JP5540879B2 - Scenario generation support device and scenario generation device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for generating a scenario used when designing a user interface.

Designing and evaluating a user interface (UI) assuming a scenario is important in providing an excellent UI. The following four steps are defined in ISO 13407 “Human-centred design processes for interactive systems”, which is a standard that defines UI development processes.
・ Understanding and clarification of usage status ・ Clarification of user and organization requirements ・ Creation of solutions by design ・ Evaluation of design against requirements

  The first step here is “Understanding and clarifying usage status”, and “context of use” represents a scenario. The scenario includes the situation where the user is placed, the purpose of the user, the content of the user's operation, and the like. By generating a better scenario, it is possible to accurately define requirements in the second step, and a UI with high usability can be designed.

  As a technique related to system design using a scenario, Patent Document 1 finds a portion where a series of steps is common from the distance of each step of a plurality of scenarios, or obtains an overall evaluation value. Patent Document 2 improves the accuracy of similarity calculation by defining a scenario pattern as an improvement to this. These are based on the assumption that many scenarios have already been created, and the burden of creating a new scenario will not be reduced.

  Patent Document 3 is a technology that enables a scenario used in an airplane simulator in a virtual space to be easily created by giving route information and environment information. However, this technology is not versatile because the parameters given are specialized for airplane simulators. Patent Document 4 supports creation of a scenario using a web service in which input / output types are clearly defined in advance, such as inn search. This is also applicable only to UIs for which input / output types are determined, and lacks versatility.

  Patent Document 5 supports the creation of a scenario by identifying a keyword related to a “purpose” of a UI and a keyword related to “means” and associating each keyword with each other. This aims at properly organizing and grasping the purpose, that is, the essential requirements of the user and the means for realizing the purpose.

JP-A-10-301770 JP 2009-151742 A JP 2005-189883 A JP 2008-217161 A JP 2008-250649 A

ISO 13407: "Human-centred design processes for interactive systems" JIS Z 8530: 2000 "Ergonomics-Human-centered design process for interactive systems"

  In general, creating a good scenario requires knowledge and experience, and takes time and effort. In particular, when designing UIs for in-vehicle devices and mobile devices, unlike desktop devices such as desktop PCs, the situation in which the user who uses the device changes variously and dynamically, so the cost is relatively high. . Depending on the situation, there is a difference in what the user can do, and the appropriate UI varies depending on the situation, so it is necessary to create a complex scenario so that these can be verified. In addition, it is necessary to determine what UI is appropriate or inappropriate for a complicated scenario.

  Patent Documents 1 and 2 are techniques for performing an evaluation on the assumption that a scenario has already been created, and do not reduce the burden of creating a new scenario. Patent documents 3 and 4 are technologies based on airplane simulators and web services, respectively, and are difficult to apply to creating scenarios for UI design of in-vehicle devices and mobile devices.

  In addition, since the technology of Patent Document 5 focuses on the user's request and the means for realizing it, it supports “what to do” and “what to do”, but “under what circumstances” Is not considered. Therefore, it is not sufficient as a scenario for a device in which a situation where a user is placed is various and dynamically changed such as an in-vehicle device or a mobile device.

  An object of the present invention is to generate or support a scenario for UI design of a device in which a situation where a user is placed varies and dynamically changes.

  In order to solve the above problems, a scenario generation support device according to the present invention includes a situation element database that stores a plurality of situation elements, co-occurrence probabilities between situation elements, and transition probabilities between situation elements. A situation element is an element constituting a situation, and a situation can be defined by a combination of several situation elements. The probability that another situation element will appear at the same time when a certain situation element appears (co-occurrence probability) and the probability that another situation element will appear when another situation element appears (transition probability) Are also stored in the situation element database.

  The scenario generation support apparatus of the present invention further includes search means, candidate presentation means, and selection means. The search means receives a situation element as an input, and extracts a situation element having a high co-occurrence probability and a situation element having a high transition probability. The candidate presenting means presents the extracted situation element to the scenario creator as a situation element candidate that appears simultaneously and a situation element candidate that appears subsequently. The selection unit receives from the scenario creator selection of a situation element that appears simultaneously with the input situation element or a situation element that appears next to the input situation element.

  In this way, when a certain situation element is given, the situation element that appears at the same time and the situation element that appears next are automatically presented to the scenario creator. An appropriate scenario having a high co-occurrence probability and transition probability can be generated simply by selecting. Since the candidates are automatically presented, even a scenario creator who lacks knowledge and experience can create an appropriate scenario without taking time and effort.

  Further, the situation element database in the present invention stores at least one of the appearance frequency of the situation element, the degree of influence of the situation element on the user interface, and the user's response to the situation element as additional information for each situation element. Is preferred. And it is preferable that a search means extracts the situation element which appears simultaneously with the next situation element which considered additional information, or appears next. For example, the search unit extracts a situation element having a high co-occurrence probability and a transition probability and a high appearance frequency and a degree of influence on the UI. In this way, candidate situation elements are extracted in consideration of the additional conditions, so that it is easy to generate a scenario including situation elements that meet specific conditions.

  Furthermore, it is preferable that the scenario generation support apparatus according to the present invention includes a search condition input unit for inputting a search condition regarding additional information, and the search unit extracts candidates according to the input search condition. In this way, scenarios that meet various conditions are facilitated.

  Also, the scenario generation support apparatus according to the present invention, when a situation element that appears at the same time as or next to the input situation element is selected by the selection means, the situation element selected by the search means as a new input again. It is preferable that the search is performed and the search result is presented by the candidate presenting means. For example, when a situation element that appears at the same time as the input situation element is selected, the situation element with a high co-occurrence probability or transition probability is considered in consideration of both the original situation element and the newly selected situation element. It is preferable to search again. When a situation element that appears next to the inputted situation element is selected, it is preferable to search again for a situation element having a high co-occurrence probability or transition probability with respect to the selected situation element. In this way, each time a situation element is selected, a new candidate is presented, and the scenario creator can create a series of scenarios simply by selecting the presented candidate.

  Also, in the above, the search results are presented as candidates to the scenario creator, and the scenario creation is done by leaving the selection to the scenario creator. However, the scenario can be automatically generated by selecting the candidates automatically. Is possible. That is, the present invention can also be understood as a scenario generation device. The scenario generation device according to the present invention is the same as the above in that it includes a situation element database and a search means. Then, the selection unit selects, from the extracted situation elements, a situation element that appears simultaneously with the input situation element and a situation element that appears next to the inputted situation element.

  By doing so, it is possible to automatically generate a scenario.

  Note that it is possible to generate a scenario composed of a plurality of situation elements by repeating the search by the search means and the selection by the selection means. Further, the selection means may generate only one scenario from the input situation element, but it is preferable to simultaneously create a plurality of scenarios with different candidate selections.

  Further, the scenario generation device according to the present invention may also include a search condition input means for performing a search in consideration of the additional information added to the situation element or inputting a search condition for the additional information. preferable.

  The present invention can be understood as a scenario generation support device or a scenario generation device including at least a part of the above means. Moreover, it can also be grasped as a scenario generation support method and a scenario generation method for performing these processes, and a program for realizing these methods. Each of the above means and processes can be combined with each other as much as possible to constitute the present invention.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to easily create a UI design scenario for a device in which a situation where a user is placed changes variously and dynamically.

It is a figure which shows the function structure of the scenario generation assistance apparatus which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is a figure explaining the data item which a situation element database has. It is a figure explaining the (A) co-occurrence probability table | surface and the (B) transition probability table | surface. It is a figure explaining the example of a usability parameter | index. It is a figure which shows the screen transition at the time of the scenario creation process in 1st Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the function structure of the scenario production | generation apparatus which concerns on 2nd Embodiment.

(First embodiment)
The first embodiment is a scenario generation support device that supports a scenario creator so that an appropriate scenario can be easily created when creating a scenario for UI design.

<System overview>
An overview of the entire system is shown in FIG. FIG. 1 shows a scenario generation support apparatus (101), a person (102, 107, 109, 115, 116) and a thing (103, 104) that are assumed by the system. The scenario generation support apparatus 101 creates a database (108) of situation elements that are constituent elements of the situation, and searches for a situation element that appears simultaneously or subsequently with the situation element that is searched (111) for this database (111). By presenting (112), the scenario creator 109 supports scenario creation.

  The scenario generation support apparatus 101 includes, as hardware, an information processing apparatus including a main storage device such as a CPU and a RAM, an auxiliary storage device such as an HDD, an input device such as a keyboard and a mouse, and an output device such as a display and a speaker. Computer). The above-described functional units are realized by the CPU executing the OS and application programs expanded on the memory. However, the scenario generation support apparatus 101 may be realized by a plurality of computers cooperating via a network.

  There are mainly two methods for creating the situation element database 108. One is a method in which an event log (105) that collects various events obtained from the outside world is analyzed (106) and automatically created. As an event log information source, a call center (102) for collecting voices from users, a word-of-mouth log (103) on the web, a sensor (104) mounted on an in-vehicle device or a mobile device, and the like can be considered. The second method is a method in which an experienced UI designer (107) manually creates a situation element database. It is also conceivable to create a situation element database by combining these two methods.

The situation element database in the present embodiment includes the following information.
-Situation element-Frequency of occurrence of situation element-Impact of situation element on UI-Co-occurrence probability between situation elements-User response to situation element-Load of user's sensory organ on situation element-Expected change in situation・ Probability of transition between situation elements ・ Consideration of usability Details will be described later.

  When the scenario creator (109) inputs a search condition (110) and searches the database (111), as a result, a situation element candidate is presented (112). From the situation element candidates presented in this way, the scenario creator selects a desired one (113) and creates a scenario (114). The scenario includes corresponding usability considerations.

  The UI designer (115) designs a UI using the scenario and usability considerations created in this way, and the UI evaluator (116) evaluates the UI. A method for creating usability considerations from the database will be described later.

<Situation element database>
The contents of the situation element database 108 will be described in detail. FIG. 2 shows each item of data included in the situation element database 108 and its contents.

[Situation element]
The situation element is a component that constitutes a situation where the UI design target device is used. There are an infinite number of situation elements, but they can be broadly classified into the following four categories.
Physical situation: The environment where the user is placed and the equipment in use Social situation: Attributes, objectives, constraints, etc. that are in the background of the user's behavior and guide the user's behavior Physical / physiological situation: the user Situation related to human body Emotion / Emotional situation: Situation related to user's spirit

  Taking in-vehicle equipment as an example, physical conditions include vehicle status (stopped, running (low speed / medium speed / high speed), during curve), nature / weather (morning, noon, night, sunny, rain, cold / warm) ), Presence or absence of surrounding people and objects (pedestrians, bicycles, motorcycles, cars), driving environment (straight lines, curves, dirt roads, traffic restrictions), congestion), driving locations (tunnels, merges, parking lots, etc.) Roads, highways, narrow streets, school zones), application usage (audio, car navigation, air conditioner), etc. can be considered as examples of situation elements.

  Examples of social conditions include the purpose of boarding (commuting / commuting, shopping, pick-up, travel / leisure), presence / absence of passengers and relationships with passengers (spouse, children, friends, lovers, colleagues) Is considered. As physical / physiological situations, driving skills, equipment literacy, land intuition, arousal (sleepiness) degree, energy (fatigue) degree, and the like are considered as examples of situation elements. As emotional / emotional situations, positive emotions such as relief, calm and relaxation, and negative emotions such as anxiety, impatience and tension can be considered as examples of situational elements.

  The situation elements listed here are merely examples, and may include other arbitrary elements that are considered necessary for UI design. In the present invention, the number and level of detail of situation elements stored in the situation element database 108 are not limited. However, the larger the number of situation elements, the greater the burden on the scenario creator 109. 101 is useful.

ただし、ｃ_ｅ（ｔ）は、状況要素ｅの時刻ｔにおける出現度合いを表し、「０」（出現無し）または「１」（出現有り）の二値を取るboolean関数か、「０」から「１」の浮動
小数点数を取る関数である。浮動小数点数を採用すれば発生度合いを連続値として捉えることができ、たとえば、「雨」という状況要素について小雨であれば小さい値を取り大雨であれば大きい値を取るようにしたりすることが考えられる。ｓ_ｔ，Ｔはそれぞれ使用開始時刻、使用時間を表す。 [Appearance frequency of status elements]
The appearance frequency Fe of the situation element e is the cumulative appearance time of the situation element in the time when the user uses the vehicle-mounted device or the mobile device, and is represented by Expression (1).

Here, c _e (t) represents the appearance degree of the situation element e at time t, and is a boolean function that takes a binary value of “0” (no appearance) or “1” (occurs), or “0” to “ 1 ”is a function that takes a floating-point number. If floating point numbers are used, the degree of occurrence can be considered as a continuous value. For example, the situation element “Rain” may have a small value for light rain and a large value for heavy rain. It is done. s _t and T represent the use start time and the use time, respectively.

[Influence of UI on situation elements]
The degree of influence of the situation element on the UI is a subjective or statistical index of importance indicating how much the situation element should be considered in UI design. Expressed in floating point. This degree of influence can be manually set by the experienced UI designer 107 as a subjective index. In addition to acquiring the situation from various sensors 104, if the user's psychological burden, device operation frequency, and the like can also be acquired, the degree of influence can be obtained by associating them.

[Co-occurrence probability between situation elements]
The co-occurrence probability between situation elements is a conditional probability p _ij (0 ≦ p _ij ≦ 1) that a situation element e _j appears when a certain situation element e _i appears. It is configured as a co-occurrence probability table as shown in FIG. 3A.

  The co-occurrence probability between situation elements is determined by judgment based on experience by the UI designer 107 or is statistically obtained from the event log 105.

[User response to status elements]
The user's response to the situation element is the user's influence when the situation element appears and the plausible action the user takes. It is determined for each human sensation device so that the user's sensation device load can be easily estimated for the situation elements described later. For example, the following response can be considered for the situation element “stopping waiting for a red light”.
Visual: Check the route ahead. Check frequently to see if the signal is blue.
Hearing: Even if it turns blue, if you do not make a call, you may be honked by the following car.
Tactile: Touch the navigation screen to confirm the route. In the wake of the following car, the navigation may be stopped halfway and the car may be started in a hurry.

  The user's response to the situation element is determined by judgment based on experience by the UI designer 107 or statistically obtained from the event log 105. The database may be stored as text information, or may be stored as an identifier indicating “correspondence” defined separately.

[User's sensory load on situation elements]
The load of the user's sensory organs on the situation element is the load on the user's sensory organs, which is influenced by the likely action that the user takes when the situation element appears and the influence of the situation element itself. As senses, among the five senses of human beings, particularly visual, auditory, and tactile sensations, the load of each corresponding sensory device is represented by a floating point number from “0” to “1”. For example, the following sensory device load is given to the above-mentioned situation element “stopping waiting for red light”.
Visual: 0.8
Hearing: 0.3
Tactile sense: 0.6
Here, it is handled as a floating-point number from “0” to “1”, but for example, it is handled as an integer in three stages from “1” to “3” so that UI designers and scenario creators can easily recognize them. It doesn't matter.

  The load of the user's sensory organs on the situation element is determined by the UI designer 107 based on experience or statistically obtained from the event log 105.

[Expected changes in situation]
For a given situation element, a likely situation change that is estimated to occur next from the user's response to the event log 105 or the situation element is referred to as a predicted situation change. For example, if the user's response of “increasing the strength of the air conditioner” is given to the situation of “room temperature is high”, the situation is predicted to be “room temperature is appropriate”. In the database, it may be stored as text information, or may be stored as an identifier indicating the changed situation.

[Transition probability between situation elements]
The expected change in situation is given an index of plausibility expressed as a floating point number from “0” to “1”. This is called the transition probability between situation elements. The transition probability between situation elements is determined by the UI designer 107 based on experience-based judgment or statistically obtained from the event log 105.

The transition probability between situation elements is a conditional probability t _ji (0 ≦ t _ji ≦ 1) that a situation element e _j appears after a certain situation element e _i appears. As shown in FIG. 3B, it is configured as a transition probability table.

[Usability considerations]
Usability considerations are considerations that should be given to the UI in relation to situational factors. Usability considerations are described for each usability index. As the usability index, a general-purpose usability index or a usability index customized for use in an in-vehicle device or a mobile device is used. An example of a usability index is shown in FIG. In the database, for example, it is stored as text information.

<Search>
The search unit 111 extracts from the situation element database 108 situation elements that have a high probability of appearing simultaneously or subsequently appearing in the current situation. If the current situation is not entered, the starting situation element needs to be given in advance.

  In the search by the search unit 111, not only a situation element having a high co-occurrence probability and a transition probability is searched, but a situation element that satisfies the condition (search condition) specified by the scenario creator 109 is searched.

[Search condition input]
FIG. 5 shows an example of screen transition when creating a scenario by searching for a situation element. FIG. 5 shows a screen (500) for inputting search conditions, a screen (510) for displaying search results, a screen (520) for displaying details of a scenario, and a screen (530) for displaying details of status elements. Four are shown.

In the search condition input screen (500), status elements are listed as the current status (502). Here, it is shown that the current situation is composed of three situation elements, “commuting”, “rushing”, and “narrow street / school zone running”. In this example, as a search condition, the scenario creator 109 can specify an importance level of appearance frequency (503), an importance level of influence on UI (504), and a keyword (505) for user response. The search filtering condition is to include the keyword specified in the keyword (505) column for user correspondence in the “user correspondence”. Since a keyword search technique or algorithm may be employed, a description thereof is omitted here. The degree of emphasis (503, 504) on the appearance frequency and the degree of influence on the UI is an input for adjusting the ranking algorithm of the search result. If these elements are emphasized, a situation element having a high appearance frequency and a high degree of influence on the UI is obtained as a search result instead of a situation element having a high co-occurrence probability and transition probability.

  Note that the filtering condition is not limited to the user's response, but may be other items. Furthermore, the search ranking algorithm may be adjusted not only for the appearance frequency and the influence level but also for other items.

  The search is executed by pressing the search button (505) on the search condition input screen (500), and the result is displayed on the search result screen (510). Also, by pressing a scenario button (506), a scenario details screen (520) is displayed, and the details of the scenarios created up to now can be confirmed.

[Search processing]
The search unit 111 obtains a situation element having a high co-occurrence probability and a transition probability from a given situation. In this process, the degree of importance of the appearance frequency and the influence level input on the search condition input screen is reflected, or filtering is performed by a given keyword or the like.

Ｒ_ｅは、現在の状況Ｓと与えられたフィルタリング条件Ｃに対する状況要素ｅのランクを表す。ここで、ｆ_ｅは状況要素ｅの特徴ベクトルであり、共起確率表や遷移確率表の列、状況要素のＵＩへの影響度などが要素となる。 In ranking candidates, a method such as calculating the value of equation (2) for each candidate and sorting in descending order is used.

R _e represents a rank of the status element e for filtering condition C given the current situation S. Here, _fe is a feature vector of the situation element e, and its elements include the co-occurrence probability table and the transition probability table, the influence degree of the situation element on the UI, and the like.

すなわち、フィルタリング条件を満たすか満たさないかを判定する関数であり、フィルタリング条件を満たす場合は「１」を、満たさない場合は「０」を返す。ただし、関数ｆは必ずしも「０」か「１」の値を返す必要はなく、あいまい検索として実装してフィルタリング条件への適合性に応じて「０」から「１」の間の浮動小数点数を返す関数としても構わない。 The function f is a term for filtering purposes and is defined by Equation (3).

That is, it is a function for determining whether or not the filtering condition is satisfied, and “1” is returned when the filtering condition is satisfied, and “0” is returned when the filtering condition is not satisfied. However, the function f does not necessarily return a value of “0” or “1”, and is implemented as a fuzzy search, and a floating point number between “0” and “1” is set according to the conformity to the filtering condition. It does not matter as a function to return.

The function g _i is a function for calculating the rank regarding the feature i of the situation element e for the current situation S and the given condition C, and takes a value between “0” and “1”. Furthermore, as an extension of a function _{g i,} the function _{g i1} evaluating multiple elements of the feature vector _{transversely, i2,. . . , Ik} may be used.

The weighting coefficient w _i is a weight for the feature i of the situation element, and is changed in a range satisfying 0 ≦ w _i ≦ 1 and Σw _i = 1 depending on how much importance is attached to the feature i. By changing w _i , it is possible to obtain a situation element having a high co-occurrence probability and transition probability, or to reflect the degree of importance of the appearance frequency and the influence degree. When searching for a situation element that appears at the same time as the current situation, increase the weighting coefficient for the feature related to the co-occurrence probability, and when searching for a situation element that appears next to the current situation, the weighting coefficient related to the transition probability Increase If w _i has a weight with respect to the appearance frequency and the degree of influence, a search that considers the appearance frequency and the degree of influence is executed instead of a search based solely on the co-occurrence probability and the transition probability. As described above, the weighting coefficient w _i can be adjusted to perform a search under the conditions specified on the search input screen.

  The search unit 111 performs a search in which the co-occurrence probability and the transition probability are emphasized under the conditions according to the search conditions specified on the search condition input screen, and the situation element candidate that appears simultaneously with the current situation and the next appear. Search for status element candidates.

[Candidate presentation processing]
The situation element candidate presenting unit 112 presents the situation elements extracted as higher candidates by the search unit 111 to the user. As an example of presentation, a search result screen 510 is shown in FIG. Here, candidates with a high probability of appearing simultaneously with the current situation 502 are displayed as co-occurrence situation candidates 511. Here, “Pedestrian present” and “Morning” are presented, but any number of candidates may be presented.

  In addition, candidates with a high probability of appearing next to the current situation 502 are displayed as transition situation candidates 512. Here, “pedestrian jumping out” and “intersection” are presented, but any number of candidates may be presented.

  Further, the co-occurrence situation candidate and the transition situation candidate are links (511, 512), and by selecting the link, the situation element detail screen 530 is displayed, and a detailed description of the situation element is displayed.

[Selection processing]
When the scenario creator 109 presses the add button 513 next to the co-occurrence situation candidate, the selected co-occurrence situation element is added as a situation element that simultaneously appears in the current situation, and the scenario is updated. When an add button 514 next to the transition status candidate is pressed, the scenario is updated as a status element in which the selected transition status element appears next to the current status. The updated scenario is stored in the scenario storage unit 114. A situation element can be added by pressing an add button 532 on the situation element detail screen 530.

  When a co-occurrence situation candidate is selected / added, the search process is executed again in consideration of the added situation element. When the transition status candidate is selected, the search process is executed again based on the selected status element. In this way, the search is automatically executed every time a situation element is selected, so that the scenario creator 109 can be saved. However, each time a situation element is selected, the search condition screen 501 may be displayed again to specify the search condition. Of course, screen transitions as indicated by arrows in the figure are possible between the various screens shown in FIG. 5, and the scenario creator 109 can change the search conditions at any timing.

[scenario]
On the scenario detail screen 520, the situations 521 constituting the scenario are arranged in time series. In each situation, the corresponding user's response, the user's sensory load, the expected change in situation, usability considerations, etc. are displayed (522). When the scenario creator 109 presses the return button 523, the screen returns to the original search condition screen 500.

  Corresponding user responses, user sensory load, anticipated change in situation, usability considerations, etc. displayed on the scenario details screen can be generated by adding entries for each situation element. Here, duplicated or contradictory items may be deleted.

<Effect of this embodiment>
According to the scenario generation support device according to the present embodiment, even a scenario creator with poor knowledge and experience can change various situations such as in-vehicle devices and mobile devices dynamically and without much time and effort. A scenario for UI design for such a device can be created. At this time, considering the co-occurrence probability and transition probability, the situation elements that appear simultaneously or successively are searched and presented as candidates, so the scenario creator simply selects the presented candidates and selects the scenario. Can be created. And, for the created scenario, items such as user response and usability considerations can be easily confirmed on the scenario details screen and status element details screen, so it is also possible to determine whether the created scenario is appropriate. .

  In addition to the co-occurrence probability and the transition probability, the scenario creator can easily create a scenario desired by considering the appearance frequency and the degree of influence on the UI, or by narrowing down the search result by keyword search.

(Second Embodiment)
In the scenario generation apparatus according to the second embodiment, the scenario creator simply inputs a condition, and the apparatus automatically selects a search result (situation element candidate). FIG. 6 shows a functional block diagram of the scenario generation device according to the present embodiment. A major difference from the first embodiment is that a situation element candidate presentation unit for displaying a search result is omitted. The functions of the search condition input unit 110 and the search unit 111 are the same as those in the first embodiment. The search condition input unit 110 and the search unit 111 receive search condition input from the scenario creator 109 and search the situation element database 108 for situation element candidates according to the search condition. The selection unit 113 in the present embodiment automatically generates a scenario by selecting situation elements that appear simultaneously or subsequently in the current situation from the search results of the search unit 111 according to a predetermined criterion.

  In the selection of situation elements, one step is constructed from a finite number of co-occurrence situation elements, a scenario is constructed from a finite number of steps, and a finite number of scenarios is generated. For example, when an initial situation (one or a plurality of situation elements appearing simultaneously) is given, one or more situation elements appearing simultaneously with the situation are selected from the search results. A search is performed again with the situation determined in this way as an input, the situation element of the next step is selected, and a co-occurrence situation element with this situation element is further selected. By repeating this process, a scenario consisting of a plurality of steps is generated. A plurality of scenarios are generated by combining various co-occurrence status elements and transition status elements. When selecting a situation element, a scenario having a high importance can be generated by preferentially adopting a situation element having a high rank in the search process. Moreover, you may make it select from a search result at random.

  In this way, the scenario creator can automatically generate a scenario for UI design without having to select a situation element by himself, thereby reducing the burden on the scenario creator. The scenario creator can also determine whether or not the automatically created scenario is appropriate by checking the details on the scenario detail screen or the situation element detail screen.

108 Situation Element Database 110 Search Condition Input Unit 111 Search Unit 112 Situation Element Candidate Presentation Unit 113 Selection Unit 114 Scenario Storage Unit

Claims (10)

A situation element database for storing a plurality of situation elements, co-occurrence probabilities between situation elements and transition probabilities between situation elements;
Search means for extracting a situation element with a high co-occurrence probability and a situation element with a high transition probability for the input situation element;
Candidate presenting means for presenting the retrieved situation elements having a high co-occurrence probability and situation elements having a high transition probability as situation element candidates;
A selection means for receiving selection of a situation element that appears at the same time as the inputted situation element, or a situation element that appears next to the inputted situation element;
A scenario generation support device comprising: In the situation element database, for each situation element, additional information including at least one of the appearance frequency of the situation element, the degree of influence of the situation element on the user interface, and the user's response to the situation element is stored.
The search means extracts situation elements in consideration of the additional information;
The scenario generation support device according to claim 1. A search condition input means for inputting a search condition for the additional information when the search means searches;
The search means extracts situation elements according to the search condition input by the search condition input means.
The scenario generation support device according to claim 2. When a situation element that appears simultaneously with or next to the entered situation element is selected by the selection means, the search means performs a search again with the selected situation element as a new input, and presents the search result as the candidate. Means present,
The scenario generation support device according to any one of claims 1 to 3. A situation element database for storing a plurality of situation elements, co-occurrence probabilities between situation elements and transition probabilities between situation elements;
Search means for extracting a situation element with a high co-occurrence probability and a situation element with a high transition probability for the input situation element;
A selection means for selecting, from among the extracted situation elements, a situation element that appears simultaneously with the inputted situation element, and a situation element that appears next to the inputted situation element;
A scenario generation device comprising: In the situation element database, as additional information for each situation element, at least one of the appearance frequency of the situation element, the degree of influence of the situation element on the user interface, and the user's response to the situation element is stored.
The search means extracts situation elements in consideration of the additional information;
The scenario generation device according to claim 5. A search condition input means for inputting a search condition for the additional information when the search means searches;
The search means extracts situation elements according to the search condition input by the search condition input means.
The scenario generation device according to claim 6. A scenario composed of a plurality of situation elements is generated by repeating the search by the search means and the selection by the selection means.
The scenario generation device according to any one of claims 5 to 7. An information processing apparatus including a situation element database that stores a plurality of situation elements, a co-occurrence probability between situation elements, and a transition probability between situation elements,
Extract situation elements with high co-occurrence probabilities and high transition probabilities for the input situation elements,
Present the extracted situation elements with high co-occurrence probability and situation elements with high transition probability as situation element candidates,
Accept selection of a situation element that appears at the same time as the entered situation element, or a situation element that appears next to the entered situation element,
Scenario generation support method. An information processing apparatus including a situation element database that stores a plurality of situation elements, a co-occurrence probability between situation elements, and a transition probability between situation elements,
Extract situation elements with high co-occurrence probabilities and high transition probabilities for the input situation elements,
From among the extracted status elements, select a status element that appears at the same time as the input status element, and a status element that appears next to the input status element.
Scenario generation method.

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