User-tailorable systems: pressing the issues with buttons

ABSTRACT

It is impossible to design systems which are appropriate for all users and all situations. We believe that a useful technique is to have end users tailor their systems to match their personal work practices. This requires not only systems which can be tailored, but a culture within which users feel in control of the system and in which tailoring is the norm. In a two-pronged research project we have worked closely with a group of users to develop a system to support tailoring and to help the users evolve a “tailoring culture”. This has resulted in a flexible system based around the use of distributed on-screen Buttons to support a range of tailoring techniques.

REFERENCES

• 1: AshtomTate. Framework II Reference Manual. 1986.
• 2: B0dker, S., Ehn, P., Kammersgaard, J., Kyng, M. and Sundblad, Yngve. A UTOPIAN experience: On the design of powerful computer based tools for skilled graphic workers. {n Bjerknes, G., Ehn, P. and Kyng, M. (Eds) Computers and Democracy - A Scandinavian Challenge, Avebury, Aldershot, England, 1987.
• 3: Bobrow, D.G. and Stefik, M. The LOOPS Manual. Tech Rep. KB-VLSI-81-13. Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, 1981.
• 4: A. H. Borning, Classes versus prototypes in object-oriented languages, Proceedings of 1986 ACM Fall joint computer conference, p.36-40, November 1986, Dallas, Texas, United States
• 5: Alan Borning , Tim O'Shea, Deltatalk: an empirically and aesthetically motivated simplification of the Smalltalk-80 language, European conference on object-oriented programming on ECOOP '87, p.1-10, October 1987, Paris, France
• 6: Carter, K. Two Conceptions of Designing. IRIS Conference on '~'reativity in System Development". 1989.
• 7: Carter, K. Methods for designing with users. PICT workshop on Social perspecti'ves on Software. UMIST, Manchester, July 19-20 1989.
• 8: DiSessa, A. A principled design for an integrated computational environment. Human-Computer Interaction, 1, 1-47, 1985.
• 9: Ehn, P. and Kyng, M. The collective resource approach to systems design. In Bjerknes, G., Ehn, P. and Kyng, M. (Eds) Computers and Democracy . A Scandinavian Challenge, Avebury, Aldershot, England, 1987.
• 10: Fischer, G. and Lemke, A. Construction kits and design environments: Steps toward human problem-domain communication. Human. Computer Interaction, 3, 179-222, 1988.
• 11: Adele Goldberg , David Robson, Smalltalk-80: the language and its implementation, Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA, 1983
• 12: D. Goodman, The complete Hypercard handbook, Bantam Books, Inc., New York, NY, 1988
• 13: Jonathan Grudin , Phil Barnard, When does an abbreviation become a word? and related questions, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, p.121-125, April 1985, San Francisco, California, United States
• 14: D. Austin Henderson, Jr. , Stuart Card, Rooms: the use of multiple virtual workspaces to reduce space contention in a window-based graphical user interface, ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG), v.5 n.3, p.211-243, July 1986 [doi>10.1145/24054.24056]
• 15: Henry Lieberman, Using prototypical objects to implement shared behavior in object-oriented systems, Conference proceedings on Object-oriented programming systems, languages and applications, p.214-223, September 29-October 02, 1986, Portland, Oregon, United States
• 16: LSvstrand, L. Buttons" An object-oriented architecture to support tailorability. In preparation.
• 17: Allan MacLean, Human factors and the design of user interface management systems: EASIE as a case study, Information and Software Technology, v.29 n.4, p.192-201, May 1987 [doi>10.1016/0950-5849(87)90067-X]
• 18: A MacLean , P Barnard , M Wilson, Rapid prototyping of dialogue for human factors research: the EASIE approach, Proceedings of the Second Conference of the British Computer Society, human computer interaction specialist group on People and computers: designing for usability, p.180-195, December 1986, York, United Kingdom
• 19: A. MacLean , R. M. Young , T. P. Moran, Design rationale: the argument behind the artifact, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems: Wings for the mind, p.247-252, March 1989
• 20: B. A. Myers, Visual programming, programming by example, and program visualization: a taxonomy, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, p.59-66, April 13-17, 1986, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
• 21: Charles Rich , Richard C. Waters, Automatic Programming: Myths and Prospects, Computer, v.21 n.8, p.40-51, August 1988 [doi>10.1109/2.75]
• 22: Russell A. Ritchie , George R. S. Weir, Menu-based extensions to GNU Emacs, Proceedings of the fifth conference of the British Computer Society, Human-Computer Interaction Specialist Group on People and computers V, p.245-257, February 1990, Univ. of Nottingham
• 23: Richard M. Stallman, EMACS the extensible, customizable self-documenting display editor, Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN SIGOA symposium on Text manipulation, p.147-156, June 08-10, 1981, Portland, Oregon, United States
• 24: Trigg, R, Moran, T. and Halasz, F. Adaptability and Tailorability in NoteCards. In Bullinger, H.-J. and Shackel, B. (Eds.) Proceedings of INTERACTS7, London, 723-728, 1987.
• 25: Xerox Corporation. ViewPoint CUSP Button Reference. ViewPoint Series Reference Library. 1988.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.1 MODELS AND PRINCIPLES

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.2 Design Tools and Techniques
          Subjects: User interfaces
      D.2.6 Programming Environments
          Subjects: Interactive environments

  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.3 COMPUTER GRAPHICS
      I.3.6 Methodology and Techniques
          Subjects: Interaction techniques

General Terms:
Design, Human Factors, Languages