for quickly and easily experimenting with interfaces?

Keith
"The good Lord must have been in a particularly good mood when He created...
   Missouri" - Missouri tourism film