Research Interests

Adaptive or "Intelligent" Systems

I am interested in issues of human performance with adaptive, dynamic, or "intelligent" user interfaces. This was the focus of much of my applied work at the NCR Human Interface Technology Center, and of my current collaboration with Dr. Debevc at the University of Maribor.

Since a primary human performance issue with such interfaces is that of skill transfer from one set of conditions to another, my dissertation examines factors that affect skill transfer at varying levels of practice. I'm exploring the question of whether supposedly incidental aspects of the environment can in fact become important for performance.

Related publications and presentations:

• Debevc, M., Meyer, B. & Svecko, R. (1997). An adaptive short list for documents on the World Wide Web. In J. Moore, E. Edmonds, & A. Puerta (Eds.), Proceedings of the 1997 International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (pp.209-211). New York: Association for Computing Machinery.
• Debevc, M., Meyer, B., Donlagic, D., & Svecko, R. (1996). Design and evaluation of an adaptive icon toolbar. User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction, 6, 1-21.
• Meyer, B. (1994). Retail user assistant: Evaluation of a user-adapted performance support system. In B. Blumenthal, J. Gornostaev, & C. Unger (Eds.), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 876. Human-Computer Interaction: 4th International Conference, EWHCI '94, Selected Papers (pp. 45-55). Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
• Meyer, B., Burgess Yakemovic, K.C., & Harris, M. (1993). Issues in practical application of an adaptive interface. In W. D. Gray, W. E. Hefley, & D. Murray (Eds.), Proceedings of the 1993 International Workshop on Intelligent User Interfaces (pp. 251-254). Orlando, FL. New York: ACM Press.
• Mane, A., Meyer, B., Milewski, A., & Roesler, M. (1995, March). Will you let your agent do the walking? AT&T Human Factors and Behavioral Science Symposium, Holmdel, NJ.
• Meyer, B., & Lee, M. D. (1995, March). Intelligent training for combustible gas indicator users. AT&T Human Factors and Behavioral Science Symposium, Holmdel, NJ.
• Meyer, B. (1993, April). Computer-aided adaptation of user interfaces. "Computer-aided adaptation of user interfaces" workshop, InterCHI '93 conference, Amsterdam.

Aging and Usability

Another interest is issues of usability for special populations, particularly older people. I conducted a series of focus groups to discover the types of technology that older people find limiting. I have also been working recently on a study of the unique problems that older people have with Web navigation. Finally, my dissertation includes an age manipulation, since the existing work on skill transfer in older adults is rather scant (and also somewhat conflicting).

(Note: the aging research has been funded in part by the NIA, and has been in collaboration with other researchers at the Human Attention and Performance Lab.

Related publications and presentations:

• Rogers, W. A., Meyer, B., Walker, N., & Fisk, A. D. (In press). Functional limitations to daily living tasks in the aged: A focus group analysis. Human Factors.
• Meyer, B., Sit, R. A., Spaulding, V. A., Mead, S. E., & Walker, N. (1997). Age group differences in World Wide Web navigation. CHI '97 short paper, Atlanta, GA.
• Meyer, B., Walker, N., & Rogers, W. (1996, April). Daily living tasks in the aged: Sources of and solutions to functional limitations. 1996 Cognitive Aging Conference, Atlanta, GA.
• Meyer, B. (1996, April). Older adults' reports of encounters with, and solutions to, cognitive limits in daily living. Invited talk, Cognitive Research Meeting, University of Georgia Department of Psychology, Athens, GA.

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