Walk-up and Use Systems don't Exist Anymore: Designing and Engineering Training To Empower End-Users

For more than five decades the Human-Computer Interaction field has been focusing on walk-up and use systems (C. Lewis et al. 1990) that are supposed to be usable without training users. This restrictive view has been encompassed in User Centered Design approaches and processes (e.g. ISO 9241 part 210) that do not provide support for assessing the level of knowledge of users nor how to train them to reach that required level of knowledge to use the interactive system efficiently and without mistakes. Interactive systems are becoming more and more complex to use due to exotic input and output devices (e.g. augmented reality technologies), enhanced interaction techniques and complex application offering a large number of functions to the users.

Training of users of these complex interactive systems is a difficult task that involves multiple actors, requires specific competencies and may be extremely costly in terms of time and resources. For instance, an initial training has to be performed in order to bring users to a desired level of declarative and procedural knowledge. However, depending on the nature and the diversity of the actions performed on a daily basis, this initial training may decay and some knowledge may become deprecated. Recurrent training needs to be designed and organized on a regular basis in order to keep users able to perform their work. This keynote presentation will present current knowledge and practices in users’ training as well as issues and pitfalls. The presentation will demonstrate that designing and performing adequate training empowers users and increases the design space of interactive systems.

The Global Brain Consortium Multinational EEG project

The Global Brain Consortium promotes data and codes open-source resources to contribute to Global Health. Prominent nodes are in Cuba, China and Canada. The GBC has released a collaborative multinational study (HarMNqEEG) from age 5 to 101 from 1700 subjects, including information from 9 Countries. Efforts are underway to crowdsource the annotation of EEG and its artifacts to pave the way for machine-learning methods. These tools are being used in several projects, an example being the 45-year-longitudinal qEEG study of the effects of malnutrition in the first year of life, which is part of the Barbados Nutrition Study.

Bacomics: a comprehensive cross area originating in the studies of various brain–apparatus conversations

The brain is the most important organ of the human body, and the conversations between the brain and an apparatus can not only reveal a normally functioning or a dysfunctional brain but also can modulate the brain. Here, the apparatus may be a nonbiological instrument, such as a computer, and the consequent brain–computer interface is now a very popular research area with various applications. Five principles that may be taken as the cornerstones of Bacomics, such as feedforward and feedback control, brain plasticity, harmony, the unity of opposites and systems principles. Clearly, Bacomics integrates these seemingly disparate domains, but more importantly, opens a much wider door for the research and development of the brain, and the principles further provide the general framework in which to realize or optimize these various conversations.

Eye tracking for improving user interfaces

The use of eye tracking techniques has provided improvements in the usability of applications over the last few years by providing information on what users perceive in their interaction with computer systems. The talk will present different projects of the CHICO group (Computer – Human Interaction and Collaboration) of the University of Castilla – La Mancha (Spain) in which the use of these techniques has allowed redefining the user interfaces of different projects, improving the experience and achieving better performance in the use of the developed applications. Likewise, this talk will show the current research projects of the CHICO group in collaborative systems, awareness and teaching of programming where new eye tracking techniques allow the redefinition of applications after laboratory tests of said applications.