About EPSS & Technology Interface Design Trends: articles about emerging trends in computer interface design that may affect the design and development to electronic performance support systems.Artificial Intelligence for the New Millennium
NY Times: For those wondering when artificial intelligence will truly take root, here's a bulletin: it already has. Artificial intelligence is now a regular academic discipline. It is already embedded in many everyday products. And it helps businesses sort through and make sense of huge databases. (2001-07-01)A user-friendly profession
The Oregonian: Loosely defined as the science of creating products and services so that people can understand and use them, usability is a field with roots dating back 50 years. Tapping psychological guidelines and focus groups, usability specialists have helped design everything from typewriters to handheld devices. But as e-commerce burgeoned during the last five years, the demand for usability experts has ballooned. Web site operators called on them to help make online communication and business as accessible -- and therefore profitable -- as possible. Because other Web sites are just a click away, it is more imperative online than offline that a retailer's outlet be immediately appealing and easy to use. However, just as the field was gaining credibility and finding identity, the souring economy dealt it a blow. Companies have slashed their information-technology budgets this year, and usability consulting has often been the first to go. (2001-06-10)Computers Will Save Us
Discover.com: We must abandon the false promise of artificial intelligence— the general term for technologies that aim to emulate human cognition— and understand, embrace, and exploit the alien nature of computer thinking, says Martin. There will be close, synergistic partnerships with machines, but the machines will do what they're good at and people will do what they're good at. Humans will undertake creative tasks, leaving the drudgery of realizing them to evolved computers that are simultaneously mysterious, powerful, and oddly naive. Martin likens them to human idiot savants, and as such, he believes we can keep them under control. (2001-06-03)Talking to Computers
Scientific American: According to this article the input devise of the future will be some form of touch pad. "The surface itself acts as both a keyboard and as an input device; anywhere on the surface is active for you to move the cursor around," Hedge notes. "But also it has the advantage of allowing you to perform a variety of new gestural inputs that take care of operations that used to require a series of mouse clicks. For example, the simple act of pulling your thumb and finger together over a surface in a sort of nipping gesture to cut a piece of text out. So the whole thing becomes a very different kind of working." (2001-05-27)Guru: Engineers Won't Design Next-Gen Systems
Techweb: "There's a massive change being driven by consumers, a revolt against complexity and unreliability," Norman said. "Embedded processors will enable this revolution, but they aren't sufficient to ensure it. They promise the revolution, but [it will happen] only if you adopt a human-centered design philosophy." (2001-04-29)MS Office Helper Not Dead Yet
Wired News: While Clippy may not seem like a good ambassador for the technology of the future, the hapless paperclip is only partly based on a Bayesian system. In the mid-90s, the lab built a sophisticated Bayesian prototype called Lumiere that included a "deep" model of user confusion. Microsoft is using the software to help build a smart-help system that knows when to jump in and offer people assistance. The system monitored things such as the clicking on functionless icons, the opening and closing of dialog boxes without doing anything, and long inactive pauses to predict when the user needed guidance. (2001-04-22)Building User-Centric Experiences: An Introduction to Microsoft HailStorm
According to this white paper, Microsoft HailStorm is "..a user-centric architecture and set of XML Web services. HailStorm will make it easier to integrate the silos of information that exist today. HailStorm services are oriented around people, instead of around a specific device, application, service, or network. They put users in control of their own data and information, protecting personal information and providing a new level of ease of use and personalization. The HailStorm services take advantage of the .NET technologies and architecture that make it possible for applications, devices, and services to work together. These services make user consent the basis for who can access user information, what they can do with it, and how long they have permission. (2001-04-15)The Semantic Web
Scientific American: The real power of the Semantic Web will be realized when people create many programs that collect Web content from diverse sources, process the information and exchange the results with other programs. The effectiveness of such software agents will increase exponentially as more machine-readable Web content and automated services (including other agents) become available. The Semantic Web promotes this synergy: even agents that were not expressly designed to work together can transfer data among themselves when the data come with semantics. (2001-04-15)Transmedia Pioneers: The Future According to Nielsen and Laurel
WebReview.com: Burger King and Dawson's Creek—leaders in the transmedia revolution that will cause a radical change in popular culture and provide a new World Wide Web business model? According to Web usability gurus Jakob Nielsen and Brenda Laurel, these and other unlikely pioneers are connecting experience, technology, and content in ways that put them years ahead of the fold. Nielsen and Laurel prefer the term transmedia to the commonly used convergence because transmedia represents the creation of a new form of media rather than the merging of several old media. (2001-04-08)Beyond The Browser
ZD Net Interactive Week, Bruce Tognazzini and Jakob Nielsen: At the risk of repeating an old saw, when you only have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Our hammer has been the Web browser. It has been crippling the software industry for the past eight years and it will kill productivity at any company that introduces major enterprise applications on its intranet. Should we get rid of the browser? No, no more than we should get rid of the hammer. The browser is a useful tool. It needs to cease being the only tool, and it could use some improvement. (2001-04-08)The "Computer as Assistant" Fallacy
Dan Bricklin: Many people think that the barrier to some applications is how hard they are to learn to use and that they will only catch on when it's "brain dead simple" to learn. I think in many cases the real problem is that the application is just not that valuable to the people -- they have ways to do the same thing that are OK or they just don't care. The challenge is in creating the right tools that are appropriate to the task as seen by the individual, and having the use be worthwhile. Making it "simple" often is translated into making it less flexible but it is often the flexibility we look for in our tools as humans. (2001-04-08)Stationary Mobility
Alertbox: The article describes the i-pot as an example of user friendly internet enabled appliances. The i-pot, an Internet-enabled hot pot that dispenses boiling water for tea. Hot pots are common, everyday items in Japanese homes. This hot pot, however, does more. In addition to boiling and dispensing water, i-pots send usage statistics to a website that tracks users' tea-drinking patterns. Caregivers can monitor a user's well-being by watching for breaks in their tea-drinking routine, which are indicated in twice-daily email reports or by checking a website. The target market for the i-pot is elderly people whose children or grandchildren might live too far away to monitor them directly. (2001-03-25)The Internet Preps For A Medical Miracle
ZDNet Tech Infobase: Internet-savvy consumers, hungry for health information, will spark a revolution in personalized medicine that experts said will send shock waves through insurers, employers, doctors, pharmaceutical companies and the Internet itself. Individuals will become their own health-care organizations, crafting customized medical plans to protect themselves and their families from very personalized genetic risks. (2001-03-25)Microsoft Shows Digital Message Filtering
Microsoft's experimental "Notification Manager studies a user's location, his current activity level, the presence of other people, ambient noise levels, and other such factors to determine whether he's working, thinking, or meeting with other people. Based on this assessment, the application concludes whether the user might be doing something such as eating, sleeping, dining, or traveling in a car. All the information is then used to determine which, if any, means of communicating with the user would be most appropriate at the moment." (2001-03-18)Web develops amazing new tangles
USA Today: According to this article about the future of the internet: "Up to now, the Net has been almost completely about viewing content or buying products over the Web, using a browser on a personal computer. In the next wave, the browser will no longer be a solo act. It will become part of an ensemble of software and hardware that uses the connections of the Internet to do much more than has yet been possible." (2001-03-04)Making a Semantic Web
Joshua Allen: This article examine the possible uses of metadata to expand the capabilities of the web. The article provides examples of how this might enhance the web browsing experience. It also describes some of the technologies and techniques that may be used to implement these metadata features. (2001-02-18)Modern Operating System, Interface Are Ripe for Change
LA Times: According to this article: "the desktop user design is weighted toward the "learning phase" of computer use. It's a simulation of a desk-like work space, with folders, file cabinets, a trash can, etc., in order to "cue" new users about the computer's functions. But once people learn this simulated environment, the learning cues actually impede efficient use of the computer. PCs show little of what could be an "automatic phase" of computer use, ... Users spend too much time organizing files, looking for files, creating folders, deleting files, emptying the trash, etc.--all functions left over from noncomputerized office work that persist on computers. (2001-01-21)Speech recognition apps coming of age
USA Today: This article examines the problems and opportunities for using voice recognition for intranet navigation and converting text to speech. According to the article: "...the most effective use of voice-activation technology has been with automated telephone systems that provide customer service for businesses like airlines and credit card companies. Because they are usually designed for a specific purpose, those speech engines can be customized to understand a more select vocabulary, even if those words are spoken in different combinations." (2001-01-21)Building a Business Rules System
DM Review: According to this article "...a business rules system is an automated system in which the "rules" are separated (logically, perhaps physically) and shared across data stores, user interfaces and applications. "...at the heart of a business rules approach is an appreciation for rules as a valuable asset for a business organization." (2001-01-14)Digital Doctoring
New York Times: "Proponents say hand-held computers can vastly improve patient safety by reducing mistakes that are blamed for thousands of deaths each year. So far doctors are using the devices primarily for reference, writing prescriptions and keeping track of billing data. But enthusiasts predict that eventually incorporating hand-held computers into wired or wireless networks could someday yield enormous cost savings for doctors, health plans and insurers by reducing paperwork and expensive delays in approvals and payments." (2001-01-14)Shop — But Don't Drop
Business 2.0: This is a very interesting article about the use of "normalization" in product searches. "Consider the case of a man who wants to buy a purple sweater for his wife over the Net. Without normalization, the Website on which he types in purple would miss links to information about merchandise deemed violet , lavender , or plum . If he types in sleeveless he might miss vest." (2001-01-07)Artificial Intelligence Hasn't Peaked (Yet)
New York Times: According to this article "A.I. is becoming more important as it has become less conspicuous, and it's less conspicuous because it's everywhere, but often under the surface," The article reports on some of the upcoming developments in software with A.I like Microsoft's Outlook Mobile Manager, a system that scrutinizes each incoming e-mail message, does an automatic synopsis, throws away extraneous words and abbreviates others, then sends the message to the user's mobile device. (2001-01-01)Soliloquy Notebook Expert
An interesting application that lets you find a note book by using natural language answers to questions. Sometimes it works OK and sometimes it seems to get lost. (2000-12-10)Beyond the keyboard and mouse
InfoWorld.com: "The fact that we know what a computer user interface is has become its single biggest problem. Good user interfaces are transparent to the user -- their sole purpose is to help the user achieve his or her computing goals. This is not a fantasy. Good user interfaces already exist in our appliances, in our automobiles, in virtually every modern convenience. Most of us never realize we are interacting with them." (2000-11-05)Planet Blue
According to this article "Big Blue plans to make the creation of shared tasks transparent and allow for access to a number of different types of information from different kinds of devices. However, it plans to do this in such a way that people don't even know that they are using a computer system. "We are building small desktop displays that might, for example, show a picture of your spouse and then automatically switch over to a calendar when you have an appointment," says Russell." (2000-10-08)Rethinking the human factor
A computer system that can be operated using a glove — along with eye contact and speech recognition — may not be much of a fashion statement. But Rutgers University researchers believe that it’s more natural for people to communicate electronically using such a system. (2000-09-10)Will voice interfaces replace screens?
In this article Dr. Jakob Nielsen argues that "The key issue in interaction design and the main determinant of usability is: what to say. Whether you say it by speaking or by typing at the keyboard matters less to most users. Thus, having voice interfaces will not free us from the most substantial part of user interface design: to determine the structure of the dialogue, what commands or features are available, how the users are to specify what they want, and how the computer is to communicate the feedback. All that voice does is to allow the commands and feedback to be spoken rather than written." (2000-08-27)Fiscal therapy online is right at your fingertips
In this US News article Phillip J. Longman reports that in the near future "...automated (financial) advisers will go beyond recommending specific investments. They will custom tailor your portfolios by buying and bundling fractional shares of stocks, bonds, and derivatives calibrated to your goals and tolerance for risk." (2000-08-13)Users: How stupid are they, really?
In this Linux World article, JS Kelly asks the question "Should we treat "average users" like the morons they are, or coddle them so they don't hurt themselves? Surely there is a third alternative..." (2000-08-13)Let's Make Unix Not Suck
In this article, Miguel de Icaza urges open-source developers to remember that "The majority of people do not use computers to do programming, nor to learn how to use nroff, nor to run a web server. The majority of people use computers to simplify their lives, to communicate with people, to get work done, or to have fun." (2000-08-13)Trends: The Evolution of the Interface
In this Macword article about the new Mac Operating system, Bruce Tognazzini laments "...the operating system's flashy new Aqua interface, along with the increasing number of tools that let you change the very underpinnings of the OS, may threaten the Mac's hallmark simplicity." (2000-08-06)Toward the Anti-Mac
This paper reflects on the 1995 paper by Don Gentner and Jakob Nielsen entitled The Anti-Mac Interface. It discusses some of the recent innovations in the design of a user interface for Linux and how these tend to follow some of the ideas put forward in the Gentner and Nielsen paper. (2000-07-30)Microsoft Sees Software ´Agent´ as Way to Avoid Distractions
This New York Times article by John Markoff describes a Microsoft research project that is developing software to monitor and manage a person's email, telephone calls and instant messages. Based on the user's previous behavior, the software would prioritize the messages. The software would also be connected to a camera the could determine if the person was in their workspace and could be interrupted. (2000-07-23)Giants Bet on Voice Recognition for E-Commerce
According to this E-Commerce Times article "Analysts believe that the widespread adoption of speech recognition technology will help e-commerce reach its true potential. Freeing shoppers from their keyboards, e-commerce over cellular phones and other mobile devices could lead to an explosion of online purchases, especially among those who shy away from computers." (2000-07-09)THE SECOND COMING — A MANIFESTO
According to this article by David Gelernter on the future of computing "The power of desktop machines is a magnet that will reverse today's "everything onto the Web!" trend. Desktop power will inevitably drag information out of remote servers onto desktops." (2000-07-01)Not Ready for Prime Time
In this ClickZ article, Greg Sherwin and Emily Avila "illustrate just how far the wireless micro-Internet is from being truly useful and viable. Gadget freaks will no doubt regard us as Luddites in web clothing. But for many of us who prefer not to crash and burn with the latest beta web browser releases, today's wireless Internet is rife with incompatible technologies, incomplete services, and many soon-to-be-obsolete products." (2000-05-15)Business Systems for Problem-solvers
Richard Pawson has a radical new idea about business information systems: They should be designed to support problem-solving instead of the rote following of procedure. According to the CSC research fellow, even systems used to take customer orders and schedule resources should feel as 'expressive' as spreadsheets or drawing packages. Hence his term, expressive systems. (2000-04-25)A Chip in Every Pot
Manufacturing companies are hiring design firms and consultants to research whether people would use something like a networked washing machine or a refrigerator that knows when they're out of milk. (2000-04-16)Affective Computing
Soon, we'll have computers that can read and quantify our moods and "body language" and react appropriately. And once that programmatic step is taken, it's only a short additional step to flip the input into output, and we'll have computers that can accurately mimic human emotions. (2000-04-09)Wearable Training
His tool belt isn't the kind that's weighted down with screwdrivers, hammers and wrenches, however. Instead, it holds a tiny computer, a holster with a six-by-four inch monitor, a battery pack and an audio transmitter. The clerk can connect to the server, call up information about the machine, and find instructions about how to diagnose and fix the malady. (2000-04-02)Cool XUL Provides Cross-Platform UI
So what does XUL do? Essentially it provides a language to describe a user interface, with many more widgets than are provided in HTML itself. Such widgets include tree controls, scrollbars, and splitters. A user interface description ("package") contains various elements that control the interface appearance and behavior: (2000-03-10)Researchers: High-tech to transform shoes, pens
Academic research and the growth of the Internet is prompting a movement toward embedding computing and communications devices in nearly everything, according to speakers at Intel's Computing Continuum conference. Among the examples: pens containing built-in scanners, shoes that emit notes depending on how the wearer moves and personal global positioning systems. (2000-03-19)A GUI for the Gurus
Regardless of where you think computer interfaces are going in the future (voice activation, artificially intelligent avatars, interactive 3d projections), the fundamental principles behind those interfaces will have to inherit a lot from current designs. Unless humanity undergoes a sudden and overwhelming psychological and neurological shift, the things that make sense now will continue to do so. (via webword) (2000-03-12)Ask Jeeves finds his voice
"We feel we've taken the next step in humanizing the Internet by advancing the progress of voice-over-IP and allowing our clients to conduct voice conversations over the Internet," said Steve Roop, director of product management at Ask Jeeves. (2000-03-12)Make Way for M-Commerce
If the buzz at this year's CeBIT is to be believed, then wireless technology will usher in the next wave of electronic commerce -- the so-called m-commerce. (2000-03-05)Lab Rat: Microsoft Research's vision for vision
According to article about computer vision systems "when put in the right place, or combined with complementary technologies, computers that see will change how we use consumer electronics and computing devices at home and work. For instance, your TV could pause the show you are watching without the need for a remote control. Just by seeing you get up to go get a beer, your TV would know you're leaving the room and no longer paying attention." (2000-03-05)Diebold Introduces Fully Personalized Self-Service Technology At CeBIT 2000
Named 'Watson,' the ATM-like terminal automatically adjusts to a user's physical traits and consumer tastes - using biometric technology and the Internet - to create a personalized experience. (2000-03-05)Wearable Computing Resources
A page with many links to articles, news and other information about wearable computers. (2000-03-05)Written words may jump off the page in the future
Imagine stroking an illustration to hear sound effects. Or watching words flash in front of your eyes instead of following the words across a page with your eyes. Or touching a new type of punctuation mark, a triangle perhaps, that makes footnotes or more information about a topic pop up on your screen. (2000-03-05)Wearable Software, Accessibility and Voice Browsing
Wearable computers are a unique kind of information appliance, because of the many constraints put on them by their small size. For wearable computers to succeed, software applications need to fit alternative input and output models. This paper discusses the relationship between wearable software, accessible software, and voice browsing, and identifies ways to facilitate the production of wearable software applications. (2000-02-27)There's a PC in My Salt Shaker
At the Invisible Computer conference at the Fashion Institute of Technology on Friday, speakers were talking about pushing the envelope further than the concept of just moving the computer from the office into the living room. They were touting bottles you open to get the weather report, watches that record every physical move you make, and fountains that recite monologues. (2000-02-27)What The Linux Community Needs To Grok
"Several Linux fans wrote to me stating that the "application problem" is actually a "user problem". Users are incorrectly resistant to change, the argument goes, when they should be accepting something that is new and better. This is backward thinking. People create computers to do the things that people want to do. It is not the job of the masses to adapt to your computer system." (via webword.com) (2000-02-27)Prettying Up Linux
Efforts to put a pretty face on Linux are increasing but it may be some time before the makeover is complete. Although Linux already has a pair of evolving GUIs -- KDE and Gnome -- neither is anywhere near as easy to set up and use as the Mac OS or Windows. Indeed, users must occasionally resort to typing commands into a command-line interface. (2000-02-27)Linux in every lap
"Right now, to do system management [for Linux] requires a pretty intimate knowledge of how the software is constructed," says Hertzfeld. "You need to know about various system components -- a user of a word processor needs to know what graphics library or string library they have. Someone who just wants to upgrade their word processor needs to understand a lot of technical detail." (2000-02-27)FreePad - a portable internet access devise
According to the product description " FreePad is the first terminal that truly combines the electronic communication needs of today's households: Internet access and telephony. The uniform user interface and the INSTANT ON feature makes FreePad as simple to use as an ordinary telephone, but far more convenient." (2000-02-20)Demo 2000
Demo 2000 is a conference that highlights innovations in software and hardware design. The site contains brief descriptions of the products demonstrated at the Feb 6-9, 2000 conference. (2000-02-20)Wearable Computing Infobase
A database of links to information and site on wearable computers. The database contains links to wearable computer related hardware, software, books and articles. (2000-02-20)Apple, AOL veterans making Linux easy
A start-up called Eazel is at work on a graphical user interface (GUI) for Linux that founders say will extend to every aspect of the Linux computing experience. (2000-02-20)Search the Web Without Searching
Kenjin, a free downloadable program, is a "behind-the-scenes" search engine. It reads and analyzes the text on your screen, picks out the major themes, and then combs the Internet for links related to those subjects. Kenjin works with almost any sort of document, whether you're working in a word processor or writing an e-mail message. (2000-02-13)myWebOS.com,
myWebOS.com, has developed a web-based next generation operating system that has taken the concept of "network computing" to the next level. myWebOS.com's primary product is myWebOS, the first operating platform that makes the World Wide Web the application and data network for personal users, small to mid-size businesses, and the enterprise. myWebOS is the platform upon which applications can be built by developers to suit the needs of millions of users. (2000-02-13)The User Interface Domain
"The User Interface Domain seeks to improve all user/computer communications on the Web. In particular, the Domain is working on formats and languages that will present information to users with more accuracy and a higher level of control." (2000-02-06)Portable devices get wearable
Soon your wristwatch will not only tell time, but also contain your contact and schedule information. At Comdex, Casio demonstrated PC Unite, a $99 watch that uses a wireless infrared connection to link to a Cassiopeia Windows CE device or to Microsoft Outlook on a desktop PC. (2000-01-16)Turn on, jack in and geek out with wearable PC
This CNN article describes the Xybernaut Wearable Computers which "...includes a small flat-panel display, head-mounted display, vest, video camera mounted to the side of the headset, external floppy drive and a full port explicator" (2000-01-16)AT&T Online Text to Speech Demo
Check out this next generation text to speech demonstration where you can type text and then listen to the telephone quality speech output. (2000-01-10)Overcoming information overload
According to this InfoWorld article "Technology vendors have developed products intended to make information access easier. At IBM, for example, researchers have yielded a technology known as Web intermediaries, which can provide a customized view of Web information to make it easier to focus on specific information." (2000-01-16)Kids' Predictions for the Future
From CIO Online: "Sometimes the best way to learn about the future is by hearing from those with the most vivid imaginations: children. To get some perspective for our issue on the future, we visited two elementary schools (Driscoll School and Heath School, both in Brookline, Mass.) to see what fifth graders there had to say about the next thirty years. Their predictions follow, along with their depictions of the future of education." (2000-01-10)
