Advances in Usability and User Experience

The main research goal is to define relevant design guidelines to implement gaze control interaction in future products. The present work describes the approach for a holistic categorization of design parameters for gaze-controlled control elements. This categorization represents the result of various studies which have been conducted at the adaptive gaze control test bench. The test bench is equipped with a remote eye tracker and a freely adaptable interface to systematically analyze the presentation and influence of defined information content and parameters through HMI. The focus of the current investigation is the gathering of further specifications of embedded design parameters divided in design parameters of the gestalt and the operating characteristic. The present studies provide further conclusions to design parameters of specific continual interaction tasks using gaze control as shown exemplary on a translational gaze-controlled virtual control element.

Rigor in the products of information analysis is essential for decision makers to rely on the assessments contained within them. Zelik, Patterson, and Woods [1] defined an eight-attribute metric for communicating the rigor of analytic products. This paper describes two iterations of the process of designing, implementing, and evaluating a context-aware web application that uses this analytic rigor metric to recommend augmentations to analysts’ workflow that will improve the quality of the resultant products. We used multiple methods to evaluate this tool with subject matter experts, including brainstorming, collaborative card sorting, semi-structured interviews, cognitive walkthroughs, and heuristic evaluations. This research found that: (1) it is critical to have flexible recommendations that adapt to movements between foraging and sense-making components of workflow, and the changing structure of the analysis; and (2) persistent visualizations of analytic rigor assessments are distracting, and promote interpretation as a performance metric rather than a process aid.

Visual information is the most important element in perceiving environments. People use mostly visual information to orient themselves and find their way to go. However, visually impaired people having handicap in vision has many qualitative and quantitative limitations of their experience [1]. Also they have limitation in mobility and opportunity for interaction with their surrounding space. For that reason, there is a tactile map to help their independent walking. It is made up of protruding dot, line, surface and braille. Visually impaired people can recognize the structure of space by touching the tactile map. However, it is not smart enough to use in their real life. Because of such problems, we have been researching this tactile map to make it more useful device. We met several visually impaired people and interviewed them about actual situation of their independent ambulation and using of the tactile map. In addition, we conducted some experiments to find out mechanism of perceiving the tactile map. We analyzed their touching behavior and discovered the problem of existing tactile maps. Based on these findings, we designed prototype of new tactile map and conducted usability evaluation. The result was successful to enhance utility of the tactile map. And we could verify the potential of the new tactile map device.

The learning management system (LMS) is an information and communication technology (ICT) that helps to improve efficiency of learning activities especially on higher education. Moreover, it becomes necessary for the transformation of education through digital format and virtual learning environments. The well-designed LMS interface will enrich the effectiveness of pedagogy. The myCourseVille is a LMS that use in many universities in Thailand to support teachers and students to manage their class activities. However, the problems of improper interface and complexness of using myCourseVille were also reported from end-users. While, the successful of LMS adoption and user satisfaction depend on the ease of use and user friendly interface of the system. In order to improve quality of myCourseVille and enhance user satisfaction, the details and root cause of interface problems were tested and identified. Thus, the purpose of present study was to identify the major concerned interface issues of myCourseVille by using usability evaluation method associated with five usability attributes on student’s interface and teacher’s interface. The implication of this study could be used as a guideline for LMS software developer to improve the basic features of the system and quality of user interface in term of usability.

A key issue of leading industrial countries concerns the efficiency and flexibility of automated product manufacturing processes. Existing CAx systems do not fit to the requirements of Industry 4.0. This study investigates usability problems of CAx systems and factors impacting the system and GUI design. Based on expert workshops with industrial partners (software suppliers, manufacturing firms), typical use cases of the manufacturing planning process were identified and analyzed. The results indicate a strong need for standardization activities, for re-thinking the GUI design of CAx systems, and for guidelines that support the harmonization of systems. For this purpose, further research is needed as well as a close collaboration of competing software suppliers, e.g., in standardization committees.

User-centered Additive Manufacturing (AM) design processes were applied to tools and jigs used in operational tasks for various career fields. Case study analysis was used to investigate to what degree can user centered AM design processes and topology optimization be utilized by various Air Force squadrons in everyday and contingency operations and to what degree topology optimization can be applied to the tools and jigs developed while preserving user requirements. Nine case studies evaluated tools and jigs for Explosive Ordnance Disposal and the Engineering Management Laboratory at the US Air Force Institute of Technology. If deemed appropriate by the customer and designer, topology optimization was applied. Surveys were used to rate different aspects of usability for each case study and the results were used to identify trends between the case studies. Overall, this research found that AM and topology optimization could be applied to both daily and contingency operations.

This paper will discuss how the use of an analytical framework in conjunction with the current human interface, improved the understanding of the International Space Station (ISS) crew perspective data and shortened analysis time, allowing for more informed decisions and rapid development of improvements. These data analytics and visualization methods significantly optimize valuable ISS postflight crew debrief qualitative data, yielding results that can be applied to both current and future spaceflight design and development, and other domains. This paper will discuss a collaboration that has allowed a team of Human Factors engineers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) to analyze and share data in a more automated and accurate fashion, thanks to the efforts of the JSC Chief Knowledge Office (CKO). Trends are no longer manually derived and are visualized effectively to assist in presenting these evolving techniques and subsequent results to an ever-growing population of human spaceflight end users.

We designed a Latin square experiment to investigate the impact of an information system’s usability during human-computer interactions on a user’s physical activity. We studied the effects of the severity of the usability problem on the skin conductance level (SCL) of 24 college students using an analog information system with usability problems as the experimental materials. The results showed that the severity of the usability problems in the information system interfaces did not significantly affect the mean SCL of the subjects during the interactions, but did significantly affect the average absolute value of the first differences of the SCLs (the difference is the rate of change). The significance of the variances in the average absolute value of the first differences in the SCLs was affected by the level of the usability problem’s severity, so this indicator may be used to detect the information system interface usability problem; it should, however, be supplemented with other usability evaluation methods.

One of the primary methods used by healthcare researchers following qualitative inquiry is framework analysis. The method lends itself to revealing patterns within a matrix, which can be easier than attempting to surface patterns across pages of coded text. However, despite the reliance of framework analysis by healthcare researchers, few Human-Computer Interaction researchers have used the method. It is not clear why this is the case. Within this paper, the authors demonstrate a step-by-step empirical example of framework analysis within a Human-Computer Interaction project consisting of 16 interviews; thereafter discussing the benefits of the method.

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between objective task performance outcomes and subjective usability ratings measured during usability evaluations. Likert-type rating scales are often used to support claims of usability. However, there is no published evidence of there being any correlation with more objective task outcome scores. A meta-analysis of usability study data was performed to compare objective and subjective usability scores. The data used was extracted from two formative and four summative studies of medical devices undertaken between 2011 and 2014. All the participants were observed while using a device and then asked to rate ease of use using a Likert scale. The analysis showed a weak correlation between perceived difficulty and task failure scores (r2 = 0.271, p < 0.001). In conclusion, the results suggest that perceived ease of use is not a robust measure of true usability.

Complications of diabetes can be avoided with strict metabolic control achieved through a dietary plan. One of the reported reasons for abandoning a dietary plan is the stress caused by the difficulty in understanding and applying diet-related information. The objective of this study was to compare the effect of color in usability of a printed recipe in diabetics. Taking in consideration on ergonomic guidelines the two recipes with the same information were designed, one printed in grayscale and the other color. A new ingredient measurement system in both user interfaces was used. Three aspects of usability were assessed, effectiveness, efficiency and perceived satisfaction. Participants who used the IBLE-C measured all the ingredients in a more accurate way in comparison to the IBLE-GS group, this result was statistically significant. These findings suggest the importance of color in order to improve usability of the user interface.

This research develops an informatics application, consisting in four virtual games that present three situations in which trauma produced by accidents in children occur. The games contain preventive information, supported by graphics which describe secure behavior, possible consequences of accidents and some elements that the child needs to avoid, immerse in children’s common sceneries as home and school. A familiar character (dog) was implemented to create a reference of security in children, so they could be able to associate all the information presented, in one figure. The tool was tested with two groups of regular school students from third to fifth grade. 31 children assisted to a traditional workshop, including physical ludic activities to transmit preventive information about accidents, and 30, learnt through the informatics application. Finally, students were evaluated through a brief questionnaire. In a preliminary analysis, results showed a higher impact on the group that used the informatics application, overpassing the traditional workshop with 6% points. To verify this, the results of the different topics of the workshops: pedestrian accidents, burns and intoxication, were averaged, evidencing a precision of 73.14% for the traditional workshop, and 79.72% for the one using the application. This result will be complemented in the future, with a second analysis of variables, to determine the relationship between the elements of the virtual games and the effectiveness of the achieved learning.

Air Flight Information Service (AFIS) is providing essential information such as weather information, departure clearance, approach clearance, and so on. During a remote AFIS operation, an operator provides flight information to the pilot from the Flight Service Centre (FSC) remotely. Air traffic is expected to increase in the future. Therefore, Remote AFIS system also needs to improve and extend the handling capacity of air traffic. Within this context, User interface design is an important factor to improve remote AFIS operation performance. In this research, we propose an interface for remote AFIS which is designed as an easy-to-use concept for AFIS operators’ work. We discuss the design process and technique based on User Centered approach. Finally, we show our prototype concept design based on our analysis.

In industrial service business, maintenance processes can be challenging due to their complexity and knowledge intensiveness. The goal of this study was to evaluate the user experience and user acceptance of an augmented reality (AR) based, knowledge-sharing system, in industrial maintenance. An augmented reality system was evaluated in a focus group and a field study. The results indicate that the user experience was positive and the AR system was well accepted. The participants felt that the AR system was useful for their work and it supported information and knowledge sharing. The social media features for adding and sharing one’s own comments, notes and pictures were seen as very useful. However, some concerns regarding the quality and accuracy of the information content were raised. This study provides insights into AR-based knowledge sharing in industrial maintenance; however, the results can also be utilized in other areas, such as manufacturing.

The paper presents the problems of the introduction of information system management in a big industrial company located in the Wielkopolska region in Poland. The investigated system was supposed to support the flow of information between the data coming directly from the production and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). The results of the investigation showed that regardless how advanced the system can be it is crucial to pay attention to human factor.

The objective of this study was to research sitting comfort of pedal operation based on subjective assessment and posture angles. Experiments were conducted on 82 subjects who were divided into four groups according to gender and stature percentile. Twenty-four positions were tested based on the relative distances between the pedal and the sitting reference point (SgRP) in vertical and horizontal directions, as a complete combination of pedal 35%, 40%, 45%, 50%, 55% and 60% of stature in the front and pedal 2.5%, 7.5%, 12.5% and 17.5% of stature below the SgRP. The sitting comfort of pedal operation at each particular position was evaluated at scaled values, with measuring posture angles (hip, knee and ankle) for each position. Scores and posture angles for the whole and specific groups were analyzed and their relationships with anthropometry data were explored. It was concluded that the optimal pedal positions were pedal in the front at 50% to 55% of stature and below the SgRP at 7.5% to 12.5% of stature. The best posture angle in comfortable positions was 81–98° for ankle, 100–126° for knee and 91–109° for hip.

Elderly adults aged 65 years and older are considered the smallest age group among social media users due to age-related impairments and lack of technology comprehension. This paper presents a literature review and preliminary evaluation regarding the accessibility and usability issues experienced by elderly adults accessing social media through a mobile platform. The preliminary evaluation of five mobile apps using general accessibility and usability guidelines showed that there were problems with the color contrast and small button size in most of the mobile apps evaluated. In addition, pilot accessibility and usability test with the two elderly participants indicated the need for training for the elderly. Recommendations for future research directions were also presented.

This paper presents the conceptualization of a new scale measuring perceptions of mobile interaction with social media, location-based services and m-commerce. The scale comprises five factors, positive and negative attitude towards location-based services, social, local, mobile & ease-of-use, mobile shopping and m-commerce website loyalty. In this paper, we conceptualize dimensions of social-local- mobile interactions. Findings are of value to marketing and information systems research and practice, offering a springboard for further studies on mobile consumer behavior and for successful mobile business strategies.

We present a pervasive sensing system in the form of a wireless smart blanket that unobtrusively monitors people’s posture on ergonomic design chairs by covering the back piece of the chair and measuring the pressure profile of the user’s back. The sensor system has 1024 sensitive points, covering 48-by-48 cm2 area. With simple and efficient classification algorithm, we reach around 80% among 10 postures, including lordotic and kyphotic lumber spine on different degrees, and lean to the sides on different degrees. The web browser based user interface offers timely and reprogrammable intervention from the user’s posture history.

In the last decade, the number of websites has increased dramatically, and many advertisers spend a lot of money investing in ads on the Web. Online advertisements also represent a good source of exposure and increased income for many companies; moreover, there is a large potential to receive attention from many users. To explore the impact and influence of such ads, the present paper investigated visual attention and ad recall for online banners. An eye tracking study was conducted among 24 participants (12 male and 12 female), along with a survey questionnaire concerning recall and usability issues. The findings showed that the participants paid less attention to the ads than the website’s actual content (editorial text and pictures). Placement of the ad plays an important role in terms of attention paid. Females were better able to remember ads compared to males, and the ads remembered by both genders were largely the same. In terms of remembering the ads, the differences between genders were greater for unaided recall than for aided recall. The ads remembered by most participants were those on the homepage. The results also revealed that the female participants considered the website to have a higher degree of usability than the study’s male participants did. The final part of the paper provided concluding remarks and suggestions for upcoming research contributions.

The Internet of Things (IoT) does not only refer to technology but is a new paradigm in the relationship between human and computers. Connected and smart devices will be pervasive in our life and, for this reason, the design of the User Experience will be very important for this brand new kind of products. This scenario offers new opportunities but also big challenges to UX designers, moreover it requires a multidisciplinary team due to its complexity. In this work the authors propose a method for the co-design of the user experience of Internet of Things products and services. The key elements of this methods are: it help multidisciplinary teams sharing ideas using a common language, it helps to take into account opportunities and threats of the IoT scenario, it is based on a lean approach, encouraging the team to prototype and test ideas with users.

Digital Human Models (DHMs) are widely used in big industry whereas they are not used in small and medium-sized enterprises. One of the main reasons is the complexity and usability. Engineers need a notable amount of training to be able to use DHM software. The authors suggest a new interactive Virtual Reality (VR) interface to instruct DHMs. Within this VR environment, engineers can naturally interact with virtual objects using their hands. These interactions are used as an instruction for DHMs. To support the software user best it is necessary to provide feedback to be able to grasp the virtual object most efficiently. In this work we present a user study in which we investigate which visual feedback leads to the best performance for grasping virtual objects. The results show that users are supported most when additional Hand Color Feedback is provided in the VR environment.

Background: Audi tries to break their traditional image in south China, especially among young consumers and they think the car interior lighting is an important factor. So they try to work with some colleges students and professors in south China. Research content and aim: We try to dig the concerns (problems) and expectations of the car interior lighting of people in south China in the next 3–5 years and design some automotive interior lighting concepts based on the research. Research methods: Quantitative research and qualitative research methods, including user observation, interview, questionnaires as well as data collection and processing. We also use the division of scenarios, target groups and user journey. Research conclusions: We dig out some concerns (problems) and expectations of the car interior lighting and design some automotive interior lighting concepts based on the research.

Nowadays, most of us spend approximately 90% of our lifetime in an indoor environment. Today a workplace can be set anywhere, at a coffee shop, at home or even in a place without windows. However, a real question is superimposed: it is really so? Can we work anywhere in any environment conditions? Can a virtual image, or video, substitute the real thing? In other words, can a virtual environment be a substitute of a real and natural one, without jeopardizing our physiological and psychological systems? This paper aims to study the “do’s and don’ts” of a lighting design in a workplace. To achieve such goals the research was built upon literature review.

This research was motivated by a previous study which indicates the ascension of the Apple®’s sales and the downfall of 14% of iTunes services. Therefore, the study intends to whether if iTunes have usability and user experience problems that prevent users from having the best possible experience, and if users prefer others softwares or devices for synchronizing tasks, like transferring songs from one device to another. The evaluation and interaction method selected for the tests conduced in this study were based on the framework of DECIDE by Preece, Sharp and Rogers [23], and concepts of usability engineering lifecycle established by Mayhew [24] and Ahram [22], in which a users observation technique applied with at least ten non-iTunes consumers. The results indicate some critical user experience scenario and points to several key problems to be addressed, especially after most of the testers couldn’t solve the tasks provided. Therefore, some suggestions which were related to iTunes can be summarized for improving the menu and feedback options, as well as the function of transferring archives from computer to mobile and vice-versa, which should be more clear and easier to address, while letting the user know possible alternatives avaialable.

The two methods to enlarge text are: Geometric magnification (ZOOM) implemented with lenses, CCTV systems and Screen Magnification Systems, and Lexical Enlargement (WRAP), text enlargement with word wrapping that is implemented with software like word processors and web browsers. WRAP uses the lexical structure of language to wrap words. This paper will show that it takes many more scroll actions to read with ZOOM than WRAP whenever the ZOOM requires horizontal scrolling. Since all scrolling is overhead to the task of reading, ZOOM with horizontal scrolling is much less usable for reading text. Though costlier in scrolls than normal reading (27 to 1), WRAP is even effective at 84-point font when viewed on a 13-inch laptop. ZOOM at 700% enlargement requires 98 times more scrolls than normal reading.

Mobile health education applications (MHEAs) are used to support different users. However, although these applications are increasing in number, there is no effective evaluation framework to measure their usability and thus save effort and time for their many user groups. This paper outlines a useful framework for evaluating MHEAs, together with particular evaluation metrics: an efficient hybrid of selected heuristic evaluation (HE) and usability evaluation (UE) factors to enable the determination of the usefulness and usability of MHEAs. We also propose a guidance tool to help stakeholders choose the most suitable MHEA. The outcome of this framework is envisioned as meeting the requirements of different users, in addition to enhancing the development of MHEAs using software engineering approaches by creating new and more effective evaluation techniques. Finally, we present qualitative and quantitative results for the framework when used with MHEAs.

Usability recommendations need to be checked with users, combining subjective methodologies with objective and quantitative approaches. The use of physiological response and eye tracking variables allowed detecting better the effect of usability recommendations and user profile. Moreover, some usability recommendations seems to have low effect on improving usability and even can difficult the interaction for users without functional limitaions. Finally, a model to assess the usability has been defined, which related web design parameters with objective variables and user perception, where task outcomes are key indicators for users without functional limitations while variables related with emotional response or behaviour are more important for users with motor disorders.

Typically, user tests for software tools are conducted in person. At NASA, the users may be located at the bottom of the ocean in a pressurized habitat, above the atmosphere in the International Space Station, or in an isolated capsule on a simulated asteroid mission. The Playbook Data Analysis Tool (P-DAT) is a human-computer interaction (HCI) evaluation tool that the NASA Ames HCI Group has developed to record user interactions with Playbook, the group’s existing planning-and-execution software application. Once the remotely collected user interaction data makes its way back to Earth, researchers can use P-DAT for in-depth analysis. Since a critical component of the Playbook project is to understand how to develop more intuitive software tools for astronauts to plan in space, P-DAT helps guide us in the development of additional easy-to-use features for Playbook, informing the design of future crew autonomy tools.

Smartphones can be readily used to operate home appliances remotely, and we can gather log data when a user operates home appliances. However, currently, there is no established method for using the collected log data, and they remain unused. Therefore, assuming some relevance between the operation of home appliances and the intention and emotion of users, we aimed to establish a method for analyzing the former and understanding the latter. We implemented an application that can operate a cold/hot blower via smartphones while simultaneously surveying users’ intentions and emotions. It was used by participants daily for approximately 3 months. As a result, we found effective operation sequence rules for estimating intention and emotion and could construct a model that estimated intention and emotion with good accuracy from the operation log data using support vector machine.

As the “hidden group”, the abnormal color vision users use the digital products designed for the normal color vision users, therefore they cannot get the experience corresponding to their physiological and psychological needs in the interaction. This paper explored the problems of the abnormal color vision users in the interface interaction, based on improving the interaction efficiency and satisfaction of the abnormal color vision users, as well as the cognition and emotion of the abnormal color vision users who cannot recognize red and green, the static and dynamic interactive color in the digital interface was studied, and the method of barrier-free interactive color design is constructed theoretically.

To be competitive, Chinese tractor manufacturing companies have to improve the user satisfaction of their products. In this paper, we proposed a method to evaluate user satisfaction about Chinese tractors’ human-machine system by product attributes and user anticipations. Questionnaire survey of tractor operators and correlation analysis were used to explore the inherent relationships among attitudes towards functionality, usability of the interfaces, emotions, anticipations and demographic data. By analyzing the means and demographic data collected from the 74 effective questionnaires, some results and implications were presented for improvements in ergonomics design and evaluation of Chinese tractors.

Maintaining and managing independent living depends on older adult’s ability to remain safe and healthy. We researched the needs of older adults in connected living spaces to address the issue of forgetfulness to aid aging in place. We conducted formative and evaluative user studies, starting with contextual interviews in home, followed by usability testing of prototypes, and participatory design sessions. Here we discuss the findings, and the design guidelines abstracted from the user studies with older adults. We also reflect on adapting traditional forms of the research methods to better understand the needs of this demographic.

This research selects three typical kinds of labels as the research objects, including static label, focus label and the input label. 30 participants are selected randomly and they are required to finish the pre-established task. The RED desktop eye tracker in iView X series is used to record users’ eye movement data. After the test, the eye movement data including focus path, the number of fixation, average fixation times, saccades distance as well as regressive eye movement times are analyzed by using the BeGaze software. The result of this research showed: In terms of efficiency, inputting label is superior to the focusing label, and efficiency of participants under static label is relatively lower than other two types.

This research is performed in order to explore user’s concern on ads at different web pages when users completes tasks in targeted way. 30 users with normal visual acuity or corrected visual acuity are selected. Users are assigned with tasks to ensure targeted operation. Data retrieval form website which including its home page and ticket booking page are as stimulus materials and added by SMI RED desktop eye tracker. The eye movement data for users to browse web page ads is recorded. The fixation number, average fixation are extracted and analyzed. It is found that selective ignore for ads will occur during targeted operation; the position of ads would consider both the web site’ purpose and users’ experience; the ads should be putted at the end of user’s eye-movement track, which will not affect their normal operation and also there are relatively high possibility to be observed by users.

Nowadays, numerous home electric appliances with voice guidance functions are available. These functions not only tell us how to operate the product but also make us feel attachment and familiarity as we would have for a human. On the other hand, at the beginning of the design process, an image of the product is clearly decided. It is necessary for a good design to have elements that are consistent with the image. However, the images that the users have by voice guidance with different characters have not yet been reported. In this study, we made 3-D CG videos of home electric appliances (a microwave) with different images and combined them with varying voice guidance. Participants evaluated each combination using the consistency with the product image. In the result, we reveal the requirements necessary for voice guidance to increase consistency and the relation between voice guidance functions and various images.

The gaming industry is one of the fast-growing industries and a lot more people playing video games than we can imagine. However, due to the rise of gaming, the ergonomic comfort and usability of the video game controllers are questionable as the research on their comfort is limited. This study is based on the ergonomic review of the latest video game controllers from leading video game consoles and what can be possibly done to avoid gaming injuries if played for long hours. Results showed that the attachments used in the controllers significantly reduced the fatigue and allowed the users to play for long hours thereby preventing gaming injuries.

This article presents the relation between concepts of Product-Service Systems (PSS) and the approach of cognition in the wild. It presents theoretical basis with literature review obtained in initial bibliometric research. Later a study of the Uber model is shown, viewed as an example of car sharing and PSS, to compare the design and operation of the model with the guidelines of the cognition in the wild approach. The results show that despite the Uber model was created based on some characteristics of the “wild turn”, the later stages of its implementation and use do not show the same. We conclude that Uber, as well as other PSS and car sharing models, could focus more on wild cognition to improve the experience of its members.

With the increase on the use of mobile devices in children below the ages of seven and the expansion of app stores, efforts to produce different mathematic learning mobile applications have been made. Children that age, however, are not always able to effectively use and commit with such application due to interaction barriers with them. In this paper, we present the design process and description of a mathematics learning application meant to overcome these barriers. Applying HCI techniques, a mobile application that implements the Doman Method for early development was designed. Using non-traditional interactions and augmented reality technologies, the system presents an intuitive interface that helps breaking the understanding barrier with children. Finally, we discuss an evaluation carried out by several experts to assess the achievement of a friendly-user and intuitive application design to enhance the engagement of children to the application and as such to the Doman Method.

Empirically verifying improvements in information design has previously resulted in the effective redesign of visual information. We now seek which specific elements, such as color and symbols, optimize information comprehension in everyday applications such as a campus map (neutral coloration & numerically-represented). Through a series of maps and tasks, we were able to determine which combinations of elements provoked improved comprehension in speed and accuracy of response. Participants were given a fictional baseline map (neutral & numeric), either a newly-colored or symbolically-represented fictional map, and either the original or new campus map (new color & symbolization). They were then given the same conditions the next day in order to measure retention. It was found that color and symbols improved information comprehension separately, but not when incorporated in unison. There was also no significant difference between conditions regarding retention. Elements appear to improve information comprehension differently depending on the scenario.

Maintaining performance in ubiquitous work environment is increasingly dependent on the quality of physical, cognitive and organizational ergonomics of work. Since digital work environment is the reign of most knowledge workers, there is a need to elaborate the study of work ergonomics by devoting attention to the particular issues of information ergonomics in the field of HCI, too. The paper introduces the concept of information ergonomics (IE) and operationalizes it by specifying measures used in a field study on knowledge work. The empirical data were gathered from 35 participants. The material consists of application log data of PC use and heart variability rate data. Based on the empirical findings, the study also reflects theoretical propositions for the development of IE research. The study contributes to the methodological development of IE research by elaborating tools and by operationalizing and validating measurement of IE. The findings have also practical implications.

The competitive software development market is making its users increasingly demanding quality of use of such software. Alongside this, there are few software development companies investing in usability tests, because they don’t have experts in usability. As a contribution of this work, there is a methodology that has two directions in which the heuristic evaluation can be applied: by functionality of the application, in which the appropriate heuristics are applied in the user interfaces that show this functionality; or by heuristic being passed in all user interfaces. Results of a qualitative analysis showed evidences that it is possible that any professional, not being an expert in usability, may perform heuristic evaluation. Following this proposal, we hope that the companies that develop software can perform heuristic evaluation, using their own developers.

The goal of this research is to disseminate the agricultural information to illiterate farmer through latest technologies. Farmers play a vital role in our life by providing the food but they get least help to improve their methods through innovative and efficient agriculture. Mostly framers are illiterate and difficult to introduce them new farming techniques. Further, decision maker do not pay attention on local knowledge and ideas, therefore schemes do not get attention by farmers. In this context, illiterate farmer needs platform to share their ideas and information. For this research website is a mode to disseminate the information to farmers about weather, seeds, pesticides, problem facing their peer group, latest prices, updates and farming related banking services. This experimental evaluation will involve a group of ten novice users who compared the usability of a first prototype will be evaluated by Nielson’s heuristics.

Heuristic inspections are often carried out in a rather restrictive manner in the sense that they often address one or two of User Experience aspects. These two generally being: usability and “user experience”. This fails to consider UX as it should be [considered]: through a holistic approach. Thus, we suggest to go beyond that by opting for what we have called an Integrative Heuristic Inspection that takes into account issues of: accessibility, usability, emotions & motivation and persuasion, and that aims to simplify the overflow of recommendations UX professionals are faced with nowadays. We illustrate our proposal by a case study carried out on an insurance prospecting tablet application. We analyzed the results of the inspection separately for each dimension as well as combined across dimensions. Implications for a reflection on the structuring of the criteria for a general criteria-based approach in UX are discussed.

Scientific data analysis and visualization (DAV) tools are a critical component of the software ecosystem. The growth in data volumes in various scientific domains is resulting in technical innovations in DAV tools. Usability of these tools is becoming extremely critical to facilitate next-generation scientific discoveries. Usability heuristics is a widely applied approach to inspect software usability. We expand Nielsen’s heuristics to include two additional criteria: analytical-reasoning and customized-experience to capture the usability dimensions of DAV tools. We evaluated three tools to test the proposed heuristics and demonstrate its fit to DAV tools of varying features. The contribution of our work is threefold: (i) identify DAV usability heuristics, (ii) develop a framework to inspect DAV tools, (iii) conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the usability of selected DAV tools. We also provide a discussion on the heuristics framework for DAV tools and future work.

This paper investigated whether redundancy can be controlled by design and whether a rational redundant interface can improve the cognitive efficiency in information visualization. Redundancy is often mistakenly identified as overflow or completely unnecessary. This paper presents a concept of CR (Cognitive Redundancy) and divides CR into two kinds: the RP (Redundancy of Presentation) and RS (Redundancy of Structure) based on the cognitive process. The Discrete SWAT Technique was used to evaluate the mental workload and a behavioral experiment was conducted to access the cognitive performance. The control set was redesigned by high/low level of two RP (color redundancy and layout redundancy) and two RS (path redundancy and interaction redundancy). Based on the experiment results, it is validated that the cognitive efficiency of redundancy indeed significantly enhanced by controlling the different levels of the RP and RS separately.

Uncertainty visualization is manifold and applied in many disciplines of visualization. In node-link diagrams, the edges can have uncertain attributes; these are to be presented directly in the graph. On the one hand, the uncertainty values are encoded with visual variable. On the other hand, the user has to decode the visualization to identify the original value. In this paper, we focus on four uncertainty visualization techniques and their suitability to enable the user to decode and identify the correct values. In our evaluation, we investigate the maximum number of different levels that can be used for each technique such that a user is able to reliably distinguish different values.

This exploratory study reviews the usage of Star Trek referrals in the ACM Digital Library. Our research question examines the occurrence of the search term Star Trek in the publications, proceedings and periodicals listed in the ACM Digital Library and the contextual usage of Star Trek within each individual publication. In order to do so, we first conduct a full-text search and retrieval process of publications referencing Star Trek using the ACM Digital Library advanced search interface. In a second step, we download and qualitatively open-code the retrieved publications to identify contextualized Star Trek technologies and other instances where Star Trek and computer science research intersect. In total, we identify and evaluate 232 relevant publications in the span from 1975–2017 which discuss a variety of Star Trek technologies, devices and forthcoming implications for computer science and human-computer interaction research. We classify these 232 publications into ten broad categories and then discuss the past usage of Star Trek in the ACM Digital Library. Our conclusions focus on the implications of fiction in computer science and human-computer interaction research in addition to the potential of Star Trek as a research inspiration for future visions of emerging information and communication technologies, devices, interfaces and interactions.

The authors review academic literature concerning the effect of environmental stimuli and architectural design on human behavior and navigation in urban environments. They find that a combination of architectural features such as building floor plans and local landmarks; environmental stimuli such as crowding, lighting and color; and user characteristics such as age, sex and socio-economic status, all impact decision making and the ability of pedestrians to navigate unfamiliar spaces. Applying these findings to the field of pedestrian planning, the authors conclude that a failure to properly account for human factors and psychology may negatively impact spatial navigability and user experiences, and that architects, urban planners, developers, and property owners/managers would benefit from incorporating existing research into common practice.

Japanese has many characters so that we must use Kana-Kanji translation system. Recently, “flick input” system is commonly used for smartphones. However, while younger generations are familiar with such novel input system, elderly persons are not familiar with it. In this paper, we discuss the results of two experiments, which clarify the intergenerational gap on input behavior between younger and senior generations, such as, younger generation being highly optimized for use of smartphones.

The purpose of this study was to explore middle-aged users’ web browsing experience, including usability preference, aesthetics and perceived value. The experimental samples were a set of four web pages with 45% and 55% of white space and from narrow to wide spacing. Seventy-one participants aged between 30 and 60 years were recruited by purposeful sampling to conduct the operational evaluation. It was interesting to note that even though the samples were centered around 50% of white space as previous studies suggested, four questions revealed significant differences. They were: “I think that I would like to use this web page frequently,” “I find the web page unnecessarily complex,” “This web page is the one that I would feel relaxed upon reading,” “This web page would give its owner social approval.” The result also indicated that most participants preferred more white space, which could become a guideline for designers to follow.

User Experience is an increasingly critical factor in product success. This study evaluates a new method that uses emotion detection software to capture the emotional data of users in real time while performing specific tasks within an app, and explores how this new method can complement traditional user experience methods such as questionnaires. Our study included N = 200 who were asked to complete three tasks within a health test app while emotion data was captured using the integrated emotion detection software. Results when clustering these emotion data show that the user experience acquired in the task is consistent with the emotion data valence. In addition, we found that a user emotion profile can be established to better characterize user experience of the participants during each task. This may help designers to better target users and product design.

User experience (UX) in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) refers to the understanding of users’ attitudes about using technological artefacts. This study proposes the Unified Theory of Acceptance Use of Technology (UTAUT) for the assessment of Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) user experience among heavy metal and hard rock artists in the European Union (EU) countries. With a total of 711 collected surveys, partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach was used for the assessment of the measurement and structural model. To determine the most relevant drivers of DAW usage among artists, the IPMA (importance-performance map analysis) is conducted and assessed. The significant manifest variables should be considered by DAW developers as a guide to improve the UX among artists using DAWs.

With rapid changes to inclusivity, accessibility, technology and the global economy, there is a need to appreciate and understand the way in which real people actually engage and interact with products, systems and services. Designers need to go beyond the merely functional. To do this they need to develop deeper understanding of users, which goes beyond mere categorization of user types and characteristics. They need to have the ability and confidence to try new ways of finding information and gaining ‘authentic experiences.’ Empathy has been recognized as a key skill by practicing designers. This paper introduces empathy, shows why it is important, and provides evidence for a greater need of empathy during design and research activities. The paper is built around two case studies from our work on design for older user, which illustrate the need for more empathy in codesign activities and insights students gather using experience prototypes.

Ready-To-Assemble (RTA) furniture saves manufacturers’ shipping costs, while consumers satisfied having furniture with a reasonable price. However, user’s spatial abilities and understanding vary from person to person, if not clearly convey the information, user will feel confused, and assembly errors may happen. We described an approach for identifying explicit and implicit problems during the process of assembly and employed theory of spatial compatibility to improve the efficiency of furniture assembly. Firstly, we conducted a contextual inquiry study and an in-depth hesitation analysis to identify the problem nodes in the assembly task. Secondly, we apply the theory of grouping, spatial compatibility and space ability for improving user’s assembly instruction and providing users with an assembly guidance system. Finally, a feasibility evaluation was carried out through conducting contextual inquiry and hesitation analysis again. Our results indicate that contextual inquiry and hesitation analysis can identify RTA furniture assembly problems effectively.

Ticket vending machine (TVM) and automated fare collection system–Point of sale (AFCS-POS) are two new technologies in the Philippines’ train ticketing system. After a year of implementation for the newly deployed ticketing system in Metro Rail Transit (MRT), research shows that there have been no usability evaluation on the new system to evaluate for potential issues and user interface problems. Based on observation and interviews, about 17.5% of train passengers are still having difficulty with using the ticket vending machine and is repulsive to use it for buying ticket thereby increasing the workload for AFCS-POS machine specialists. The study focuses on three aspects of the TVM and AFCS-POS usability measures, (1) effectiveness, (2) efficiency and (3) satisfaction, as defined by ISO 9241-11. Usability analysis showed that effectiveness of the two systems was above average. Efficiency of AFCS-POS is significantly higher than TVM. Some of the first time TVM users were having a difficulty completing the task given, mostly due to undistinguishable controls. Overall, users of TVM and AFCS-POS agreed that they are satisfied with the current system in general, however, it should be noted that most users have issues with information presentation quality. From the findings, recommendations were made to improve the overall usability of both systems and user satisfaction. Recommendations indicates that usability measures for both system scored low compared to other TVM systems.

Currently, the larger-screen phone has gradually replaced the small screen mobile phone that has been unable to meet the needs of long-term reading. However, there is hardly any one-handed use for actually touching the larger-screen, making one-handed operation (using the thumb operation) more difficult; in particular, users with short thumbs may suffer an uncomfortable experience in its use. The participants’ typing gestures were then observed when using their phones in a natural manner. Finally, the participants were asked use one thumb with extended, natural and bending gestures, respectively, to slide on a specified typing screen, and the sizes of these three sliding areas, named Stretch, Natural and OW, were measured to find the suitable typing area for different hand sizes. The results of this study found that the typing gestures could be classified into four types: One-Handed (15.6%), Two-Handed (68.8%), Hold & Tap, (6.3%) and Cradle (9.4%). Moreover, the Natural and OW areas for the larger and middle hands were both bigger than the one for the small hand, while there were no significant differences between the larger and middle hands. this indicated that the length of the thumb would affect the usability of the phone. These results can provide a reference for the interface designer.

Objective: Analyze and validate usability of three PSI alternatives by measuring criteria such as: efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction. Throughout analysis an alternative which offers the best solution to the case study was validated. Methods: An experiment was developed with 6 participants skilled in cranio-maxillofacial surgery. Experts, using PSI and a prototyped skull corresponding with case study, simulated surgical pre-planning. Two of the PSI were designed by the project and one was commercial type. Results: It is evident that PSI alternatives, which were designed for case study were better valued compared with commercial alternative type one. This commercial-type alternative did not achieve expectations of participants in terms of surgical and usability. In addition, commercial alternative makes placement and fixation process more difficulty in the bone defect than proposed PSI. Conclusions: Usability validation was conducted in this study, allows identifying relevance of PSI design applied to cranioplasty procedures. Its relevance increases the possibility of successful surgery and postoperative procedures. It is necessary to perform future experiments in non-simulated surgical environments, where results might be more accurate.

Digital materials have become a popular medium for information access, and attracted a diverse group of users, such as college students, who benefit from the low cost of, and portable access to, the materials. However, college students with disabilities may have difficulty accessing electronic materials if the materials were not developed appropriately. Laws and standards provide guidance on making digital documents accessible, but these regulations are implemented slowly. As a result, published materials on the market may have accessibility issues. Efforts have been made to produce evaluation methods for eBooks. For example, automated tools have been used to check for accessibility aspects in multiple studies, but using automated tools to evaluate accessibility of electronic materials is not enough due to the complexity of the checkpoints. Thus, human evaluators are needed. This study assessed a newly developed accessibility evaluation methodology that was designed for e-textbooks, and examined whether books that were rated as higher in accessibility versus books that were rated lower in accessibility resulted in differences in user experience and performance. This study consisted of 6 students with visual impairments and 6 students with normal or corrected-to-normal vision, who read and interacted with eBooks. User experience and performance were measured using subjective questionnaires, reading time, and accuracy to content-related questions. We found differences in user experience ratings for eBooks that were rated as high or low in accessibility; however, we found no differences in users’ task performance as a function of the accessibility level of the eBook.

In recent years, user experience (UX) has gained importance in product development because of the increased product complexity, the availability of innovative technologies, etc. UX evaluation methods and tools developed up to now keep users’ emotions in the right consideration; nevertheless, they do not exploit mental models at best. This research aims at developing a UX evaluation method based on the so-called interaction-related mental models, a specific type of mental models focused on interaction matters. The description of the method proposed here considers also its adoption in the field and the results are compared with those obtained by a classic usability evaluation method. Although the scope of the proposed method is quite limited now (the UX evaluation focuses on CAD software packages only), the research results seem very promising. Nevertheless, this limitation will be overcome in the near future.

Amongst today’s successful digital companies, customer-centricity is, in one way or another, at the core of their business strategies. Successful roll-outs without previous analysis of context, needs and tasks of the actual people who are supposed to use the digital product, are becoming less and less. At the same time, highly competitive industries, changing requirements and the demand for efficient and constant delivery of new software products, has led to an astonishing success of agile development methodologies. It is often claimed that they work well together with customer-centered approaches such as Design Thinking. In today’s software development reality, however, this is still far from being an established routine. In this article, the Human-Centered Agile Workflow (HCAW) is introduced as process model for true integration of customer-centered conception and agile development.

This study aims to understand the factors that influence the acceptance of battery swap station (BSS) for electric scooters and the intention of using the BSS in the light of the user experience. This study is an initial stage; therefore, an experiment was conducted with a sample of 28 participants who had no experienced the service from selected BSS of this study - Gostation and filled out user experience evaluation questionnaire for eliciting their emotions and usage intention. The results showed that the average operation time was approximately 32.05 s. All participants agreed with the Gostation may provide them with a convenient charging service. Results also revealed that positive correlations were noted between usage intention and positive emotions, such as the emotions of pleasant surprise, fascination, and desire.

Most users with low vision benefit from enlarged content in documents. One method for enlarging web content is using screen magnification software (SMS). This typically requires horizontal scrolling. Another enlargement method uses web browser zoom controls. If the author uses a coding technique like responsive web design (RWD), browser zoom enables automatic word wrapping and no horizontal scrolling. The purpose of the present study was to compare how these two different magnification methods affect reading comprehension and visual fatigue of people with low vision when reading on a computer screen. Participants read passages and answered comprehension questions on a computer. Each participant used either SMS or RWD to enlarge content. Performance (accuracy to reading comprehension questions and time-on-task) and measures of user experience (ratings of usability, visual fatigue, and nausea) were obtained. Although no differences in reading comprehension were obtained, participants reported higher levels of usability and lower levels of nausea when reading with RWD for about an hour as compared to when reading with SMS. Based on post-study interviews with participants, the nausea was likely due to the need to scroll horizontally for extended periods of time. Thus, use of SMS without a means to eliminate or reduce horizontal scrolling for the user can lead to reading discomfort and lower user experiences for adults with low vision.

Four-arm four-flipper disaster response robot called OCTOPUS, which has 26 degrees of freedom (DOF), has been developed to engage in complex disaster response work. OCTOPUS adopts a multi-operator single-robot (MOSR) control system, and two operators manually control the robot. The pattern of control-authority allocation (CAA) for two operators largely affects performance of MOSR systems, so this study conducts usability tests in various CAAs, and derives a reasonable CAA pattern. So far, there are no uniform standard allocation rules for flippers and crawlers in multi-limb robots like OCTOPUS, therefore we specify five CAA patterns for investigation. Three fundamental tasks that whole body of the robot must be cooperatively controlled were conducted to test the usability in each CAA pattern. From the results of analysis, we found that pattern 1, which one operator controls front two arms, flippers, and crawlers, and another operator controls remaining back parts, had best scores for all tasks, as well as pattern 2 had the best distribution of workload between two operators.

This research is related to the students with autism (SWA), mild mental disability and their interactions with the computer. In this study, Individual knowledge from the students with SWA and mental disabilities were provided by using a computer interface. The students have a very low-level social interaction. The goal of the study is to design the interesting computer-interface with keeping their concentration on a high-level based on cognitive theories. In the study, a computer interface was developed for their efficient learning and use. Thus, user experience is very vital to create a suitable interface. Test questions is prepared to learn their abilities and personal preferences. The test questions are related to their-color like, theory of mind, cognitive theories, etc. This is the novel approach to measure and use these theories to develop a human-computer interface for the students with autism and mild mental disability. The study shows that they are learning well with specific computer interface design while the computer interface helps us to aggregate knowledge about SWA and mild mental retardation. The study includes interesting and beneficial results for their attraction computer interface, learning methods and providing individual knowledge from them by designing suitable computer interface.

In work and life, people pay more and more attention to the experience of using sofa products, and personal subjective using feeling has a pivotal role in the design of sofa products. In this paper, user’s subjective experience evaluation method was taken to research on the sofa seat and backrest inclination comfort based on three factors i.e. age, gender and different body sizes. Through the production of a test device with sofa seat and backrest inclination adjustable, the experimental conditions with different seat and backrest inclination were simulated. According to the results of user’s subjective experience evaluation on sofa comfort under different experimental conditions, the recommended scope of the most comfortable seat and backrest inclinations was obtained, which provides reference and basis for the improvement and design of sofa.