Institute Name: Institute for Hygiene and Applied Physiology (IHA)

Description: The Institute for Hygiene and Applied Physiology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) is one of the greatest research centers for ergonomics in Europe. Its main research areas are: Man-Computer Interaction, Software Ergonomics, computer based production and office work, work design, work and health, time schedules (shift work), women and occupations. The unit employees 44 researchers (psychologists, computer scientists, economists, engineers) in about six research groups. About 20 research projects are carried out by these groups. The unit publishes every year an Annual Report (Jahresbericht) in German which is distributed to many persons and institutions. It contains summaries of recent research projects and a list of all publications. This report is available on request (or via ETH research project database ).
The unit has conducted research in projects related to this proposal, including the following:
 

1. Rapid Prototyping and tailorable user interfaces. Development of the User Interface Management System HIDE and a corresponding interactive editing tool called IDEA (it allows creation, simulation and evaluation of user interfaces and dialogue sequences) to support software developers in designing and implementing application systems.These tools support close user-designer cooperation in application system design as well as technical aspects of software development (e.g., portability). Individual customizations of user interfaces as well as multiple interfaces for an application system are possible. Contacts: Thomas Greutmann Reference: Thomas Greutmann (1991) HIDE and IDEA: Tools for User-Oriented Application Development. Dissertation Institute fuer Informatik der ETH Zuerich.
2. AMME: An 'Automatic Mental Model Evaluator' to analyze user behaviour recorded in logfiles. Develpment of a method for analysing empirical data of interactive user behaviour in order to support the human factors engineer in designing a good user interfaces. The sequences of keystrokes produced by the user contain a lot of information about his mental model, individual problem solution strategies for a given task and the hierarchical structure of the task - subtasks relations. A tool, called AMME, can analyse the keystroke sequences and come up automatically with a Petri-Net description of the task dependent mental model of the user. This mental model is the input to a Petri-Net simulator, which enables the human factor engineer to analyse his interface design without further empirical investigations and detect interactive deadlocks, misdesigned areas, etc.. Contacts: Matthias Rauterberg Reference: Rauterberg, M. (1993) AMME: an Automatic Mental Model Evaluation to analyze user behaviour traced in a finite, discrete state space. Ergonomics 36(11), pp. 1369-1380.
3. User oriented software development and dialogue design. There is still little knowledge about how to involve users in the software development process in order to better match system interfaces to the user's needs and tasks. Despite the long recognition and the current encouragement of the need for user participation , there are still many open questions about how to establish effectively a cooperation between designers and users. Therefore we designed a project with the following main objectives: (1) analysis of software development processes (field studies); (2) development and empirical examination of methods, tools and organizational models for user involvement in the software development process; (3) usability testing of dialogue design criteria, e.g. flexibility, feedback, support; and (4) formulation of guidelines for project managers, system designers and programmers concerning user involvement and 'user-friendly' dialogue design. Contacts: Matthias Rauterberg Reference: Rauterberg, M., Spinas, P., Strohm, O., Ulich, E. and Waeber, D. (1994) Benutzer-orientierte Software-Entwicklung. Stuttgart: Teubner.

Dr. Matthias Rauterberg

Brief CVs of Key Researchers:

Name: Dr. Matthias Rauterberg

Nationality: German

Academic Qualifications & Experience: Matthias Rauterberg is currently a Reader in Usability Engineering and Human-Computer Interaction in the Computer Science Department of the ETH and of the University of Zurich. He is leading the interdisciplinary research group "Human-Machine Interaction" at the IHA. His research interests include requirement analysis techniques, design and analysis methods. Matthias Rauterberg has co-authored a book on 'User-oriented Software Development' (in German), and published about 110 journal and conference publications.

Selected Publications:

Rauterberg, M., Strohm, O. & Kirsch, C. (1995). Benefits of user-oriented software development based on an iterative cyclic process model for simultaneous engineering. International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics 16(4-6):391-410.

Rauterberg, M. (1996). Moderation instead of modelling: some remarks about formal and informal reengineering methods. In R. Koubek & W. Karwowski (Eds.), Manufacturing Agility and Hybrid Automation I (pp. 167-170). Louisville: IEA Press.

Rauterberg, M., Vossen, P.H., Felix, D. & Krueger, H. (1996, eds.). The EU Directive 90/270 on VDU-Work--a State of the Art Seminar. Institute of Hygiene and Applied Physiology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zürich.
 

Contact Details:

Principal Investigator: Dr. Matthias Rauterberg, Institute for Hygiene and Applied Physiology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Clausiusstrasse 25, 8092 Zuerich, SWITZERLAND

Telephone number: + 41 1 63 27082

Telefax number: + 41 1 63 21173

EMail: rauterberg@iha.bepr.ethz.ch

List of Members