I considered the paper On the design of a Dual-Mode User Interface for accessing 3D content on the World Wide Web [Jankowski, J., & Decker, S. (2013). On the design of a Dual-Mode User Interface for accessing 3D content on the World Wide Web. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 71(7), 838-857.] published in the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies in 2013 as relevant in the field of media technology. The journal as an impact factor of 1.293. It features article not only about research in computing, artificial intelligence, engineering but also about communication, design and interactive system. Furthermore, the main focus of many articles lies on the connection between both areas: the interaction between human and computers. Therefore it contains a suitable combination of the human, the technological and the design aspects media technology aims to unite.
The article I picked is about the development of an user-friendly web interface which consists of 2D and 3D content. Since the World Wide Web has become an important part of our daily life, the influence of web content cannot be denied. Even though 3D is another heavily evolving technology, it has yet not been successfully integrated in the WWW. This is the reason why Jankowski and Decker worked on an easy to use user interface for hypertext and 3D content. Based on the results of earlier studies and with respect to approved web usability principles, they developed a Dual-Channel Model which enables the user to change between a hypertext and a 3D mode. A user study has been set up to evaluate the usability of the Dual-Mode Model. For this purpose a wiki about World-of-Warcraft characters had been created according to the previously developed model. The Wiki contains a 3D museum where the characters are displayed. The evaluation was made according to 'a systematic and methodical approach based on the sequential evaluation developed by Gabbard et al.'. Students, researchers and staff members formed the group of participants. The evaluation result was computed by measuring the time and the correctness of the answers. It indicates that the Dual-Channel Mode guarantees an easy usage. Even though users could have benefited from additional features like a keyboard based control.
The theory which was developed by the research team can be classified as a theory for design and action. The theory describes how a 3D integrated web interface has to be designed in detail. Since it is based on established theoretical design principles it can be called a deductive theory. A test system has been developed according to the theory model and a user study was evaluated to support the theory.
It appears to me that the theory of the Dual-Channel Mode is based on relevant usability paradigms for both web UIs and 3D interaction. The evaluation was made according to an approved evaluation model. But in my opinion they should not have used team members as participants in the user study as their previous knowledge about the UI could have influenced the evaluation.
One of the benefits of using a theory of design and action is clearly that it is the most practical theory. I believe that in media technology or similar fields of research this theory variant is often the only reasonable choice. Since the human being plays an important part in media technology and usability is often an intended feature, a theory can only be verified if it is about design and action. Of course this is not always the case and also theories for explaining and/or predicting are made previously to those more practical theories. For example it can happen that such a theory for design and action is not based on enough theoretical knowledge and therefore may not be consistent.
But the presented study represents only one special type of theory, the example is not able to demonstrate exactly what a theory is made of. In order to give a simple definition of a theory, one could tell a first year university student that theories are universal statements which provide verifiable explanations and predictions. Causality is an important element of a theory, because a theory can only be declared as testable, if a cause exists for every event predicted by the theory. Moreover, a theory should be based on an unsolved problem or a question which is worth asking. But even if references, data, variables, diagrams and hypotheses can be important parts of a theory, these alone can not be considered as a theory. Raw data is not able to solve a question or to answer a problem.
No comments:
Post a Comment