Advances in Usability and User Experience

Technological advancements have changed many, if not all industries. This paper focuses on changes for service providers. Many services have been implemented without the knowledge about their effectiveness and user acceptance. This paper evaluates a web browser-based support framework for banks that provides customers with assistance through text chat and co-browsing. The focus lies on elements of design and the implementation of co-browsing. The mixed-method approach was implemented in the study. 29 participants were given online-banking related tasks, where after their experience was assessed through a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview. The results indicate, that common visualizations and designs are better understood and that the time to solve tasks is significantly reduced when participants were supported through co-browsing.

Cognitive Systems Engineering (CSE) provides methods for system design, which base on the analysis of cognitive demands in the work domain. CSE methods are successfully used to design decision support for many domains, but they provide no guidance on how to develop design concepts after cognitive requirements are derived. By means of the Applied Cognitive Work Analysis (ACWA), a CSE methodology for the analysis and design of decision support systems, we show how Situation Awareness Oriented Design (SAOD) principles could support the definition of requirements for design. We applied the methodology to develop mobile systems for the support of fire brigade team leaders on board a vessel. The results show that using the guidance in form of SAOD principles can enrich the design process compared to the application of ACWA without this guidance.

Building software can be compared to building a house. The software product must start with defining requirements prior to writing the first line of code. Likewise, with building a home, a home buyer must approve a design with the architect, and work to establish the requirements before laying the first brick. Unfortunately, in the Department of Defense (DoD) acquisition process, the Government procurement organization is often limited in its ability to be an architect to promote a more usable product. The ability to influence design is often diminished to DoD standard compliance requirements, limiting the tools available to promote usability. To overcome this, we developed a process to better understand derived system requirements for a space asset command and control contract. We implemented a collaborative process between the Government and Developer teams, including the operational user to promote system usability. Positive design outcomes suggest utility in the process.

This work reviews and compares the literature about ITSM practices in libraries, public administration, commercial sector and e-Science infrastructures. Six aspects taken out were properties or structure of digital components, source of finances to support the daily running of business in these sectors, forms of organization, frameworks developed in the form of guidelines to structure the sectors, the factors that influence implementation of ITSM guidelines. It was found out that though there are similarities between all of these sectors, yet the case of e-infrastructures is special and practical implementation of ITSM practices is needed.

The article presents a solution to the problem of performing some specific tasks in business processes. More specifically, the problem is that there are tasks that are performed by people outside the main business process automation system. Such tasks require building a separate runtime environment and providing all necessary data to complete these tasks. The purpose of creating the external business process tasks is either to collect data from an external participant of the process or to provide the external participant of the process with certain information that is expected by him. The solution described in the article has been implemented and tested in practice as a system of cooperation with clients of a company dealing with the design, production and rental of workwear.

The fast and correct decision-making from an operator in the ship engine operation is needed. Specifically in an emergency situation, when numbers of alarms occur at the same time. This research aims to study the effect of adding information attribute into the alarm display to the behavior of the operator on their decision-making process. Either make improvement or bias is studied on behalf of the effect. Several students (N = 17) belong to Marine Engineering Department have participated. The experiment divided into three sessions with different amount of information. The participant should arrange the priority of the alarm that occurred using drag and drop feature on an HTML page. After each session, participants fill Likert-type scale of confidence level. From the statistical calculation, participants confidence level was difference each session (p < 0.05, χ(2,17) = 16.32). The participants also tend to change their priority of alarms between session (p < 0.05) and support the correlation (r = 0.51) between high confidence level with the tendency to follow the quantitative information in ordinally. The time on task of participants solving each session was shorter between session (p < 0.05, f(2,28) = 5.37). We conclude that adding more information into alarm display was increasing the confidence, but the decision- making tends to be biased.

The OER movement strives to support quality education being inclusive, equitable, open and participatory. Nevertheless, people with disabilities are still hindered from taking advantage of OER because of issues related to accessibility and usability in OER environments. Frequently, accessibility has not been wholly ensured, both in the website interface and in educational resources, and usability considerations have often excluded the specific needs of people with disabilities. We propose an architecture design for the OER environment guided by the concept of accessible user experience (aUX) that enhance accessibility and usability for a user disability profile. This design produces an adaptive response from the web interface that facilitates perception, understanding, navigation, and operation. Finally, to improve the meaning of information in search results for OER on the Web, we propose the embedded markup through a set of descriptors that can be interpreted by major search engines.

Electronic health records have a crucial role for communication and information management in health care organizations. Electronic health records have improved the access to up-dated medical information at the point-of-care, but they have also been linked to usability issues and user problems. This paper presents a study about the user experience among health care professionals regarding an electronic health record system in Norway. Qualitative research methods were used, with interviews and observations made at a university hospital, where 14 clinical end-users of an electronic health record system contributed. The aim was to study the user experiences and the user satisfaction regarding the system. The study concluded that the health care professionals in general were satisfied with the system, but they had to make some work arounds to efficiently carry out care in their daily work practice.

There is a surge of research exploring the role of task interruptions in the manifestation of primary task errors both in controlled experimental settings, and safety critical workplaces such as healthcare. Despite such research providing valuable insights into the disruptive properties of task interruption, and, the importance of considering the likely disruptive consequences of clinical task interruptions in healthcare environments, there is an urgent need for an approach that best mimics complex working environments such as healthcare, whilst allowing better control over experimental variables with minimal constraints. We propose that this can be achieved with ecologically sensitive experimental tasks designed to have high levels of experimental control so that theoretical as well as practical parameters and factors can be tested. We developed a theoretically and ecologically informed procedural memory-based task - the CAMROSE Medication Pre-Administration Task. Results revealed significantly more sequence errors were made on low, moderate and high complex conditions compared to no interruption condition. There was no significant difference in non-sequence errors. Findings reveal the importance of developing ecologically valid tasks to explore non-observable characteristics of clinical task interruptions. Both theoretical and possible practical implications are discussed.

This research was prompted by claims that certain sounds or music could increase learning abilities and performance. Binaural beating takes place when separate frequencies are introduced into each ear. The brain then strives to bridge the gap by creating a third tone. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of binaural beats on participants’ performance, excitement, engagement, meditation, and frustration while manipulating a robot with a brain-computer interface. Fifty participants were exposed to Alpha, Beta, Delta and Theta binaural tones that changed their dominant brainwaves while they were engaged in the task. A control (no tones) was also established. A mixed methods research design was applied using physiological testing, questionnaires, interviews and observation. The results indicated that different sound frequencies did indeed affect user performance. Sessions where no frequencies were applied (control) were associated with more errors and longer time durations compared to all the other frequencies.

The aim of this study is to investigate the similarities of drug shapes for preventing medical accidents due to similar appearances. According to the Medical Error Corrective Guidance published by the Korea Ministry of Health and Welfare’s policy team, a number of pairs of medicine that should be treated carefully in order to prevent confusion. However, systematic investigation on which morphological factors cause confusion is not enough yet. In this study, investigated human’s perception of similar drugs experimentally. As the first step, 15,000 tablet images were collected from the Korea Food & Drug Administration’s online medicine library. Among them, 100 randomly selected images were used for card sorting experiment to construct a similarity matrix. The tablets were classified into several groups based on the similarity score analyzed by multidimensional scaling (MDS). The result showed that people have a tendency to classify tablets by shape, color, size and material.

This paper discuses an important topic, i.e. “enhancing patient services in Saudi Arabia”, that is essential to both society and individuals. This paper only includes the first two stages of Human-Centered Design life cycle (Identify Needs, Research/Analysis) the rest of HCD (Design, Evaluation and Delivery) will be included in future research. Providing a better healthcare service requires studying and evaluating the current systems. This includes the distinction between old and new ways of patient treatments; the technology used in this area, and causes of inadequate health services. Based on our findings, we propose a human centered design smartphone application that makes the journey of patients in health easy. Booking an appointment, purchasing e-pharmacy items, and requesting home lab are the main functions designed in the application.

Degraded Visual Environments (DVE) can be deadly for rotorcraft pilots. Increasingly the risks of DVE operations are mitigated through visualizing environmental hazards using advanced sensing technologies. Often times DVE occurs during periods of high workload, further increasing the risk to both pilots and aircraft. With advanced sensing capabilities comes better information but also the risk of information overload, attentional tunneling, and better external situation awareness (SA) at the expense of situation awareness for aircraft state. The present paper discusses a user centered design (UCD) approach that blends several common methodologies to soliciting user feedback on early sensor data visualization concepts. This paper will discuss the results and implications of this particular UCD effort and provide a viewpoint on UCD for military systems, and how this approach may differ from UCD conventions established in other industries.

The continuing trend of increasing functional diversity in control systems poses a great challenge for the development of human-machine interactions. Adaptive control systems or adaptive interface systems, short aIS, can be a solution to this challenge. The development of such an interface system comes out of a project called aISA which stands for adaptive interface systems in agricultural tractors. The example of application is the tractor which is used for a multitude of work scenarios with appropriate implements. This contribution contains the approach of the development of the adaptive armrest. The sections are the introduction, analysis, method, tool usage, results and conclusion. The most important sections in this contribution are the method and the tool usage. The goal of the paper is a good insight on how the aIS is developed and what the important tools are to achieve the results.

The drones are entering our lives in many areas. There are many problems as well. Various studies are under way to solve these problems. The conventional drone manipulation method is a PUI (Physical User Interface) based which provides a two dimensional control and physically input value, but the newly presented manipulation method is a three dimensional NUI (Natural User Interface) based manipulation method which is mapped naturally with the movement of the drone. There were studies to analyze each manipulation method, but there was no precedent study to compare and analyze the characteristics of these two manipulation methods based on the experiment. Therefore, in this study, the designated sections are to be driven by each manipulation method, and the data obtained based on motion capture and subjective experience surveys are compared through the experiment.

The content of this paper is the description of a model factory for the evaluation of industrial production applications. Beside developments in the information sciences like cloud computing or machine learning this model factory is also used for the development and evaluation of human-machine concepts like virtual engineering, virtual twins, mobile application, or augmented reality.

This paper describes our work to improve how IBM employees install IBM mobile apps through the design and development of a native IBM App Store for iOS. Using established UX design techniques such as usability testing and user surveys, we redesigned a legacy hybrid app to have a clean, modern interface leveraging Apples’ latest iOS design patterns, and introduced a visual hierarchy that keeps the experience focused on the core user tasks. The improved app allows users to find and install apps more quickly, through an engaging UX that users prefer.

The Mobile technology evolution has greatly affected our lives, in terms of performing our daily tasks more efficiently and effectively. It includes recent advances in voice-enabled technology empowered by artificial intelligence, machine learning and natural language processing. Then again, technology evolution has created a problem for low and post-literate population in terms of understanding and using mobile devices with complex functionality. We intend to increase technology acceptance and the quality-in-use of MUI for low-and post-literate users by applying text-free approach combined with voice as a service. A new technology acceptance evaluation model UTAUT-QiU is proposed in this paper with the aim of assessing both user acceptance of text free MUI and MUI’s quality-in-use.

This paper reports a pilot study on how to train mild cognitively-impaired elderly adults using social media app successfully. Five mild cognitively-impaired elderly adults age 65 and 70 years participated in this study to help inspect research instruments and improve further as needed to be used in the main experiment later. Seniorbook, a mobile app prototype, was designed to resemble the activities frequently done in popular social media apps. Three different training mechanisms: training class and Seniorbook app only, training class and Seniorbook app with embedded instructions, and training class and Seniorbook app with embedded instructions and audio narrations, were randomly assigned to the participants during the study. Both pre and post-questionnaires were distributed. Preliminary results and lessons learned from this pilot study are presented at the end.

With the rapid progress of science and technology, more and more Internet products emerge. User experience is a kind of purely subjective feeling established by users in the process of using the product. Through the analysis of Nielsen’s ten usability principles and five elements of user experience, this paper make the four elements integrated into the three dimensions of content, interaction and vision, which are different perspectives of user perception and evaluation of user experience of Internet products. According to the above, the CIV evaluation model of Internet products mobile terminal product user experience is established. The CIV model proposed in this paper is suitable for the optimization design of online products. According to this evaluation model, products that meet user requirements can be iterated.

This paper investigates the effects of an expandable socket attachment for mobile phone grip on stationary (while seated) and mobile (while walking on a treadmill) text entry. An exploratory study (N = 12) failed to identify a significant effect of the attachment on text entry speed, accuracy, and error correction effort in either settings. But participants performed relatively better with the attachment while walking. Participants also did not perceive the attachment to affect their text entry speed and accuracy. However, significantly more participants wanted to use it in mobile settings, presumably to increase the safety of their devices.

Billions of people in the world are using smart phones, essentially in poor posture, which will cause great damage to the cervical spine. The purpose of the paper is to help people correct poor posture when using smart phones in a way that has a good user experience. The approach we adopt to solve the problem is to judge whether the user’s head posture is in a poor position by identifying the Angle state of the smart phone, and if the user keeps a poor posture for a while, an intervention will be adopted to adjust his posture. A two-part experiment was conducted to evaluate the user experience of Angle recognition. The results show that user’s time in poor posture is significantly reduced when using angle recognition. The study also suggests that user experience is better when using text plus animation to guide users correct their posture. At last, this study points out the direction of future improvement.

This study was made over some database of accessibility principles, to investigate the state of the art of contemporary design topics about accessibility in mobile applications, while comparing the WCAG 2.1 and the Guide for Development of Accessible Mobile Applications (GUAMA) in a case study with the Samsung Áudio Acordes (Chords), an app developed for teaching guitar for blind people. The results will serve to propose revisions/new protocols which allow to evaluate and sketch more accessible versions of these kind of digital products, helping development teams, designers, testers, etc., to improve the experiences for users with disabilities into new more accessible mobile applications.

This paper aims to describe the application of protocol and presentation of results of a Virtual Assistants (VAs) evaluation in the field of mobile devices, in their relation of use with People with Motor Disability (PMDs) with limitation in the Upper Limbs. To that end, aspects directly linked to accessibility were the focal points for this issue. The research reported in this present is characterized as exploratory, due to the understanding of the problem by the researchers and the academy still need more in-depth. In this way, the presentation of preliminary data could provide more information on the subject investigated, besides allowing a better delineation of future research. Various insights are possible with such an application that aims to improve the interaction of this public with digital devices through VAs. This same research procedure has already been adopted and replicated with People with Visual Disabilities (PVDs) with prodigious results not just for this kind of audience, but for People with Disabilities in general.

Most of the time, people without disabilities develop solutions for people with disabilities, and to understand the real needs of these users to create something valuable, the users have a fundamental role as active participants on the process of accessible application development. Some resources as researches, guidelines and usability tests that puts the user in the role to validate the flows, interactions, functionalities, navigation and even the testes are used to help the users to play his role. The accessibility guide created by SIDI establishes how to develop an accessible application, however, what really ensures that the software is accessible is the usability test performed by disabled users. This work will present the use case of Samsung’s application Relúmino that was created to improve the vision of partially impaired people. The result will demonstrate the importance of user participation in application development.

This paper aims to discuss the challenges of developing and validating an accessible and responsive web site based on SIDI’s experience in creating and validating the GuAMA - Guide to the Development of Accessible Mobile Applications web site. The first versions of that web site (GuAMA) did not present nor responsive nor accessible characteristics, but during 2017 and the first months of 2018, we work to obtain them by considering the established web development standards, such as the W3C [1] and the BBC [2] guidelines. We will discuss the reasons for supporting both browsers on computer and smartphone, and also support for Windows and Android screen readers. We will show examples of HTML tags used to serve both platforms and how tests were made to ensure that changes to suit a given screen reader did not affect the operation of another.

The physical world has major challenges regarding accessibility, as many buildings were built over a long time ago. In the digital world, this barrier should be much smaller due to the recent digital technologies and their constant evolutions. However, it is very common to find websites with images without audio description, television programs without translation for singing languages and more. Even products that were developed specifically for people with disabilities have accessibility issues. The lack of accessibility awareness and knowledge about how to implement accessibility are key factors of these problems. In addition, we see that adoption of agile practices by software development teams often postpone the development of accessibility features. Because of that, we would like to discuss how to ensure accessibility even in early phases of software development.

Create products with accessibility is a way of reaching a greater number of users and especially encourage the inclusion of users who have some disability, something increasingly important. This was the prerogative for the process of creating an application: to enable users with some vocal, auditory and mainly visual limitations to have an experience similar to that of ordinary users. In this article, we present the process of creating a new version of an application that had no accessibility at all.

Smart Sweeping robots (represented by the letter A&B) were selected in this study to compare the interface design. Twelve volunteers (5 males and 7 females) from 17 to 46 years old were recruited to complete the set-use tasks in a simulated living room environment. The evaluation results between 2 Smart Seeping robots that based on user experience were significant differences in certain aspects, which might be the result of the distinction of interface design. Interface layout, terminology & graphical symbols and their visibility, information transfer and feedback all affected the results. Then we used different design theories to analyze and evaluate these aspects and proposed some improvement measures.

The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of gender and prior experience with virtual reality (VR) on Immersive User Experience. We propose to use IUX to describe user experience with immersive technologies. IUX includes traditional component of UX (i.e., pragmatic quality and hedonic qualities identification and stimulation) as well as components specific to VR (i.e., presence and cybersickness). We conducted an experiment with 52 students, asking them to perform an aeronautical assembly task in VR. Results show that gender has an effect on two subscales of presence – self-assessment of performance and ability to act – and on hedonic quality stimulation. Prior experience with VR has an effect on self-assessment of performance, pragmatic quality and hedonic quality stimulation. Gender and prior experience with VR have an insignificant effect on cybersickness.

This paper summarizes the results of preliminary user tests with 3 intelligent lock interfaces as an example for application of small screens. 12 Volunteers (6 males and 6 females) from 20 to 60 years old (M = 35.00, SD = 10.45) were recruited to complete typical tasks of intelligent lock. The difference of subjective satisfaction scores were compared and analyzed. We concluded that the comprehensibility of terminologies and icons of function buttons presented on the interface, learnability of manipulation programs, and the accessibility and effectiveness of help and documentation all affected the results.

The aim of the paper is to make the human-computer interaction more efficient and natural. Based on Jung’s unconscious theory, the paper combines unconscious cognition and unconscious behavior to discuss how unconsciousness works between users and User Interface on the methods of literature research, observation, interview and questionnaire. As a result, the study elaborates the working mechanism of unconsciousness in User Interface. Finally, an abstract model is established to show the two aspects of unconsciousness in Natural User Interface,the task execution and feedback. The former is about the unconscious behavior and cognition formed by acquired learning, while the latter is about unconscious cognition of congenital instinct. At the end of the paper, the next research direction that how Visual adaptability, grip feeling and information location influence users’ unconscious cognition, is put forward by questionnaire analysis.

This paper uses the theory of product semantics to study the semantics of interface design from the perspective of design semiotics. It sorts out the concept and design idea of product semantics, analyzes the meaning and elements of product semantics, and explores the interface design principles. Relying on the stadium monitoring system interface design project, from the three principles of clear semantics, unambiguous semantics and clear semantics, the application of product semantics in the interface design of the stadium monitoring system is discussed, and the product semantics theory is analyzed and verified. The interface design conforms to the user’s usage habits, reduces the learning process, thereby improving the operation efficiency, reducing the error rate, and being more humanized.

At present, image visualization in medical field is mainly realized by observation or image slice. This method relies on doctors’ subjective judgment to a great extent, and lacks accuracy and intuition. This paper evaluates the usability evaluation of intelligent medical imaging diagnostic interface based on the SD method, and analyzes the current intelligent medical imaging diagnostic interface status and user needs. Evaluation of interface by using a 5-point semantic difference (SD) scale. Through experimental analysis, it can be concluded that: (1) among the 7 groups of kansei words, W2 (amateur-professional) has the highest score and the W5 (dark-bright) score is the lowest. (2) among the 8 samples, the S8 score was the highest and the S2 score was the lowest. (3) the operational factor has the greatest impact on the interface experience score.

Background With the increasing number of information on the man-machine interface of washing machines in a limited area, constructing the usability evaluation index system based on different interaction modes will improve the product development. Methods The documentary survey and user research methods were used to construct the usability evaluation model of washing machine products. Through the scenario simulation experiment, the usability under the three interactive modes of buttons, buttons plus knob and touch screens is evaluated and analyzed. Conclusion In the limited operation area, when the information number is lower than 14, the user experience of three interactive modes is similar. As the number of information increases, the task success rate of the button plus knob interaction mode is better than the other two, and the interactive mode of the touch screen is superior to the buttons and buttons plus knobs in terms of efficiency, usefulness and satisfaction.

Establish an online learning model that is compatible with the information age lifestyle has become a focus of attention. This study takes the interactive design of SANGFOR Institute, the author’s ongoing entity project as the research object. Based on the theoretical research of mental models, this study collects user needs, constructs mental models, uses potential models to identify potential design opportunities. The mental model is used to guide the main functional modules of SANGFOR Institute to build a matching website architecture. This study hopes that the research results can meet the needs of business activities, SANGFOR Institute interaction design that conforms to the user’s mental model can effectively analyze the user’s existing knowledge and experience, reduce the learning cost and enhance the user experience.

In the actuality there are many devices to help people with visual disability, at the level of mobile devices like Smart Phones, tablets, PCS, some of them increasing the size of the letter, or reading icons or maybe incorporating voice technology to read the text or to recognize the voice, these devices help to people with visual disability that they can interact and do things that people couldn’t do every day, helping their day by day, and above all do activities of interaction of man with machine. Additionally there are several applications that incorporate GPS navigation technology, for localization and geography location, one person can use navigation applications for be able to locate even using just the GPS module without the need to have internet connection, little by little this service has become very popular, it is include in autonomous cars, to be able to go to one place to another easily, just showing the destination the people are directed without the need to drive, however this system doesn’t work inside of the buildings or internal structures because the GPS signal could be lost and the navigation and obtaining the location is not accurate.The propose of this article is for the use of beacons with techniques based on the received signal strength indication (RSSI), also distance mediation techniques to calculate the exact position of the individual, solving the lost signal of GPS devices, this calculation is done using triangulation algorithms to get the localization, Additionally, it was used beacons, this devices are operate with Bluetooth technology 4.0, and by not having GPS location antenna this devices can be obtained a proximity value and distance to the beacon using UUID, and proximity, connecting to an Smart Phone device or a tablet to the connection through the Bluetooth, In addition an application was developed using Studio Android and a library called proximi.io this library is absolutely compatible with IOS and Android, this application connects to a database to determinate the position and identify the beacons, Additionally to identify the location of the individual through his Smart We use a triangulation algorithm to obtain data with greater precision it is necessary to use at least 3 beacons, to complete the study, were performed test in corridors of buildings and several places obtaining good results it could be verified that the triangulation algorithm with some improvement variants facilitates to obtain the location with greater effectiveness in general, for our purpose it was possible to determine that is feasible to use these devices in favor of people with visual disabilities, you can use many projects with beacons and applications in public places such as hospitals, airports, educational institutions, museums, shopping centers, etc.,. In short, the application is very broad and many benefits can be obtained.

Several mobile applications exist to inform users about air quality conditions for Android in Google Play and for iOS in iTunes. Many dedicated applications also exist to inform users about traffic routes, considering tolls, and transportation means. Air quality and transportation are relevant for users in their daily lives in general, and especially important for vulnerable populations, including older adults, pregnant women and individuals with respiratory diseases. Despite its importance, there is no mobile application that combines information about pollution and transportation. For vulnerable populations, this information enables them to avoid environments that exacerbate their conditions and pose health risks. From a visualization perspective little has been done to assess graphic representations for user interfaces that convey information about pollution levels in geographic information systems. To address these challenges, this paper presents the design, development and evaluation of GEST-DC, an mHealth app that informs air quality levels for commuting routes.

This paper proposes a model to investigate the relationship between Expectation-Confirmation Model (ECM) widely used in Information System (IS) research and main usability factors. The target domain is CRISS platform that represents a unique cloud-based digital learning platform, based on the most advanced pedagogical methodologies and technological solutions, that allows guided acquisition, evaluation and certification of digital competences in primary and secondary schools. Based on the research model, a survey instrument to measure the user’s continuance intention of using the CRISS platform is also developed. Such model and the instrument can help researchers to explain the expected sustainability of an IS, and to enrich the understanding of its post-adoption use. Also, the study results contribute to the current knowledge of ECM and usability field in terms of other factors other than the original affecting the users’ intention to use a digital platform for assessment and digital competence acquisition.

Small, mobile touchscreen devices have increasingly permeated into our daily life over the last decade. However, interface design factors that are likely to influence input performance of the devices have not yet been fully investigated. The purpose of the current study was to explore the effects of keyboard size, gap and button shape on usability metrics in thumb interaction with a small, mobile touchscreen device. Twenty-eight volunteers attended a lab-based experiment where they were required to complete a series of letter input tasks with a touchscreen smartphone. The results indicated that keyboard size yielded significant effects on both accuracy rate and task completion time, and button shape and gap exerted significant influence on task completion time only. Interaction effects were observed between keyboard size and button shape on both accuracy rate and task completion time. Keyboard design factors that exerted optimal input performance were mostly preferred by users. Our findings have important implications and can help with the design of usable touchscreen interface, especially for small, mobile touchscreen devices.

This study used the Universal Design method to explore the use of hangers and improve the design of hangers. The study was conducted in two phases. First, investigated the habits and problems of the use of hangers, as well as the situation of the force when using the hangers. Two new types of hangers were designed based on the survey results. Second, the new type of hangers designed as the stimulus samples were used to investigate the five senses of the user’s visual perception and post-use operational feelings. The design of the new-style hangers was adjusted according to the survey results, and a new type of hanger products was proposed. A product is based on user experience and general design principles.

The extensively debated Net Promoter Score (NPS) originated in consumer marketing to measure brand loyalty. It has become a ubiquitous method to assess user sentiment across many industries, products, and services. NPS has the widely touted tagline of “the one number you need to grow.” NPS is typically collected in 2 ways—via in-app intercept surveys within the actual product/application or as part of a large email campaign. NPS collected via email campaigns consistently produces lower scores than via in-app intercept method. Case Studies outlining these differences are discussed.

We present an update from 6 years of practical use of UX Concept Exploration, a method for user research and user-driven innovation. After a short overview of the method, the paper describes experiences and suggests modifications of the method, where appropriate. Finally, we discuss guidelines to make the method usable in environments with only little UX expertise and limited resources, like small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) usually face.

Animation is a significant game changer for designing icons that can communicate their action or status without any additional elements in any design language. This can increase the comprehensibility of Human-Machine-Interfaces (HMI). In this paper, we introduce design principles on how to animate icons for HMIs to increase the comprehensibility and to draw the users’ attention. This initial paper builds the foundation for further research on this topic. The results of an expert review on animated icons are presented. The results show that there is a highly expected positive effect of animated icons on comprehensibility and reduction of error rate.

Information discovery can be improved by personalizing website content to the known attributes of the user. By filtering out content that is likely to be distracting, the chances a user will find the information they need is improved. In essence, you create a person-centric portal that caters to where that person sits, what they prefer, etc. In the following, we will discuss the benefits as well as some of the user experience challenges we had to overcome in order to deploy an IT Support site that leverages this form of personalization to enhance content, search, browse, navigation and system alerts, across the entire web site.

This work presents the development of a Web system that allows the identification, evaluation and automatic correction of Web accessibility barriers associated with multimedia elements. The analysis carried out by the tool takes into account the conformance level A of WCAG 2.0 standard. Web system takes as input the URL of the Web page to be evaluated to connect and send the evaluation request to three Web Content Analysis APIs: OAW, Tenon, and Achecker. The results of the evaluations are sent to the artificial intelligence services of Google, to obtain an adequate description of multimedia items that are not correctly labeled. Finally, the system proposes a holistic automatic correction of the website source code and allows the result to be exported. To test the effectiveness of the tool were evaluated 54 websites, in different sectors such as government, education, finance, etc. The results show an average increase of 2.57% in web accessibility conformance level, reaching a maximum increase of 24%.

In our daily lives, products always catch our attention with form, color, texture, sound, meaning, and environment. Recently, products have become more intelligent and adaptive that they change people’s emotional expression and experience perception due to the more complex human-product interaction. This paper aims to develop a theoretical framework, which establishes a general understanding of the experience emerged from the interactive activities between people and technology, and the confusion within specific critical dimensions, which include subjective feelings, behavior, social practice, and knowledge. This study reveals the usability of products mainly depends on the designers’ understanding of the users’ need and perception. By setting a visual metaphor which promotes interactive affordance and enables users to be well acquainted with how to use at a glance, this study suggests that better design need to focus on better creation of user experience, which combines utilitarian and hedonic aspects. Therefore, the comprehensive consideration from users’ psychological and behavioral perspectives is essential. This study makes a relatively original contribution to exploring the importance of affordance in interaction design which invents products acceptance and adorable.

Evidence shows that aromatherapy can help/serve to relieve stress, anger, and even physical disorders. With the development of Artificial Intelligence, it is getting easier and easier to have smart home appliances that can help people monitor and control their emotions. For this research, we had investigated the relationship of users’ emotions with ambient aromas. We aimed to find out whether the use of our smart aromatherapeutic home device would be helpful or not. We created a prototype containing 4 atomisers, 4 tubes, a control panel, a tube holder, an Arduino Nano and, an electromagnetic relay. Regulated by the control panel, the Arduino Nano and the electromagnetic relay, the atomiser diffuses the essential oils contained in the tubes which are held by the tube holder into the air flowing towards the users’ noses.

Visitor study is significant for museum’s development, but nowadays there is lack relevant research on the visitors experience of local museums in China. This project will focus on the whole family group in the context of child-oriented exhibitions (COE), study on visitors’ experience in the “visit” stage among the whole visit process. Qualities research methods, unobtrusive observations, online comments analysis and questionnaire will be conducted in domestic COE to figure out the experience elements of both “parent” and “child” group, then build an initial measurement framework base on Falk & Dierking’s Interactive Experience Model. This study has practical value for evaluating visitors’ experience and improving the design of local COE, making contributes to the continued development of Chinese domestics museums.

The rapid development of Internet information technology and the accelerated integration of manufacturing industry have made great progresses in manufacturing technology and reconstructed the supply and demand relationship between users and products in manufacturing. Internet-based user customization is a new mode of information technology advancement and supply-demand relationship reconstruction. The generative design that is gradually being formed is a new creation behavior in personalized customization. This paper is focused on the way of how to model user preference knowledge and graph generation parameters. In the food consumer market, a new generation of consumers have strong demand for personalized food packaging, providing users with personalized colors of packaging, which will greatly enhance users’ tasting and purchasing desires. This study selects the taste preferences of user preferences and the color parameters of the graphical parameters. The neural network model was established to observe the taste preference and commonness of color. The proposed mechanism is experimentally verified and specific Demonstration in design practice.

The illumination environment is extremely important to the visual-related operation/interface design, due to its great effect on visual operation. Therefore, the influence of illumination environment factors, such as illumination and color temperature, on visual operation needs to be investigated deeply. In this study, five illumination environment levels, combined by illumination and color temperature, were selected to carry out ergonomic experiments. The screen brightness of high, medium and low was set, and the internal experiment of two-factor subjects was conducted based on the visual search task. Behavioral performance data and subjective evaluation data of 16 subjects were collected and analyzed. The results show that, in terms of response time, correct rate, and subjective evaluation, the main effects of illumination and screen brightness are significant.

The first China International Import Expo (CIIE), held on November 5, 2018 in Shanghai is an initiative step for China to open market to the world and actual action to uphold economic globalization and trade liberalization. It reveals the attitude that China has committed to implementing the openness to the world at the summit of The Belt and Road Initiative as well as shows opportunities of further developing markets in China with enormous consumption ability to many other overseas brands. Empowered by the favorable policy such as import tax reduction, the development of cross-border e-commerce has stepped into the path of high-speed. In this connection, a host of overseas brands actively have a closer relationship with China’s consumption upgrading, and immerse into the Chinese market through cross-border business, quickly gaining a certain market share. According to the development reality of cross-border business, this paper takes the Koala e-commerce platform as an example to study the effect of following six experience elements to user experience, including the product experience, the convenience of platform use, benefits and welfare. Emerging as a new type of trade business, cross-border e-commerce will steadily enter the fast lane with favorable policies and a mature e-commerce environment in China. The user experience design model of cross-border e-commerce platform proposed in this study is of great significance to the analysis of the deep characteristics of the western and eastern user experience psychology under the experience economy, which will be a reference for the development of cross-border business in China.

The rapid development of information technology and the increasing individual demand of consumers have promoted the intelligent development of the tourism market. The service design concept has important research value for the user experience optimization of “smarter tourism”. This article takes Taierzhuang Ancient City as a research sample, focuses on designing and optimizing each contact point in the service blueprint, and sums up the complete scenic tour experience model. The results show that in the process of “smarter tourism”, it mainly involves two aspects: the efficient protection of scenic service and the degree of satisfaction with individual needs. The latter is the key to judging the satisfaction of scenic spot service. It can be seen that the “smarter tourism” user experience service needs to be improved, and more innovations can be launched in the future based on service contact points and service process optimization.

A “sustainable solution” is a mix of products and services that enables people to live better, consuming less environmental resources and improving the quality of their physical and social contexts of life. It is necessary to rethink sustainable design approaches with user research. It is adopted cases study in user lifestyle, user behavior and user experience to discuss how user research can help designers understand user needs in sustainable context and conducting sustainable concept by design. It is indicate that by conducting user research, sustainable design can break through experimental ideas to real combination of design, industry and eco-culture.

This study used a general design approach to explore the use of traditional lip gloss and to improve the design of traditional lip gloss. The study was conducted in three phases. The first phase of the survey was based on the use of traditional lip gloss and the problems in use, and was evaluated using the PPP (Product Performance Program) evaluation method. Two new models of lip gloss were produced based on the results of the first phase survey. In the second phase, two new lip gloss models were used as stimulating samples to investigate the five senses of visual and post-use operations before use. According to the survey results, one of the subjects was satisfied with one lip gloss and the design was adjusted. A new form of lip gloss was proposed for a whole age. After that, the new type of lip gloss was designed in line with the general design principles of the survey. Finally, a new style of lip gloss is proposed as a reference for the makeup market and related companies.

Under the background of experience economy era, product design pays more attention to people-oriented, environment-friendly, humanistic care and emotional design on the basis of meeting the functional needs. This paper studies the emotional design of electric power products, improves the emotional design research, also improves the humanistic care of electric power products, and improves the user experience. For enterprises, it is to enhance the competitiveness of their power products and improve the disadvantages of domestic electrical enterprises.

In the era of experience economy, interactive design has become one of the important methods of product design. The regeneration research of traditional bamboo weaving art is based on the concept of interactive design. Through field research Dongyang bamboo weaving industry, the reasons for the gradual decline of traditional bamboo weaving are analyzed. The research is conducted from the perspective of users’ emotional experience, the interesting development of bamboo weaving and the return to the origin of bamboo weaving design to explore the revival of Dongyang traditional bamboo weaving technology.

Survey is one of the most common data gathering techniques used by researchers, but there are times where it is hard to collect enough data from respondents because some are repelled to answering these surveys. Some of the reasons that cause these hindrances may be attributed to aesthetic reasons or the length of the survey. Employing the concepts of usability ergonomics and different studies concerned with survey questionnaire response quality, this study aims to assess the different survey forms of the fast food forms of the fast food companies and make recommendations regarding how their survey forms should be changed with regards to both structure and physical appearance by collecting and comparing these questionnaires and analyze factors which affect the quality of data gathered from these survey questionnaires. This study checked the customer feedback questionnaires of various companies and synthesize it to develop general guidelines in creating survey questionnaires for fast food chains. Lastly, based on the guidelines produced, a survey questionnaire was made to show what survey questionnaire would solicit the best quality answer from the respondents. This particular fabricated questionnaire contain the factors which causes the least fatigue on the respondents and at the same time lacks the aspects which discourages the respondent from answering without proper disposition. In conclusion, the results of this study showed that the survey questionnaires of food establishments contain flaws regarding the elements that are contained within them. These flaws are focused on the following aspects: overall visual presentation of the questionnaire itself, font, the manner of transmission of the questionnaire, its general structure of question and its perceived length. Thus this study recommends to test the proposed customer feedback questionnaire in an actual food establishment environment and use statistical proofs to test its effectiveness.

Indian cities invigorate a conspicuous imagery influenced by the pattern language evolved through their urban-morphology. Similarly, the walled cities of Jodhpur and Jaipur, though similar in context, are distinct in imageability due to difference in genesis and evolution. The paper thus focuses on wayfinding as a tool through perception of the semantics of urban elements to understand the imageability of study-area. It is based on the heuristic evaluation of imageability of the two cities, through the eyes of floating population visiting the study-area. Visual cognition and mental-map analysis of the users are preceded by spatial tasks to analyze search behaviours. Spatial perception is examined through recall tasks, which helped delineate the neighbourhood level imageability. Gaze behavior analysis through eye-tracker is performed which revalidates the findings of spatial tasks. Hence, it is established that the semantics of spatial cues have direct impact on the navigational ability and imageability of spatial environment.

An electronic lock is different from a mechanical lock in that it uses an induction card, a digital password and a fingerprint to unlock the lock. In the big wave of smart home, electronic lock is considered as the entry level product of smart home. With the upgrade of consumption and the change of people’s consumption concept, excellent user experience will be the future development trend of electronic lock. However, in view of the current development status of electronic lock products, there is still a lack of research on user experience of electronic lock. This paper will evaluate the current electronic lock product structure from the perspective of user experience, to improve the user experience of electronic lock products in the future.

It’s aimed at the integration of “human factors” into each link of the guide design, such as the satisfaction of users’ emotions and the specification of human factor identification, etc. According to actual cases and investigation, the internal logic and the thinking method of design iteration inside of the Guide System design in the data integration and data visualization process guided by “human factors” are extracted and analyzed from the actual case of the iteration update of Guide System of Hunan University’s teaching building, where the data of this case are filtered, sorted, updated and derived. Different users have different needs in the same context, the design of University Guidance System should take into account the different needs of different user roles, plus reasonable information integration and transmission, which improve the design experience of University Guidance System, and enhance the communication between people and environment.

Objective: To measure the impact of the speed of interface switching on the digital reading user experience on mobile terminals. Methods: The subjective scale scoring method and semi-structured interviews are used to test the influence of the speed of the digital reading interface switching on the user experience, to explore the feedback of the perceived speed of the subject, and collect the subjective feelings of the user after the user-product interaction process ends. And use the method of summarization to summarize the user feedback. Results: The most comfortable interface switching speed when humans read digitally, and the effect of interface switching speed on the psychological perception of users with different operational purposes. Conclusion: The interface switching speed affects the user’s reading experience. The different operational purposes of the user have different requirements for the interface switching speed.

With the rising of the e-commerce, consumers nowadays prefer to shop online out of its efficiency, flexibility and abundance of choice. That is to say, hundreds of traditional offline shopping malls are now going through the imperative urgency of transformation. This paper uses a variety of research methods and classifies the people in the malls based on their needs. Secondly, this paper proposes several design strategies for different groups, meanwhile summarizes the effective ways of user experience improvements. In general, this research is dedicated to suggesting mighty directions for the transformation of offline shopping malls.

The characteristics of young Chinese users’ perception of passenger car form in front quarter view are investigated to explore their morphological awareness. Based on users’ judgement on similarity between passenger car forms in front quarter view, the distribution and form change of 109 form samples in the perceptual map are analyzed. The findings show that (1) the characteristics of young Chinese users’ perception can be mapped by dimension reduction onto the horizontal and vertical dimensions in the two-dimensional perceptual space; and (2) users’ perception of and evaluation on form differences can be interpreted by three types of form features, including eight local features in front view, two local features in side view, and two overall transitional features between front face and side body.

As environmental issues become more prominent, people have focused on green travelling widely. Due to the convenience, environmental protection and low cost properties of sharing bicycles, it has gradually become the main green travelling way in Chines major cities. To improve user participation in shared bicycle system, our study, based on Fogg Behavior Model, proposes a design concept of a small shared bicycle power supply system which raises electricity generated by riding bicycle. The electricity raised in sharing bicycle can also be used to charge the user’s mobile devices. In addition, through the gamification design of user’s mobile interface, it inspires the interaction between users, as well as improves communication between users and systems, users and users. The results from the participants’ feedback are promising, and the lessons learnt and approaches discussed in this paper provide a reference for the study of improving user participation.

The study aims to explore how user experience research is used in automotive HMI design planning in order to advance the development of automotive HMI. This study researched the Roewe automotive HMI system based on user experience design methods. Questionnaires and in-depth interviews were used for the purpose of analyzing users’ car using process. The market positioning deviation of ROEWE was explored by using Censydiam model. The HMI framework involved in the use of the automobile is discussed and analyzed, meanwhile the future design concepts of Roewe automotive HMI are proposed in the paper. The results of this study have significant practical benefits for the improvement of user experience as well as a company’s future design strategy.

Open design is a web-based digital manufacturing method for mass customization. It allows people to customize the products which designed by other designers, and send them to local factory to manufacture which can reduce the transportation pollution. Nowadays open design is emerging in China in the expert design field, but not popular, not even known by the masses. In order to understand what obstacles users face during using an Open Design platform, and how to promote Open Design, we invite 5 designers and 5 people from other occupations to simulate the open design product customize in an Open Design platform ( http://www.downloadopendesign.com ) founded by Enrique in Guangdong University of Technology. The stimulation is divided to different level tasks (from easy to hard) to understand the different reactions during the customization between two groups. After the stimulation, all people are interviewed for further knowledge about the different understanding of Open Design between designers and the others. Based on the experiment and interviews, we create a new prototype which not only includes open products but also more instructions and assistant services, and 5 more people were invited to test it and compare their reactions with the previous one. This research results can help designers to develop and promote a better adapted platform for the masses to use, and help designers to know that Open Design is not only a digital platform can serve designers but also can be a service for the masses to contribute their talents to their lives and the society.

This study evaluates the user experiences (UXs) of watching a 360° scooter ride video in a laboratory using a fully immersive virtual reality (VR) system. The aim is to understand of the factors that will impact VR service adoption in experiencing a scooter ride. This study adopts the technology acceptance model (TAM) to investigate the factors that may influence user acceptance of fully immersive VR service. Data were collected from an experiment involving a total of 46 individual scooter commuters. The participants were asked to use the scooter VR service and to complete a questionnaire. The results verified that the important factors that influence a user’s usage intention in a scooter VR services were found to be ‘perceived ease of use’ and ‘attitude’. Based on these results, a number of suggestions are proposed for the design of related VR service for strengthening the advantages of VR service in experience for simulated vehicle rides.

Combining the theory of logic of behaviors and somaesthetics, this article explores their application in the field of user experience and the internal relationship between the two. A product user experience design process based on logic of behaviors and logic of things is proposed, and a study of the mechanism in user behaviors from three aspects of somaesthetics (the body as the aesthetic object, the body as the aesthetic subject, and the aesthetic embodiment) is presented, which brings up a design model of embodied user experience integrating the body, behaviors and aesthetics. Under the guidance of this theory, this article studies body’s bathing behaviors and its user experience. In order to verify effectiveness of the design model, the new generation of air energy bathing product is taken as an example to design and innovate the product user experience.

This paper will take the GIS system as a typical interface, and analyze the main design elements such as information structure, interface layout and element com-position. Based on the combination coding characteristics of cognitive complexity, a visual representation method is established. Through the preliminary mapping of visual complexity factors and physiological indicators, the mapping relation-ship between digital interface visual information and cognitive brain mechanism of information weapon system is proposed. Finally, the design strategy of GIS interface optimization complexity is proposed, which provides innovative ideas for the study of interface visual complexity.

It has been acknowledged that products providing better user emotional experience (UEX) have more chance to win in the market. Especially for sporting goods, the intensive user-product interaction evokes more complex user emotions. However, the research focusing on UEX is still deficient. Particularly, bicycles as the commonly used products in daily life have not been fully examined. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the UEX on bicycle design. For this end, two different bicycle saddles were chosen, a new semantic database was proposed, and three sets of experiments were conducted under different interaction types (i.e., vision, touch and cycling). Through the analysis of the experiment results, it can be found that different interaction types have an impact on the UEX of bicycle saddle designs; the visual appearance influences high- and low-involvement cyclists differently; and users’ riding postures (forward and upright) affect the emotional intensity of user experience on saddle designs.

For a successful project, the usability and ergonomics of UI are the first priority factors for achieving acceptance. From client perspective, accomplishment of a task dependably relies upon quality of interaction amongst client and framework. In this manner, special apparatuses are required for the trading of information. The need to utilize this sort of apparatuses utilized as a part of life cycle show, known as prototyping. Among existing models, there is no model, which is capable of modeling the interfaces and the algorithms for implementing those models to create the interfaces with a special purpose procedural implementation that we are using today. Developers of software with the perspective of usability use number of techniques to engage users and to see the interaction with functionality of the application. This paper includes how and when developer use prototyping techniques and the review of several approaches of prototyping.

This paper presents the usability study of the two public universities’ web sites of Riobamba, UNACH, www.unach.edu.ec , and ESPOCH, www.espoch.edu.ec . The usability study is developed following the international standards ISO 9241 and the ISO 14598-1 [ISO98a]. The usability tests were applied to a selected and extended sample of Ecuadorian students and experts to determine their grade of effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction while using the universities’ websites while interacting with institutional registration and educational tasks: 1. Login in Virtual Education, 2. Login to Sports, Recreation and Physical Education Center, 3. Download the University ByLaws, 4. Use of Search Tool, 5. Free Web Surfing. The heuristic evaluation was developed to students between ages 18 and 22 years old. Finally, based on the comparative analysis, results and conclusions some suggestions of human centered design for university web sites are proposed using the design thinking process from Stanford University.

Digital learning formats using Augmented Reality (AR) technologies have already been successfully used in industry. AR opens new possibilities to guide employees systematically through assembly processes, ensuring the practical relevance of the learning content and a saving of time in the learning process. In order to enhance this technology’s acceptance, user-centred designed AR applications are crucial. This paper aims at deriving conclusions on the usability of AR Head Mounted Displays (HMD) in the field of production. As the transferability of lab-based usability studies is still lacking, we conducted a mixed method approach in a laboratory as well as a field setting. This paper presents the current state of the art, the development of the AR applications and the main results of the study.

The uprising of versatile wearable technology allows for the development of assistive aids with increased functionality. With this improved functionality, often complexity of use also increases. In particular, wearable multi-channel emg sensors combined with versatile programmable output and emg pattern classifiers, allows to steer prostheses with mechanical functionality in multiple degrees of freedom (DOF). As it is essential for arm amputees to learn how to use newly multiple DOF prosthesis with improved functionality, there is a growing need for a substantiated training program. The aim of this controlled pilot study was to investigate the effect of a prosthetic training session on the functionality of adult non-amputees wearing a prosthetic hand simulator. The prosthetic hand simulator was dedicatedly developed to that end. Ten participants were recruited from the University of Antwerp, aged 18–25 years. All participants were able-bodied and right-handed adults, with normal or corrected-to-normal vision, no neurological or upper extremity musculoskeletal problems, and no earlier experience with a prosthetic simulator. The SHAP test was performed with a prosthetic simulator to obtain an impression of the functionality. Mann-Whitney U test confirmed the comparability of scores of the control group (N = 5) and intervention group (N = 5) at baseline (p = 0.530). Further, a statistically significant difference between first and last test-sessions could be identified in both groups (both p = 0.042). In addition, a trend (p = 0.056) in difference in improvement could be observed in favor of the intervention group. Results emphasize the importance of learning a correct and functional employment of multiple DOF artificial hand prosthesis and thus improving functionality in daily use.

The world population is steadily aging and the World Health Organization recently stated that 8.5% of people worldwide are aged 65 and over. This cohort is projected to account for 1.6 billion people by 2050.Assistive Technology has been developed over previous decades with a particular aim to support people with disabilities.With the evolution of the market and the introduction of wearable technologies and IoT-based (Internet of Things) appliances, Assistive Technology has been influenced by the discipline of Age-Friendly Design, which has been applied to meaningfully improve the autonomy of a larger segment of the population, including older people.In order to discuss how Age-Friendly Design can influence the response of the market, and how users can better engage and benefit from Assistive Technology, this work aims to critically review, through a case study research methodology, a series of recently developed devices that have the potential to change user perception around Assistive Technology.As a conclusion, the reported case studies represent a preliminary validation of how Age-Friendly Design can represent a meaningful solution for enabling a wider group of people with different ages and abilities. Findings show that user experience, satisfaction and Emotional Design are the key drivers for developing marketable solutions in the area of Assistive Technology.

An interactive workspace that enables learning and practicing Algebra for visually impaired students using Arabic or English was built. In this paper, the experiments conducted to evaluate the efficiency, effectiveness and user satisfaction of the proposed system are described. Visually impaired students from upper elementary and middle school in Lebanon participated in testing the implementation of the workspace. The effectiveness of the system is much better than that of other existing systems. All students were able to solve all exercises correctly using the hints suggested by the system in learning mode. In addition, a 40% reduction in learning time was recorded compared to using already existing systems with a sighted person giving the student hints. Moreover, using the system, students were able to learn and practice operations they were incapable of performing using traditional tools.

People with disabilities often need support and accommodation to effectively use computers at libraries. While there are many helpful tools and built-in features available, they are difficult for staff and patrons to discover, understand, and apply. Easier methods to discover access and usability features combined with auto-personalization of computers may solve many of these problems, but the potential use and impact of such systems in the library context is not known. Initial qualitative research was conducted in two U.S. public libraries. We used semi-structured interviews to gather information about computer-related problems in libraries and opinions about a prototype feature-discovery and auto-personalization software system called Morphic. This study led to a better understanding about how such a system could help patrons, facilitate library staff work, and impact library performance. The findings led to additional features and further development of the Morphic system.

This paper reports a study that evaluated 96 non-profit organization’s websites located on the east coast of the United States. The websites were analyzed during November 2018 to January 2019. The results show that all the non-profit websites analyzed have rules that lack implementation, meaning the site’s developers might not understand the accessibility requirements of the rules or did not consider accessibility in the design of the website as it relates to screen readers. The findings may provide insight to web developers on addressing improper rule implementation identified using automated tools and manual tests.

Population aging is inevitable in India that results in an overall increase in the ageing society. The number of elderly in India is projected to reach 173 million in 2026. It is projected that the proportion of Indians aged 60 and older will rise from 8.6% in 2011 to 11.1% in 2025. Musculoskeletal disorders are the most common problems in the elderly population. Ageing also leads to numerous problems like disabilities in the lower limb, back pain, arthritis, stroke, brain injury, muscular dystrophy, and so on. Muscular dystrophy is the main reason for old age disability caused by more than 30 muscle disorders where loss of muscular strength, and fat redistribution decreasing the ability of the tissues to carry out their normal functions. Many treatments methods have been deployed to help them in which rehabilitation plays a significant role. In spite of the benefits derived from the use of assistive technologies, some parts of the world have insignificant or no access to these technologies. This study purpose is to briefly review recent progress in assistive technologies, more specifically on recent development in lower limbs and back pain management. Multiple databases were searched for English literature and limiting to last ten years. The keywords selected for the search were a combination of the elderly, exoskeleton, lower limb, back pain, arthritis, and assistive technologies. The search results suggested that assistive technologies for the elderly population have received some attention from researchers also indicate the need for a comprehensive and low-cost approach to increase the availability of assistive technologies for the elderly community.

Transportation is associated with environmental problems, economic losses, population health, and social inequities. This last problem, in particular, a negative impact on generates the urban public transportation of people with disabilities, which entails a methodology of interpersonal, social, technological and institutional challenge without neglecting the characteristics of design for disabilities, as well as sensory ones. The objective of this article is a design proposal for the public transport system of the Guayaquil city, in the field of artificial intelligence, the human factor and ergonomic design for the disabled with an inclusive model according to the World Health Organization and the World Bank. The needs of people with limited capacities in urban public transport are explored for recurring services and destinations. Through the experiences lived in the metrobus public transport service, based on two methodologies; “Intelligent urban public transport dedicated to accessibility for people with disabilities” and “The effect of transport accessibility on the social inclusion of wheelchair users: An analysis of mixed methods”. While modeling the behavior of people with disabilities is a complex task, it has a remarkable social and economic impact. Therefore, in this article, neutrosophic cognitive maps are explored to represent the behavior and functioning of such complex systems. This soft computing technique to model how Allows us make decisions based on travelers their knowledge of different modes of transport properties at different levels of abstraction. The results of the study will help transport are decision-makers to better understand the needs of people with disabilities and, as a result, help them to update their policy. At the end of the article, we discuss how the design proposal can be articulated metrobus within the urban transport system and the accessibility of the use of ICT to people with disabilities.

The uprising of multi-channel wearable EMG sensors combined with machine learning pattern recognition algorithms offers the possibility to control multiple degree of freedom hand prosthetics. Such human-machine interaction systems require training from the user, mostly to link gestures with underlying EMG patterns. As intended end users have a missing hand, the question arises how to train them to use myo-electric prosthetics without instructing them to perform gestures; A key element to start training with pattern recognition EMG based prosthetic control is creating a shared vocabulary with the participant/patient. The shared vocabulary forms the base for the explanation and communication about the pattern recognition EMG. In this research an abstract form of communication based on animal sounds is used to form a shared vocabulary for a child with missing hands. We found that the abstract communication worked well and motivating when explaining pattern recognition EMG to a child. The communication tool that gives additional interaction makes the explanation much clearer since the participant starts directly with experiencing the pattern recognition EMG. Also, it is concluded that the abstract nature of the tested communication allows the participant to keep an open mind for gestures other than normal healthy hand movements when exploring the possible control contractions. Thus, abstract based communication can offer benefits during the training with pattern recognition EMG.

This research suggested a voice-based crowdsourcing platform that can increase the independence of visually impaired people. This study used a qualitative analysis; one group interview and one in-depth interview. As a result, they expressed needs to know information that are directly related to health such as medicines, clothing, and food. This research suggested a platform construction based on the information most needed by the visually impaired.This platform allows both people with visual disabilities and the public to freely share and utilize information. The application’s QR code and voice search functions provide immediate access to the various product information available from the platform. Users’ voluntary participation will provide an opportunity to register and modify product information needed. In addition, public institutions and companies will be able to use this voice-based crowdsourcing platform to promote independent living of visually impaired people.

The eye tracking technology has a great potential for clinical work, both in the stages of diagnosis and rehabilitation. However, its use has been little explored in relation to cognitive functions. The spastic infantile cerebral palsy is characterized by disturbances of the nervous and muscular system in the muscle tension, muscle strength, coordination and movement patterns. The motor control of individuals suffering this condition is severely compromised limiting their ability to move and speak. The affordances of the eye tracking technology provide an opportunity for the neuropsychological evaluation and the design of rehabilitation programs for this population. This research focuses in a comparative evaluation of fluid reasoning using a paper based method, in contrast to the use of eye tracking technology using the PCEye Mini from Tobii company. The WISC-V battery in the primary scale of fluid reasoning was used. This instrument presents test-retest stability. The subject of this study was a girl of 8 years and 5 months suffering spastic cerebral palsy that affects her motor control in all four limbs, however, she has adequate visual control. The evaluation was conducted initially using the paper based version of the WISC-V battery with the intervention of the evaluator. Later, a digital version of the WISC-V battery was applied using the eye-tracking device Tobbi. The results show higher performance in the tests using of eye tracking device compared to the paper based version of the test WISC-V; also, the response times were less with the use of eye tracking.

This study is the first to examine prosthesis design and appearance in healthy children towards prosthesis for children using a questionnaire. 119 typically developing children between the age of seven and twelve years were included. Their reactions were evoked by priming them to several types of assistive devices. Most of the participants clearly preferred the electrical prosthesis, proving the uncanny valley is applicable to primary school children. The life-like prosthesis was chosen three times more in the girl group, in contrast with the boys who rather prefer the robotic prosthesis and the self-drafted prosthesis. As age increased, a shift was observed from appearance to functionality. Results can be used to minimize stigma and enhance compliance of assistive aids in children with an upper limb reduction.

Hair loss is one of the most troubling aspects of chemotherapy to cancer patients. Studies indicate that hair loss affects the cancer patients’ quality of life and becomes a growing concern among women during Chemotherapy treatments. This research project applies Human Factors Product Design principles for building a prototype of low-cost hair loss prevention machine for cancer patients who are undergoing chemotherapy. The five-step product design and development process is used in this research project including (1) identifying customer needs, (2) determining product specifications, (3) creating concept generation, (4) making concept selection, and (5) concept testing. Preliminary results from this research project indicate that the new product design of hair loss prevention machine has a great potential for launching new products to the market. However, this prototype of hair loss prevention machine still needs some technical improvements for a better product budget preparation. Limitations and future work on product design and development of hair loss prevention machine are also presented.

This project is to study the relationship between blood circulation and muscle movement and to understand the metabolic function between cells. To help the middle-age and elderly improve blood circulation, prevent Vascular lesion and promote blood sugar control. This study uses resistance movements to help middle-aged and elderly people to increase their muscle fibers, improve blood circulation and metabolism, and assist in the blood sugar control. Then it can improve body function, reduce the cause of chronic disease formation, and prevent chronic diseases.The ultimate goal of this project is to design an interaction sport advice aids in lower limbs sport. Mainly to train muscles to achieve the effect of converting blood sugar into muscles become energy, thereby achieving glycemic control. In addition, muscle movement promotes blood circulation throughout the body, burns excess calories, and prevents atherosclerosis caused by endothelial cell dysfunction.

Considering the geography, the public infrastructure and the products available in Colombia, there was identified an insufficiency in the supply of wheelchairs appropriated for the tough conditions of rural areas. In response, an all-terrain, three-wheeled and leveraged wheelchair was designed, using the user-centered design approach. The wheelchair was adapted to the anthropometric and anatomical characteristics of its users and considered arms biomechanics for the design of leveraged driving system. In addition, it was proposed the use of magnesium alloys to reducing the weight of the wheelchair frame, which helps to reduce the effort thus contributing to the preservation of upper limbs. The wheelchair was co-designed involving potential users in the design process. The digital model suggests a weight reduction of 75% to 55% compared to commercial models and shows adequate structural behavior. Currently, a functional prototype is being manufactured, which will be subjected to technical and usability tests.

This project consists on a game kit for treatment of cognitive disorders in general, as the actual offer of tools for this purpose is neither adequate or existent. This problem is aggravated by the fact that major neurocognitive disorders are underdiagnosed and the occurrence is increasing as the number of elders rises. The game kit contains a simple alphabet, a logical sequence game and a pack of illustrated cards. The alphabet and logical sequence game had their pieces 3D printed and the cards were made of polystyrene. The illustrations were printed in vinyl adhesive. They were projected to suit multiple appliances and diverse patients. Using the ergonomic concepts and applications of Anamaria de Moraes, two occupational therapy patients which suffered from AD (Alzheimer’s Disease) had their treatments as tests for the mockups. The necessary corrections and adjustments were made leading to immediate results.

This article studies the history of walking sticks, the consequences of the negative stigma around it and explores how it can be redesign to serve people nowadays and help them to have a better posture, movement and occupy the space that belongs to them too. In order to develop a product better for their users, ergonomic problem were used in order to find the gap the products available leaves and to notice how the users handle the product. Meanwhile a investigation is made with the user, family and a team of physiotherapist focusing on how the user feels about the product and about being seen using it. With those points considered it was created an alternative for a new design that reduces the double gait support during the swing phase. It is also aesthetically pleasing, drawing attention to it by the design making the owner feels proud of using it.

The present research describes the application of the SHERPA (Systematic Human Error Reduction and Prediction Approach) tool in an airport environment. This study was based on existing regulations and documents that provided information about visual impairment, accessibility in transportation and the accessibility design. The results of this study point out some difficulties and constraints that the target group face regarding to receiving and carrying out procedures at the Brazilian airport. Furthermore, this study suggests relevant information about accessibility in order to allow passengers with blind disability travel with autonomy.

This paper’s goal is to identify the different methods and techniques of assistive technology evaluation with users with disabilities, focusing on the post-design phase. As a method, we carried out a literature review regarding user-centered design and assistive technology. For the data analysis strategy, we followed three stages: 1- Descriptive analysis (based on the information provided by the authors); 2- Grouping methods and techniques by similarity; 3- Quantitative analysis (based on the incidence of the methods and techniques found. As a result, were identified 20 evaluation methods and techniques. The highest incidence were: survey, questionnaires, interviews and focus groups.

The major cause of problems with hand motility in adults is due to work accidents, strokes, injuries and work accidents. The emergence of robotic gloves for hand rehabilitation therapy has been developed to assist with rehabilitation treatment. In this scientific paper, a robotic glove prosthesis is designed and developed for use in hand rehabilitation in patients with grip pathologies. There is talk of mechanical design and operation, and the glove is controlled by a mobile application that allows the physiotherapist to enter the settings for the patient or allow an expert system based on 15 rules to do so. The system is capable of generating reports for the patient, the physiotherapist or the caregiver to review. The developed system is portable, lightweight and easy to transport. The validation of the prototype was carried out with adult patients suffering from hemiparesis.

The study aims to determine the most efficient and likeable type of Accessible Pedestrian Signal sound for students with visual disabilities in the University of the Philippines Diliman. The five most frequently used sound types were considered for the study, which are “Speech message”, “Toks”, “Clicks”, “Cuckoo”, and “Chirp”. The study made use of a functional assessment, through a simulation with twelve (12) participants that measures their reaction and total crossing time. It also made use of a qualitative assessment through a survey patterned after Minoru Sasaki’s Questionnaire on Preference to the Environmental Sounds. Overall, the “Tok” sound is the most suitable Accessible Pedestrian Signal tone for the university. It is perceived to be the most likeable sound, and although it does not produce the fastest reaction and crossing time, it will still be efficient enough to get pedestrians to cross safely within the WALK interval duration of 15 s.

The designs of jobs, equipment, machinery, tools and spaces in general should be made considering the anthropometry of users, unfortunate in developing countries, such as Ecuador, do not have the anthropometry of its inhabitants, therefore, anthropometric tables are used that do not conform to their reality, which causes problems of productivity, waste of resources, and even effects on the safety and health of the population in general.A group of researchers aware of the need to have the anthropometric model of the population, and the difficulties that arise when taking anthropometric measurements by taking direct measures in people, with the technological advance these problems are solved, but 3D scanners are expensive and even more so if they are of high precision. A scanner application was developed where hardware and software are combined. The hardware is used: a computer with medium conditions. The software uses SKANECT software and BLENDER free software.With the structured scanner with these features the total cost is approximately 1800 USD, if we take into account that the computer tentatively companies or researchers already have, the cost of the scanner is approximately 600 or 800 USD. In the evaluation of the accuracy obtained in the scanner for the measurement of the human body, we can indicate when contrasting the values obtained by the traditional method and the measurements obtained with the digital process, the difference reaches a value lower than 2%, which allows the required standards to be met for the calculation of the anthropometric model of a population.