People and Computers XVI - Memorable Yet Invisible

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

   PDF

2. Keynotes

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

      PDF

   2. Fun, Communication and Dependability: Extending the Concept of Usability

      • Andrew F. Monk

      Pages 3-14

3. Anthropomorphism

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 15-15

      PDF

   2. Invisible but Audible: Enhancing Information Awareness through Anthropomorphic Speech

      • Nuno M. Ribeiro, Ian D. Benest

      Pages 17-35

   3. User Perception of Anthropomorphic Characters with Varying Levels of Interaction

      • Guillermo Power, Gary Wills, Wendy Hall

      Pages 37-51

4. CSCW

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 53-53

      PDF

   2. A Tool for Performing and Analysing Experiments on Graphical Communication

      • Patrick G. T. Healey, Nik Swoboda, James King

      Pages 55-68

   3. A Comparison of Text Messaging and Email Support for Digital Communities: A Case Study

      • Elizabeth Longmate, Chris Baber

      Pages 69-87

   4. An Affordance-based Framework for CVE Evaluation

      • Phil Turner, Susan Turner

      Pages 89-103

   5. Extending Low-cost Remote Evaluation with Synchronous Communication

      • Lynne Dunckley, Lucia Rapanotti, Jon G. Hall

      Pages 105-120

   6. Impedance Matching: When You Need to Know What

      • Devina Ramduny, Alan Dix

      Pages 121-137

   7. Multiple Viewpoints on Computer Supported Team Work: A Case Study on Ambulance Dispatch

      • Ann Blandford, B. L. William Wong, Iain Connell, Thomas Green

      Pages 139-156

5. Design Process

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 157-157

      PDF

   2. Pattern Languages in Participatory Design

      • Janet Finlay, Elizabeth Allgar, Andy Dearden, Barbara McManus

      Pages 159-174

   3. Provoking Innovation: Acting-out in Contextual Scenarios

      • Steve Howard, Jennie Carroll, John Murphy, Jane Peck, Frank Vetere

      Pages 175-191

6. Haptic Interfaces

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 193-193

      PDF

   2. Guidelines for the Design of Haptic Widgets

      • Ian Oakley, Alison Adams, Stephen Brewster, Philip Gray

      Pages 195-211

   3. Multi-session VR Medical Training: The HOPS Simulator

      • Andrew Crossan, Stephen Brewster, Stuart Reid, Dominic Mellor

      Pages 213-225

7. Memorable Systems

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 227-227

      PDF

For the last 20 years the dominant form of user interface has been the Graphical User Interface (GUl) with direct manipulation. As software gets more complicated and more and more inexperienced users come into contact with computers, enticed by the World Wide Web and smaller mobile devices, new interface metaphors are required. The increasing complexity of software has introduced more options to the user. This seemingly increased control actually decreases control as the number of options and features available to them overwhelms the users and 'information overload' can occur (Lachman, 1997). Conversational anthropomorphic interfaces provide a possible alternative to the direct manipulation metaphor. The aim of this paper is to investigate users reactions and assumptions when interacting with anthropomorphic agents. Here we consider how the level of anthropomorphism exhibited by the character and the level of interaction affects these assumptions. We compared characters of different levels of anthropomorphic abstraction, from a very abstract character to a realistic yet not human character. As more software is released for general use with anthropomorphic interfaces there seems to be no consensus of what the characters should look like and what look is more suited for different applications. Some software and research opts for realistic looking characters (for example, Haptek Inc., see http://www.haptek.com). others opt for cartoon characters (Microsoft, 1999) others opt for floating heads (Dohi & Ishizuka, 1997; Takama & Ishizuka, 1998; Koda, 1996; Koda & Maes, 1996a; Koda & Maes, 1996b).

• CSCW
• Racter
• Usability
• User Interface Design
• Virtual Reality
• emotion
• human-computer interaction (HCI)
• multimedia
• robot
• tools

• South Bank University, London, UK

  Xristine Faulkner

• Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds, UK

  Janet Finlay

• The French National Institute for Research in Computer Science Control, INRIA, France

  Françoise Détienne

Policies and ethics