Automation, Control and Intelligent Systems

| Peer-Reviewed |

Interfacing with Adaptive Systems

Received: 13 August 2014    Accepted: 25 August 2014    Published: 10 September 2014
Views:       Downloads:

Share This Article

Abstract

We cast a design view on the interactions that occur when humans face (interconnected) adaptive systems. As humans are also adaptive, the combined behavior of such systems and humans can exhibit various phenomena that are especially of concern to designers of adaptive systems dealing with the inherent complexity of systems, systems’ interfaces, interconnectivity, and other design factors. Based on examples of interactions between humans and systems at different levels of complexity, we propose a hierarchical taxonomy of increasingly complex challenges that system engineers will encounter when designing adaptive systems. Among adaptive systems, the taxonomy distinguishes closed and open systems, embodying processes that are unaware or aware, and finally, friendly and hostile. This taxonomy can be of use in designing these systems and their interfaces, as it helps to categorize the information needs of users. In fact, systems at various levels in the hierarchy need to offer certain cognitive affordances for users to operate these systems successfully. We illustrate how complex the information needs of users in these different situations can be, and formulate emerging design research questions. These could be of particular interest to designers who create intelligent systems, products, and related services in a societal context.

DOI 10.11648/j.acis.20140204.12
Published in Automation, Control and Intelligent Systems (Volume 2, Issue 4, August 2014)
Page(s) 53-61
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Adaptive Systems, Human Behavior, Interfaces, Systems Design, Taxonomy

References
[1] E. Aarts and B. de Ruyter, "New research perspectives on Ambient Intelligence," Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Smart Environments, vol. 1, pp. 5-14, 2009.
[2] J. H. Holland, "Complex adaptive systems," Daedalus, vol. 121, pp. 17-30, 1992.
[3] K. Kelly, Out of Control: The Rise of Neo-biological Civilization, Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1994.
[4] D. Benyon, "Adaptive systems: A solution to usability problems," User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction, vol. 3, pp. 65-87, 1993.
[5] H. Hagras, V. Callaghan, M. Colley, G. Clarke, A. Pounds-Cornish, and H. Duman, "Creating an ambient-intelligence environment using embedded agents," Intelligent Systems, IEEE, vol. 19, pp. 12-20, 2004.
[6] B. Latour, "On actor-network theory: A few clarifications plus more than a few complications," Soziale Welt, vol. 47, pp. 369-381, 1996.
[7] S. Evenson, J. Rheinfrank, and H. Dubberly, "Ability-centered design: From static to adaptive worlds," interactions, vol. 17, pp. 75-79, 2010.
[8] T. Rakow and B. R. Newell, "Degrees of uncertainty: An overview and framework for future research on experience-based choice," Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, vol. 23, pp. 1-14, 2010.
[9] E. Lopes, Decision-Making under Uncertainty and Complexity: A Grounded Theory Approach, Saarbrücken: VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, 2010.
[10] C. Hummels and J. Frens, "Designing disruptive innovative systems, products and services: RTD process," in Industrial Design-New Frontiers, D. Coelho, Ed., Shanghai: Intech Open Access Publisher, pp. 147-172, 2011.
[11] K.-H. Huang and Y.-S. Deng, "Social interaction design in cultural context: A case study of a traditional social activity," International Journal of Design, vol. 2, pp. 81-96, 2008.
[12] S. Kyffin and P. Gardien, "Navigating the innovation matrix: An approach to design-led innovation," International Journal of Design, vol. 3, pp. 57-69, 2009.
[13] S. A. Rijsdijk, E. J. Hultink, and A. Diamantopoulos, "Product intelligence: Its conceptualization, measurement and impact on consumer satisfaction," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 35, pp. 340-356, 2007.
[14] M. Davis, "Why do we need doctoral study in design?," International Journal of Design, vol. 2, pp. 71-79, 2008.
[15] D. C. Dennett, The Intentional Stance, MIT Press: A Bradford Book, 1989.
[16] F. Acker, "New findings on unconscious versus conscious thought in decision making: Additional empirical data and meta-analysis," Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 3, pp. 292-303, 2008.
[17] P. Dourish, Where the Action is: The Foundations of Embodied Interaction, MIT Press: Bradford Books, 2004.
[18] A. Flammer, Erfahrung der eigenen Wirksamkeit: Einführung in die Psychologie der Kontrollmeinung, Bern: Huber, 1990.
[19] A. Clark, Being There: Putting Brain, Body, and World Together Again, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1997.
[20] B. Schmidt, "Human factors in complex systems: The modelling of human behaviour," in Proceedings 19th European Conference on Modelling and Simulation, Riga, Latvia, pp. 1-10 (CD), 2005.
[21] Z. Gao, "Active disturbance rejection control: A paradigm shift in feedback control system design," in Proceedings of the 2006 American Control Conference, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, June 14-16, pp. 2399-2405, 2006.
[22] P. Dourish, "What we talk about when we talk about context," Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, vol. 8, pp. 19-30, 2004.
[23] R. W. Ashby, An Introduction to Cybernetics, 2nd ed., London, UK: Chapman and Hall, 1957.
[24] P. Houston, M. Floyd, and S. Carnicero, Spy the Lie: How to Spot Deception the CIA Way, London: Icon Books, 2012.
[25] K. Byström and K. Järvelin, "Task complexity affects information seeking and use," Information Processing & Management, vol. 31, pp. 191-213, 1995.
[26] P. Robinson, "Task complexity, task difficulty, and task production: Exploring interactions in a componential framework," Applied Linguistics, vol. 22, pp. 27-57, 2001.
[27] R. E. Kalman, "A new approach to linear filtering and prediction problems," Journal of Fluids Engineering, vol. 82, pp. 35-45, 1960.
[28] T. Sugie and T. Ono, "An iterative learning control law for dynamical systems," Automatica, vol. 27, pp. 729-732, 1991.
[29] S. Wensveen, T. Djajadiningrat, and K. Overbeeke, "Interaction frogger: A design framework to couple action and function through feedback and feedforward," in Proceedings of the 5th conference on Designing Interactive Systems: Processes, Practices, Methods, and Techniques, Cambridge, MA, USA, pp. 177-184, 2004.
[30] K. Schwaber, Agile Project Management with Scrum, vol. 7, Redmond: Microsoft Press, 2004.
[31] J. Redish, "Expanding usability testing to evaluate complex systems," Journal of Usability Studies, vol. 2, pp. 102-111, 2007.
[32] N. E. Miller and J. Dollard, Social Learning and Imitation, New Haven, CT, US: Yale University Press, 1941.
[33] E. Deckers, S. Wensveen, R. Ahn, and K. Overbeeke, "Designing for perceptual crossing to improve user involvement," in Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Vancouver, BC, Canada, pp. 1929-1938, 2011.
[34] E. Barakova, J. Gillessen, and L. Feijs, "Social training of autistic children with interactive intelligent agents," Journal of Integrative Neuroscience, vol. 08, pp. 23-34, 2009.
[35] J. Hu and L. Feijs, "A distributed multi-agent architecture in simulation based medical training," in Transactions on Edutainment III. vol. LNCS 5940, Z. Pan, A. Cheok, W. Müller, and M. Chang, Eds., Berlin Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 105-115, 2009.
[36] T. Swierstra and K. Waelbers, "Designing a good life: A matrix for the technological mediation of morality," Science and Engineering Ethics, vol. 18, pp. 157-72, 2012.
[37] G. Bateson and M. Mead, "For god's sake, Margaret," Convolution Quarterly, vol. 10, pp. 32-44, 1976.
[38] D. Preuveneers, J. Van den Bergh, D. Wagelaar, A. Georges, P. Rigole, T. Clerckx, et al., "Towards an extensible context ontology for ambient intelligence," in Ambient Intelligence. vol. 3295 (LNCS), P. Markopoulos, B. Eggen, E. Aarts, and J. L. Crowley, Eds., Berlin Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 148-159, 2004.
[39] R. Holzer, H. de Meer, and C. Bettstetter, "On autonomy and emergence in self-organizing systems," in IWSOS 2008. vol. LNCS 5343, K. A. Humme and J. P. G. Sterbenz, Eds., Berlin Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 157-169, 2008.
[40] R. Gorbunov, E. Barakova, and M. Rauterberg, "Design of social agents foundations on natural and artificial computation," in Foundations on Natural and Artificial Computation. vol. 6686 (LNCS), J. Ferrández, J. Álvarez Sánchez, F. de la Paz, and F. Toledo, Eds., Berlin Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 192-201, 2011.
Author Information
  • Designed Intelligence Group, Industrial Design Department, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands

  • Designed Intelligence Group, Industrial Design Department, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands

  • Designed Intelligence Group, Industrial Design Department, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands

  • Designed Intelligence Group, Industrial Design Department, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands

  • Designed Intelligence Group, Industrial Design Department, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands

  • Designed Intelligence Group, Industrial Design Department, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands

Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    René Ahn, Emilia Barakova, Loe Feijs, Mathias Funk, Jun Hu, et al. (2014). Interfacing with Adaptive Systems. Automation, Control and Intelligent Systems, 2(4), 53-61. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.acis.20140204.12

    Copy | Download

    ACS Style

    René Ahn; Emilia Barakova; Loe Feijs; Mathias Funk; Jun Hu, et al. Interfacing with Adaptive Systems. Autom. Control Intell. Syst. 2014, 2(4), 53-61. doi: 10.11648/j.acis.20140204.12

    Copy | Download

    AMA Style

    René Ahn, Emilia Barakova, Loe Feijs, Mathias Funk, Jun Hu, et al. Interfacing with Adaptive Systems. Autom Control Intell Syst. 2014;2(4):53-61. doi: 10.11648/j.acis.20140204.12

    Copy | Download

  • @article{10.11648/j.acis.20140204.12,
      author = {René Ahn and Emilia Barakova and Loe Feijs and Mathias Funk and Jun Hu and Matthias Rauterberg},
      title = {Interfacing with Adaptive Systems},
      journal = {Automation, Control and Intelligent Systems},
      volume = {2},
      number = {4},
      pages = {53-61},
      doi = {10.11648/j.acis.20140204.12},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.acis.20140204.12},
      eprint = {https://download.sciencepg.com/pdf/10.11648.j.acis.20140204.12},
      abstract = {We cast a design view on the interactions that occur when humans face (interconnected) adaptive systems. As humans are also adaptive, the combined behavior of such systems and humans can exhibit various phenomena that are especially of concern to designers of adaptive systems dealing with the inherent complexity of systems, systems’ interfaces, interconnectivity, and other design factors. Based on examples of interactions between humans and systems at different levels of complexity, we propose a hierarchical taxonomy of increasingly complex challenges that system engineers will encounter when designing adaptive systems. Among adaptive systems, the taxonomy distinguishes closed and open systems, embodying processes that are unaware or aware, and finally, friendly and hostile. This taxonomy can be of use in designing these systems and their interfaces, as it helps to categorize the information needs of users. In fact, systems at various levels in the hierarchy need to offer certain cognitive affordances for users to operate these systems successfully. We illustrate how complex the information needs of users in these different situations can be, and formulate emerging design research questions. These could be of particular interest to designers who create intelligent systems, products, and related services in a societal context.},
     year = {2014}
    }
    

    Copy | Download

  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Interfacing with Adaptive Systems
    AU  - René Ahn
    AU  - Emilia Barakova
    AU  - Loe Feijs
    AU  - Mathias Funk
    AU  - Jun Hu
    AU  - Matthias Rauterberg
    Y1  - 2014/09/10
    PY  - 2014
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.acis.20140204.12
    DO  - 10.11648/j.acis.20140204.12
    T2  - Automation, Control and Intelligent Systems
    JF  - Automation, Control and Intelligent Systems
    JO  - Automation, Control and Intelligent Systems
    SP  - 53
    EP  - 61
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2328-5591
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.acis.20140204.12
    AB  - We cast a design view on the interactions that occur when humans face (interconnected) adaptive systems. As humans are also adaptive, the combined behavior of such systems and humans can exhibit various phenomena that are especially of concern to designers of adaptive systems dealing with the inherent complexity of systems, systems’ interfaces, interconnectivity, and other design factors. Based on examples of interactions between humans and systems at different levels of complexity, we propose a hierarchical taxonomy of increasingly complex challenges that system engineers will encounter when designing adaptive systems. Among adaptive systems, the taxonomy distinguishes closed and open systems, embodying processes that are unaware or aware, and finally, friendly and hostile. This taxonomy can be of use in designing these systems and their interfaces, as it helps to categorize the information needs of users. In fact, systems at various levels in the hierarchy need to offer certain cognitive affordances for users to operate these systems successfully. We illustrate how complex the information needs of users in these different situations can be, and formulate emerging design research questions. These could be of particular interest to designers who create intelligent systems, products, and related services in a societal context.
    VL  - 2
    IS  - 4
    ER  - 

    Copy | Download

  • Sections