Barbara Mirel - Profile on Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Barbara Mirel

Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 1995

Few, if any, studies on collaboration examine interactions between software manual writers and gr... more Few, if any, studies on collaboration examine interactions between software manual writers and graphic designers. This study analyzes these collaborations, inquiring into the ways in which writers' and designers' processes of collaboration directly affect the form and substance of a finished manual. We argue that when these developers have dialogue, draft iteratively, and jointly make decisions, they produce manuals that could not possibly be developed through linear, assembly-line collaborative processes. We characterize three possible models of collaboration—assembly line (linear drafting), swap meet (iterative drafting and joint problem solving), and symphony (codevelopment in every aspect)—and use as a case study our own collaboration in developing a manual, detailing the concerns that writers and designers bring to a manual project. Analyzing our collaboration as an example of a swap-meet model, we examine four design problems that we faced and explain the ways in which...

Information Design Journal, 2004

In this paper, we look at experienced problem solvers who are experts in their own domains and wh... more In this paper, we look at experienced problem solvers who are experts in their own domains and who visually model the processes people use when they solve complex problems. Our hope is that improved problem models can inform software development teams and lead to better problem solving software. We discuss what to model – the interdependent data ordeals, wayfinding, and sense-making activities that make up patterns of inquiry. We propose a model, which describes how experts explore problem landscapes, putting information and their own conclusions together in different ways in order to satisfy contending goals and agendas.

Journal of Biomedical Discovery and Collaboration, Mar 15, 2011

Background: Bioinformatics visualization tools are often not robust enough to support biomedical ... more Background: Bioinformatics visualization tools are often not robust enough to support biomedical specialists' complex exploratory analyses. Tools need to accommodate the workflows that scientists actually perform for specific translational research questions. To understand and model one of these workflows, we conducted a case-based, cognitive task analysis of a biomedical specialist's exploratory workflow for the question: What functional interactions among gene products of high throughput expression data suggest previously unknown mechanisms of a disease? Results: From our cognitive task analysis four complementary representations of the targeted workflow were developed. They include: usage scenarios, flow diagrams, a cognitive task taxonomy, and a mapping between cognitive tasks and user-centered visualization requirements. The representations capture the flows of cognitive tasks that led a biomedical specialist to inferences critical to hypothesizing. We created representations at levels of detail that could strategically guide visualization development, and we confirmed this by making a trial prototype based on user requirements for a small portion of the workflow. Conclusions: Our results imply that visualizations should make available to scientific users "bundles of features" consonant with the compositional cognitive tasks purposefully enacted at specific points in the workflow. We also highlight certain aspects of visualizations that: (a) need more built-in flexibility; (b) are critical for negotiating meaning; and (c) are necessary for essential metacognitive support.

CoolMap-Reactome Integration for Hypothesis Development with Sample Level Data Using Curated Pathway Diagrams

F1000Research, 2015

Interactive network visulalizations are critical for exploring and hypothesizing about mechanisti... more Interactive network visulalizations are critical for exploring and hypothesizing about mechanistic molecular processes of diseases. Yet user studies show that network tools insufficiently support the higher order cognition in these workflows. Purpose of our work is to:-optimize interactive network tools for complex exploratory/explanatory analysis-map cognotive tasks in this workflow torequirements for usefulness and usability-propose a package of requirements necessary for one workflow Sample Case: We present one exemplary cognitive task and its associated package of user requirements. The task involves classifying by two or more similar traits or values. This task is core to initially uncovering interactions relevant to a disase. Cognitively, scientists interweave classification by similarity and metacogniotion (see Figure 1). The mapping of user requirements to task chunks clearly shows overlaps and thus relationships between the task chunks, pointing out the network rather than list structure. Methods: We studied scientists' common exploration of protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks to uncover and initially explain functional relationships relevant to a disease. Scientists analyzed data from microarray samples of clinical/animal samples and lab experiments. Based on field studies, interviews and scenario-based modeling, we compiled this workflow, its task chunks and associated cognitive tasks and mapped its cognitive tasks to user requirements. We synthesized the requirements from the research literature and critically reviewed and revised them for relevance, redundance, clarity and granularity.

A Research Capability Framework

especially f.or adult students. SNL students are adults, age 24 or older, who want to accelerate ... more especially f.or adult students. SNL students are adults, age 24 or older, who want to accelerate their progress to a degree by using experience as well as classwork for academic credit, and who want to design their own programs with help from an advisory committee of experts. The undergraduate curriculum is competence-based (that is, focused on learning outcomes), student-centered, and interdisciplinary. SNL assesses students on 50 learning outcomes or competence statements, targeted to and organized into 5 domains, each of which is comparable to a discipline found in a traditional liberal arts program. An assessment study of this program was needed to describe the range of written reports assigned in content courses, identify teachers expectations for the written reports that they assign, and rate students' performance against teacher criteria. The goal of the study was to define problems and to propose reforms for improvement. Two theoretical frameworks undergirded the study: (1) a psychological model of intellectual development in college students; and (2) an instructional design for complex problem solving. Methods included analyses of teachers descriptions of assignments, categorization of assignments, rating's of student papers, and surveys of student perceptions of teachers' expectations and criteria. Results, which are various and copious, are logged on numerous data sheets. Surveys are appended. (TB)

Summit on translational bioinformatics, 2009

Many methods and tools have evolved for microarray analysis such as single probe evaluation, prom... more Many methods and tools have evolved for microarray analysis such as single probe evaluation, promoter module modeling and pathway analysis. Little is known, however, about optimizing this flow of analysis for the flexible reasoning biomedical researchers need for hypothesizing about disease mechanisms. In developing and implementing a workflow, we found that workflows are not complete or valuable unless automation is well-integrated with human intelligence. We present our workflow for the translational problem of classifying new sub-types of renal diseases. Using our workflow as an example, we explain opportunities and limitations in achieving this necessary integration and propose approaches to guide such integration for the next great frontier-facilitating exploratory analysis of candidate genes.

Journal of biomedical discovery and collaboration, 2009

Current usability studies of bioinformatics tools suggest that tools for exploratory analysis sup... more Current usability studies of bioinformatics tools suggest that tools for exploratory analysis support some tasks related to finding relationships of interest but not the deep causal insights necessary for formulating plausible and credible hypotheses. To better understand design requirements for gaining these causal insights in systems biology analyses a longitudinal field study of 15 biomedical researchers was conducted. Researchers interacted with the same protein-protein interaction tools to discover possible disease mechanisms for further experimentation. Findings reveal patterns in scientists' exploratory and explanatory analysis and reveal that tools positively supported a number of well-structured query and analysis tasks. But for several of scientists' more complex, higher order ways of knowing and reasoning the tools did not offer adequate support. Results show that for a better fit with scientists' cognition for exploratory analysis systems biology tools need t...

AMIA ... Annual Symposium proceedings / AMIA Symposium. AMIA Symposium, 2006

Clinical care management promises to help diminish the major health problem of depression. To rea... more Clinical care management promises to help diminish the major health problem of depression. To realize this promise, front line clinicians must know which care management interventions are best for which patients and act accordingly. Unfortunately, the detailed intervention data required for such differentiated assessments are missing in most clinical information systems (CIS). To determine frontline clinicians' needs for these data and to identify the data that CIS should keep, we conducted an 18 month ethnographic study and discourse analysis of telehealth depression care management. Results show care managers need data-based evidence to choose best options, and discourse analysis suggests some personalized interventions that CIS should and can feasibly capture for evidence.

AMIA Joint Summits on Translational Science proceedings AMIA Summit on Translational Science, 2010

The CTSA Inventory of Resources Explorer facilitates searching and finding relevant biomedical re... more The CTSA Inventory of Resources Explorer facilitates searching and finding relevant biomedical resources in this rich, federated inventory. We used efficient and non-traditional formal usability methods to define requirements and to design the Explorer, which may be extended to similar web-based tools.

ACM SIGDOC Asterisk Journal of Computer Documentation, 1998

Computational Systems Bioinformatics - Proceedings of the Conference CSB 2007, 2007

Searching the Medline database is almost a daily necessity for many biomedical researchers. Howev... more Searching the Medline database is almost a daily necessity for many biomedical researchers. However, available Medline search solutions are mainly designed for the quick retrieval of a small set of most relevant documents. Because of this search model, they are not suitable for the large-scale exploration of literature and the underlying biomedical conceptual relationships, which are common tasks in the age of high throughput experimental data analysis and cross-discipline research. We try to develop a new Medline exploration approach by incorporating interactive visualization together with powerful grouping, summary, sorting and active external content retrieval functions. Our solution, PubViz, is based on the FLEX platform designed for interactive web applications and its prototype is publicly available at: http://brainarray.mbni.med.umich.edu/Brainarray/DataMining/PubViz.

General hospital

Proceedings of the 21st annual international conference on Documentation - SIGDOC '03, 2003

Strategies for designing manuals for hacker styles of learning

Proceedings of the 7th annual international conference on Systems documentation, 1989

Design Strategies and Choices for Optimizing the Mix

Interaction Design for Complex Problem Solving, 2004

Designing for Usefulness Across Cases

Interaction Design for Complex Problem Solving, 2004

Expanding the Activities of In-House Manual Writers: Strategies for Complex Audiences and Purposes

Management Communication Quarterly, 1990

In-house software manuals must satisfy many internal audiences that are adapting to computerizati... more In-house software manuals must satisfy many internal audiences that are adapting to computerization. Manuals must meet the operational needs of users, represent the technical requirements of in-house programmers, and achieve the goals of upper managers for stability and productivity. To achieve these multiple objectives, in-house writers, with support from their managers, need two special strategies for project management: conducting a contextual audience analysis and acting as liaisons in their workplaces. Contextual audience analyses examine the organizational dynamics that influence how users learn about and respond to a new system. These analyses investigate the relationship between users' task responsibilities and job satisfaction; the consequences of current interchanges among users, programmers, and managers; and successful adoptions of other manuals in the organization. In-house writers must also become liaisons who diagnose sources of resistance to computerization, nego...

Building Network Visualization Tools to Facilitate Metacognition in Complex Analysis

Leonardo, 2011

If whole communities of domain analysts are to be able to use interactive network visualization t... more If whole communities of domain analysts are to be able to use interactive network visualization tools productively and efficiently, tool design needs to adequately support the metacognition implicit in complex visual analytic tasks. Metacognition for such exploratory network-mediated tasks applies across disciplines. This essay presents metacognitive demands inherent in complex tasks aimed at uncovering relevant relationships for hypothesizing purposes and proposes network visualization tool designs that can support these metacognitive demands.

Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 1995

Few, if any, studies on collaboration examine interactions between software manual writers and gr... more Few, if any, studies on collaboration examine interactions between software manual writers and graphic designers. This study analyzes these collaborations, inquiring into the ways in which writers' and designers' processes of collaboration directly affect the form and substance of a finished manual. We argue that when these developers have dialogue, draft iteratively, and jointly make decisions, they produce manuals that could not possibly be developed through linear, assembly-line collaborative processes. We characterize three possible models of collaboration—assembly line (linear drafting), swap meet (iterative drafting and joint problem solving), and symphony (codevelopment in every aspect)—and use as a case study our own collaboration in developing a manual, detailing the concerns that writers and designers bring to a manual project. Analyzing our collaboration as an example of a swap-meet model, we examine four design problems that we faced and explain the ways in which...

Information Design Journal, 2004

In this paper, we look at experienced problem solvers who are experts in their own domains and wh... more In this paper, we look at experienced problem solvers who are experts in their own domains and who visually model the processes people use when they solve complex problems. Our hope is that improved problem models can inform software development teams and lead to better problem solving software. We discuss what to model – the interdependent data ordeals, wayfinding, and sense-making activities that make up patterns of inquiry. We propose a model, which describes how experts explore problem landscapes, putting information and their own conclusions together in different ways in order to satisfy contending goals and agendas.

Journal of Biomedical Discovery and Collaboration, Mar 15, 2011

Background: Bioinformatics visualization tools are often not robust enough to support biomedical ... more Background: Bioinformatics visualization tools are often not robust enough to support biomedical specialists' complex exploratory analyses. Tools need to accommodate the workflows that scientists actually perform for specific translational research questions. To understand and model one of these workflows, we conducted a case-based, cognitive task analysis of a biomedical specialist's exploratory workflow for the question: What functional interactions among gene products of high throughput expression data suggest previously unknown mechanisms of a disease? Results: From our cognitive task analysis four complementary representations of the targeted workflow were developed. They include: usage scenarios, flow diagrams, a cognitive task taxonomy, and a mapping between cognitive tasks and user-centered visualization requirements. The representations capture the flows of cognitive tasks that led a biomedical specialist to inferences critical to hypothesizing. We created representations at levels of detail that could strategically guide visualization development, and we confirmed this by making a trial prototype based on user requirements for a small portion of the workflow. Conclusions: Our results imply that visualizations should make available to scientific users "bundles of features" consonant with the compositional cognitive tasks purposefully enacted at specific points in the workflow. We also highlight certain aspects of visualizations that: (a) need more built-in flexibility; (b) are critical for negotiating meaning; and (c) are necessary for essential metacognitive support.

CoolMap-Reactome Integration for Hypothesis Development with Sample Level Data Using Curated Pathway Diagrams

F1000Research, 2015

Interactive network visulalizations are critical for exploring and hypothesizing about mechanisti... more Interactive network visulalizations are critical for exploring and hypothesizing about mechanistic molecular processes of diseases. Yet user studies show that network tools insufficiently support the higher order cognition in these workflows. Purpose of our work is to:-optimize interactive network tools for complex exploratory/explanatory analysis-map cognotive tasks in this workflow torequirements for usefulness and usability-propose a package of requirements necessary for one workflow Sample Case: We present one exemplary cognitive task and its associated package of user requirements. The task involves classifying by two or more similar traits or values. This task is core to initially uncovering interactions relevant to a disase. Cognitively, scientists interweave classification by similarity and metacogniotion (see Figure 1). The mapping of user requirements to task chunks clearly shows overlaps and thus relationships between the task chunks, pointing out the network rather than list structure. Methods: We studied scientists' common exploration of protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks to uncover and initially explain functional relationships relevant to a disease. Scientists analyzed data from microarray samples of clinical/animal samples and lab experiments. Based on field studies, interviews and scenario-based modeling, we compiled this workflow, its task chunks and associated cognitive tasks and mapped its cognitive tasks to user requirements. We synthesized the requirements from the research literature and critically reviewed and revised them for relevance, redundance, clarity and granularity.

A Research Capability Framework

especially f.or adult students. SNL students are adults, age 24 or older, who want to accelerate ... more especially f.or adult students. SNL students are adults, age 24 or older, who want to accelerate their progress to a degree by using experience as well as classwork for academic credit, and who want to design their own programs with help from an advisory committee of experts. The undergraduate curriculum is competence-based (that is, focused on learning outcomes), student-centered, and interdisciplinary. SNL assesses students on 50 learning outcomes or competence statements, targeted to and organized into 5 domains, each of which is comparable to a discipline found in a traditional liberal arts program. An assessment study of this program was needed to describe the range of written reports assigned in content courses, identify teachers expectations for the written reports that they assign, and rate students' performance against teacher criteria. The goal of the study was to define problems and to propose reforms for improvement. Two theoretical frameworks undergirded the study: (1) a psychological model of intellectual development in college students; and (2) an instructional design for complex problem solving. Methods included analyses of teachers descriptions of assignments, categorization of assignments, rating's of student papers, and surveys of student perceptions of teachers' expectations and criteria. Results, which are various and copious, are logged on numerous data sheets. Surveys are appended. (TB)

Summit on translational bioinformatics, 2009

Many methods and tools have evolved for microarray analysis such as single probe evaluation, prom... more Many methods and tools have evolved for microarray analysis such as single probe evaluation, promoter module modeling and pathway analysis. Little is known, however, about optimizing this flow of analysis for the flexible reasoning biomedical researchers need for hypothesizing about disease mechanisms. In developing and implementing a workflow, we found that workflows are not complete or valuable unless automation is well-integrated with human intelligence. We present our workflow for the translational problem of classifying new sub-types of renal diseases. Using our workflow as an example, we explain opportunities and limitations in achieving this necessary integration and propose approaches to guide such integration for the next great frontier-facilitating exploratory analysis of candidate genes.

Journal of biomedical discovery and collaboration, 2009

Current usability studies of bioinformatics tools suggest that tools for exploratory analysis sup... more Current usability studies of bioinformatics tools suggest that tools for exploratory analysis support some tasks related to finding relationships of interest but not the deep causal insights necessary for formulating plausible and credible hypotheses. To better understand design requirements for gaining these causal insights in systems biology analyses a longitudinal field study of 15 biomedical researchers was conducted. Researchers interacted with the same protein-protein interaction tools to discover possible disease mechanisms for further experimentation. Findings reveal patterns in scientists' exploratory and explanatory analysis and reveal that tools positively supported a number of well-structured query and analysis tasks. But for several of scientists' more complex, higher order ways of knowing and reasoning the tools did not offer adequate support. Results show that for a better fit with scientists' cognition for exploratory analysis systems biology tools need t...

AMIA ... Annual Symposium proceedings / AMIA Symposium. AMIA Symposium, 2006

Clinical care management promises to help diminish the major health problem of depression. To rea... more Clinical care management promises to help diminish the major health problem of depression. To realize this promise, front line clinicians must know which care management interventions are best for which patients and act accordingly. Unfortunately, the detailed intervention data required for such differentiated assessments are missing in most clinical information systems (CIS). To determine frontline clinicians' needs for these data and to identify the data that CIS should keep, we conducted an 18 month ethnographic study and discourse analysis of telehealth depression care management. Results show care managers need data-based evidence to choose best options, and discourse analysis suggests some personalized interventions that CIS should and can feasibly capture for evidence.

AMIA Joint Summits on Translational Science proceedings AMIA Summit on Translational Science, 2010

The CTSA Inventory of Resources Explorer facilitates searching and finding relevant biomedical re... more The CTSA Inventory of Resources Explorer facilitates searching and finding relevant biomedical resources in this rich, federated inventory. We used efficient and non-traditional formal usability methods to define requirements and to design the Explorer, which may be extended to similar web-based tools.

ACM SIGDOC Asterisk Journal of Computer Documentation, 1998

Computational Systems Bioinformatics - Proceedings of the Conference CSB 2007, 2007

Searching the Medline database is almost a daily necessity for many biomedical researchers. Howev... more Searching the Medline database is almost a daily necessity for many biomedical researchers. However, available Medline search solutions are mainly designed for the quick retrieval of a small set of most relevant documents. Because of this search model, they are not suitable for the large-scale exploration of literature and the underlying biomedical conceptual relationships, which are common tasks in the age of high throughput experimental data analysis and cross-discipline research. We try to develop a new Medline exploration approach by incorporating interactive visualization together with powerful grouping, summary, sorting and active external content retrieval functions. Our solution, PubViz, is based on the FLEX platform designed for interactive web applications and its prototype is publicly available at: http://brainarray.mbni.med.umich.edu/Brainarray/DataMining/PubViz.

General hospital

Proceedings of the 21st annual international conference on Documentation - SIGDOC '03, 2003

Strategies for designing manuals for hacker styles of learning

Proceedings of the 7th annual international conference on Systems documentation, 1989

Design Strategies and Choices for Optimizing the Mix

Interaction Design for Complex Problem Solving, 2004

Designing for Usefulness Across Cases

Interaction Design for Complex Problem Solving, 2004

Expanding the Activities of In-House Manual Writers: Strategies for Complex Audiences and Purposes

Management Communication Quarterly, 1990

In-house software manuals must satisfy many internal audiences that are adapting to computerizati... more In-house software manuals must satisfy many internal audiences that are adapting to computerization. Manuals must meet the operational needs of users, represent the technical requirements of in-house programmers, and achieve the goals of upper managers for stability and productivity. To achieve these multiple objectives, in-house writers, with support from their managers, need two special strategies for project management: conducting a contextual audience analysis and acting as liaisons in their workplaces. Contextual audience analyses examine the organizational dynamics that influence how users learn about and respond to a new system. These analyses investigate the relationship between users' task responsibilities and job satisfaction; the consequences of current interchanges among users, programmers, and managers; and successful adoptions of other manuals in the organization. In-house writers must also become liaisons who diagnose sources of resistance to computerization, nego...

Building Network Visualization Tools to Facilitate Metacognition in Complex Analysis

Leonardo, 2011

If whole communities of domain analysts are to be able to use interactive network visualization t... more If whole communities of domain analysts are to be able to use interactive network visualization tools productively and efficiently, tool design needs to adequately support the metacognition implicit in complex visual analytic tasks. Metacognition for such exploratory network-mediated tasks applies across disciplines. This essay presents metacognitive demands inherent in complex tasks aimed at uncovering relevant relationships for hypothesizing purposes and proposes network visualization tool designs that can support these metacognitive demands.