Using a natural language interface with casual users

Capindale, R. A.; Crawford, Robert G.

doi:10.1016/s0020-7373(08)80007-7

Cited by 22 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 12 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Of the English sentences typed, 81% could be interpreted, and the authors suggest that many of the errors that did occur were easily resolvable. Capindale and Crawford (1990) also found that natural language is an effective means of expressing database queries, particularly for users with prior knowledge of the contents of the database, regardless of their aptitude with computers.…”

Section: Previous Research On Natural Language For Codingmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…where one cannot assume that the recipient has the ability to go beyond the information given). Capindale and Crawford (1990) provide a nice summary of the most suitable conditions for natural language interactions, suggesting that they are most effective for "question answering tasks" in a limited domain, with users who have prior knowledge of the domain and where the system provides adequate feedback about any restrictions to the language.…”

Section: Previous Research On Natural Language For Codingmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Programming language, natural language? Supporting the diverse computational activities of novice programmers

Good

Howland

2017

Journal of Visual Languages & Computing

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Given the current focus on teaching computational concepts to all from an early age, combined with the growing trend to empower end users to become producers of technology rather than mere consumers, we consider the issue of "computational notation". Specifically, where the goal is to help individuals develop their understanding of computation and/or use computation in real world settings, we question whether natural language might be a preferred notation to traditional programming languages, given its familiarity and ubiquity. We describe three empirical studies investigating the use of natural language for computation in which we found that although natural language provides support for understanding computational concepts, it introduces additional difficulties when used for coding. We distilled our findings into a set of design guidelines for novice programming environments which consider the ways in which different notations, including natural language, can best support the various activities that comprise programming. These guidelines were embodied in Flip, a bi-modal programming language used in conjunction with the Electron toolset, which allows young people to create their own commercial quality, narrative based role playing games. Two empirical studies on the use of Flip in three different real world contexts considered the extent to which the design guidelines support ease of use and an understanding of computation. The guidelines have potential to be of use both in analysing the use of natural language in existing novice programming environments, and in the design of new ones.

show abstract

Section: Previous Research On Natural Language For Codingmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Previous Research On Natural Language For Codingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Programming language, natural language? Supporting the diverse computational activities of novice programmers

Good

Howland

2017

Journal of Visual Languages & Computing

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Multimodal systems with strong cross-modal interactivity -where text input is but a component in an interface which otherwise behaves along Shneiderman's principles-show very encouraging results (Biermann et al 1983, Bos et al 1994, Capindale and Crawford 1990.…”

Section: Issues In Multimodal Interactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A glass box approach to adaptive hypermedia

Höök

Karlgren

Wærn

et al. 1996

User Model User-Adap Inter

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Utilising adaptive interface techniques in the design of systems introduces certain risks. An adaptive interface is not static, but will actively adapt to the perceived needs of the user. Unless carefully designed, these changes may lead to an unpredictable, obscure and uncontrollable interface. Therefore the design of adaptive interfaces must ensure that users can inspect the adaptivity mechanisms, and control their results. One way to do this is to rely on the user's understanding of the application and the domain, and relate the adaptivity mechanisms to domain-specific concepts. We present an example of an adaptive hypertext help system POP, which is being built according to these principles, and discuss the design considerations and empirical findings that lead to this design.

show abstract

“…The most potent argument in support of the use of natural language is, of course, its flexibility and 'naturalness'. The merits of natural-language interfaces are well documented as a result of a number of field trials (Turner et al, 1984;Jarke et al, 1985;Capindale and Crawford, 1990;Slator et al, 1986). But one should remember that 'normal* language is not always the best way of describing things.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Natural-language processing applied to an ITS interface

Fischetti

Gisolfi

2011

Research in Learning Technology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The aim of this paper is to show that with a subset of a natural language, simple systems running on PCs can be developed that can nevertheless be an effective tool for interfacing purposes in the building of an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS). After presenting the special characteristics of the Smalltalk/V language, which provides an appropriate environment for the development of an interface, the overall architecture of the interface module is discussed. We then show how sentences are parsed by the interface, and how interaction takes place with the user. The knowledge-acquisition phase is subsequently described. Finally, some excerpts from a tutoring session concerned with elementary geometry are discussed, and some of the problems and limitations of the approach are illustrated

show abstract

Using a natural language interface with casual users

Cited by 22 publications

References 12 publications

Programming language, natural language? Supporting the diverse computational activities of novice programmers

Programming language, natural language? Supporting the diverse computational activities of novice programmers

A glass box approach to adaptive hypermedia

Natural-language processing applied to an ITS interface

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About