A Generic and Configurable Electronic Informer to Assist the Evaluation of Agent-Based Interactive Systems

Abstract

The evaluation of user interactive systems has been an active subject of research for many years. Many methods have been proposed but most existing evaluation methods do not take the specific architecture of an agent-based interactive system into account and nor do they focus on the coupling between the architecture and evaluation phase. In this article, we propose an agent-based architecture of interactive systems that is considered as being mixed (it is both functional and structural). Based on this architecture, we propose a generic and configurable model of an evaluation tool, called "electronic informer", designed to assist evaluators in analyzing and evaluating interactive systems with such architecture.

Evaluation of an Information Assistance System Based on an Agent-based Architecture in Transportation Domain: First Results

“…Our further research aims, on the one hand, to the improvement of the Simulation modules/Confrontation/Specification and generation of Petri nets (see [30], [29], [28]) and, on the other hand, a second evaluation on the ground which proves to be necessary for the detection of the utility and/or usability problems not detected during the first evaluation. The eye tracking technique [18] could be used to go deeper in the second evaluation.…”

“…In order to exploit the advantages of both types of models, we propose an agent-based architectural model that borrows principles of both of them; so this model can be considered as a mixed model. The idea of a mixed model is not new but our proposed agent-based architectural model aims principally at (1) designing complex supervision systems in industrial context, (2) proposing solutions for the evaluation phase, as explained in [25] and [30]. In the architecture used in our researches, we suggest using a division into three functional components (see Figure. 1) which we have called respectively: interface with the application (connected to the application), dialogue controller, and presentation (this component is directly linked to the user).…”

“…More explanation about a specific tool ensuring the generation, the simulation and the confrontation of Petri nets can be found in [30], [29], [28]. In addition to the verbalization, the use of the electronic informer as a tool for the evaluation of the IAS is enriched by subjective answers to a questionnaire.…”

Use of Petri Nets for Modeling an Agent-Based Interactive System: Basic Principles and Case Study

“…This tool makes it possible to connect to each interface agent, evaluation agents intended to analyze t h e ir be ha v i or at th e t i me o f s i tua t i on s o f u s e . T h e P N mu s t mak e it po s s i b l e t o reconstitute the human activities performed (Trabelsi, 2006;Tran et al, 2007). A second perspective relates to generalization with the agents of the two other modules: (1) interface with the application, (2) dialogue controller.…”

Widgets Dedicated to User Interface Evaluation

“…-Tools that are used on the interactive systems once finished (e.g., Access Enable by Brinck, Hermann, Minnebo, and Hakim (2002) and EISEval by Tran, Ezzedine, and Kolski (2008)); -Tools that are used by evaluation experts to evaluate advanced prototypes (e.g., Cognitive…”