Using Semantic Knowledge for UI Design
My first real experiences in scientifically designing software user interfaces date backs to the early 90’s when I was at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
I attempted to design and build a User Interface for the WordPerfect 5.1 word processing software using knowledge about the word processor that I had extracted from a sample of expert users of the software.
I used the pathfinder algorithm (Schvaneveldt 1990) and cluster analysis to identify and organize a set of expert-based semantic relationships between word-processing concepts in the WordPerfect 5.1 domain. I used the results from this analysis to design two user interfaces a hierarchical index and a local semantic browser.
These interfaces were scientifically tested on both experts as well as novice users of WordPerfect 5.0. The performance and strategy measures of this experiment suggest that the semantic user interface improved the accessibility of information for novice users without hampering expert performance.
This study is published later in the journal of Behavior and Information Technology.
This was my first real experience in applying science to the design of User Interfaces and made me realize the shallowness of our current knowledge and processes for designing good user interfaces.