Microblog #52, "Living With Complexity, Chapters 3-4"

This post includes the full blog for Living With Complexity


3
Summary
This chapter describes how even simple systems can be difficult to operate. Also getting considerable attention is signage.

Discussion
The examples of all the signs were interesting. I am not surprised at all about security experts duplicating passwords.

4
Summary
This chapter discusses signifiers, which are different from affordances - or at least, so says Norman. These are social or environmental cues to the correct actions to take - with "forcing" it as in affordances. The given example is correctly labeling the salt and pepper shakers.

Discussion
The concept is, as noted, awfully similar to affordances. I think once you understand the first, the second follows naturally.

Full Blog
Summary
This book deals with the extent, role, & scope of complexity in everyday life. Themes include that the world itself is complex, resummarizes the mental model, points out that calling for simplification at all costs is itself and oversimplification, describes how simple systems can become complex and how people cope, and explains signifiers.

Discussion
By this time, we have all come to know what to expect from Norman. This book has some good ideas, but they could have been as easily expressed with a description and an example rather than a whole chapter, and there was of course some repetition from his earlier work.

The point he makes that I like most is that we should only be upset about unneeded complexity, rather than all complexity.

Complexity. From http://www.alanemrich.com/CSR_pages/CSR_Images/SquadLeader(RBM)77.jpg vis GIS

Paper Reading #25, "A Code Reuse Interface for Non-Programmer Middle School Students"

http://angel-at-chi.blogspot.com/2011/04/paper-reading-19-tell-me-more-not-just.html
http://csce436-hoffmann.blogspot.com/2011/04/paper-reading-24-using-language.html

A Code Reuse Interface for Non-Programmer Middle School Students

Paul A. Gross, Micah S. Herstand, and Caitlin L. Kelleher, Washington University in St. Louis
Jordana W. Hodges, University of North Carolina

IUI’10, February 7–10, 2010, Hong Kong, China

Summary
This paper describes a tool to assist in code reuse for novice programmers, especially middle schoolers. It is specifically associated with a format called "Looking Glass IDE" that enables the users to create animated stories. This is considered a desirable area of study because it is believed that the middle school stage is a critical point in the process in attracting boys & girls to the computer field.

The project, which was never given a name beyond code reuse interface, functions by allowing users to save a script for an action, say one object running into another and knocking to over, generalize it, and then re-insert it elsewhere or in another program specifying new characters to assume the roles. It includes protections against compilation errors, say ordering a table to run.

The results of the study, which are provided in some detail in the paper, appear to have been reasonably satisfying. Out of 47 subjects, 77% were able and motivated to create a program with more than five lines of code. Also successful was the "social propagation" of code and ideas among the students.

Discussion
This paper did a very good job of presenting the work in an understandable fashion, although whether that was because the authors were good writers or because the material was inherently simpler since it was ultimately intended for middle schoolers is an open question.

The paper is significant because producing more good programmers is always significant.

Given infinite time and resources, the best next work would be to give this to a bunch of students and see if it increased either their interest or ability in coding relative to their peers, measured five or more years after the initiation of the test.

The potential flaw with the whole concept is that the program exists. I am not convinced that the need for novice stages in things like reading and coding is necessary. Rather than learning a cut-and-paste pre-assembled language, perhaps we should start folks out in real programming languages, just like we start 'em out in math with real equations, rather than reassembling other's. Just a thought, I'm no expert.

From the paper.

Microblog #51, "Living With Complexity, Chapters 1-2"

1
Summary
This chapter explains that complexity is not essentially, since the world around us is complex (examples are given), but rather the problem is unnecessary complexity.

Discussion
This is another Norman book, apparently more recent than the others. We'll see what he has to say this time.

2

Summary

This chapter re-introduces us to the mental model, rehashes chapter one, explains how a lot of things we think of as simple aren't as simple as we think, and finally points out that the people who are calling for simplicity may be oversimplifying the problem (the irony).

Discussion

How come he gets to cite Wikipedia and I can't?

On a more serious note, there is a lot of rehash in this chapter. The principle difference in this one almost seems to be a repudiation of the simplicity for simplicities sake that was there occasionally in Design of Everyday Things.

Full Blog, "Why We Make Mistakes"

Summary
This book was about the reasons people make mistakes. Each chapter covers a different cause, for example skimming, give detailed examples, back it up with numbers, and attempt to explain it. Some of the causes were obvious, while some were more insightful. Similarly, several of them seemed to be clearly correct while in other cases the author's position was not completely convincing.

Discussion
I enjoyed this book. I think my favorite parts were where he demonstrated his points with challenges (which is the real penny, words to the anthem, etc), although how badly I clobbered the two I took may not have really helped his point all that much.

He avoided the repetition that some earlier assigned works struggled with, while still managing to find points to make that hadn't yet been made. I would consider this the best book assigned so far in this class, and probably second to Mythical Man Month overall (although that one seems to be tailing off at the end).

The hazards of a poor mental model. Source: Calvin & Hobbes, by Bill Watterson, found at site http://freewebs.com/calhobbes/sunset.gif via GIS.

Paper Reading #24, "Outline Wizard"

http://zmhenkel-chi2010.blogspot.com/2011/03/paper-reading-16-performance.html
http://ryankerbow.blogspot.com/2011/04/paper-reading-23.html

Outline Wizard: Presentation Composition and Search

Lawrence Bergman, Jie Lu, Ravi Konuru, Julie MacNaught, Danny Yeh

IBM T.J. Watson Research Center

IUI’10, February 7–10, 2010, Hong Kong, China




Summary
Outline Wizard is a power point plug-in designed to provide hierarchical structure to presentations of existing material. It is built to fill a need the authors perceive in that all current presentation software treats presentations simply as linear collections of slides. The intended benefits are improving both the effectiveness and ease of use of structure, of searching, and of incorporating results into the presentation. Additional features include an algorithm to scan a presentation an extract an outline, and searching based on the outline (either derived or provided) to more easily find content in extant presentations.

Tests indicated that both algorithms were effective, and a user study of the software met with "enthusiastic" results. Five of the six participants believed that the software would be of significant benefit, relative to existing methods; the last was undecided. The most immediate point of further proposed work would be to expand the search algorithm to returns sets of slides than slide as single units.

The user interface, from the paper.

Discussion
This paper was the best written and most accessible of the IUI papers I have been assigned. I hadn't thought of this type of thing beforehand, but it seems like a structure for presentations would be both interesting and useful to have. The biggest flaw in the paper was the small sample size of the user study. Six people really isn't very many. In the future, I would like to see this software tested on a much larger scale and see if the users are as pleased over a long term as the short term.

Microblog #50, "Why We Make Mistakes, Chapters 12, 13, Conclusion"

12
Summary
This chapter describes constraints and affordences from the perspective of the WWMM authors. The point is the same, the examples different.

Discussion
The tidbit about hospitals and CVNs was interesting, if predictable.

13

Summary

This chapter deals with projection error. That is, people not accurately understanding how a change will effect their happiness.

Discussion

I didn't need this book to tell me that moving to the train wreck known as California is a terrible idea. There's a reason all the sane folks are bailing out (I just wish they'd stop voting for the same maniacs who have run California into the ground after moving to my beautiful Colorado).

Conclusion

Summary

This chapter outlines how you can avoid, mostly by enumerating all the examples of mistakes from the generalizing how they could have been avoided.

Discussion

This chapter didn't really contain any new information, and suffers from both getting a little on the sappy side and also overstating points, as in some previous chapters.

Paper Reading #23, "Facilitating Exploratory Search by Model-Based Navigational Cues"

http://alex-chi.blogspot.com/2011/04/paper-reading-18-dmacs-building.html
http://detentionblockaa32.blogspot.com/2011/04/paper-reading-23-natural-language.html

Facilitating Exploratory Search by Model-Based Navigational Cues

Wai-Tat Fu, Thomas G. Kannampallil, and Ruogu Kan
University of Illinois
Presented at IUI’10, February 7–10, 2010, Hong Kong, China

Summary
The authors of this paper wrote it and built a simulator to test the notion that unstructured social tagging may cause difficulties for searchers. The hypothesis being challenged is based on the notion that casual tagging will eventually become an incoherent mess of tags. The counter hypothesis is that the tagging isn't as random as thought, and will instead follow cohesively from whichever tags are posted earliest. That is, early tagging heavily influences the tagging of later users.

The Semantic Imitation Model was designed to simulate the actions of expert and novice users across a document space assembled for the study. The results of the simulation did seem to indicate that convergence is experienced.

from the paper

Discussion
I have to be honest, I don't think much of this paper. First, the problem statement being challenged is very weak - the suggestion that tagging will go all over the place and become useless is very counter intuitive, and it almost feels like the authors built a strawman to have something to challenge.

I really don't understand why they ran simulations rather than finding some actual users to do the study for them...if you build searcher simulators to model searched, they will be based on your understanding of how searchers - even if you don't intend them to - and will tend towards validating your understanding of the whole system.

It's possible that some of the above criticism is invalid, and I simply misunderstood. In that case, the paper's flaw is rather a failure to communicate effectively. Future work : do it again, with people this time.

In the interest of completeness : significant because due to the prevalence of searching any improved understanding thereof is quite useful.