Anyone interested is welcome.
Talk Title: Characterizing and Supporting the Coordinated Use of Online Support Materials for Performing Work in Feature-Rich Interactive Systems
Abstract:
Web search has become one of the most ubiquitous and common ways of locating information on any topic. In particular, web search serves an integral role in how people learn, use, and otherwise manage the complexity of feature-rich software systems (e.g., Adobe Photoshop). When users rely on web resources to support their use of complex software, the act of querying a search engine signals that the user has a goal in mind, that they are able to express their goal in their own words, but that they are unsure (or cannot recall) which concrete low-level operations will accomplish their goal in the software application. The necessary low-level plans and action sequences are enumerated in the online resources retrieved from search (e.g., web tutorials), and are translated by the user into actions performed within the software itself. Notably, each step of this processes is mediated by a user interface with which the person interacts, and each discrete action is logged and aggregated to support existing business practices (e.g., behavioural advertising). This creates a rich research space for human-computer interaction research, affording many opportunities to study and effect how work gets done "in the wild’" and on a day-to-day basis. Throughout my PhD I have developed novel techniques that leverage logs of online interactions, and other online artefacts (e.g., online tutorials) to automatically identify potential usability problems in any publicly available interactive system, and to provide novel end-user tools and services. In this talk, I review 4 projects I have published in this space, and I outline my long-term research vision which casts software applications, web search, and online support materials as individual parts of a larger holistic system to be studied, designed, and evaluated in concert.
More information about Adam can be found on his personal website.