Abstract
Many of the difficulties users experience when working with interactive systems arise from misfits between the user’s conceptualisation of the domain and device with which they are working and the conceptualisation implemented within those systems. We report an analytical technique called CASSM (Concept-based Analysis for Surface and Structural Misfits) in which such misfits can be formally represented to assist in understanding, describing and reasoning about them. CASSM draws on the framework of Cognitive Dimensions (CDs) in which many types of misfit were classified and presented descriptively, with illustrative examples. CASSM allows precise definitions of many of the CDs, expressed in terms of entities, attributes, actions and relationships. These definitions have been implemented in Cassata, a tool for automated analysis of misfits, which we introduce and describe in some detail.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Beyer, H., Holtzblatt, K.: Contextual Design. Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco (1998)
Blackwell, A.F., Green, T.R.G.: A Cognitive Dimensions questionnaire optimised for users. In: Blackwell, A.F., Bilotta, E. (eds.) Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual Meeting of the Psychology of Programming Interest Group, pp. 137–152 (2000)
Blackwell, A., Green, T.R.G.: Notational systems – the Cognitive Dimensions of Notations framework. In: Carroll, J. (ed.) HCI Models, Theories and Frameworks, pp. 103–134. Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco (2003)
Blackwell, A., Hewson, R., Green, T.R.G.: The design of notational systems for cognitive tasks. In: Hollnagel, E. (ed.) Handbook of Cognitive Task Design, pp. 525–545. Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah (2003)
Blandford, A.E., Green, T.R.G.: Group and individual time management tools: what you get is not what you need. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing 5(4), 213–230 (2001)
Blandford, A., Keith, S., Connell, I., Edwards, H.: Analytical usability evaluation for Digital Libraries: a case study. In: Proc. ACM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries, pp. 27–36 (2004)
Blandford, A.E., Wong, B.L.W., Connell, I.W., Green, T.R.G.: Multiple viewpoints on computer supported team work: a case study on ambulance dispatch. In: Faulkner, X., Finlay, J., Détienne, F. (eds.) Proc. HCI 2002 (People and Computers XVI), pp. 139–156. Springer, Heidelberg (2002)
Blandford, A.E., Young, R.M.: Specifying user knowledge for the design of interactive systems. Software Engineering Journal 11(6), 323–333 (1996)
CASSM: Project web site, http://www.uclic.ucl.ac.uk/annb/CASSM.html
Connell, I., Green, T., Blandford, A.: Ontological Sketch Models: highlighting user-system misfits. In: O’Neill, E., Palanque, P., Johnson, P. (eds.) People and Computers XVII, Proc. HCI 2003, pp. 163–178. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)
Green, T.R.G., Benyon, D.: The skull beneath the skin: entity-relationship models of information artifacts. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 44, 801–828 (1996)
Green, T.R.G.: Cognitive dimensions of notations. In: Sutcliffe, A., Macaulay, L. (eds.) People and Computers V., pp. 443–460. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1989)
Green, T.R.G.: The cognitive dimension of viscosity - a sticky problem for HCI. In: Diaper, D., Shackel, B. (eds.) INTERACT 1990. Elsevier, Amsterdam (1990)
Green, T.R.G., Blackwell, A.F.: Cognitive dimensions of information artefacts: a tutorial (1998), http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~afb21/CognitiveDimensions/CDtutorial.pdf
Green, T.R.G., Petre, M.: Usability analysis of visual programming environments: a ‘cognitive dimensions’ framework. J. Visual Languages and Computing 7, 131–174 (1996)
Moran, T.P.: Getting into a system: external-internal task mapping analysis. In: Janda, A. (ed.) Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 45–49 (1983)
Nielsen, J.: Heuristic evaluation. In: Nielsen, J., Mack, R. (eds.) Inspection Methods, pp. 25–62. John Wiley, New York (1994)
Payne, S.J., Squibb, H.R., Howes, A.: The nature of device models: the yoked state space hypothesis, and some experiments with text editors. Human-Computer Interaction 5, 415–444 (1990)
Roast, C., Khazaei, B., Siddiqi, J.: Formal comparison of program modification. In: IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages, pp. 165–171. IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos (2000)
Wharton, C., Rieman, J., Lewis, C., Polson, P.: The cognitive walkthrough method: A practitioner’s guide. In: Nielsen, J., Mack, R. (eds.) Usability Inspection Methods, pp. 105–140. John Wiley, New York (1994)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Blandford, A., Green, T.R.G., Connell, I. (2005). Formalising an Understanding of User-System Misfits. In: Bastide, R., Palanque, P., Roth, J. (eds) Engineering Human Computer Interaction and Interactive Systems. EHCI 2004. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3425. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11431879_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11431879_17
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-26097-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-31961-0
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)