Projects

Few of today s EPDM (electronic product data management) systems make use of valuable approaches in user interface design and information visualization as suggested by researchers. In this paper, we describe a design approach addressing the problems of searching, browsing, visualizing and filtering information in hierarchically structured graphs. The main problem areas we identified are the amount of data, the possibly complex hierarchical structure in combination with a chronological versioning system and last the collaboration between different users. Working with such data spaces it is hard for users to keep a good overview on the one hand and to narrow the information space as required by the user tasks on the other hand. Additionally, the design of interaction and filter concepts for complex hierarchical networks remains a great challenge. We propose a design concept that makes use of different visualization and interaction techniques based mainly on overview and detail, filtering and zoomable components. In solving the visualization, search and filter problems of such PLM/EPDM data spaces we take a step forward to a fully optimized product lifecycle and the integration.

User-Interface-(UI)-Spezifikationsprozesse involvieren unterschiedliche Akteure mit jeweils eigenen Ausdrucksmitteln. Dadurch ergeben sich Herausforderungen bei der Umsetzung von Anforderungen in gutes UI-Design. Durch einen Mangel an interdisziplinären und kollaborativen Methoden und Werkzeugen dominieren dabei vor allem textbasierte Spezifikationsdokumente. Diese reichen jedoch mangels Interaktivität nicht aus, um innovative und kreative Prozesse zu unterstützen. In diesem Beitrag stellen wir eine Spezifikationstechnik vor, mit der Benutzer-, Aufgaben- und Interaktionsmodelle mit unterschiedlich detailliertem UI-Design verbunden werden. Dadurch entsteht eine erlebbare UI-Simulation, die im Vergleich zu interaktiven UI-Prototypen zusätzlich den visuellen Drill-Down zu Artefakten der Anforderungsermittlung erlaubt. Das Resultat bezeichnen wir als interaktive UI-Spezifikation, mit der eine höhere Transparenz und Nachvollziehbarkeit im Spezifikationsprozess möglich ist.

We introduce a UI specification tool that interactively integrates interdisciplinary and informal modelling languages with different fidelities of UI prototyping. Our innovative experimental tool, called INSPECTOR, is the first tool that assembles models and design into a UI specification with a zoom-based visualization approach.

Specifying user interfaces consists in a fundamental activity in the user interface development life cycle as it informs the subsequent steps. Good quality specifications could lead to a user interface that satisfies the user s needs. The user interface development life cycle typically involves multiple ac-tors possessing all their own particular inputs of user interface artifacts ex-pressed with their own formats, thus posing new constraints for integrating them into comprehensive and consistent specifications of a future user interface. This paper introduces a design technique where these actors can introduce their artifacts by sketching them in their respective input format so as to integrate them into one or multiple output formats. Each artifact can be introduced in a particular level of fidelity (ranging from low to high) and switched to an adja-cent level of fidelity after appropriate refining. Refined artifacts are then cap-tured in appropriate models stored in a model repository. In this way, co-evolutionary design of user interfaces is introduced, defined, and supported by a collaborative design tool allowing multiple inputs and multiple outputs. This design paradigm is exemplified on a case study and has been tested in an empir-ical study revealing how designers appreciate it.

When the user interface should be specified, a picture is worth a thou-sand words, and the worst thing to do is write a natural language specification for it. Although this practice is still common, it is a challenging task to move from text-based requirements and problem-space concepts to a final UI design, and then back. Especially for user interface specification, actors must frequently switch between high-level descriptions and low-level detailed screens. In our research we found out that advanced specifications should to be made up of interconnected artefacts that have distinct levels of abstraction. With regards to the transparency and traceability of the rationale of the specification process, transitions and dependencies must be visual and traversable. For this purpose, a user interface specification method is introduced that interactively integrates interdisciplinary and in-formal modelling languages with different levels of fidelity of user interface prototyping. With an innovative experimental tool, we finally assemble models and design to an interactive user interface specifications.

When the user interface (UI) has to be specified, a picture is worth a thousand words, and the worst thing one can do is attempt to write a natural language specification for it. Nevertheless, this practice is still common, and it is therefore a difficult task to move from text-based requirements and problem-space concepts to a final UI design, and then back again. Especially for the specification of interactive UIs, however, actors must frequently switch between high-level descriptions and detailed screens. In our research we found that advanced UI specifications therefore have to be made up of interconnected artefacts that have distinct levels of abstraction. With regards to the transparency and traceability of the rationale of the UI specification, transitions and dependencies must be visual and traversable. We introduce a model-based UI specification method that interactively integrates interdisciplinary and informal modelling languages with different fidelities of UI prototyping to an interactive design rationale. With an innovative experimental tool we assemble models and design to an interactive UI specification. With a zoomable user interface (ZUI) approach, we can visualize the modelled artefacts and the overall UI specification space on desktop computers as well as on megapixel displays.

We would like to present a poster and a demo of our operational semantic image retrieval prototype. The image retrieval system for which we set up a client-server environment and developed a prototype web client, accesses a database with about 600.000 images. We are working on a subset of 13.421 images which we got for test purposes from our cooperation partner. The main problems we are confronted with are the amount of data and therefore the location of an item of interest, the different search strategies that are used, usefull interaction techniques and of course the most interesting issue of combining the content-based image retrieval (cbir) and usual metadata to support the users in their tasks. We combine a zoom based interaction concept with a dynamic query metadata search and a cbir similarity search based on GIFT (Gnu Image Finding Tool) [2] to simplify search, exploration and scalable visualization of the hierarchical data space with search and filter techniques like dynamic queries and direct manipulation to solve the stated problems. We assume that the proposed concept for image retrieval can be also adapted to other data spaces (e.g. videos or documents).

The development of complex web-based information spaces faces very demanding challenges. Requirements analysis and design demands interdisciplinary modelling approaches. When using typical paper-based methods, an IT organization often experiences frustrating communication issues between teams as well as with suppliers. We present a toolkit for XML-based prototyping of corporate websites at Daimler AG. The approach beats a new path towards interactive specifications of user interface (UI) requirements and the substitution of paper-based artifacts.

In this paper we will describe a new approach to navigation and interaction with the visualization of a data space of an electronic product data management (EPDM) system. The main problems are the amount of data and therefore the location of an item of interest, show specific relations and narrow or expand the information space. We combine a scalable visualization of the hierarchical data space with search and filter techniques like dynamic queries and direct manipulation to solve the stated problems. We assume that the proposed concept for EPDM can be adapted to data spaces like social networks or company structures.

Mit der zunehmenden Digitalisierung von Kulturgütern gewinnen Systeme zur Verwaltung und Suche innerhalb großer Datenmengen immer mehr an Bedeutung. ERIS ist ein thesaurusbasiertes System zur Bildsuche, das im Gegensatz zu herkömmlichen Bildsuchsystemen den direkten Zugriff auf das integrierte Bildmaterial über die visuelle Repräsentation des Thesaurus mittels semantischen Zoomings erlaubt. Der Nutzer / die Nutzerin erhält durch den als Baum visualisierten Thesaurus einen Überblick über die jeweilige Domäne und kann je nach Aspect-of-Interest in die einzelnen Blätter zoomen, so dass er / sie Thumbnails der Bilder oder schließlich auch das gewünschte Bildmaterial samt Metadaten angezeigt bekommt. Der Bruch zwischen semantischem und visuellem Zugriff wird somit durch den Einsatz eines Zoomable User Interfaces minimiert. Angepasste Filter- und Suchfunktionen erlauben die Einschränkung des Ergebnisraumes oder auch den unscharfen Zugriff auf Informationen durch die Auswertung von Synonymen und verwandten Begriffen. Das System wurde domänenunabhängig konzipiert und wird momentan unter Nutzung eines Thesaurus aus dem Museumsbereich weiterentwickelt.

In diesem Beitrag stellen wir die Konzeption, Gestaltung und Realisierung eines interaktiven Systems zur Bildersuche vor. Unternehmen verfügen oft über umfangreiche heterogene Bildsammlungen, die sehr unterschiedlichen Zielgruppen innerhalb und außerhalb des Unternehmens zur Verfügung gestellt werden müssen. Die Größe und Heterogenität dieser Bildsammlungen bedingt, dass es oft schwierig ist relevante Bilder nach spezifischen Kriterien zu finden. Wir haben ein webbasiertes System zur Bildersuche am Beispiel einer Bildersammlung von ca. 13.000 Fahrzeugbildern entwickelt. Damit zeigen wir eine innovative Lösung auf, die über ein zoombasiertes Interaktionskonzept mit umfangreichen Such-, Kategorisierung- und Filtermöglichkeiten verfügt und dieses mit einer Komponente zur Ähnlichkeitssuche kombiniert. Erste informale Evaluationen werden beschrieben. Sie zeigen, dass wir dadurch eine neue Qualität bei der Suche in großen heterogenen Bildersammlungen ermöglichen. Diese basiert vor allem auf einer visuellen und kategorialen Darstellung der Inhalte bzw. der Suchergebnisse. Ein fließender Übergang zwischen zielgerichteter Suche und explorativem Browsen wird dadurch unterstützt.

Corporate software development faces very demanding challenges, especially concerning the user interface of a software system. Collaborative design with stakeholders demands informal modeling methods that everybody can understand and apply. But using traditional, paper-based methods to gather and document requirements, an IT organization often experiences frustrating communication issues between the business and development teams. We present ways of agile high-fidelity prototyping for corporate user interface design. Without harming agile principles and practice, detailed prototypes can be employed for collaborative design, can act as visual specifications and substitute paper-based artifacts.

We seek to close the gap between software engineering (SE) and human-computer interaction (HCI) by indicating interdisciplinary interfaces throughout the different phases of SE and HCI lifecycles. As agile representatives of SE, Extreme Programming (XP) and Agile Modeling (AM) contribute helpful principles and practices for a common engineering approach. We present a cross-discipline user interface design lifecycle that integrates SE and HCI under the umbrella of agile development. Melting IT budgets, pressure of time and the demand to build better software in less time must be supported by traveling as light as possible. We did, therefore, choose not just to mediate both disciplines. Following our surveys, a rather radical approach best fits the demands of engineering organizations.

This article seeks to close the gap between software engineering and human-computer interaction by indicating interdisciplinary interfaces of SE and HCI lifecycles. We present a cross-discipline user interface design lifecycle that integrates SE and HCI under the umbrella of agile development.

In this paper we describe a first version of ZEUS, a web application that combines browsing, searching and object presentation. With the zooming and panning based navigation concept of ZEUS and a hierarchical organization of the information space we try to solve the problems of information overload. It has to be evaluated if categorization, zooming and a full text search can minimize that the user gets lost in hyperspace. The concept of ZEUS is based on some thesis about human cognition, navigation and exploration which we hope to prove with evaluation and user testing of our application in the future.

Der hohe Stellenwert gebrauchstauglicher Benutzungsschnittstellen wird von immer mehr Unternehmen erkannt und erfordert eine Anpassung verbreiteter Vorgehensweisen bei der Anforderungsermittlung und Systemspezifikation. Der Auftraggeber kann sich nicht darauf beschränken, die System- und Benutzeranforderungen zu definieren. Der Auftragnehmer ist oft nicht in der Lage, selbständig ein benutzerfreund-liches System nach den exakten Vorstellungen des Auftraggebers zu gestalten (Offergeld & Oed 2006). Wir stellen Vorgehensmodelle und Methoden zur Erzeugung interaktiver Prototypen und Systemspezifikationen vor. Durch eine visuelle Spezifikationen können Kommunikations- und Kompetenzprobleme überwunden werden. Entwicklungszeiten werden bei gleichzeitiger Steigerung der Qualität verkürzt und die Zusammenarbeit optimiert.

Within the eEurope2010 initiative “An Information Society for All”, development methods which enable the inclusion of the end-user become essential in order to ensure the paradigm of Universal Access. It is important to understand the end-users, their behavior, their knowledge of technology and their abilities and the context in which the applications will be used. In this paper, we combine our experiences in both Agile Methods and Usability Engineering and show that the resulting agile usability methods – however these maybe designated – are ideally suited to design and develop applications which follow the idea of Universal Access and where the end-user is having great influence on systems design.

Der Beitrag untersucht die Fragestellung, ob die Prinzipien, Methoden und Techniken agiler Softwareentwicklungsprozesse mit denen des Usability Engineering vereinbar sind. Um diese Frage zu beantworten, wurden vor allem die Praktiken von Extreme Programming und Agile Modeling näher untersucht und dann vom Standpunkt der Praktiken des Usability Engineering aus bewertet. Die Autoren kommen zu dem Schluss, dass es neben grundlegenden Zielkonflikten auch eine Reihe von interessanten Anknüpfungspunkten gibt, und stellen als eine mögliche Synthese aus beiden Welten den „Agile Usage-Centered Software Lifecycle“ (AUCSL) vor. Damit soll eine Diskussion in der Fachwelt angeregt werden, verbunden mit der Erwartung einer praktischen Erprobung.