Paper Info
Title
Power, ease of use and cooperative work in a practical multimedia message system
Abstract
The "Messages" program, the high-end interface to the Andrew Message System (AMS), is a multimedia mail and bulletin board reading program that novices generally learn to use in less than an hour. Despite the initial simplicity, however, Messages is extremely powerful and manages to satisfy the needs of both experts and novices through a carefully evolved system of novice-oriented defaults, expert-oriented options, and a help system and option-setting facility designed to ease the transition from new user to sophisticated expert. The advanced features of the system facilitate types of cooperative work that are not possible with other mail or bulletin board systems, but which would also be impossible in large heterogeneous communities if the system were not so easily used by both novices and experts. A major example of such cooperative work is the Andrew Advisor system, a highly-evolved and sophisticated system that uses the AMS to solve the problems of distributed support for a very diverse user community in a heterogeneous computing environment. The evolution of the Advisor system and its uses of the AMS mechanisms are considered as a detailed example of the power and limitations of the AMS.
Year
DOI
Venue
1991
10.1016/0020-7373(91)90043-7
International Journal of Man-Machine Studies
Keywords
Field
DocType
cooperative work,practical multimedia message system,satisfiability,bulletin board system,heterogeneous computing,ease of use
Teamwork,Bulletin board system,Computer science,Cooperative work,Usability,Symmetric multiprocessor system,Human–computer interaction,Software,Multimedia,Bulletin board
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
34
2
0020-7373
ISBN
Citations 
PageRank 
0-12-299220-2
25
12.32
References 
Authors
15
2
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Nathaniel S. Borenstein1224130.34
Chris A. Thyberg24120.70