Advanced Computing Systems: Usability of Knowledge-Based Planning Systems Status Report

Abstract

The objective of this research is to assess the value of different usability methods to designing a system as complex as a programming environment for a knowledge-based architecture that learns. As well as traditional empirical methods observing real users, analytic and heuristic methods to assess the usability of complex computer systems in advance of running prototypes are emerging from human-computer interaction (HCI) research. We will demonstrate the effectiveness of these observational, analytic and heuristic usability methods with respect to: (1) The classes of knowledge-based systems to which they can be applied; (2) The types of usability problems they can, and cannot identify; (3) The types of suggestions they can generate for the design of improved knowledge- based systems and the relative value of those suggestions for overall usability of the systems; (4) The expertise of the evaluators necessary to apply the methods; and (5) The effort involved in applying the methods.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 30, 1993
Accession Number
ADA279573

Entities

Organizations

  • Carnegie Mellon University

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Beta Testing
  • Cognitive Systems Engineering
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Science
  • Computers
  • Environment
  • Heuristic Methods
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Knowledge Based Systems
  • Language
  • Military Research
  • Procedural Programming
  • Procedural Programming Language
  • Programming Languages
  • United States
  • United States Government

Fields of Study

  • Computer science
  • Engineering

Readers

  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Software Engineering.