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Papers by Betsy van Dijk

Humans have remarkable perceptual capabilities that tend to be underestimated in current visualis... more Humans have remarkable perceptual capabilities that tend to be underestimated in current visualisation designs . Often, this is due to the fact that designers do not analyse who the users are, what tasks they want to perform using the visualisations, and what their working environments are .

Journal of The Atmospheric Sciences, 2008

User interfaces in modern bioinformatics tools are designed for experts. They are too complicated... more User interfaces in modern bioinformatics tools are designed for experts. They are too complicated for novice users such as bench biologists. This report presents the full results of a formative user study as part of a domain and requirements analysis to enhance user interfaces and collaborative environments for multidisciplinary teamwork. Contextual field observations, questionnaires and interviews with bioinformatics researchers of different levels of expertise and various backgrounds were performed in order to gain insight into their needs and working practices. The analysed results are presented as a user profile description and user requirements for designing user interfaces that support the collaboration of multidisciplinary research teams in scientific collaborative environments. Although the number of participants limits the generalisability of the findings, the combination of recurrent observations with other user analysis techniques in real-life settings makes the contribution of this user study novel.

We study videoconferencing for meetings with some co-located participants and one remote particip... more We study videoconferencing for meetings with some co-located participants and one remote participant. A standard Skype-like interface for the remote participant is compared to a more immersive 3D interface that conveys gaze directions in a natural way. Experimental results show the 3D interface is promising: all significant differences are in favor of 3D and according to the participants the 3D

This paper describes a one semester research course for undergraduates of computing programs. Stu... more This paper describes a one semester research course for undergraduates of computing programs. Students formulate a research proposal, conduct research and write a full paper. They present the results at a one-day student conference. On the one hand we offer the students a lot of structure and support; on the other hand an important feature of the course is that

International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies, 2006

In this paper we discuss an approach towards passively observing students in a driving simulator.... more In this paper we discuss an approach towards passively observing students in a driving simulator. The goal is to enhance the learning experience for students taking lessons in this simulator. To this end, a virtual driving instructor is provided with added information consisting of the gaze behavior of its student. The gaze behavior is defined by estimated head locations and orientations. The learning experience for the student is enhanced by providing added feedback to the student based on his observed behavior.

User interfaces and visualisations are part of group problem solving. Technology is already a par... more User interfaces and visualisations are part of group problem solving. Technology is already a part of daily decision-making in multidisplay environments, both as communication tools and information devices. As these devices, such as large displays and visualisation tools become more accessible, there is an increasing opportunity to develop applications that enhance group decision-making abilities, rather than restrict them. This chapter presents the results of the empirical user study on the effect of the Highlighting-on-Demand concept on situational awareness and satisfaction with the group decision-making process in a real multidisplay environment. Highlighting-on-Demand interface enables a team member who is currently controlling the shared large display to draw attention of the other team members by highlighting certain visualisation. Displaying all alternatives on a shared large display fosters information sharing and the Highlighting-on-Demand interface enables group members to draw attention to certain visualisation, while keeping the other alternatives still in view. The results suggest that when group members use the Highlighting-on-Demand interface during the discussion, the satisfaction with the final group decision increases. Participants expressed willingness to use the Highlighting awareness support for visualising real data (e.g., biomedical, omics experiments) and manipulating how the data is visualised to discuss the experiment results with other team members in real project discussions.

The development and first deployment are described of a course on human-computer interaction for ... more The development and first deployment are described of a course on human-computer interaction for computer science students at Dutch universities. The course is based on the concept of project-based education. Students have to do an assignment in teams of four using software for computer supported collaborative work. The system used is the BSCW system. The contents of the course and the organizational structure are given. The experience with 100 students at one of the universities is presented. The educational approach and the deployment of this kind of project-based education are evaluated. The results are very positive.

Intelligent Technologies for Interactive Entertainment, 2009

The phenomenon of immersing oneself into virtual environments has been established widely. Yet to... more The phenomenon of immersing oneself into virtual environments has been established widely. Yet to date (to our best knowledge) the physical dimension has been neglected in studies investigating immersion in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). In movement-based interaction the user controls the interface via body movements, e.g. direct manipulation of screen objects via gestures or using a handheld controller as a virtual tennis racket. It has been shown that physical activity affects arousal and that movement-based controllers can facilitate engagement in the context of video games. This paper aims at identifying movement features that influence immersion. We first give a brief survey on immersion and movement-based interfaces. Then, we report results from an interview study that investigates how users experience their body movements when interacting with movement-based interfaces. Based on the interviews, we identify four movement-specific features. We recommend them as candidates for further investigation.

Annual Joint Conference Integrating Technology into Computer Science Education, 2006

Team projects are nowadays common practice in HCI education. This paper focuses on the role of cl... more Team projects are nowadays common practice in HCI education. This paper focuses on the role of clients and users in team projects in introductory HCI courses. In order to provide projects with a realistic context we invite people from industry to serve as clients for the student teams. Some of them have a professional interest in participating in our course and define a project themselves. Another way we make projects realistic is to have teams evaluate their designs with real users.

Interacting with Computers, 2006

Recommender systems help people to find information that is interesting to them. However, current... more Recommender systems help people to find information that is interesting to them. However, current recommendation techniques only address the user's short-term and long-term interests, not their immediate interests. This paper describes a method to structure information (with or without using recommendations) taking into account the users' immediate interests: a goal-based structuring method. Goal-based structuring is based on the fact that people experience certain gratifications from using information, which should match with their goals. An experiment using an electronic TV guide shows that structuring information using a goal-based structure makes it easier for users to find interesting information, especially if the goals are used explicitly; this is independent of whether recommendations are used or not. It also shows that goal-based structuring has more influence on how easy it is for users to find interesting information than recommendations.

Movement-based and exertion interfaces assume that their users move. Users have to perform exerci... more Movement-based and exertion interfaces assume that their users move. Users have to perform exercises, they have to dance, they have to golf or football, or they want to train particular bodily skills. Many examples of those interfaces exist, sometimes asking for subtle interaction between user and interface and sometimes asking for ‘brute force’ exertion interaction between user and interface. In these interfaces it is often the case that the interface mediates between players of a game. Obviously, one of the players may be a virtual human. We provide a ‘state of the art survey’ of such interfaces and in particular look at intelligent exertion interfaces, interfaces that know about their users and even try to anticipate what their users prepare to do. That is, we embed this interface research in ambient intelligence and entertainment computing research, and the interfaces we consider are not only mediating, but they also ‘add’ intelligence to the game. Other issues that will be discussed are ‘flow’ and ‘engagement’ for exertion interfaces. Intelligent exertion interfaces, being able to know and learn about their users, should also be able to provide means to keep their users engaged and in the flow of the game and entertainment experience. Unlike the situation with traditional desktop game research where we can observe lots of research activity trying to define, interpret and evaluate issues such as ‘flow’ and ‘immersion’, in movement-based interfaces these concepts need to be reconsidered and new ways of evaluation have to be defined.

Sensors and Actuators B-chemical, 2002

We investigated the effects of varying eye gaze behavior of an embodied conversational agent on t... more We investigated the effects of varying eye gaze behavior of an embodied conversational agent on the quality of human-agent dialogues. In an experiment we compared three versions of an agent: one with gaze behavior that is typically found to occur in human-human dialogues, one with gaze that is fixed most of the time, and a third version with random gaze behavior. The versions were found to yield significant differences in efficiency of the dialogues and in user satisfaction, amongst others.

IEEE Expert / IEEE Intelligent Systems, 2006

Requests scenario

In previous years we have been involved in several projects in which users (or visitors) had to f... more In previous years we have been involved in several projects in which users (or visitors) had to find their way in informationrich virtual environments. 'Information-rich' means that the users do not know beforehand what is available in the environment, where to go in the environment to find the information and, moreover, users or visitors do not necessarily know exactly what they are looking for. Information-rich means also that the information may change during time. A second visit to the same environment will require different behavior of the visitor in order for him or her to obtain similar information than was available during a previous visit. In this paper we report about two projects and discuss our attempts to generalize from the different approaches and application domains to obtain a library of methods and tools to design and implement intelligent agents that inhabit virtual environments and where the agents support the navigation of the user/visitor.

Theoretical Computer Science, 2003

Predicting the interests of a user in information is an important process in personalized informa... more Predicting the interests of a user in information is an important process in personalized information systems. In this paper, we present a way to create prediction engines that allow prediction techniques to be easily combined into prediction strategies. Prediction strategies choose one or a combination of prediction techniques at the moment a prediction is required, taking into account the most up -to-date knowledge about the current user, other users, the information and the system itself. Results of two experiments show that prediction strategies improve both the accuracy and stability of prediction engines. One of these experiments involves a TV recommender system. This paper describes the method of prediction strategies, how they have been applied in the TV recommender system and results of the experiment in detail.

Persuasive Technology, 2006

E-therapy offers new means to support smokers during their attempt to quit. An embodied conversat... more E-therapy offers new means to support smokers during their attempt to quit. An embodied conversational agent can support people as a virtual coach on the internet. In this paper requirements are formulated for such a virtual coach and a global design is proposed. The requirements and the design are based on an extensive analysis of the practice of individual coaching of the Dutch organization STIVORO. In addition, the outcomes of a survey research measuring the acceptance of such a virtual coach by a potential user group are described.

Atlantic Web Intelligence Conference, 2004

Hybrid recommender systems are capable of providing better recommendations than non-hybrid ones. ... more Hybrid recommender systems are capable of providing better recommendations than non-hybrid ones. Our approach to hybrid recommenders is the use of prediction strategies that determine which prediction technique(s) should be used at the moment an actual prediction is required. In this paper, we determine whether case-based reasoning can provide more accurate prediction strategies than rule-based predictions strategies created manually by experts. Experiments show that case-based reasoning can indeed be used to create prediction strategies; it can even increase the accuracy of the recommender in systems where the accuracy of the used prediction techniques is highly spread.

International Journal of Social Robotics, 2013

In this paper we explore how simple auditory/ verbal features of the spoken language, such as voi... more In this paper we explore how simple auditory/ verbal features of the spoken language, such as voice characteristics (pitch) and language cues (empathy/humor expression) influence the quality of interaction with a social robot receptionist. For our experiment two robot characters were created: Olivia, the more extrovert, exuberant, and humorous robot with a higher voice pitch and Cynthia, the more introvert, calmer and more serious robot with a lower voice pitch. Our results showed that the voice pitch seemed to have a strong influence on the way users rated the overall interaction quality, as well as the robot's appeal and overall enjoyment. Further, the humor appeared to improve the users' perception of task enjoyment, robot personality and speaking style while the empathy showed effects on the way users evaluated the robot's receptive behavior and the interaction ease. With our study, we would like to stress in particular the importance of voice pitch in human robot interaction and to encourage further research on this topic.

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2011

User interfaces and visualisations are part of group problem solving. Technology is already a par... more User interfaces and visualisations are part of group problem solving. Technology is already a part of daily decision-making in multidisplay environments, both as communication tools and information devices. As these devices, such as large displays and visualisation tools become more accessible, there is an increasing opportunity to develop applications that enhance group decision-making abilities, rather than restrict them. This chapter presents the results of the empirical user study on the effect of the Highlighting-on-Demand concept on situational awareness and satisfaction with the group decision-making process in a real multidisplay environment. Highlighting-on-Demand interface enables a team member who is currently controlling the shared large display to draw attention of the other team members by highlighting certain visualisation. Displaying all alternatives on a shared large display fosters information sharing and the Highlighting-on-Demand interface enables group members to draw attention to certain visualisation, while keeping the other alternatives still in view.

Humans have remarkable perceptual capabilities that tend to be underestimated in current visualis... more Humans have remarkable perceptual capabilities that tend to be underestimated in current visualisation designs . Often, this is due to the fact that designers do not analyse who the users are, what tasks they want to perform using the visualisations, and what their working environments are .

Journal of The Atmospheric Sciences, 2008

User interfaces in modern bioinformatics tools are designed for experts. They are too complicated... more User interfaces in modern bioinformatics tools are designed for experts. They are too complicated for novice users such as bench biologists. This report presents the full results of a formative user study as part of a domain and requirements analysis to enhance user interfaces and collaborative environments for multidisciplinary teamwork. Contextual field observations, questionnaires and interviews with bioinformatics researchers of different levels of expertise and various backgrounds were performed in order to gain insight into their needs and working practices. The analysed results are presented as a user profile description and user requirements for designing user interfaces that support the collaboration of multidisciplinary research teams in scientific collaborative environments. Although the number of participants limits the generalisability of the findings, the combination of recurrent observations with other user analysis techniques in real-life settings makes the contribution of this user study novel.

We study videoconferencing for meetings with some co-located participants and one remote particip... more We study videoconferencing for meetings with some co-located participants and one remote participant. A standard Skype-like interface for the remote participant is compared to a more immersive 3D interface that conveys gaze directions in a natural way. Experimental results show the 3D interface is promising: all significant differences are in favor of 3D and according to the participants the 3D

This paper describes a one semester research course for undergraduates of computing programs. Stu... more This paper describes a one semester research course for undergraduates of computing programs. Students formulate a research proposal, conduct research and write a full paper. They present the results at a one-day student conference. On the one hand we offer the students a lot of structure and support; on the other hand an important feature of the course is that

International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies, 2006

In this paper we discuss an approach towards passively observing students in a driving simulator.... more In this paper we discuss an approach towards passively observing students in a driving simulator. The goal is to enhance the learning experience for students taking lessons in this simulator. To this end, a virtual driving instructor is provided with added information consisting of the gaze behavior of its student. The gaze behavior is defined by estimated head locations and orientations. The learning experience for the student is enhanced by providing added feedback to the student based on his observed behavior.

User interfaces and visualisations are part of group problem solving. Technology is already a par... more User interfaces and visualisations are part of group problem solving. Technology is already a part of daily decision-making in multidisplay environments, both as communication tools and information devices. As these devices, such as large displays and visualisation tools become more accessible, there is an increasing opportunity to develop applications that enhance group decision-making abilities, rather than restrict them. This chapter presents the results of the empirical user study on the effect of the Highlighting-on-Demand concept on situational awareness and satisfaction with the group decision-making process in a real multidisplay environment. Highlighting-on-Demand interface enables a team member who is currently controlling the shared large display to draw attention of the other team members by highlighting certain visualisation. Displaying all alternatives on a shared large display fosters information sharing and the Highlighting-on-Demand interface enables group members to draw attention to certain visualisation, while keeping the other alternatives still in view. The results suggest that when group members use the Highlighting-on-Demand interface during the discussion, the satisfaction with the final group decision increases. Participants expressed willingness to use the Highlighting awareness support for visualising real data (e.g., biomedical, omics experiments) and manipulating how the data is visualised to discuss the experiment results with other team members in real project discussions.

The development and first deployment are described of a course on human-computer interaction for ... more The development and first deployment are described of a course on human-computer interaction for computer science students at Dutch universities. The course is based on the concept of project-based education. Students have to do an assignment in teams of four using software for computer supported collaborative work. The system used is the BSCW system. The contents of the course and the organizational structure are given. The experience with 100 students at one of the universities is presented. The educational approach and the deployment of this kind of project-based education are evaluated. The results are very positive.

Intelligent Technologies for Interactive Entertainment, 2009

The phenomenon of immersing oneself into virtual environments has been established widely. Yet to... more The phenomenon of immersing oneself into virtual environments has been established widely. Yet to date (to our best knowledge) the physical dimension has been neglected in studies investigating immersion in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). In movement-based interaction the user controls the interface via body movements, e.g. direct manipulation of screen objects via gestures or using a handheld controller as a virtual tennis racket. It has been shown that physical activity affects arousal and that movement-based controllers can facilitate engagement in the context of video games. This paper aims at identifying movement features that influence immersion. We first give a brief survey on immersion and movement-based interfaces. Then, we report results from an interview study that investigates how users experience their body movements when interacting with movement-based interfaces. Based on the interviews, we identify four movement-specific features. We recommend them as candidates for further investigation.

Annual Joint Conference Integrating Technology into Computer Science Education, 2006

Team projects are nowadays common practice in HCI education. This paper focuses on the role of cl... more Team projects are nowadays common practice in HCI education. This paper focuses on the role of clients and users in team projects in introductory HCI courses. In order to provide projects with a realistic context we invite people from industry to serve as clients for the student teams. Some of them have a professional interest in participating in our course and define a project themselves. Another way we make projects realistic is to have teams evaluate their designs with real users.

Interacting with Computers, 2006

Recommender systems help people to find information that is interesting to them. However, current... more Recommender systems help people to find information that is interesting to them. However, current recommendation techniques only address the user's short-term and long-term interests, not their immediate interests. This paper describes a method to structure information (with or without using recommendations) taking into account the users' immediate interests: a goal-based structuring method. Goal-based structuring is based on the fact that people experience certain gratifications from using information, which should match with their goals. An experiment using an electronic TV guide shows that structuring information using a goal-based structure makes it easier for users to find interesting information, especially if the goals are used explicitly; this is independent of whether recommendations are used or not. It also shows that goal-based structuring has more influence on how easy it is for users to find interesting information than recommendations.

Movement-based and exertion interfaces assume that their users move. Users have to perform exerci... more Movement-based and exertion interfaces assume that their users move. Users have to perform exercises, they have to dance, they have to golf or football, or they want to train particular bodily skills. Many examples of those interfaces exist, sometimes asking for subtle interaction between user and interface and sometimes asking for ‘brute force’ exertion interaction between user and interface. In these interfaces it is often the case that the interface mediates between players of a game. Obviously, one of the players may be a virtual human. We provide a ‘state of the art survey’ of such interfaces and in particular look at intelligent exertion interfaces, interfaces that know about their users and even try to anticipate what their users prepare to do. That is, we embed this interface research in ambient intelligence and entertainment computing research, and the interfaces we consider are not only mediating, but they also ‘add’ intelligence to the game. Other issues that will be discussed are ‘flow’ and ‘engagement’ for exertion interfaces. Intelligent exertion interfaces, being able to know and learn about their users, should also be able to provide means to keep their users engaged and in the flow of the game and entertainment experience. Unlike the situation with traditional desktop game research where we can observe lots of research activity trying to define, interpret and evaluate issues such as ‘flow’ and ‘immersion’, in movement-based interfaces these concepts need to be reconsidered and new ways of evaluation have to be defined.

Sensors and Actuators B-chemical, 2002

We investigated the effects of varying eye gaze behavior of an embodied conversational agent on t... more We investigated the effects of varying eye gaze behavior of an embodied conversational agent on the quality of human-agent dialogues. In an experiment we compared three versions of an agent: one with gaze behavior that is typically found to occur in human-human dialogues, one with gaze that is fixed most of the time, and a third version with random gaze behavior. The versions were found to yield significant differences in efficiency of the dialogues and in user satisfaction, amongst others.

IEEE Expert / IEEE Intelligent Systems, 2006

Requests scenario

In previous years we have been involved in several projects in which users (or visitors) had to f... more In previous years we have been involved in several projects in which users (or visitors) had to find their way in informationrich virtual environments. 'Information-rich' means that the users do not know beforehand what is available in the environment, where to go in the environment to find the information and, moreover, users or visitors do not necessarily know exactly what they are looking for. Information-rich means also that the information may change during time. A second visit to the same environment will require different behavior of the visitor in order for him or her to obtain similar information than was available during a previous visit. In this paper we report about two projects and discuss our attempts to generalize from the different approaches and application domains to obtain a library of methods and tools to design and implement intelligent agents that inhabit virtual environments and where the agents support the navigation of the user/visitor.

Theoretical Computer Science, 2003

Predicting the interests of a user in information is an important process in personalized informa... more Predicting the interests of a user in information is an important process in personalized information systems. In this paper, we present a way to create prediction engines that allow prediction techniques to be easily combined into prediction strategies. Prediction strategies choose one or a combination of prediction techniques at the moment a prediction is required, taking into account the most up -to-date knowledge about the current user, other users, the information and the system itself. Results of two experiments show that prediction strategies improve both the accuracy and stability of prediction engines. One of these experiments involves a TV recommender system. This paper describes the method of prediction strategies, how they have been applied in the TV recommender system and results of the experiment in detail.

Persuasive Technology, 2006

E-therapy offers new means to support smokers during their attempt to quit. An embodied conversat... more E-therapy offers new means to support smokers during their attempt to quit. An embodied conversational agent can support people as a virtual coach on the internet. In this paper requirements are formulated for such a virtual coach and a global design is proposed. The requirements and the design are based on an extensive analysis of the practice of individual coaching of the Dutch organization STIVORO. In addition, the outcomes of a survey research measuring the acceptance of such a virtual coach by a potential user group are described.

Atlantic Web Intelligence Conference, 2004

Hybrid recommender systems are capable of providing better recommendations than non-hybrid ones. ... more Hybrid recommender systems are capable of providing better recommendations than non-hybrid ones. Our approach to hybrid recommenders is the use of prediction strategies that determine which prediction technique(s) should be used at the moment an actual prediction is required. In this paper, we determine whether case-based reasoning can provide more accurate prediction strategies than rule-based predictions strategies created manually by experts. Experiments show that case-based reasoning can indeed be used to create prediction strategies; it can even increase the accuracy of the recommender in systems where the accuracy of the used prediction techniques is highly spread.

International Journal of Social Robotics, 2013

In this paper we explore how simple auditory/ verbal features of the spoken language, such as voi... more In this paper we explore how simple auditory/ verbal features of the spoken language, such as voice characteristics (pitch) and language cues (empathy/humor expression) influence the quality of interaction with a social robot receptionist. For our experiment two robot characters were created: Olivia, the more extrovert, exuberant, and humorous robot with a higher voice pitch and Cynthia, the more introvert, calmer and more serious robot with a lower voice pitch. Our results showed that the voice pitch seemed to have a strong influence on the way users rated the overall interaction quality, as well as the robot's appeal and overall enjoyment. Further, the humor appeared to improve the users' perception of task enjoyment, robot personality and speaking style while the empathy showed effects on the way users evaluated the robot's receptive behavior and the interaction ease. With our study, we would like to stress in particular the importance of voice pitch in human robot interaction and to encourage further research on this topic.

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2011

User interfaces and visualisations are part of group problem solving. Technology is already a par... more User interfaces and visualisations are part of group problem solving. Technology is already a part of daily decision-making in multidisplay environments, both as communication tools and information devices. As these devices, such as large displays and visualisation tools become more accessible, there is an increasing opportunity to develop applications that enhance group decision-making abilities, rather than restrict them. This chapter presents the results of the empirical user study on the effect of the Highlighting-on-Demand concept on situational awareness and satisfaction with the group decision-making process in a real multidisplay environment. Highlighting-on-Demand interface enables a team member who is currently controlling the shared large display to draw attention of the other team members by highlighting certain visualisation. Displaying all alternatives on a shared large display fosters information sharing and the Highlighting-on-Demand interface enables group members to draw attention to certain visualisation, while keeping the other alternatives still in view.

How to provide users a positive experience during interaction with information (i.e., the "Inform... more How to provide users a positive experience during interaction with information (i.e., the "Information eXperience" (IX)) is still an open question. As a starting point, this work investigates how the emotion of interest can be influenced by modifying the complexity of the information presented to users. The appraisal theory of interest suggests a "sweet spot" where interest will be at its peak: information that is novel and complex yet still comprehensible. This "sweet spot" is approximated using two studies. Study One develops a computational model of textual complexity founded on psycholinguistic theory on processing difficulty. The model was trained and tested on 12,420 articles, achieving a classification performance of 90.87% on two classes of complexity. Study Two puts the model to its ultimate test: Its application to change the user's IX. Using 18 news articles the influence of complexity on interest and its appraisals is unveiled. A structural equation model shows a positive influence of complexity on interest, yet a negative influence of comprehensibility, confirming a seemingly paradoxical relationship between complexity and interest. By showing when complexity becomes interesting, this paper shows how information systems can use the model of textual complexity to construct an interesting IX.