Article

Free access

A generalized transition network representation for interactive systems

Authors:

David Kieras,

Peter G. PolsonAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '83: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Pages 103 - 106

https://doi.org/10.1145/800045.801590

Published: 12 December 1983 Publication History

PDF eReader

Abstract

A general method for describing the behavior of an interactive system is presented which is based on transition networks generalized enough to describe even very complex systems easily, as shown by an example description of a word processor. The key feature is the ability to easily describe hierarchies of modes or states of the system. The representation system is especially valuable as a design tool when used in a simulation of a proposed user interface.

In order to characterize the interaction between a user and a system, an explicit and formal representation of the behavior of the system itself is needed. To be of value in the design of user interfaces, the representation should be independent of the actual implementation of the system, but also reflect the structural properties of the system's behavior, such as its hierarchical form, the possible modes, and the consistent patterns of interaction. At the same time, the representation must be easy to define and understand. This paper presents a representation notation with these properties.

References

[1]

Embley, D.W. (1978). Empirical and formal language design applied to a unified control construct for interactive computing. International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, 10, 197-216.

Crossref

Google Scholar

[2]

Foley, J.D. (1980). The structure of interactive command languages. In R. A. Guedj (Ed.) Methodology of Interaction. North-Holland, 227-234.

Google Scholar

[3]

Foley, J. D. & Wallace, V. L. (1974). The art of natural graphic man-machine conversation. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 62, 462-471.

Google Scholar

[4]

Jacob, R.J.K. (1982). Using formal specifications in the design of a human-computer interface. Proceedings of a Conference on Human Factors in Computer System. Gaithersburg, MD.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[5]

Kieras, D.E., & Polson, P.G. (1982). An approach to the formal analysis of user complexity. Working Paper No. 2, University of Arizona.

Google Scholar

[6]

Parnas, D. L. (1969). On the use of transition diagrams in the design of a user interface for an interactive computer system. Proceedings of the 24th National ACM Conference, 15, 379-385.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[7]

Reisner, P. (1981). Formal grammar and human factors design of an interactive graphics system. In IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, SE-7, 2, 229-240.

Google Scholar

[8]

Reisner, P. (1982). Further developments toward using formal grammar as a design tool. Proceedings of a Conference on Human factors in Computer System. Gaithersburg, MD.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[9]

Woods, W. A. (1970). Transition network grammars for natural language analysis. Communications of the ACM, 13, 591-606.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

Cited By

View all

Seo JXia YLee BMccurry SYam Y(2024)MAIDR: Making Statistical Visualizations Accessible with Multimodal Data RepresentationProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642730(1-22)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642730
Dwyer‐White MDoshi AHill MPienta K(2011)Centralized Research Recruitment—Evolving a Local Clinical Research Recruitment Web Application to Better Meet User NeedsClinical and Translational Science10.1111/j.1752-8062.2011.00285.x4:5(363-368)Online publication date: 26-Oct-2011
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1752-8062.2011.00285.x
Balduccini MGirotto S(2010)Formalization of psychological knowledge in answer set programming and its applicationTheory and Practice of Logic Programming10.1017/S147106841000038410:4-6(725-740)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1017/S1471068410000384
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

A generalized transition network representation for interactive systems

Recommendations

Improving modularity and usability of interactive systems with Malai
EICS '10: Proceedings of the 2nd ACM SIGCHI symposium on Engineering interactive computing systems

In this paper we present Malai, a model-based user interface development environment. Malai is dedicated to the conception of post-WIMP (Window, Icon, Menu, Pointing device) interactive systems. Malai aims at gathering together principles from Norman's ...
Building reliable interactive information systems

User Software Engineering is a methodology, with supporting tools, for the specification, design, and implementation of interactive information systems. With the USE approach, the user interface is formally specified with augmented state transition ...
A compact graphical representation of user interface interaction objects

Comments

Please enable JavaScript to view thecomments powered by Disqus.

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

CHI '83: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

December 1983

306 pages

ISBN:0897911210

DOI:10.1145/800045

Chairmen:
Raoul N. Smith,
Richard W. Pew,
Editor:
Ann Janda

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 12 December 1983

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Request Permissions

Check for updates

Qualifiers

Article

Acceptance Rates

CHI '83 Paper Acceptance Rate 59 of 176 submissions, 34%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 6,199 of 26,314 submissions, 24%

Upcoming Conference

CHI '25

Sponsor:
sigchi

CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 26 - May 1, 2025

Yokohama , Japan

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

38
Total Citations
View Citations
533
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)72
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)17

Reflects downloads up to 16 Nov 2024

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

View all

Seo JXia YLee BMccurry SYam Y(2024)MAIDR: Making Statistical Visualizations Accessible with Multimodal Data RepresentationProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642730(1-22)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642730
Dwyer‐White MDoshi AHill MPienta K(2011)Centralized Research Recruitment—Evolving a Local Clinical Research Recruitment Web Application to Better Meet User NeedsClinical and Translational Science10.1111/j.1752-8062.2011.00285.x4:5(363-368)Online publication date: 26-Oct-2011
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1752-8062.2011.00285.x
Balduccini MGirotto S(2010)Formalization of psychological knowledge in answer set programming and its applicationTheory and Practice of Logic Programming10.1017/S147106841000038410:4-6(725-740)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1017/S1471068410000384
Navarre DPalanque PLadry JBarboni E(2009)ICOsACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction10.1145/1614390.161439316:4(1-56)Online publication date: 27-Nov-2009
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1614390.1614393
Luft TColditz CDeussen O(2006)Image enhancement by unsharp masking the depth bufferACM Transactions on Graphics10.1145/1141911.114201625:3(1206-1213)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2006
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1141911.1142016
Treuille ALewis APopović Z(2006)Model reduction for real-time fluidsACM Transactions on Graphics10.1145/1141911.114196225:3(826-834)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2006
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1141911.1141962
Klingner BFeldman BChentanez NO'Brien J(2006)Fluid animation with dynamic meshesACM Transactions on Graphics10.1145/1141911.114196125:3(820-825)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2006
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1141911.1141961
Merro MHennessy M(2006)A bisimulation-based semantic theory of Safe AmbientsACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems10.1145/1119479.111948228:2(290-330)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2006
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1119479.1119482
Payet EMesnard F(2006)Nontermination inference of logic programsACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems10.1145/1119479.111948128:2(256-289)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2006
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1119479.1119481
Almstrum VBarker LOwens BAdams EAspray WDale NDann WLawrence ASchwartzman L(2005)Building a sense of historyACM SIGCSE Bulletin10.1145/1113847.111389537:4(173-189)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2005
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1113847.1113895
Show More Cited By

View Options

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

PDF

eReader

View online with eReader.

eReader

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Cited By

Index Terms

Recommendations

Improving modularity and usability of interactive systems with Malai

Building reliable interactive information systems

A compact graphical representation of user interface interaction objects