Christof van Nimwegen
ABSTRACT
The premise of this research is that assistance can make interactions easier, but does not necessarily aid understanding. A way to assist users is displaying relevant information in interfaces. Recall of such knowledge is unnecessary and working memory is relieved. Examples are visual aids such as the "greying-out" of items, which can become unclickable indicating that an action is not possible. If this is not done this information has to be inferred by the user himself. An experiment was conducted in which subjects had to solve a series of puzzles. We hypothesized that providing greyed-out items (externalization) yields better performance during initial learning. An interface without greying-out (internalization) is expected to yield better performance in later phases, and better knowledge of the task. Subjects solved an isomorph of "missionaries and cannibals" in two conditions: with greyed-out items and without. It showed that externalization had little influence on performance. All subjects learned quite well how to solve the puzzle. On a knowledge test however, it turned out to be different. The procedural knowledge tested afterwards was equal, but declarative knowledge, concerning the rule central to what this problem was about, was worse for persons who had greyed-out items. Also, months later the same internalization-subjects had faster problem recognition of the task, and better performance on a similar task.
- Carrol, J. M. The Nurnberg Funnel: Designing Minimalist Instruction for Practical Computer Skill. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass, 1990. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Nielsen, J. Usability Engineering. Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco, 1990. Google ScholarDigital Library
- O'Hara, K. and Payne, S. J. Planning and the user interface: the effects of lockout time and error recovery cost. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 50, 41--49, 1999. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Trudel, C. I. and Payne, S. J. Self-monitoring during exploration of an interactive device. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 45, 723--747, 1996. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Van Oostendorp, H. and De Mul, S. Learning by exploration: Thinking aloud while exploring an information system. Instructional Science 27, 269--284, 1999.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Zhang, J. The nature of external representations in problem solving". Congnitive Science 21, 2, 179--217, 1997.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Zhang, J. and Wang, H. An Exploration of the Relations Between External Representations and Working Memory. (in review), 1998.Google Scholar
- Can more help be worse?: the over-assisting interface
Recommendations
The paradox of the assisted user: guidance can be counterproductive
CHI '06: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing SystemsThis paper investigates the influence of interface styles on problem solving performance. It is often assumed that performance on problem solving tasks improves when users are assisted by externalizing task-related information on the interface. Although ...
Knowledge based guidance and control: Declarative knowledge to use declarative knowledge
To efficiently use knowledge, much metaknowledge is necessary. It is better to give it in a declarative form. The system MACISTE has to achieve a difficult bootstrap : to use declarative metaknowledge on itself. At the beginning, there are procedures ...
Declarative representation of strategic control knowledge
Strategic (control) knowledge typically specifies how a target task is solved. Representing such knowledge declaratively remains a difficult and practical knowledge engineering challenge. The key to addressing this challenge rests on two observations. ...
Comments