Automating iterative tasks with programming by demonstration: a user evaluation

Abstract

Computer users often face iterative tasks that cannot be automated using the tools and aggregation techniques provided by their application program: they end up performing the iteration by hand, repeating user interface actions over and over again. We have implemented an agent, called Familiar, that can be taught to perform iterative tasks using programming by demonstration (PBD). Unlike other PBD systems, it is domain independent and works with unmodified, widely-used, applications in a popular operating system. In a formal evaluation, we found that users quickly learned to use the agent to automate iterative tasks. Generally, the participants preferred to use multiple selection where possible, but could and did use PBD in situations involving iteration over many commands, or when other techniques were unavailable.