Measuring task models in designing intelligent products

ABSTRACT

As part of a design process, designers may create a model of user tasks. If the task model were to be built into an intelligent product's reasoning capabilities, the product could provide timely assistance specific to the user's current tasks. Thus for both the design and the intelligence of the product, the more accurate the task model, the more likely such a product may fit the users' needs. In the current paper we describe a new approach for evaluating the usability of intelligent products, based on information available in the designer's task model. This measure is then used to determine the degree to which users are able to access the task support provided by the product, and to identify users' needs for additional assistance. In this way, the usability measures presented in this paper can contribute to an iterative user-centered design process for designing and building product intelligence.

REFERENCES

• 1: Annett, J. and Duncan, K.D. (1967). Task Analysis and Training Design. Occupational Psychology, 41, 211-221.
• 2: Elyon DeKoven , David V. Keyson , Adinda Freudenthal, Designing collaboration in consumer products, CHI '01 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems, March 31-April 05, 2001, Seattle, Washington [doi>10.1145/634067.634184]
• 3: Charles Rich , Candace L. Sidner, COLLAGEN: A Collaboration Manager for Software Interface Agents, User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction, v.8 n.3-4, p.315-350, 1998 [doi>10.1023/A:1008204020038]

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: User-centered design

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.2 Design Tools and Techniques
          Subjects: User interfaces

  K. Computing Milieux
  K.6 MANAGEMENT OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
      K.6.1 Project and People Management
          Subjects: Systems analysis and design

General Terms:
Design, Human Factors, Performance, Theory

Keywords:
intelligent products, multimodal, plan recognition, task model, task support, user-centered design