#10051
Journal of Computer Documentation 
This quarterly publication of SIGDOC features refereed original articles and classic reprints, always accompanied by open peer commentary essays and multiple, comparative book reviews.
#13945
Learnability in Information Design 
Design of information used for technical communication of complex products should consider how learnable that information is, and strive to deliver materials that are inherently learnable.The speed of information interchange and the demands of the workplace and school curricula require increasingly minimalist approaches to the material that is made available. People are frustrated by long learning times, and new users of software tools demand rapid absorption of tool capabilities. In addition, many readers of technical information are people for whom English is not their native language.Methods and practices that worked in the period when people were willing to commit to hours of study to understand a topic, or days of practice to master a tool, no longer work in a world based on ?internet time.? To assist our understanding of these trends in learning, this paper addresses three key areas related to learnability: proposing a definition of learnability, showing where learnability and usability intersect, and providing a basis for learnability based on some attributes of human beings.
Haramundanis, Kathy. ACM SIGDOC (2001). Presentations>User Centered Design>Usability>Cognitive Psychology
#26423
Learning to Use Virtual Team Collaboration to Solve Wicked Problems
The focus of this paper is the ELEARNING RESEARCH PROJECT (hereafter referred to as the EProject), a project to investigate how virtual teams collaborate to solve highly complex or wicked problems. The EProject designed, constructed, and assessed a Web-based collaborative learning environment to support virtual teams of intelligence analysts. The mission of these geo-distributed and cross-disciplinary teams is to learn to collaborate in order to integrate knowledge from diverse domains and thereby produce solutions for wicked problems.
Cupp, Stephanie, Joel Foreman, S. Gievska-Krliu, and Rachelle S. Heller. ACM Crossroads (2004). Articles>Collaboration>Online
#27122
Legally Speaking: Does Information Really Want To Be Licensed?
Although Louisiana and Illinois once passed laws to validate software shrinkwrap licenses, neither statute survived closer review. In the Vault v. Quaid decision, federal judges refused to enforce the Louisiana law insofar as license terms interfered with consumer rights under federal copyright law. The Illinois software shrinkwrap license enforcement statute was subsequently repealed due to industry dissatisfaction with it.
Samuelson, Pamela. Communications of the ACM (1998). Articles>Intellectual Property>Contracts
#14257
Local Chapters of the ACM SIGCHI
ACM SIGCHI brings together people working on the design, evaluation, implementation, and study of interactive computing systems for human use. ACM SIGCHI provides an international, interdisciplinary forum for the exchange of ideas about the field of human-computer interaction (HCI).
ACM SIGCHI. Organizations>Human Computer Interaction>Regional
#22832
Macromedia Director as a Prototyping and Usability Testing Tool
Efforts to understand user requirements commonly focus on the functionality and features of a product. However, it is important to analyze other product attributes, such as usability. A product may meet all of its functional requirements, but can fail if it has an interface that is difficult to navigate and learn. To address this problem, it is important to get feedback from users as early in the development life cycle as possible. A common technique is to develop a prototype or mockup of a product's interface to present to users.
Ludi, Stephanie. ACM Crossroads (2000). Design>User Interface>Usability
#22259
Making Sense of Step-by-Step Procedures
Procedural instructions that consist of only a sequence of steps will probably be executable, but nevertheless 'meaningless' to users of technical devices. This paper discusses three features that can make procedural instructions more meaningful: adding functional coordinating information, adding information about the use of the technical device in real life, and adding operational information about how the device works. The research literature supports the effectiveness of the first feature, but offers little evidence that real life elements enhance understanding of instructions. As for operational information, the research suggests that users are willing to read it, and that it contributes to better understanding and performance in the long term, but only if it is closely related to the procedure. As a conclusion, we propose a theoretical framework that assumes three levels of mental representation of instructions: syntactical, semantic, and situational.
Steehouder, Michael F., Joyce Karreman and Nicole Ummelen. ACM SIGDOC (2000). Articles>Documentation>Rhetoric>Technical Writing
#22836
XML is becoming the data format of choice for a wide variety of information systems solutions. Common applications using XML include document transmission in B2B systems, message format construction for integration of Internet applications with legacy systems, binding of XML data to visual and non-visual controls, data storage and retrieval, and various data manipulation activities within applications.
Emerick, Jerry. ACM Crossroads (2002). Articles>Information Design>XML
#26412
Mixed Nuts: Atypical Classroom Techniques for Computer Science Courses
Unlike lecturing and giving homework, these unorthodox techniques can also keep students attentive and target preferred learning styles. This article presents some experimental and anecdotal evidence to support the theory that the use of these techniques improves students' learning in an introductory Computer Science (CS) class.
Stamm, Sid. ACM Crossroads (2004). Articles>Education>Instructional Design
#26422
Building larger networks implies higher infrastructure and maintenance costs, and increased sophistication. Any additions or modifications to a large operational network necessitate a plan, which should be devised after understanding existing weaknesses and vulnerabilities, and identifying current and future needs. This article will introduce the fundamental concepts of network resource planning (NRP), a methodology used to design, upgrade, and expand computer communication networks, and will focus on how such a methodology can be applied in enterprise networks.
Acosta, Beatriz and Kostas Pentikousis. ACM Crossroads (2003). Articles>Technology>Planning
#13653
A study of how a rhetorical perspective can help to improve the construction of virtual communities. By applying rhetorical theory to environments and communication, my research demonstrates that the relationship between a speaker and audience is in part determined by spatial cues. That means that the architecture of a virtual environment creates interactional expectations that guide activity within the environment. A major component of these expectations is the authority of a participant in relation to others; spatial cues help speakers determine the ethos -- or relational background -- of others. Researching this relationship across a variety of online environments has demonstrated that the structure of public and private spaces within an online community will affect congregating patterns, conversational habits, genres of discourse, community coherence, and social structure. In addition to spatial cues, representational choices also influence participants’ expectations of themselves and others. In my most recent study I have created an online environment that incorporates an @race property into the familiar litany of @gender, @description, and @research found in many educational and social environments.
Kolko, Beth E. ACM SIGCHI (1999). Articles>Collaboration>Online
#22248
Post-Cognitivist HCI: Second-Wave Theories
Historically, the dominant paradigm in HCI, when it appeared as a field in early 80s, was information processing ('cognitivist') psychology. In recent decades, as the focus of research moved beyond information processing to include how the use of technology emerges in social, cultural and organizational contexts, a variety of conceptual frameworks have been proposed as candidate theoretical foundations for 'second-wave' HCI and CSCW. The purpose of this panel is to articulate similarities and differences between some of the leading 'post-cognitivist' theoretical perspectives: language/ action, activity theory, and distributed cognition.
Kaptelinin, Victor, Bonnie A. Nardi, Susanne Bodker, John M. Carroll, Jim Hollan, Edwin Hutchins and Terry Winograd. ACM SIGCHI (2003). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>History
#13815
Professional Organizations in Collaboration
Links to a number of organizations that study groupware and collaboration.
#18242
Publishing on the Cheap: One Idea That Worked
For computer centers to eliminate paper documentation is cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face.
Durack, Katherine T. ACM SIGDOC (1992). Academic>Computing>Publishing
#29248
This paper presents a summary of the results of several relatively large studies which attempted statistical analysis of audit trails created by learners accessing information in typical hypermedia or hypertext learning environments, and interpreted them in relation to learner characteristics and study tasks. Significant differences in the information access strategy, amount of information accessed, student estimates of achievement and knowledge outcome were observed between learners in these studies. This paper concluded that some learners may be systematically disadvantaged where support for (or the delivery of) the curriculum depends on hypermedia, such as via a networked learning environment delivered passively over the WWW. It is suggested that the audit tools available from the WWW provide an opportunity to develop multi-discipline evaluation mechanisms which may enable researchers to provide learners with standard 'learning profiles' with which to reflect on their own learning effectiveness when using hypermedia educational materials.
Quentin-Baxter, Megan. ACM Computing Surveys (1999). Articles>Education>Multimedia
#13964
Reflections on NoteCards: Seven Issues for the Next Generation of Hypermedia Systems
NoteCards, developed by a team at Xerox PARC, was designed to support the task of transforming a chaotic collection of unrelated thoughts into an integrated, orderly interpretation of ideas and their interconnections. This article presents NoteCards as a foil against which to explore some of the major limitations of the current generation of hypermedia systems, and characterizes the issues that must be addressed in designing the next generation systems.
Halasz, Frank G. ACM SIGDOC (1988). Presentations>Information Design>Hypertext
#26413
Requirements Engineering: Closing the Gap Between Academic Supply and Industry Demand
In this economic situation, it is imperative that computer science students are well prepared before entering the work force; new graduates must understand what skills the IT industry is seeking.
Winbladh, Kristina. ACM Crossroads (2004). Careers>Workplace>Engineering>Professionalism
#26438
RusCHI serves as an inter-disciplinary group for the exchange of ideas and experience in the field of usability and human-computer interaction (HCI) by bringing together people working on the design, evaluation, implementation, and study of interactive systems.
ACM SIGCHI (2004). (Russian) Organizations>Human Computer Interaction>Regional>Russia
#14488
A Scalable Method for Deductive Generalization in the Spreadsheet Paradigm
In this paper, we present an efficient method for automatically generalizing programs written in spreadsheet languages. The strategy is to do generalization through incremental analysis of logical relationships among concrete program entities from the perspective of a particular computational goal. The method uses deductive dataflow analysis with algebraic back-substitution rather than inference with heuristics, and there is no need for generalization-related dialog with the user. We present the algorithms and their time complexities and show that, because the algorithms perform their analyses incrementally, on only the on-screen program elements rather than on the entire program, the method is scalable. Performance data is presented to help demonstrate the scalability.
Burnett, Margaret, Sherry Yang and Jay Summet. ACM TOCHI (2002). Articles>Human Computer Interaction
#13092
SIGCHI Tutorials To Go Program
The Tutorials To Go program enables local SIGs to sponsor professional seminars for their members, both for purposes of professional development and for purposes of outreach to others who might eventually become members of the local SIG. These seminars are based on successful CHI Conference Tutorials, chosen by a committee of SIGCHI members, and agreed to by the developers of each Tutorial. The program is sponsored by the ACM SIGCHI Executive Committee, and was developed by Tom Hewett and colleagues listed below.
ACM SIGCHI (1999). Articles>Education>Usability
#13991
Het doel van deze website is om leden van en geïnteresseerden in de vereniging SIGCHI.NL een platform te bieden om op de hoogte te blijven van de stand van zaken op HCI-gebied.
ACM SIGCHI. (Dutch) Organizations>Human Computer Interaction>Regional>Netherlands
#12984
SIGWEB supports the multi-disciplinary field of hypertext and hypermedia, facilitating its application both on the World-Wide Web and also in independent, distributed and stand-alone environments. It provides a forum for the promotion, dissemination, and exchange of ideas concerning research and applications among scientists, systems designers and end-users.
#14890
SIGWEB supports the multi-disciplinary field of hypertext and hypermedia, facilitating its application both on the World-Wide-Web and also in independent, distributed and stand-alone environments. It provides a forum for the promotion, dissemination, and exchange of ideas concerning research and application among scientists, systems designers and endusers. Particular emphasis is placed on the development of technology methodologies and standards, encouragement of greater public acceptance of hypertext technology and the promotion of consensus within the field.
#13949
Single Sourcing for Translations
OCLC Online Computer Library Center has reduced costs and improved quality by using single sourcing in the localization of its services. For its FirstSearch reference service (which provides access to 80 databases for 18,000 libraries in 64 countries), OCLC has been through three phases of localization. Each phase has increased consistency and efficiency and lowered our translation costs. In the first phase of localizing FirstSearch in 1999, we introduced French and Spanish versions. The translation included the user interface screens and the help system. During this phase, we had minimal reuse of text in the interface and help files. The next year, OCLC released a major redesign of that service-with three levels of searching and greatly expanded database help. A separate administrative service and help system were also included. The translation task became much larger, and we needed to optimize the opportunities for text reuse in the system interfaces, help systems, and documentation. In the interfaces, all text strings were categorized and defined as entity strings-reused as needed among functions, databases, and user levels. For help and documentation, the needed content was analyzed and defined in an SGML DTD. Scripts were used to generate 240 help topics from a few SGML files. This approach reduced translation costs and facilitated consistency. Now in the third phase of localization, we are integrating our tool set, implementing a content management system, and adding support for Asian languages. Through this phase, we expect to reduce translation costs and improve quality.
Hysell, Deborah A. ACM SIGDOC (2001). Presentations>Language>Translation>Localization
#10179
Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques
The ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques is an interdisciplinary community interested in research, technology, and applications in computer graphics and interactive techniques. Members include researchers, developers and users from the technical, academic, business, and art communities. SIGGRAPH provides information to the computer graphics community through its annual conference, publications and the SIGGRAPH Video Review. SIGGRAPH members receive the quarterly newsletter Computer Graphics, the SIGGRAPH annual conference publications which consist of the proceedings (printed, CD-ROM and videotape), electronic art and animation catalog (printed and CD-ROM) and the conference abstracts and applications (printed and CD-ROM). A 'Lite' membership is available at a reduced rate that includes the quarterly newsletter but not the conference publications package. A 'Plus' option is also available with significant discounts on the proceedings of other computer graphics conferences and workshops. All members receive discounts to the annual conference, publications and other SIGGRAPH sponsored events, and complimentary access to the graphics publications in the ACM Digital Library.
