Section: New Results

Extension of Usability Methods and Tools

User Evaluation and Tailoring of Personal Information

Participants : Claudia Detraux, Dominique Scapin.

In the context of the ANR project PIMI (Personal Information Management through Internet see section  8.2.1 ), ergonomic inspections have been carried out to evaluate the usability of the PIMI V0.1. prototype, in its PC and mobile versions [49] , [48] . Also, an experiment [24] , [35] was conducted on a mockup of a Personal Information Space. Users were asked to perform scenario-based data entry and retrieval tasks, then to modify the mockup according to their wishes and needs. The results allowed to validate the item content and structure for the future personal space, as well as to assess the role of user modifications as evaluation cues, and for the development of further ergonomic recommendations. Detailed information was obtained on how users enter and retrieve data, by modifying the interface settings and shows that the adaptable nature of a Personal Information Space can indeed influence its acceptance, and provides useful cues for ergonomic evaluation

Usability Methods for Information Visualization

Participant : Dominique Scapin.

A collaboration between UFRGS (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Institute of Informatics), Brazil and Inria-AxIS led to a book chapter [37] dealing with potential methodologies for including a user-centered approach into information visualization techniques. It starts by presenting the evolution of visualization techniques evaluation, briefly summarizing the main contributions in this area since its humble beginning as a collateral activity until the recent growth of interest. Then, the focus is on current issues related to such evaluations, particularly concerning the way they are designed and conducted, taking into account a background of well-known usability evaluation methods from HCI to help understanding why there are still open problems. A set of guidelines for a (more) user-centered usability evaluation of information visualization techniques is proposed and discussed.

Usability Recommendations for MIS (Mixed Interactive Systems)

Participant : Dominique Scapin.

A collaboration between University of Toulouse – IUT Tarbes, IRIT and Inria-AxIS led to a book chapter [38] dealing with Mixed Interactive Systems (MIS) which denote an advanced form of interaction that aims at combining physical and digital worlds, such as mixed and augmented reality, tangible user interfaces, ubiquitous computing, etc. Their main interest relates to the use of physical artifacts from the user’s activity customary context. The book chapter first reports on a systematic review of the literature on MIS evaluation. From that review, usability recommendations were selected and deciphered before reformulating them under a common format. Finally, three different classification schemes of the usability recommendations obtained are proposed to facilitate search and retrieval, but also to better integrate them into the MIS development process.