Applied Framework

Initial Framework

The initial framework for an applied approach to HCI follows. (Read More…..)

Key: Applied Knowledge – guidelines; heuristics; methods; expert advice; successful designs; case-studies. EP – Empirical Practice EK – Empirical Knowledge

Design Research Exemplar – HCI as Applied

Framework Extension

The Applied Framework is here expressed at the highest level of description. However, to conduct Applied design research and acquire/validate Applied knowledge etc, as suggested by the exemplar diagram above, lower levels of description are required.

Examples of such levels are presented here – first a short version and then a long version. Researchers, of course, might have their own lower level descriptions or subscribe to some more generally recognised levels. Such descriptions are acceptable, as long as they fit with the higher level descriptions of the framework and are complete; coherent and fit-for-purpose. In the absence of alternative levels of description, researchers might try the short version first .

These levels go, for example from ‘human’ to ‘user’ and from ‘computer’ to ‘interactive system’. The lowest level, of course, needs to reference the applied design itself, in terms of the application, for example, for a business interactive system, secretary and electronic mailing facility. Researchers are encouraged to select from the framework extensions as required and to add the lowest level description, relevant to their research. The lowest level is used here to illustrate the extended applied framework.

Applied Framework Extension - Short Version

Following the Applied Design Research exemplar diagram above, researchers need to specify: Specific Applied Problems (as they relate to User Requirements); Applied Research; Applied Knowledge; and Specific Applied Solutions (as thy relate to Interactive Systems).

These specifications require the extended Applied framework to include: the Application; the Interactive System; and Performance, relating the former to the latter. Applied design requires the Interactive System to do something (the Application) as desired (Performance). Applied Research acquires and validates Applied Knowledge to support Applied Design Practices.

The Applied Framework Extension, thus includes: Application; Interactive System; and Performance.

1 Applied Applications

1.1 Objects

Applied applications (the ‘ something’, which the interactive system does) can be described in terms of objects. Objects may be both abstract and physical and are characterised by their attributes. Abstract attributes are those of information and knowledge. Physical attributes are those of energy and matter.

For example, an applied GUI e-mail application, favouring the recognition of text and images over the recall of commands (such as for correspondence), can be described for design research purposes in terms of objects; their abstract attributes, supporting the communication of messages; their physical attributes supporting the GUI visual/verbal representation of displayed information by means of language. Applied objects are specified as part of design and can be researched as such.

1.2 Attributes and Levels

The attributes of an applied application object emerge at different levels of description. For example, characters and their configuration on a GUI page are physical attributes of the object ‘e-mail,’ which emerge at one level. The message of the e-mail is an abstract attribute, which emerges at a higher level of description.

1.3 Relations between Attributes

Attributes of applied application objects are related in two ways. First, attributes are related at different levels of complexity. Second, attributes are related within levels of description. Such relations are specified as part of Applied design.

1.4 Attribute States and Affordance

The attributes of applied application objects can be described as having states. Further, those states may change. For example, the content and characters (attributes) of an applied GUI e-mail (object) may change state: the content with respect to meaning and grammar; its characters with respect to size and font. Objects exhibit an affordance for transformation, associated with their attributes’ potential for state change.

1.5 Applications and the Requirement for Attribute State Changes

An applied application may be described in terms of affordances. Accordingly, an object may be associated with a number of applications. The GUI object ‘book’ may be associated with the application of typesetting (state changes of its layout attributes) and with the application of authorship (state changes of its textual content). In principle, an application may have any level of generality, for example, the writing of GUI personal e-mails and the writing of business e-mails. Object/attribute expression, as in the case of GUI e-mails, favours the recognition over the recall of command instructions.

Organisations have applications and require the realisation of the affordance of their associated objects. For example, ‘completing a survey’ and ‘writing to a friend’, each have a GUI e-mail as their transform, where the e-mails are objects, whose attributes (their content, format and status, for example) have an intended state. Further editing of those e-mails would produce additional state changes, and therein, new transforms. Requiring new affordances might constitute a Specific Applied Problem and lead to a new design, which embodies a Specific Applied Solution.

1.6 Application Goals

The requirement for the transformation of applied application objects is expressed in the form of goals. A product goal specifies a required transform – the realisation of the affordance of an object. A product goal supposes necessary state changes of many attributes. The requirement of each attribute state change can be expressed as an application task goal, derived from the product goal.

So, for example, the product goal demanding transformation of a GUI e-mail, making its message more courteous, would be expressed by task goals, possibly requiring state changes of semantic attributes of the propositional structure of the text and of syntactic attributes of the grammatical structure. Hence, a product goal can be re-expressed as an application task goal structure, a hierarchical structure expressing the relations between task goals, for example, their sequences. The latter, favouring recognition over recall of command instructions, might constitute part of an applied design.

1.7 Applied Application as: Doing Something as Desired

1.8 Applied Application and the User

One description of the applied application then, is of objects, characterised by their attributes, and exhibiting an affordance, arising from the potential changes of state of those attributes. By specifying product goals, users express their requirement for transforms – objects with specific attribute states. Transforms are produced by ‘doing something, as desired’.

From product goals is derived a structure of related task goals, which can be assigned, by design practice, either to the user or to the interactive computer (or both) within an associated interactive system. Task goals assigned to the user by the design are those, intended to motivate the user’s behaviours. The actual state changes (and therein transforms), which those behaviours produce, may or may not be those specified by task and product goals, a difference expressed by the concept ‘as desired’, characterised in terms of: wanted/needed/experienced/felt/valued.

2.Applied Interactive Computers

2.1 Interactive Systems

An interactive system can be described as a behavioural system, distinguished by a boundary enclosing all human and interactive computer behaviours, whose purpose is to achieve and satisfy a common goal. For example, the behaviours of a secretary and GUI electronic e-mail application, whose purpose is to conduct correspondence, constitute an interactive system. Critically, it is only by identifying the common goal, that the boundary of the interactive system can be established and so designed and researched.

Interactive systems transform objects by producing state changes in the abstract and physical attributes of those objects (see 1.1). The secretary and GUI e-mail application may transform the object ‘correspondence’ by changing both the attributes of its meaning and the attributes of its layout by means of recognised, as opposed to recalled command instructions.

The behaviours of the human and the interactive computer are described as behavioural sub-systems of the interactive system – sub-systems, which interact. The human behavioural sub-system is more specifically termed the user. Behaviour may be loosely understood as ‘what the human does’, in contrast with ‘what is done’ (i.e. attribute state changes of application objects).

Although expressible at many levels of description, the user must at least be described at a level, commensurate with the level of description of the transformation of application objects. For example, a secretary interacting with an GUI electronic mail application is a user, whose behaviours include receiving and replying to messages by means of recognised, rather than recalled command instructions.

2.2 Humans as a System of Mental and Physical Behaviours

The behaviours, constituting an interactive system, are both physical and abstract. Abstract behaviours are generally the acquisition, storage, and transformation of information. They represent and process information, at least concerning: application objects and their attributes, attribute relations and attribute states and the transformations, required by goals. Physical behaviours are related to, and express, abstract behaviours.

Accordingly, the user is described as a system of both mental (abstract) and overt (physical) behaviours. They are related within an assumed hierarchy of behaviour types (and their control), wherein mental behaviours generally determine, and are expressed by, overt behaviours. Mental behaviours may transform (abstract) application objects, represented in cognition or express, through overt behaviour, plans for transforming application objects.

For example, a travel company secretary has the product goal, required to maintain the circulation of an electronic newsletter to customers. The secretary interacts with the computer by means of the applied GUI interface (whose behaviours include the icon-based transmission of information about the newsletter). Hence, the secretary acquires a representation of the current circulation by collating the information displayed by the GUI screen and assessing it by comparison with the conditions, specified by the product goal. The secretary reasons about the attribute state changes, necessary to eliminate any discrepancy between current and desired conditions of the process, that is, the set of related changes, which will produce and circulate the newsletter, ‘as desired’. That decision is expressed in the set of instructions issued to the interactive computer through overt behaviour, that is, recognising icons, rather than recalling and keying text-based commands – selecting GUI menu options.

2.3 Human-Computer Interaction

Although user and interactive computer behaviours may be described as separable sub-systems of the interactive system, these sub-systems extert a ‘mutual influence’ or interaction. Their configuration principally determines the interactive system and applied design and research.

Interaction is described as: the mutual influence of the user (i.e. behaviours) and the interactive computer (i.e behaviours), associated within an interactive system. For example, the behaviours of a secretary interact with the behaviours of a GUI e-mail application. The secretary’s behaviours influence the behaviours of the interactive computer (access the dictionary function), while the behaviours of the interactive computer influence the selection behaviour of the operator (among possible correct spellings). The design of their interaction – the secretary’s selection of the dictionary function, the computer’s presentation of possible spelling corrections – determines the interactive system, comprising the secretary and interactive computer behaviours in their planning and control of correspondence. The interaction may be the object of applied design, favouring recognition over recall and so design research.

The assignment of task goals by design then, to either the user or the interactive computer, delimits the former and therein specifies the design of the interaction. For example, replacement of a mis-spelled word, required in a document is a product goal, which can be expressed as a task goal structure of necessary and related attribute state changes. In particular, the text field for the correctly spelled word demands an attribute state change in the text spacing of the document. Specifying that state change may be a task goal assigned to the user by recalled command instructions, as in interaction with the behaviours of early text editor designs or it may be a task goal assigned to the interactive computer, as in interaction with the applied easily recognised GUI ‘wrap-round’ behaviours. Design research would be expected to have been involved in such innovations. The assignment of the expression of the task goal of specification constitutes the design of the interaction of the user and interactive computer behaviours in each case, which in turn may become the object of research.

2.4 Human Resource Costs

‘Doing something as desired’ by means of an interactive system always incurs resource costs. Given the separability of the user and the interactive computer behaviours, certain resource costs are associated with the user and distinguished as behavioural user costs.

Behavioural user costs are the resource costs, incurred by the user (i.e by the implementation of behaviours) to effect an application. They are both physical and mental. Physical costs are those of physical behaviours, for example, the costs of keying or of attending the GUI menu options; they may be expressed for applied design purposes as physical workload. Mental behavioural costs are the costs of mental behaviours, for example, the costs of knowing, reasoning, and deciding; they may be expressed for design purposes as mental workload. Recognition behavioural costs, for example, have been shown to be lower that those of recall behaviours. Hence, the popularity of GUI interfaces. Mental behavioural costs are ultimately manifest as physical behavioural costs, for example, menu option selection or text input keying.

3. Performance of the Applied Interactive Computer System and the User.

‘To do something as desired’ derives from the relationship of an interactive system with its application. It assimilates both how well the application is performed by the interactive system and the costs incurred by it. These are the primary constituents of ‘doing something as desired’, that is performance. They can be further differentiated, for example, as wanted/needed/experienced/felt/valued. Desired performance is the object of innovation design.

Behaviours determine performance. How well an application is performed by an interactive system is described as the actual transformation of application objects with regard to the transformation, demanded by product goals. The costs of carrying out an application are described as the resource costs, incurred by the interactive system and are separately attributed to the user and the interactive computer.

‘Doing something as desired’ by means of an interactive system may be described as absolute or as relative, as in a comparison to be matched or improved upon. Accordingly, criteria expressing ‘as desired’ may either specify categorical gross resource costs and how well an application is performed or they may specify critical instances of those factors to be matched or improved upon. They are the object of design and so of design research.

The common measures of human ‘performance’ – errors and time, are related in this notion of performance. Errors are behaviours, which increase resource costs, incurred in producing a given transform or which reduce the goodness of the transform or both. The duration of user behaviours may (very generally) be associated with increases in behavioural user costs.

Applied Framework Extension - Long Version

Following theApplied Design Research exemplar diagram above, researchers need to specify: Specific Applied Problems (as they relate to User Requirements); Applied Research; Applied Knowledge; and Specific Applied Solutions (as thy relate to Interactive Systems).

The Applied Framework Extension, thus includes: Application; Interactive System; and Performance.

1 Applied Applications

1.1 Objects

Applied applications (the ‘something’ the interactive system ‘does’) can be described as objects. Such applications occur in the need of organisations for interactive systems. Objects may be both abstract and physical and are characterised by their attributes. Abstract attributes are those of information and knowledge. Physical attributes are those of energy and matter.

1.2 Attributes and Levels

1.3 Relations between Attributes

Attributes of innovation application objects are related in two ways. First, attributes are related at different levels of complexity. Second, attributes are related within levels of description.

1.4 Attribute States and Affordance

The attributes of applied application objects can be described as having states. Further, those states may change. For example, the content and characters (attributes) of a GUI e-mail (object) may change state: the content with respect to meaning and grammar; its characters with respect to size and font. Objects exhibit an affordance for transformation, associated with their attributes’ potential for state change.

1.5 Applications and the Requirement for Attribute State Changes

An applied application may be described in terms of affordances. Accordingly, an object may be associated with a number of applications. The GUI object ‘book’ may be associated with the application of typesetting (state changes of its layout attributes) and with the application of authorship (state changes of its textual content). Such changes may constitute (part of) an applied design. In principle, an application may have any level of generality, for example, the writing of GUI personal e-mails and the writing of business e-mails. Object/attribute expression, as in the case of GUI e-mails, favours the recognition over the recall of command instructions.

Organisations have applications, which require the realisation of the affordance of their associated objects. For example, ‘completing a survey’ and ‘writing to a friend’, each have a GUI e-mail as their transform, where the e-mails are objects, whose attributes (their content, format and status, for example) have an intended state. Further editing of those e-mails produces additional state changes and therein, new transforms.

1.6 Application Goals

Organisations express the requirement for the transformation of applied application objects in terms of goals. A product goal specifies a required transform – the realisation of the affordance of an object. A product goal generally supposes necessary state changes of many attributes. The requirement of each attribute state change can be expressed as an application task goal, derived from the product goal. So, for example, the product goal demanding transformation of a GUI e-mail, making its message more courteous, would be expressed by task goals, possibly requiring state changes of semantic attributes of the propositional structure of the text and of syntactic attributes of the grammatical structure. Hence, a product goal can be re-expressed as an application task goal structure, a hierarchical structure, expressing the relations between task goals, for example, their sequences. The latter, favouring recognition over recall of command instructions, might constitute part of an applied design.

1.7 Innovation Application as: Doing Something as Desired

The transformation of an object, associated with a product goal, involves many attribute state changes – both within and across levels of complexity. Consequently, there may be alternative transforms, which satisfy the same product goal – GUI e-mails with different styles, for example, where different transforms exhibit different compromises between attribute state changes of the application object. There may also be transforms, which fail to meet the product goal. The concept of ‘doing something as desired’ describes the variance of an actual transform with that specified by a product goal. It enables all possible outcomes of an application to be equated and evaluated. Such transforms may become the object of applied design and so research.

1.8 Applied Application and the User

Description of the applied application then, is of objects, characterised by their attributes, and exhibiting an affordance, arising from the potential changes of state of those attributes. By specifying product goals, organisations express their requirement for transforms – objects with specific attribute states. Transforms are produced by ‘doing something, as desired’, which occurs only by means of objects, affording transformation and innovative interactive systems, capable of producing a transformation.

From product goals is derived a structure of related task goals, which can be assigned either to the user or to the interactive computer (or both) within the design of an associated interactive system. The task goals assigned to the user are those, which motivate the user’s behaviours. The actual state changes (and therein transforms), which those behaviours produce, may or may not be those specified by task and product goals, a difference expressed by the concept ‘as desired’, characterised in terms of: wanted/needed/experienced/felt/valued.

2.Applied Interactive Computers and the Human

2.1 Interactive Systems

Users are able to conceptualise goals and their corresponding behaviours are said to be intentional (or purposeful). Interactive computers are designed to achieve goals and their corresponding behaviours are said to be intended (or purposive). An interactive system can be described as a behavioural system, distinguished by a boundary enclosing all user and interactive computer behaviours, whose purpose is to achieve and satisfy a common goal. For example, the behaviours of a secretary and GUI electronic e-mail application, whose purpose is to manage correspondence, constitute an interactive system. Critically, it is only by identifying the common goal, that the boundary of an interactive system can be established and so designed and researched.

The behaviours of the user and the interactive computer are described as behavioural sub-systems of the interactive system – sub-systems, which interact. The human behavioural sub-system is more specifically termed the user. Behaviour may be loosely understood as ‘what the user does’, in contrast with ‘what is done’ (that is, attribute state changes of application objects). More precisely the user is described as:

a system of distinct and related user behaviours, identifiable as the sequence of states of a user interacting with a computer to do something as desired and corresponding with a purposeful (intentional) transformation of application objects.

Although expressible at many levels of description, the user must at least be described for design research purposes at a level, commensurate with the level of description of the transformation of innovation application objects. For example, a secretary interacting with a GUI electronic mail application is a user, whose behaviours include receiving and replying to messages by means of recognised, rather than recalled command instructions.

2.2 Humans as a System of Mental and Physical Behaviours

Accordingly, the user is described as a system of both mental (abstract) and overt (physical) behaviours, which extend a mutual influence – they are related. In particular, they are related within an assumed hierarchy of behaviour types (and their control), wherein mental behaviours generally determine and are expressed by, overt behaviours. Mental behaviours may transform (abstract) application objects, represented in cognition or express, through overt behaviour, plans for transforming application objects.

For example, a travel company secretary has the product goal, required to maintain the circulation of an electronic newsletter to customers. The secretary interacts with the computer by means of the innovative GUI interface (whose behaviours include the transmission of information about the newsletter). Hence, the secretary acquires a representation of the current circulation by collating the information displayed by the GUI screen and assessing it by comparison with the conditions, specified by the product goal. The secretary’s acquisition, collation, assessment and circulation of the newsletter are each distinct mental behaviours, described as representing and processing information. The secretary reasons about the attribute state changes, necessary to eliminate any discrepancy between current and desired conditions of the process, that is, the set of related changes, which will produce and circulate the newsletter, ‘as desired’. That decision is expressed in the set of instructions issued to the interactive computer through overt behaviour, that is, recognising icons, rather than recalling and keying text-based commands – selecting GUI menu options.

The user is described as having cognitive, conative and affective aspects. The cognitive aspects are those of knowing, reasoning and remembering; the conative aspects are those of acting, trying and persevering; and the affective aspects are those of being patient, caring and assuring. Both mental and overt user behaviours are described as having these three aspects, all of which may contribute to ‘doing something, as desired wanted/needed/experienced/felt/valued.

2.3 Human-Computer Interaction

Although user and interactive computer behaviours may be described as separable sub-systems of the interactive system, these sub-systems exert a ‘mutual influence’, that is to say they interact. Their configuration principally determines the interactive system and so its design and the associated research into that and other possible applied designs.

Interaction is described as: the mutual influence of the user (i.e. behaviours) and the interactive computer (i.e behaviours), associated within an interactive system.

Interaction of the user and the interactive computer behaviours is the fundamental determinant of the interactive system, rather than their individual behaviours per se. For example, the behaviours of a secretary interact with the behaviours of a GUI e-mail application. The secretary’s behaviours influence the behaviours of the interactive computer (selection of the dictionary function), while the behaviours of the interactive computer influence the selection behaviour of the operator (provision of possible correct spellings). The configuration of their interaction – the secretary’s selection of the dictionary function, the computer’s presentation of possible spelling corrections – determines the interactive system, comprising the secretary and interactive computer behaviours in their planning and control of correspondence. The interaction is the object of innovation design and so of design research.

2.4 Human On-line and Off-line Behaviours

User behaviours may comprise both on-line and off-line behaviours: on-line behaviours are associated with the interactive computer’s representation of the application; off-line behaviours are associated with non-computer representations of the application.

As an illustration of the distinction, consider the example of an interactive system, consisting of the behaviours of a secretary and a a GUI e-mail application. They are required to produce a paper-based copy of a dictated letter, stored on audio tape. The product goal of the interactive system here requires the transformation of the physical representation of the letter from one medium to another, that is, from tape to paper. From the product goal derives the task goals, relating to required attribute state changes of the letter. Certain of those task goals will be assigned to the secretary. The secretary’s off-line behaviours include listening to and assimilating the dictated letter, so acquiring a representation of the application object. By contrast, the secretary’s on-line behaviours include specifying the represention by the interactive computer of the transposed content of the letter in a desired visual/verbal format of stored physical symbols by recognised menu options, rather than textual command instructions.

On-line and off-line user behaviours are a particular case of the ‘internal’ interactions between a user’s behaviours as, for example, when the secretary’s keying interacts with recalled memorisations of successive segments of the dictated letter.

2.5 Structures and the Human

Description of the user as a system of behaviours needs to be extended, for the purposes of design and design research, to the structures supporting that behaviour.

Whereas user behaviours may be loosely understood as ‘what the human does’, the structures supporting them can be understood as ‘the support for the human to be able to do what they do’. There is a one-to-many mapping between a user’s structures and the behaviours they might support: thus, the same structures may support many different behaviours.

In co-extensively enabling behaviours at each level of description, structures must exist at commensurate levels. The user structural architecture is both physical and mental, providing the capability for a user’s overt and mental behaviours. It provides a represention of application information as symbols (physical and abstract) and concepts, and the processes available for the transformation of those representations. It provides an abstract structure for expressing information as mental behaviour. It provides a physical structure for expressing information as physical behaviour.

Physical user structure is neural, bio-mechanical and physiological. Mental structure consists of representational schemes and processes. Corresponding with the behaviours it supports and enables, user structure has cognitive, conative and affective aspects. The cognitive aspects of user structures include information and knowledge – that is, symbolic and conceptual representations – of the application, of the interactive computer and of the user themselves, and it includes the ability to reason. The conative aspects of user structures motivate the implementation of behaviour and its perseverence in pursuing task goals. The affective aspects of user structures include the personality and temperament, which respond to and support behaviour. All three aspects may contribute to ‘ doing something, as desired wanted/needed/experienced/felt/valued’.

To illustrate this description of mental structure, consider the example of the structures supporting a secretary’s behaviours in an office. Physical structure supports perception of the GUI e-mail display and executing actions by means of recognition or recall to an electronic e-mail application. Mental structures support the acquisition, memorisation and transformation of information about how correspondence is conducted. The knowledge, which the operator has of the application and of the interactive computer, supports the collation, assessment and reasoning about the actions required.

The limits of user structures determine the limits of the behaviours they might support. Such structural limits include those of: intellectual ability; knowledge of the application and the interactive computer; memory (recognition versus recall) and attentional capacities; patience; perseverence; dexterity; and visual acuity etc. The structural limits on behaviour may become particularly apparent, when one part of the structure (an attentional or memory channel capacity, perhaps) is required to support concurrent behaviours, perhaps simultaneous visual attending and reasoning behaviours. The user then, is ‘resource-limited’ by the co-extensive user structures.

The behavioural limits of the user, determined by structure, are not only difficult to define with any kind of completeness, they may also be variable, because that structure may change, and in a number of ways. A user may have self-determined changes in response to the application – as expressed in learning phenomena, acquiring new knowledge of the application, of the interactive computer, and indeed of themselves, to better support behaviour. Also, user structures degrade with the expenditure of resources by behaviour, as demonstrated by the phenomena of mental and physical fatigue. User structures may also change in response to motivating or de-motivating influences of the organisation, which maintains the interactive system.

It must be emphasised that the structure supporting the user is independent of the structure supporting the interactive computer behaviours. Neither structure can make any incursion into the other and neither can directly support the behaviours of the other. (Indeed this separability of structures is a pre-condition for expressing the interactive system as two interacting behavioural sub-systems). Although the structures may change in response to each other, they are not, unlike the behaviours they support, interactive; they are not included within the interactive system. The combination of structures of both user and interactive computer, supporting their interacting behaviours is described as the user interface .

2.6 Human Resource Costs

‘Doing something as desired’ by means of an interactive system always incurs resource costs. Given the separability of the user and the interactive computer behaviours, certain resource costs are associated directly with the user and distinguished as structural user costs and behavioural user costs.

Structural user costs are the costs of the user structures. Such costs are incurred in developing and maintaining user skills and knowledge. More specifically, structural user costs are incurred in training and educating users, so developing in them the structures, which will enable the behaviours necessary for an application . Recall of commands is considered to demand greater set-up costs than recognition of icons, for example. Training and educating may augment or modify existing structures, provide the user with entirely novel structures, or perhaps even reduce existing structures. Structural user costs will be incurred in each case and will frequently be borne by the organisation. An example of structural user costs might be the costs of training a secretary to use an innovative GUI interface in the particular style of layout, required for an organisation’s correspondence with its clients and in the operation of the interactive computer by which that layout style can be created.

Structural user costs may be differentiated as cognitive, conative and affective structural costs. Cognitive structural costs express the costs of developing the knowledge and reasoning abilities of users and their ability for formulating and expressing novel plans in their overt behaviour – as necessary for ‘doing something as desired’. Conative structural costs express the costs of developing the activity, stamina and persistence of users as necessary for an application. Affective structural costs express the costs of developing in users their patience, care and assurance as necessary for an application.

Behavioural user costs are the resource costs, incurred by the user (i.e by the implementation of their of behaviours) in recruiting user structures to effect an application. They are both physical and mental resource costs. Physical behavioural costs are the costs of physical behaviours, for example, the costs of making keystrokes on a keyboard and of attending to a GUI screen display; they may be expressed without differentiation as physical workload. Mental behavioural costs are the costs of mental behaviours, for example, the costs of remembering (recognition or recall), knowing, reasoning, and deciding; they may be expressed without differentiation as mental workload. Mental behavioural costs are ultimately manifest as physical behavioural costs. Costs are an important aspect of the design of an interactive computer system.

When differentiated, mental and physical behavioural costs are described as the cognitive, conative and affective behavioural costs of the user. Cognitive behavioural costs relate to both the mental representing and processing of information and the demands made on the user’s extant knowledge, as well as the physical expression thereof in the formulation and expression of a novel plan. Conative behavioural costs relate to the repeated mental and physical actions and effort, required by the formulation and expression of the novel plan. Affective behavioural costs relate to the emotional aspects of the mental and physical behaviours, required in the formulation and expression of the novel plan. Behavioural user costs are evidenced in user fatigue, stress and frustration; they are costs borne directly by the user and so need to be taken into account in the design process.

3. Performance of the Innovation Interactive Computer System and the User.

A concordance is assumed between the behaviours of an interactive system and its performance: behaviours determine performance. How well an application is performed by an interactive system is described as the actual transformation of application objects with regard to the transformation, demanded by product goals. The costs of carrying out an application are described as the resource costs, incurred by the interactive system and are separately attributed to the user and the interactive computer. Specifically, the resource costs incurred by the user are differentiated as: structural user costs – the costs of establishing and maintaining the structures supporting behaviour; and behavioural user costs – the costs of the behaviour, recruiting structure to its own support. Structural and behavioural user costs are further differentiated as cognitive, conative and affective costs. Design requires attention to all types of resource costs – both those of the user and of the interactive computer.

Discriminating the user’s performance within the performance of the interactive system would require the separate assimilation of user resource costs and their achievement of desired attribute state changes, demanded by their assigned task goals. Further assertions concerning the user arise from the description of interactive system performance. First, the description of performance is able to distinguish the goodness of the transforms from the resource costs of the interactive system, which produce them. This distinction is essential for design, as two interactive systems might be capable of producing the same transform, yet if one were to incur a greater resource cost than the other, it would be the lesser (in terms of performance) of the two systems.

Second, given the concordance of behaviour with ‘doing something as desired’, optimal user (and equally, interactive computer) behaviours may be described as those, which incur a (desired) minimum of resource costs in producing a given transform. Design of optimal user behaviour would minimise the resource costs (recognition being lower than recall), incurred in producing a transform of a given goodness. However, that optimality may only be categorically determined with regard to interactive system performance and the best performance of an interactive system may still be at variance with what is desired of it. To be more specific, it is not sufficient for user behaviours simply to be error-free. Although the elimination of errorful user behaviours may contribute to the best application possible of a given interactive system, that performance may still be less than ‘as desired’. Conversely, although user behaviours may be errorful, an interactive system may still support ‘doing something, as desired’.

Third, the common measures of human ‘performance’ – errors and time, are related in this conceptualisation of performance. Errors are behaviours, which increase resource costs, incurred in producing a given transform or which reduce the goodness of the transform or both. The duration of user behaviours may (very generally) be associated with increases in behavioural user costs.

Fourth, structural and behavioural user costs may be traded-off in the design of an application. More sophisticated user structures, supporting user behaviours, that is, the knowledge and skills of experienced and trained users, will incur high (structural) costs to develop, but enable more efficient behaviours – and therein, reduced behavioural costs.

Fifth, resource costs, incurred by the user and the interactive computer may be traded-off in the design of the performance of an application. A user can sustain a level of performance of the interactive system by optimising behaviours to compensate for the poorly designed behaviours of the interactive computer (and vice versa), that is, behavioural costs of the user and interactive computer are traded-off in the design process. This is of particular importance as the ability of users to adapt their behaviours to compensate for the poor design of interactive computer-based systems often obscures the fact that the systems are poorly designed.

Examples of Applied Frameworks for HCI

Barnard (1991) Bridging between Basic Theories and the Artifacts of Human-Computer Interaction

Making use of a framework for understanding different research paradigms in HCI, Barnard discusses how theory-based research might usefully evolve to enhance its prospects for both adequacy and impact.

Barnard (1991) Bridging between Basic Theories and the Artifacts of Human-Computer Interaction

How well does the Barnard paper meet the requirements for constituting an Applied Framework for HCI? (Read More…..)

Application of the Applied Framework to an Applied Approach to HCI Research

Mancini, C., J. van der Linden, J. Bryan, A. Stuart 2012. Exploring Interspecies Sensemaking: Dog Tracking Semiotics and Multispecies Ethnography.

Mancini et al. (2012) explore interspecies sense-making in the context of dog tracking. The paper constitutes an Applied Approach to HCI research. They investigate how tracking practices reconfigure human-dog relationships. The paper claims an indexical semiotic perspective, derived from Anthrozoology, can be applied to the development of interspecies technology.

Mancini, C., J. van der Linden, J. Bryan, A. Stuart 2012. Exploring Interspecies Sensemaking: Dog Tracking Semiotics and Multispecies Ethnography.

What potential does the Mancini Approach to HCI Applied Research offer the Applied Framework proposed here?

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First, the Framework, as a basic support structure, is for a discipline, as an academic field of study and branch of knowledge.

Potential:Mancini et al’s Applied Approach adopts a semiotic perspective, which derives from Anthrozoology. Ethnographic observation constitutes the basis for their integration of the animal companions’ and animal researchers’ accounts. The concept of understanding and its relationship to design is not developed.

Second, the Framework is for HCI, as human-computer interaction, as applied, that is, as prescription.

Potential: Mancini et al’s Applied Approach suggests additional functionalities for dog-tracking technology. However, no further indexical semiotic prescriptions are proposed for the development of interspecies technology.

Third, the Framework has a general problem (as applied design) with a particular scope (as human computer interactions to do something as desired).

Potential: Mancini et al’s Applied Approach makes no reference to the general problem of applied design, although their dog-tracking technology has associated interactions as desired.

Fourth, Research, as acquisition and validation, acquires, as study and practice and validates, as confirms, knowledge, as theories; models; laws; data; hypotheses; analytical and empirical methods and tools.

Potential: Mancini et al’s Applied Approach makes no reference as to how the validation of their indexical semiotic perspective might be carried out.

Fifth, the Framework embodies knowledge, which supports, as facilitates practices, as explanation and prediction, which solve, as resolve the general problem of understanding.

Potential: Mancini et al’s Applied Approach, however, makes no reference to the practices of understanding (such as explanation and prediction) of the phenomena reported or their application to design. Further, no reference is made to the different types of HCI design practice.

Conclusion: Mancini et al’s Approach to Applied design could be further developed with respect to: discipline details and relations of the two general problems of understanding and design; its level of description (needs to be lower for design purposes); the explicit inclusion of applied design; and the validation of its claims.

The Applied Framework proposed here is considered to have potential for contributing to such developments.

Comparison of Key HCI Concepts across Frameworks

To facilitate comparison of key HCI concepts across frameworks, the concepts are presented next, grouped by framework category Discipline; HCI; Framework Type; General Problem; Particular Scope; Research; Knowledge; Practices and Solution.

Discipline

Innovation – an academic field of study/branch of knowledge (academic – scholarly; field of study – subject area; branch of knowledge – division of information/learning).

Art – an academic field of study/branch of knowledge (academic – scholarly; field of study – subject area; branch of knowledge – division of information/learning).

Craft – an academic field of study/branch of knowledge (academic – scholarly; field of study – subject area; branch of knowledge – division of information/learning).

Applied – an academic field of study/branch of knowledge (academic – scholarly; field of study – subject area; branch of knowledge – division of information/learning).

Science – Discipline: an academic field of study/branch of knowledge (academic – scholarly; field of study – subject area; branch of knowledge – division of information/learning).

Engineering – an academic field of study/branch of knowledge (academic – scholarly; field of study – subject area; branch of knowledge – division of information/learning).

HCI

Innovation – human-computer interaction (human – individual/group; computer – interactive/embedded; interaction – active/passive).

Art – human-computer interaction (human – individual/group; computer – interactive/embedded; interaction – active/passive).

Craft – human-computer interaction (human – individual/group; computer – interactive/embedded; interaction – active/passive).

Applied – human-computer interaction (human – individual/group; computer – interactive/embedded; interaction – active/passive).

Science – human-computer interaction (human – individual/group; computer – interactive/embedded; interaction – active/passive).

Engineering – human-computer interaction (human – individual/group; computer – interactive/embedded; interaction – active/passive).

Framework Type

Innovation – Innovation: novel (novel – new ideas/methods/devices etc)

Art – Art: creative expression corresponding to some ideal or criteria (creative – imaginative, inventive); (expressive – showing by taking some form); ideal – visionary/perfect); criterion – standard).

Craft – Craft: best practice design (practice – design/evaluation; design – specification/implementation).

Applied – Applied: application of other discipline knowledge (application – addition to/prescription; discipline – academic field/branch of knowledge; knowledge – information/learning).

Science – understanding (explanation/prediction)

Engineering – design for performance (design – specification/implementation; performance – how well effected).

General Problem

Innovation – innovation design (innovation – novelty; design – specification/implementation).

Art – art design (art – ideal creative expression; design – specification/implementation).

Craft – craft design (craft – best practice; design – specification/implementation).

Applied – applied design (applied – added/prescribed; design – specification/implementation).

Science – understanding human-computer interactions (understand – explanation/prediction; human – individual/group; computer – interactive/embedded; interaction – active/passive)

Engineering – engineering design (engineering – design for performance; design – specification/implementation).

Particular Scope

Innovation – innovative human-computer interactions to do something as desired (innovative – novel; human – individual/group; computer – interactive/embedded; interactions – active/passive; something – action/task; desired: wanted/needed/experienced/felt/valued).

Art – art human-computer interactions to do something as desired (art – creation/expression; human – individual/group; computer – interactive/embedded; interactions – active/passive; something – action/task); desired: wanted/needed/experienced/felt/valued).

Craft – human-computer interactions to do something as desired, which satisfy user requirements in the form of an interactive system (human – individual/group; computer – interactive/embedded; interactions – active/passive; something – action/task; desired: wanted/needed/experienced/felt/valued; user – human; requirements – needs; satisfied – met/addressed; interactive – active/passive; system – user-computer).

Applied – human-computer interactions to do something as desired, which satisfy user requirements in the form of an interactive system (human – individual/group; computer – interactive/embedded; interactions – active/passive; something – action/task; desired: wanted/needed/experienced/felt/valued; user – human; requirements – needs; satisfied – met/addressed; interactive – active/passive; system – user-computer).

Science – human-computer interactions to do something as desired (human – individual/group; computer – interactive/embedded; interactions – active/passive; something – action/task; desired: wanted/needed/experienced/felt/valued.

Engineering – human-computer interactions to perform tasks effectively as desired (human – individual/group; computer – interactive/embedded; interactions – active/passive; perform – effect/carry out; tasks – actions; desired – wanted/needed/experienced/felt/valued).

Research

Innovation – acquires and validates knowledge to support practices (acquires – creates; validates – confirms; knowledge – patents/expert advice/experience/examples).

Art – acquires and validates knowledge (acquires – creates by study/practice; validates – confirms; knowledge – experience/expert advice/other artefacts.

Craft – acquires and validates knowledge to support practices (acquires – creates; validates – confirms; knowledge – heuristics/methods/expert advice/successful designs/case-studies).

Applied – acquires and validates knowledge to support practices (acquires – creates; validates – confirms; knowledge – heuristics/methods/expert advice/successful designs/case-studies).

Science – acquires and validates knowledge to support practices (acquires – creates; validates – confirms; knowledge – theories/models/laws/data/hypotheses/analytical and empirical methods and tools; practices – explanation/prediction).

Engineering – acquires and validates knowledge to support practices (acquires – creates; validates – confirms; knowledge – design guidelines/models and methods/principles – specific/ general and declarative/methodological).

Knowledge

Innovation – supports practices (supports – facilitates/makes possible; practices – trial-and-error/implement and test).

Art – supports practices (supports – facilitates/makes possible; practices – trial and error/implement and test).

Craft – supports practices (supports – facilitates/makes possible; practices – trial-and-error/implement and test).

Applied – supports practices (supports – facilitates/makes possible; practices – trial-and-error/apply and test).

Science – supports practices (supports – facilitates/makes possible; practices – explanation/prediction).

Engineering – supports practices (supports – facilitates/makes possible; practices – diagnose design problems/prescribe design solutions).

Practices

Innovation – supported by knowledge (supported – facilitated; knowledge – patents/expert advice/experience/examples).

Art – supported by knowledge (supported – facilitated/made possible; knowledge – experience/expert advice/other artefacts).

Craft – supported by knowledge (supported – facilitated; knowledge – heuristics/methods/expert advice/successful designs/case-studies).

Applied – supported by knowledge (supported – facilitated; knowledge – guidelines; heuristics/methods/expert advice/successful designs/case-studies).

Science – supported by knowledge (supported – facilitated; knowledge – theories/models/laws/data/hypotheses/analytical and empirical methods and tools ).

Engineering – supported by knowledge (supported – facilitated; knowledge – design guidelines/models and methods/principles – specific/ general and declarative/methodological).

Solution

Innovation – resolution of a problem (resolution – answer/address; problem – question/doubt).

Art – resolution of the general problem (resolution – answer/address; problem – question/doubt).

Craft – resolution of a problem (resolution – answer/address; problem – question/doubt).

Applied – resolution of a problem (resolution – answer/address; problem – question/doubt).

Science – resolution of a problem (resolution – answer/address; problem – question/doubt).

Engineering – resolution of a problem (resolution – answer/address; problem – question/doubt).

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