Critics: An Emerging Approach to Knowledge-Based Human-Computer Interaction

We describe the critiquing approach to building knowledge-based interactive systems. Critiquing supports computer users in their problem solving and learning activities. The challenges for the next generation of knowledge-based systems provide a context for the development of this paradigm. We discuss critics from the perspective of overcoming the problems of high-functionality computer systems, of providing a new class of systems to support learning, of extending applications-oriented construction kits to design environments, and of providing an alternative to traditional autonomous expert systems. One of the critiquing systems we have built JANUS, a critic for architectural design is used as an example for presenting the key aspects of the critiquing process. V.Ie then survey additional critiquing systems developed in our and other reseaich groups. The paper concludes with a discussion of experiences and extensions to the paradigm. Acknowledgements. Many people have contributed to the development of our notion of the critiquing paradigm. The authors would like to thank especially: the members of the Janus Design Project (Ray McCall, Kumiyo Nakakoji, and Jonathan Ostwald), the members of the LISP-CRITIC project (Heinz-Dieter Boecker, Chris Morel, Brent Reeves, and John Rieman), all the people who have participated in discussions about the general framework for critiquing (Thomas Schwab, Helga Nieper-Lemke, Curt Stevens, Tom DiPersio, and Hal Eden), and the HCC research group as a whole. This research was partially supported by grant No. IRI-8722792 from the National Science Foundation, grant No. MDA903-86-C0143 from the Army Research Institute, and grants from the Intelligent Interfaces Group at NYNEX and from Software Research Associates (SRA), Tokyo. Critics: An Emerging Approach to Knowledge-Based Human Computer Interaction Gerhard Fischer, Andreas C. Lemke, and Thomas Mastaglio Department of Computer Science and Institute for Cognitive Science University of Colorado, Boulder, USA Anders I. Morch NYNEX Artificial Intelligence Laboratory White Plains, NY, USA Abstract We describe the critiquing approach to building knowledge-based interactive systems. Critiquing supports computer users in their problem solving and learning activities. The challenges for the next generation of knowledge-based systems provide a .context for the development of this paradigm. We discuss critics from the perspective of overcoming the problems of high-functionality computer systems, of providing a new class of systems to support learning, of extending applications-oriented construction kits to design environments, and of providing an alternative to traditional autonomous expert systems. One of the critiquing systems we have built JANUS, a critic for architectural design is used as an example for presenting the key aspects of the critiquing process. We then survey additional critiquing systems developed in our and other research groups. The paper concludes with a discussion of experiences and extensions to the paradigm.We describe the critiquing approach to building knowledge-based interactive systems. Critiquing supports computer users in their problem solving and learning activities. The challenges for the next generation of knowledge-based systems provide a .context for the development of this paradigm. We discuss critics from the perspective of overcoming the problems of high-functionality computer systems, of providing a new class of systems to support learning, of extending applications-oriented construction kits to design environments, and of providing an alternative to traditional autonomous expert systems. One of the critiquing systems we have built JANUS, a critic for architectural design is used as an example for presenting the key aspects of the critiquing process. We then survey additional critiquing systems developed in our and other research groups. The paper concludes with a discussion of experiences and extensions to the paradigm.