Use of Artificial Landmarks to Improve Spatial Learning and Revisitation in Computer Interfaces

Abstract: One aspect of being an expert with a Graphical User Interface (GUI) is knowing where the tools or commands are in an interface. Experts can quickly find and visit the locations of commands to carry out tasks on computers, but novices – users new to a GUI – must employ slow visual search to find a command’s location before interacting with it. Novices can become experts by learning the locations of commands in GUIs. However, GUIs often make it difficult for users to learn command locations, mainly due to the presence of a large number of commands. Location learning in the real-world benefits significantly from landmarks because they provide stable reference frames for nearby objects. Motivated by the real-life benefits of landmarks, my research explores the idea that in the absence of strong natural landmarks, artificial elements (e.g., icons or color blocks) can be landmarks in GUIs. In order to test how landmarks, support location learning and revisitation in GUIs, I have augmented interfaces with artificial landmarks at two levels: an entire interface (e.g., a command selection interface) and individual widgets (e.g., a controller of a linear document viewer - scrollbar). This talk presents results from three studies that show landmarks can be a valuable addition to GUIs that support efficient learning and recall of spatial locations in the interface, improving the development of user expertise.

Biography: Md. Sami Uddin is a PhD candidate in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Saskatchewan under the supervision of Dr. Carl Gutwin. Sami’s research falls under the broad category of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI); primarily, he focuses on users’ rapid development of expertise with computer interfaces. He investigates and exploits people’s physical and cognitive abilities to design better interaction facilities and support users to become experts quickly. His doctoral research has introduced the use of ‘artificial landmarks’ in computer interfaces as an effective way to make people expert with the interfaces. Sami completed his Master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Saskatchewan. Before moving to Canada, he served as a Lecturer of Computer Science and Engineering at the Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology, Bangladesh. He completed his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Information Technology from the Islamic University of Technology, Bangladesh.