Intelligibility Required: How to make Us Look Smart Again

Abstract

Users often become frustrated when they are unable to understand and control a ubicomp environment. Previous work has suggested that ubicomp systems should be intelligible to allow users to understand how the system works and controllable to let users intervene when the system makes a mistake. In this paper, we identify several design considerations for supporting intelligibility and control in ubicomp environments. We show these considerations are also applicable and necessary beyond ubicomp. We position examples of existing solutions in the design space that is obtained from combining these dimensions and show how it can be used to explore design alternatives for supporting intelligibility and control.