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But this usually results in a trade-off between dimensions. A modification increasing the usability of the notation in one dimension (while keeping a second one constant) will typically reduce its usability in a third dimension. This reflects an assumption in the framework that there is no perfect
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Cognitive dimensions are designed to provide a lightweight approach to analyse the quality of a design, rather than an in-depth, detailed description. They provide a common vocabulary for discussing many factors in notation, UI or programming language design. Also, cognitive dimensions help in
335:, an abstraction that represent the common styling attributes of items in a document, to a notation where each item in a document has defined its own individual style. After this design maneuver is made, an editor that changes the style sheet will modify all items at once, eliminating the
311:. Each activity is best served by a different trade-off in the usability on each dimension. For example, a high viscosity (resistance to change) is harmful for modification and exploration activities, but less severe for the one-off tasks performed in transcription and incrementation.
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is a change made by the designer in the notation design, to alter its position within a particular dimension. Dimensions are created to be pairwise independent, so that the design can be altered in one dimension while keeping a second one constant.
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A. F. Blackwell, C. Britton, A. Cox, T. R. G. Green, C. Gurr, G. Kadoda, M. S. Kutar, M. Loomes, C. L. Nehaniv, M. Petre, C. Roast, C. Roe, A. Wong, R. M. Young, "Cognitive
Dimensions of Notations: Design Tools for Cognitive Technology",
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Such candidate dimensions include creative ambiguity (does the notation encourage interpreting several meanings of the same element?), indexing (are there elements to guide finding a specific part?), synopsis
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between entities in the notation visible or hidden? Is every dependency indicated in both directions? Does a change in one area of the notation lead to unexpected consequences?
254:'Knock-on viscosity' : a change in the code violates internal constraints in the program, whose resolution may violate further internal constraints.
287:" of the whole annotated structure) or unevenness (some creation paths are easier than others, which bias the expressed ideas in a developed artifact).
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Are there any inherent barriers to change in the notation? How much effort is required to make a change to a program expressed in the notation?
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In addition to the above, new dimensions are sometimes proposed in the HCI research field, with different levels of adoption and refinement.
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An example of a design maneuver is reducing the viscosity of a notation by adding abstraction mechanisms. This can be done by incorporating
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Are there decisions that must be made before all the necessary information is available? Can those decisions be reversed or corrected later?
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level? Are there places where the user needs to resort to fingers or penciled annotation to keep track of what's happening?
257:'Repetition viscosity' : a single action within the user’s conceptual model requires many, repetitive device actions.
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260:'Scope viscosity' : a change in the size of the input data set requires changes to the program structure itself.
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461:(2000). "Instructions and Descriptions: some cognitive aspects of programming and similar activities".
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Are there strong constraints on the order in which the user must complete the tasks to use the system?
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413:(1996). "Usability analysis of visual programming environments: A 'cognitive dimensions' framework".
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How readily can required parts of the notation be identified, accessed and made visible?
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or how much space does the notation require to produce a certain result or express a
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Can different parts of the notation be compared side by side at the same time?
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The authors identify four main user activities with interactive artifacts:
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interface and that trade-offs are a fundamental part of usability design.
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This dimension can be further classified into the following types:
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present in the need to change the style of each individual item.
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Green, Thomas RG (1989). "Cognitive
Dimensions of Notations".
80:, changes intended to improve the design along one dimension.
351:– another method for evaluating the usability of an interface
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of each component of the notation in the solution as a whole?
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To what extent does the notation influence the likelihood of
362:– an adage about the number of elements in a visual language
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Cognitive
Dimensions of Information Artefacts: a tutorial
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Thomas Green originally defined 14 cognitive dimensions:
368:– a representation feature of some programming languages
30:"Hidden dependency" redirects here. For other uses, see
631:, and intuitive explanation of Cognitive Dimensions
127:, how much of the rest can be successfully guessed?
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560:(2000). "Dealing with New Cognitive Dimensions".
374:– a development anti-pattern similar to viscosity
167:lies at the notational level, rather than at the
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111:How closely does the notation correspond to the
76:exploring the space of possible designs through
605:Cognitive Dimensions of Notation Resource Site
64:. The dimensions can be used to evaluate the
233:Secondary notation and escape from formalism
415:Journal of Visual Languages & Computing
384:The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two
513:Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science
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236:Can the notation carry extra information
99:exposed by the notation? Can details be
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629:A Usable Guide to Cognitive Dimensions
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123:After part of the notation has been
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95:What are the minimum and maximum
42:cognitive dimensions of notations
84:List of the cognitive dimensions
32:Hidden variable (disambiguation)
612:at usabilityfirst.com glossary
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238:by means not related to syntax
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18:Consistency (user interfaces)
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60:and further researched with
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655:Programming language topics
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650:Human–computer interaction
216:on an incomplete solution?
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44:are design principles for
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665:User interface techniques
153:the user making a mistake
521:10.1007/3-540-44617-6_31
132:Diffuseness / terseness
437:10.1006/jvlc.1996.0009
378:Software visualization
209:Progressive evaluation
165:hard mental processing
160:Hard mental operations
349:Cognitive walkthrough
97:levels of abstraction
54:programming languages
670:Usability inspection
610:Cognitive dimensions
484:People and Computers
337:repetition viscosity
196:Premature commitment
108:Closeness of mapping
92:Abstraction gradient
70:information artifact
38:Cognitive dimensions
224:How obvious is the
221:Role-expressiveness
176:Hidden dependencies
558:Blackwell, Alan F.
309:exploratory design
583:Missing or empty
58:Thomas R.G. Green
27:Design principles
16:(Redirected from
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541:. Retrieved
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285:Gestalt view
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181:dependencies
101:encapsulated
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62:Marian Petre
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490:: 443–460.
120:Consistency
639:Categories
585:|url=
543:2007-07-12
391:References
267:Visibility
645:Usability
562:CiteSeerX
492:CiteSeerX
463:CiteSeerX
423:CiteSeerX
411:Petre, M.
245:Viscosity
163:How much
135:How many
66:usability
46:notations
660:Notation
576:cite web
445:11750514
343:See also
214:feedback
169:semantic
141:meaning
137:symbols
125:learned
113:problem
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115:world?
441:S2CID
622:and
589:help
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179:Are
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517:doi
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