1. what did you find (articulate the answers in your own words)

1.1. interesting about the article?

People seemed to find the descriptions of the three kinds of critiquing mechanisms most interesting. The concept that critics were an additive, supplementary tool to the design process was also particularly attrictive to most people, providing input rather than restraining the user from a particular action.

Kbyrnes wondered about the analogues of the critiquing mechanisms described in the domain education, and what or who serves each of the roles of the generic, specific, and interpretative critics for a teacher. Is this something only acquried through many years of experience as a teacher?

1.2

Why was the kitchen design problem chosen? - westdb

Who is to say the "experts" that have created the knowledge the critics are based on are correct? What if they're wrong? - velezmor/alwa

Many people had a hard time conceptualizing the more abstract parts of the paper

2. what do you consider the main message of the article?

The process of critiquing is a critical element of the design process and it could be applied to assist designers in solving complex problems where traditional expert systems have not been useful. To be useful a system-based critiquing system must be able to deal gracefully with evolving and incomplete design environment, incremental requirement specifications, and distributed knowledge distribution among many design participants. -Phong

The main message of the article was that embedded critiquing systems can be applied to complex, iterative design processes, and that using such a system can provide a way make sure a design meets specific requirements. The system critiques the user by making suggestions about their design and the user can make decisions about which critiques to follow. One other message was that a better design can be realized by embedding the critiquing operations into the design environment itself. In this fashion, the user can see suggestions or problems with their design as it is manifested. -Torgerson

3. are themes discussed in the article which you would like to know more about?

How is a problem broken down into critic rules?

How can critic rules be managed so as not to overwhelm the system?

What other areas besides kitchen design are these principles being tested?

Has this system been developed further, and used by the kitchen community?

How hard is it to incorporate new knowledge into a system like this?

What was the user response to the computer critic? Was it helpful?

4. do you know of other papers, ideas, and systems which are closely related to

4.1. DODEs

Yes, I have seen telecommunications system "provisioning" systems that help telecom engineers to design telecommunications circuits. By and large these systemshave had limited success. - Phong

No one else had heard of any.

4.2. Critiquing?

Compilers
The paperclip in Microsoft Word
Spelling and grammar correction tools in MS Word
Various suggestion/personalization features in TurboTax

Many online stores have "recommendation" features that lead customers to other products they may want to buy. Recommendations are based on the situation, in this case, what other customers have purchased (similar genre, style, etc.). This is similar to how the specific and interpretive critics work. They give "recommendations" based on the situation. Also, another example similar to critiquing occurs when purchasing desktop packages online. Many vendors offer pro/con-like features, allowing users to choose a "situation". You choose your preference (features vs. cost), customizing your package to your own price range and expected quality. - Doan

4.3. analyze “spelling correctors” as a critiquing system

Spelling correctors could be classified as a critiquing system as they detect words that are not found in their definition list and suggest alternatives. However, they are limited by their definition list and do not look at the misspelled word in its context which prevents it from suggesting only appropriate corrections. Along this same line, being that it does not look at words in context, it also misses words that are found in the definition list but may be used incorrectly. - Kiefer

Spelling correctors do not provide the degree of interpretive critiquing available in the HYDRA system. They do not enable you to set priorities and weights, so if you want to be, for instance, E. E. Cummings with your writing, the system goes haywire and will probably interfere with your creativity. It would then be a good idea to turn spelling correcting off. - Westdb

5. what does the article say about

5.1. design

5.2. learning

5.3. collaboration

5.4. innovative media support for these activities?

6. do you have any ideas how this research could / should be extended based on your own knowledge and experience?

I wonder if computer design systems could be used to plan classrooms or school buildings. Could this be used daily by teachers for problems with students or curriculum? If I have a student who never turns in homework could I design a strategy to change this behavior using a similar design tool? What would I have to know as a teacher in order to collaborate with a design system effectively? - kbyrnes

Many people felt that the integration of this tool, or similar tools, with the web, would be advantageous, both from a perspective of making the tool more accessible, as well as providing a vast source of (perhaps useful) information to the user.

How are the critic rules implemented in the Hydra-Kitchen system? Can there be a generic way to describe critic rules as they can be applied to any design environment? Are there any facilities for sharing a set of specific critic rules? - Torgerson