CS295J/Research proposal

Project summary

We propose to integrate theories models of cognition, models of perception, rules of design, and concepts from the discipline of human-computer interaction to develop a predictive model of user performance in interacting with computer software for visual and analytical work. Our proposed model comprises a set of computational elements representing components of human cognition, memory, or perception. The collective abilities and limitations of these elements can be used to provide feedback on the likely efficacy of user interaction techniques.

The choice of human computational elements will be guided by several models or theories of cognition and perception, including Gestalt, Gibson, ???(where pathway, when pathway)???, ???working-memory???, ..., and ???.

Existing interfaces will be evaluated manually to characterize their

(we need some way to specify interaction techniques...)

Specific Contributions

1. A model of human cognitive and perceptual abilities when using computers
   1. Demonstration of the model in predicting human performance with some interfaces.
   2. ???
2. Something about design rules collected and merged
   1. Something comparing these collected rules to a baseline (establishing their value)
   2. ???
3. A low-overhead mechanism for capturing event-based interactions between a user and a computer, including web-cam based eye tracking. (should we buy or find out about borrowing use of pupil tracker?)
   1. Accuracy study of eye tracking (2 cameras? double as an input device?)
   2. ???
4. A set of critiques of existing software used for visual and analytical work based on design rules
   1. ???

Specific Aims

1. build X
2. build Y
3. run experiment Z
4. compare X with existing approach Q

Background

Models of cognition

Gibsonianism

(relevant stuff about Gibson's theory) We will build on top of this theory/model by ... .

Design guidelines

There are several sets

User interface evaluations

Cost-based analyses

Heidi Lam, "A Framework of Interaction Costs in Information Visualization," IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, vol. 14, no. 6, pp. 1149-1156, Nov./Dec. 2008, doi:10.1109/TVCG.2008.109

I'm pretty sure that this paper referred to some earlier paper with a very similar title.

Research plan

We can speculate here about a longer-term research plan, but it may not be necessary to actually flesh out this part of the "proposal"