HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: marc@tanda.isis.org (Marc Thibault)
Reply-To: marc@tanda.isis.org
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
Subject: Re: Display Settings (i.e background/foreground colors)
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 92 17:25:15 EDT
Distribution: na
Organization: Thibault & Friends

In article <1992Aug11.201313.21299@tcsi.com> 
(John Koper) writes: 

> I would like to setup my display in the most ergonomically-friendly way.
> To this end I would like to know what the HCI gurus think is the appropriate
> setting for a computer's background and foreground settings.
> 
> One school of thought is that the background should be light
> (i.e. white) and the foreground text should be dark (i.e. black).  This
> is what is done by default for example on the Macintosh.  The reasoning
> I've heard for this is that when you shift your eyes back and forth between
> the computer screen and paper, the foreground and background are the same.

        The Mac is black on white because that's what the folklore out
        of Xerox Parc said was right. Parc (and Dallas) had black on
        white because

           a) They didn't have color.

           b) They tended to think of personal computers as powerful
           word processors, so emulating paper was neat, and the
           "shifting eyes" issue would be valid for all those
           copy-typists who would be using the machines.

           c) It was Much Easier Technically to draw a fine black line
           on white than a fine white line on black. Something about
           phosphor persistence. So black on white gives higher
           resolution for a given contrast ratio.

           d) There's a bit of apocrypha about a designer who got a
           gate polarity wrong and then decided he liked the result.

        On the other hand, I understand that both Commodore and Atari
        did significant studies when they were coming out with their
        color machines, and that the result was a preference for white
        on medium blue for an "easy-eye" display.

            ,Marc


---
 Marc Thibault        |                              |  Any Warming,
 marc@tanda.isis.org  |  Oxford Mills, Ontario       |  Global or otherwise,
 CIS:71441,2226       |     Canada                   |   appreciated.

Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
From: mennie@bcrki39.bnr.ca (Bill Mennie 3-4473)
Subject: Re: User Environment Customization and Productivity
Reply-To: mennie@bcrki39.bnr.ca (Bill Mennie 3-4473)
Organization: Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1992 12:13:18 GMT

In article <169fbsINNfdc@agate.berkeley.edu>,
konstan@elmer-fudd.cs.berkeley.edu (Joe Konstan) writes:
> In article <59618@mimsy.umd.edu>, carm@cs.umd.edu (Richard Chimera) writes:
> |> In article <1992Aug11.102640.12309@cadreor.cadre.com>
neil@cadreor.cadre.com (Neil W. Van Dyke) writes:
> |> >Hello,
> |> >
> |> >I'm looking for studies on how user-customized environments affect the
> |> >productivity of the user.
> |> 
> 
> If these hunches are right, that would imply that novices, temporary workers,
> and workers who are unlikely to use a program much should all be
provided with
> a good set of defaults.  Suggesting, or perhaps even allowing
customization at
> any depth would merely waste time and make it harder for them to cooperate
> with coworkers.  Long-term power users, on the other hand, probably should
> have the opportunity to customize the tools they use frequently, though the
> level of customization allowed might depend on how much they had to train, 
> work with, or be observed by novices.
> 
> Joe Konstan

One aspect of productivity that should not be overlooked is that of
culture or shared experience.  For example, I work in a group
responsible for design environments (e.g., Computer-Aided Design).  For
physical layout, in particular, the use of colour is essential to help
users discriminate among various layers and objects.  I have seen
situations where one user is asked to provide assistance to another and,
after many wasted minutes, comes to the realization that the other user
had reassigned colours and they weren't talking about the same things. 
The same can be said of keyboard shortcuts, menus, etc.

I believe that there are appropriate uses of customization such as
accommodating left/right-handedness, levels of expertise, differences
between those who think visually and those who prefer language, and so
forth.  However, providing customization either as an abdication of your
responibility to DESIGN the system properly or to allow users to waste
time playing around is counter-productive.

If you decide that a high degree of customization must be permitted, I
would suggest that it be made very easy to switch between a good set of
defaults and the user's choice so that others can quickly "get on board"
when necessary.


Cheers,

Bill

William E. Mennie        | Phone:    (613) 763-4473 | BNR is in no way
Bell-Northern Research   | Internet: mennie@bnr.ca  | responsible for the
P.O. Box 3511, Station C |                          | preceding ideas or
Ottawa, Ont. K1Y 4H7     |                          | opinions
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
From: Jakob Nielsen <nielsen@bellcore.com>
Subject: Re: Wanted: Info on HCI
X-Xxdate: Fri, 21 Aug 92 15:18:37 GMT
Organization: Bellcore - Bell Communications Research
X-Useragent: Nuntius v1.1.1d7
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 92 14:18:39 GMT

In article <1992Aug20.165101.5904@walter.bellcore.com> Jakob Nielsen,
nielsen@bellcore.com writes:
>The one thing to do would be to join the ACM SIGCHI (special interest group
>on computer-human interaction).

Please do not contact me for SIGCHI membership forms. I am busy enough
trying to manage the papers for the next annual conference.

Instead, contact acmhelp@acmvm.bitnet for membership information.
--
Jakob Nielsen, nielsen@bellcore.com, fax (201)  829-2645
Bellcore, MRE 2P-370, 445 South St., Morristown, NJ 09792-1910, USA
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
From: koser@faw.uni-ulm.de (Stefan Koser)
Subject: Not concering Smith & Mosier, but...
Organization: FAW (Research Institute For Applied Knowledge Processing, Ulm, Germany)
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 10:19:33 GMT

... I want to use the attention which is obviously paid to my
message(s) to kindly ask for information on available HCI jobs:

I will finish my studies in computer science at the University of Stuttgart
(department of Prof. Gunzenhaeuser) at the end of October 1992.
Currently I am in the 10th semester and working on my diploma thesis
"Knowledge-based Tools for Designing/Developing User Interfaces"
at the Research Institute for Applied Knowledge Processing (FAW) at
the University of Ulm, Germany.
My main subjects are HCI (UIMS), ergonomics and knowledge representation.

I would appreciate any information on job offerings in the HCI/AI domain,
especially in Germany, of course.

Thanks, Stefan.
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
From: Daniel Schwabe <schwabe@inf.puc-rio.br>
Subject: Re: Display Settings (i.e background/foreground colors)
Organization: Departamento de Informatica    PUC-Rio
X-Xxdate: Wed, 19 Aug 92 16:16:24 GMT
X-Xxmessage-Id: <A6B7FA2886011802@mac-dan.inf.puc-rio.br>
X-Useragent: Nuntius v1.1.1d8
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 16:18:21 GMT
X-Posted-From: mac-dan.inf.puc-rio.br
X-Posted-Through: sol.ctr.columbia.edu

In article <6570@tekig7.PEN.TEK.COM> David D Stubbs,
davidst@tekig1.PEN.TEK.COM writes:
>(Anyone know how to change MS-Word's page background color?!)

There is an application called Colorize (was available at Sumex, I
believe it is still there) that allows you to set colors of just about
anything you might want, for an individual application (including MS
Word).

Daniel Schwabe                  Dept. de Informatica, PUC-Rio
Tel: +55-21-529 9544/274 4449   R. M. de S. Vicente, 225
Fax: +55-21-511 5645            Rio de Janeiro, RJ 22454-970, Brasil
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
From: lonachon@anu.edu.au (andrew longhorn )
Subject: 3 dimensional GUIs
Reply-To: lonachon@anu.edu.au
Organization: Australian National University
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 92 01:17:37 GMT

Hello,

I vaguely remember a posting here or in sci.vw that mentioned work that was
being done on 3D cursors. (as in stereoscopic, not pseudo-3D). I am thinking
of doing work in this area, could some kind sole please point me in the direction
of some papers/references on 3D GUIs? I am particularly interested in addressing
specific 3D problems. i.e:

1) what paradigm would work well in most cases (office as apposed to desktop)?
   Do we need one only? User definable workspaces?

2) problems specific to object selection and manipulation. Especially since object
   can now be located at a distance and single point selections are more difficult
   to use. (one program I used only displayed a cursor with the left image and the
   selection was based on the location relative to the right image! they fixed that
   in the next release)

3) navigation techniques.

4) positioning objects in 3-space, use of shadows, tactile-feedback, sound, etc as
   depth/postioning/object-relational cues.

Thanks in anticipation,
Andrew Longhorn.
From: kevinc@aupair.cs.athabascau.ca (Kevin Crocker)
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
Subject: Re: Color Schemes
Date: 12 Aug 92 19:49:32 GMT

pooh@corner.asd.sgi.com (Drew Olbrich) writes:
>sdpage@andersen.co.uk (Stephen Page) writes:
>> pooh@corner.asd.sgi.com (Drew Olbrich) writes:
>> >You should try really hard to avoid using color in user
>> >interfaces.  It should be all black and white
>> Sigh. If only this were true.
>> From a HCI-purist point of view, you are probavly correct. There are plenty
>> of ways to produce emphasis on a decent workstation without using colour.
>Color is fine, in small amounts, when it's needed.  What irks me is

Color is one of the major human stimuli - don't we have more cones than
rods in our eyes?

Acknowledging that I'm not a good subject to test this type of theory
due to a vision impairment, but I receive most of my identifying
information through color (contrast/hue/saturation). When there is no
color information in whatever stimuli I'm receiving I receive less
information to the point where I can lose the essential thread of the
stimuli. I have learned through trial and error that I can
differentiate many more pieces of information when I can eliminate the
high part of the spectrum (ultraviolet down to deep blue) , however, I
get the best contrast on subdued hues with a deep black foreground.

Since I'm at the start of doing some research on learning styles, color
is an important aspect for visual learners. ANyone care to point out
some more references on visual cortex vs. color perception issue?

Kevin
--
Kevin "autark" Crocker (Athabasca University)
kevinc@cs.AthabascaU.CA  -or-  risk@cs.AthabascaU.CA
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
From: koser@faw.uni-ulm.de (Stefan Koser)
Subject: Re: Smith & Mosier "Guidelines" available via anonymous ftp
Organization: FAW (Research Institute For Applied Knowledge Processing, Ulm, Germany)
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 07:10:48 GMT

I got a lot of requests for the file, so I asked Gary
at cis if I am allowed to put it on their ftp server.
(to keep the versions together)
You just have to wait for his answer, cause I will not
mail 700k (both .tex and .dvi) via e-mail over the net.
By the way, I have not converted the bibliography into
LaTeX (BibTeX) format but that would not be hard to do
(just have not the time). And the "reference" section
of each guideline might not be as readable as in
the original (due to missing newlines).

The whole document is 375 pages long (LaTeX 10pt, DIN A4).
I will supply the TeX source for anybody who doesn't want
to use DIN A4 or who want to make some modifications
(e.g. bibliography).

What I have done is:
 - converted %a to section headings
 - converted %p to paragraphs, subsubsections
 - set up examples as verbatim environments
 - included tables, newlines (\\)
 - converted quotation marks and other non-LaTeX symbols
 - converted glossary and (limited) bibliography
 - provided a table of contents and a titlepage

Hope you will benefit from my one-day work.

Stefan.
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
From: koser@faw.uni-ulm.de (Stefan Koser)
Subject: Re: Smith & Mosier "Guidelines" available via anonymous ftp
Organization: FAW (Research Institute For Applied Knowledge Processing, Ulm, Germany)
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 09:32:58 GMT

To all who are also interested in the Smith & Mosier Guidelines:
 I have converted the file available from cis.ohio-state.edu
 to LaTeX format.

Stefan.
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
From: weiner@ar_server.pts.mot.com (Bob Weiner)
Subject: Re: User Environment Customization and Productivity
Reply-To: bob_weiner@pts.mot.com
Organization: research
Date: 15 Aug 92 11:37:34

> I'm looking for studies on how user-customized environments affect the
> productivity of the user.

To be brief, one must distinguish between surface level customization
(that found in virtually all commercial programs today) and deep
customization facilities (those which can alter application behavior
at many operational levels).

Surface level customization can only produce small steps upward in
productivity because its behavioral impact is minimal and it does not
allow a user to converge towards an optimal configuration for his use.
Deep customization facilities permit much larger productivity benefits
(as one passes initial learning curves) but also tend to require much
larger knowledge and experience levels to use adequately.

In terms of the vi v. GNU Emacs question.  Vi is a text editor.  GNU
Emacs is an application development framework which has a text editor
built in.  Thus, the two cannot be fairly compared.  On the other hand,
if your management cannot understand the productivity benefits of a
powerful, consistent editing environment across applications (or tools),
then there is good reason to ask them to let people closer to the issues
who would be more qualified to choose among tools to do so.

Bob


--
Bob Weiner, Motorola, Inc., 1500 NW 22nd Ave., MS-71, Boynton Beach, FL 33426-8753
   Work: (407) 364-2091    INTERNET:  bob_weiner@pts.mot.com
   Fax:  (407) 364-3904   	      or  rsw@cs.brown.edu
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
From: mike@isgtec.com (Mike Sellers)
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
Subject: Re: Display Settings (i.e background/foreground colors)
Keywords: background foreground display
Date: 14 Aug 92 14:07:49 GMT
Organization: ISG Technologies Inc., Mississauga Ontario

John Koper writes:
> I would like to setup my display in the most ergonomically-friendly way.
> To this end I would like to know what the HCI gurus think is the appropriate
> setting for a computer's background and foreground settings.
> 
> One school of thought is that the background should be light
> (i.e. white) and the foreground text should be dark (i.e. black).  This
> is what is done by default for example on the Macintosh.  

This works well on monochrome screens with high resolution and high
refresh rate.  If the background is too bright and the characters are
not crisp (not high enough resolution), this will cause discomfort similar
to that experienced when reading in very bright sunlight.  In general,
color monitors do not have regular enough pixels for this format to work
well, as there is always some pixel-bleeding.  However, people have widely
varying physical tolerance for this, so you will have to judge for yourself 
given your eyes, work setting, and monitor.

> Another school of thought I've heard is that you want the least amount of
> light coming off the computer screen as possible.  Typical use of this method
> is having a dark (i.e black)  background and light foreground text (i.e. 
> green or yellow, even in a windowing environment where these colors are
> changeable.

I don't know of any data on this; certainly there is little to no danger 
from the amounts of ionizing radiation in the light coming off of your 
monitor, no matter how much light it's putting out.  

I think it's more likely that in a dim environment, many people (especially
those over about 35-40, when the lens in the eye begins to stiffen) experience
discomfort when working with very bright screens and dim surroundings.  
In this case, it might make sense to reduce the overall contrast on your 
screen and between the screen and the environment.  Putting amber characters
on a dark screen would do this for you, but it's not the only solution.

> Walking around my workplace reveals that half the people have their 
> environment setup one way and the other half the other way.  Which way 
> is most human-friendly or is it just personal preference?

Taking into account certain principles, such as it's more difficult to
read blue characters on a white background (due to the eye's inability
to focus completely correctly on small blue objects) than it is to read
white on blue, there is a large amount of simple preference involved.
There are few hard and fast rules.  Play with a few settings and see what
you like after a day or so with each -- and don't force your preferences
on to others if you can help it!

--
              Mike Sellers      User Interface Team Leader
           mike@isgtec.com      ISG Technologies, Toronto, Canada
              "Actum ne agas" -- Do not do what has been done.
                         Furare tantum ab Optimis
From: brand@csgrad.cs.vt.edu (Jeff Brandenburg)
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
Subject: Re: Display Settings (i.e background/foreground colors)
Keywords: background foreground display
Date: 15 Aug 92 22:40:55 GMT
Organization: VPI&SU Computer Science Department, Blacksburg, VA

In article <1992Aug11.201313.21299@tcsi.com> jrk@nittany.tcs.com (John Koper) writes:
>One school of thought is that the background should be light
>(i.e. white) and the foreground text should be dark (i.e. black).

Visual acuity can drop in low light levels; intuitively, a wider pupil puts
more of the eye's lens to work, and focusing problems become more pronounced.
(There's been a recent flurry of news reports about this in relation to night
driving safety).  To the extent that a dark background increases dilation, it
could impair focus.  It seems unlikely that this would be a significant factor
in an office or classroom setting, but in a darkened den of hackers, it could
be important...
	-jeffB (Jeff Brandenburg, Va. Tech CS) [from a darkened den]
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
From: koser@faw.uni-ulm.de (Stefan Koser)
Subject: Re: Smith & Mosier "Guidelines" available via anonymous ftp
Organization: FAW (Research Institute For Applied Knowledge Processing, Ulm, Germany)
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 08:13:31 GMT

Just finished the bibliography (can't keep my hands off),

So just wait for Garys answer or tell me on which ftp server I should
put the file(s).

Stefan.
From: jimc@tau-ceti.isc-br.com (Jim Cathey)
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
Subject: Re: Color Schemes
Date: 14 Aug 92 01:32:30 GMT
Organization: ISC - Bunker Ramo, Spokane, WA

In article <kevinc.713648972@aupair.cs.athabascau.ca> kevinc@aupair.cs.athabascau.ca (Kevin Crocker) writes:
>>Color is fine, in small amounts, when it's needed.  What irks me is
>
>Color is one of the major human stimuli - don't we have more cones than
>rods in our eyes?

Sticking your tongue into a light socket is also a major stimulus, but
not one that's usually considered a good idea.  Too often the color schemes
I see on 'color-tunable' systems have just about that effect on me.  Bleah.

Well done color is mostly subtle and subdued.  'Unimportant' information
(like inactive windows) fades into the background by de-coloring.  Vivid
colors, if used at all, should be used in extremely small areas.  Colored
doo-dads should have black line-art borders, because it just looks a lot
better.  Window frames (for example) aren't really very important.  No way
should they shout at you "Lookit ME!  I've got COLORS, and BUTTONS, and
CORNERS, and THINGEYS and LINES and oh-by-the-way-here's-your-budjet-figures-
for-the-next-quarter."  It's rarely done right, from what I've seen.  The
PC and X-windows areas are by far the worst offenders.  Apples guidelines 
aren't a bad start on taming the problem.

I believe that a good color screen will also look good on a monochrome
screen.  If it doesn't, then something's wrong with it.

-- 
+----------------+
! II      CCCCCC !  Jim Cathey
! II  SSSSCC     !  ISC-Bunker Ramo
! II      CC     !  TAF-C8;  Spokane, WA  99220
! IISSSS  CC     !  UUCP: uunet!isc-br!jimc (jimc@isc-br.isc-br.com)
! II      CCCCCC !  (509) 927-5757
+----------------+
			"PC's --- the junk bonds of the computer industry"
Xref: sparky comp.human-factors:1782 comp.mail.misc:2657 vmsnet.mail.misc:64 vmsnet.mail.mx:809
From: bg@dymaxion.ns.ca
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors,comp.mail.misc,vmsnet.mail.misc,vmsnet.mail.mx
Subject: Customer Support via E-Mail
Date: 14 Aug 92 17:34:38 GMT
Organization: Dymaxion Research Limited, NS, Canada

We are attempting to erect an infrastructure for supporting some of our clients
via E-Mail.  The support structure should work in parallel with phone and fax
support, and as such, most things we can do with phone and fax we should now be
able to do with E-Mail as well.  Some of the issues are as follows:

1. Archiving all E-Mail to/from the outside world
   - we do this with faxes, we should also be able to do it with mail
2. How to handle staff away (vacation/sick/business trip)
   - making sure that messages from client to staff don't get missed
     when they are away
   - use an auto-responder?
     - we are well aware of the limitations/liabilities of such creatures
       with regards to mailing list loops
3. Central support address vs. individual addresses to support staff
   - individual contacts must be supported and are the mainstay of
     our phone support, but what is the best way to handle general inquiries
     - by head of department or other designated person?
     - by receptionist?

Anything which relates to the above points would be helpful to us in making
decisions about how the infrastructure should take place:
- literature
- your own experience with setting up E-Mail support
- software:                                             System: VAX/VMS 5.4
  - auto-archiver (both directions)?                    Mailer: MX v3.0
  - "safe" auto-responder?                              TCP/IP: UCX 1.3a

Thanks,

Ben.
---
Ben Armstrong, Software Development                  bus: (902)422-1973
Dymaxion Research Ltd.,                              fax: (902)421-1267
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3J 1R2            Internet: bg@dymaxion.ns.ca
From: ftmx@acad3.alaska.edu
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
Subject: data and/or materials
Date: 18 Aug 92 18:21:53 GMT
Organization: University of Alaska Fairbanks


	Anyone who has data or other materials about the relations of
introcellular organs? I am interested in the research of
interorgan-relationship. Anyone who has information about this please tell me.
Thank you very much. Anyone who is interested in this please don't hesitate to
contact me.
Thank you very much.
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
From: ematias@dgp.toronto.edu (Edgar Matias)
Subject: Re: Two suggestions for photocopier designers
Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto
Date: 18 Aug 92 14:51:01 GMT


In article <yuuNPB1w165w@mantis.co.uk>
mathew <mathew@mantis.co.uk>
writes:
>
>2. Idiots who put a large stack of pages in upside-down and press the big
>   button marked "Start" will be very, very much happier if there is a
>   similarly big button marked "Stop", rather than a small orange button of
>   uncertain function with a triangle drawn on it and a button marked "Front
>   panel reset" which doesn't seem to do anything.

Better yet, how about a big RED button in the shape of a stop sign with the
word "STOP" on it.  Stop signs are universal (except for those legislative
no-brains in Quebec...) and everyone would know what that button is for.

Edgar
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors