source: Fischer, G. (2001) "User
Modeling in Human-Computer Interaction," User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction
(UMUAI), Kluwer Academic Publishers, 11(2), pp. 65-86. http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/~gerhard/papers/umuai2000.pdf

1. what did you find

1.1. interesting about the article?

I thought that the
section on high functionality applications was the most interesting piece of
the paper. In particular, I thought the reserach involved in expertise with
HFA's was interesting. It seems like these types of systems are changing the
way we view expertise because they offer so much content and functionality that
it is really impossible to become an expert at every facet of the system. These
application turn power users from "experts" to specialists.

1.2. not interesting about the article?

I thought that the
whole article was pretty interesting.

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

The main message
of the article was that with the increasing functionality of HFA's, it becomes
infinitely more important to say the right thing at the right time and in the
right way. Thus user modeling in human computer interaction is a very important
area of study and can contribute greatly to development of usable systems.

3. to which other previous articles
/ discussion topics of the course is this article related?

The article on critiquing
systems from assignment 7, and the CLever and EDC projects focus on HCI.

4. choose MS-Word (or another HFA)
as an example:

Adobe Photoshop

4.1. how much (in percent) of the
functionality of the HFA do you know?

30%

4.2. how do you learn new functionality?

I usually learn new
functionality by exploring a function in a test layer or by playing around with
different settings to see what kind of effects it has on the layer that I am
working in. I will also consult others who I consider proficient users of the
program.

4.3. for MS-Word users: is there
a command in MS-Word which “transposes two characters” (e.g., “leanr” becomes
“learn” by positioning the cursor between n and r and executing the command)?

I would imagine so,
however I do not know how to do it. I think there is just because autoformat
does this all the time when you are typing a word quickly and switch some letters.

5. what have YOU learnt “on demand”
in YOUR life?Briefly describe the most prominent example.

I would say that
one of the best examples is with my restaurant job. I am a bartender, and when
I first started, I didn't know anything. I had to learn as I went along. I had
to pay attention to so much more than just the ingredients in a drink (which
also had to be learned); things like proportions, customer reactions, adjustments
to ingredients based on preferences, describing tastes of different things,
helping someone that wasn't sure what they wanted, inventing drinks for someone
that wanted something different, etc. I learned what I needed to know at the
point which I needed to use it. And then, when that situation came up again,
I was ready for it.

6. what do people have to know to
be able to learn on demand?

I think the biggest
necessity is motivation to learn. Without that, it is a lot more difficult to
learn on demand. Other components to on-demand learning are base knowledge,
appropriate resources, and an open mind.

7. why should one “learn on demand”
instead of relying on “use on demand”?

I don't think that
one kind of learning is necessarily better than the other, but each can be better
than the other given different contexts. I think learning on demand is good
because it often is coupled with an action that must be done right away, and
this can help engrain the knowledge for strongly in memory. There is no real
time to contemplate the information like there is in use on demand, you need
to learn it and use it for the immediate action.

8. which computer systems have you
encountered which

8.1. have a User Modeling Component?

A lot of current
systems have user modeling components. For instance, OS X, Dreamweaver, MS Office.

8.2. support learning on demand?

I would say that
most applications that have well written help facilities and good labeling support
learning on demand. The higher the functionality of the application, the more
these features become important. I would say applications like Dreamweaver,
Flash, and Photoshop are good HFA's that support learning on demand.

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