Comparative Ease of Use of a Diagrammatic vs. an Iconic Query Language

Interfaces to Database Systems Pub Date : 1996-07-01 DOI:10.14236/EWIC/IDS1996.2

Albert N. Badre, T. Catarci, A. Massari, G. Santucci

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引用次数: 18

Abstract

Abstract The importance of designing query systems which are effective and easy to use has been widelyrecognized in the database area. Also, it is well known that the adequacy of a system should be testedagainst actual users in a well monitored experiment. However, very few such experiments have beenconducted. The objective of our study is to measure and understand the comparative ease with whichsubjects can construct queries in two kinds of visual languages, one diagrammatic and the other iconic.More specifically, we are interested in determining if there is significant interaction between: 1) the queryclass and the query language type; and 2) the type of query language and the experience of the user.Experimental results indicate that the effectiveness of a diagrammatic or an iconic query language variesdepending on the classes of queries and the kinds of users. This supports the opinion that an interfaceoffering to the user various visual representations and query modalities is the most appropriate for a wide setof users and applications.Keywords: Human-Computer Interaction; Query Languages; Visual Interfaces; Usability; Experiment.

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图表查询语言与图标查询语言的比较易用性

设计高效、易用的查询系统的重要性已经在数据库领域得到了广泛的认识。此外，众所周知，系统的充分性应该在一个监控良好的实验中针对实际用户进行测试。然而，很少进行这样的实验。我们研究的目的是衡量和理解受试者用两种视觉语言(一种是图解语言，另一种是符号语言)构建查询的相对容易程度。更具体地说，我们感兴趣的是确定以下之间是否存在重要的交互:1)查询类和查询语言类型;2)查询语言的类型和用户的体验。实验结果表明，图表查询语言和图标查询语言的有效性取决于查询的类别和用户的类型。这支持这样一种观点，即为用户提供各种可视化表示和查询模式的界面最适合广泛的用户和应用程序。关键词:人机交互;查询语言;视觉界面;可用性;实验。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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Interfaces to Database Systems

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