Developing Process Models as summaries of HCI Action Sequences

Frank E. Ritter

Jill H. Larkin

Technical Report 5, February 1994

We describe the utility of process models for summarizing the sequential actions of individuals. Such a model describes why the users did what they did, what information they used from the outside environment, and what knowledge they used to perform the task. These detailed explanations of users' thoughts and actions can enhance interface design by offering summaries of behavior that are inspectable and transferable to new interfaces. We present a methodology for developing these models as summaries of sequential data. Sequential data sets and models for HCI are often large and complex. We illustrate that a computer supported methodology can make building and using such models tractable by applying it to an existing model for using an online database.

[Appeared as : Ritter, F. E., & Larkin, J. H. (1994). Using process models to summarize sequences of human actions. Human Computer Interaction's special issue on Exploratory Sequential Data Analysis. 9 (3&4) 345-383]

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