Human-Computer Interaction. Interaction Contexts

Game Design research, in the past few years, has spawned multiple models and frameworks for understanding of games as systems. These models and frameworks predominantly function as pedagogic tools rather than something designers can readily use. The availability of multiple frameworks with varying detail as well as the lack of interactive layers on these frameworks makes it difficult for practicing designers to use them effectively.In an attempt to overcome this limitation we propose a Unified Game Design (UGD) framework which assimilates components and elements from multiple existing models, frameworks and ontologies. The UGD framework features a superset of the existing elements and creates categories and relationships that makes it more usable.We explored several applications of the UGD framework in analysis, completion and synthesis of games. However this paper elaborates the interactive implementation of the UGD framework in the generation of game ideas. The game of ‘Lets Game it’ with the framework’s components and elements at its core was designed for the same purpose. The game provokes the designers to create new combinations of components and elements to generate game ideas. We conducted play tests for this game and found that game practitioners found it useful in generating game ideas.

With the support of the regional public transport operator, this paper explores the potential for mobile games to make journeys on public transport more enjoyable. To this end we have developed a game called Bus Runner which is a context-aware endless runner, based on open and shared data. By blending features of the physical world, such as recognisable landmarks, with the game’s virtual world, we situate and enhance passengers’ experience of travelling on public transport. We identify a set of challenges and opportunities based on the development and evaluation of Bus Runner. These are of relevance not only for game development purposes, but also impact context-driven content generation of infotainment services as a whole.

Since the childhood, one learned to detect, more or less precisely, where a sound is coming from in space. In multiple situations, auditory feedbacks can be used to supplement or to reinforce the visual channel, as the auditory channel helps at monitoring the surrounding beyond the limited field of view: over 360°. In past studies, we have observed that the ability to properly assess the direction of a 3D sound varies greatly from one person to another. In particular, we found that training plays a major role in this task. To allow people to improve their abilities in perceiving the direction of a 3D virtual sound, we described here a serious that targets this learning. The designed game has been implemented in Unreal engine 4. An experiment aimed at assessing the value of that serious game is also presented. We observed that all participants of that study have, for the two level of the game, improved their score after practicing the game for a 10 min period.

The area of Online gaming has been widely researched with one glaring omission, the role of national culture in explaining online game playing differences across countries. The purpose of this study is to exam how and why national culture affects online game playing and how to extend online game playing time from a culture perspective. The findings would be beneficial in the theoretical understanding of the online game playing behavior.

The mobile games have a huge potential market and the total revenue is predicted to increase at more than 10% per year through 2020. Therefore, it will make mobile games as the largest segment of the global video games industry by a wide margin at that time. In addition, it is widely accepted by gamers, developers, and game researchers that immersion is one of the most important parts of game play experience. This paper will report a case study about researching how to enhance mobile gamer’s immersion in terms of a third person shooter games’ user interface design. We begin by reviewing existing notions of engagement and immersion in gaming experience, and then survey related practical and theoretical work about methods increasing gamers’ immersion, in the context of user interface design. Then, we proposed four key methods, which can enhance the games’ immersion in terms of user interface design. By using these methods, designer can design the game UIs efficiently, no matter design new UIs or iterate old UI versions.

Online video watching coupled with audience interaction through comments overlaid on the video screen is becoming increasingly popular in China. By incorporating features of social media into the design, the underlying Danmaku technology enables users to post comments while viewing videos. The comments are then projected as scrolling titles onto the video screen, invoking a lively and playful viewing experience. Little is yet known about the unique nature of the technology and its attraction, despite growing scholarly and practical interest in Danmaku technology. In this paper, we investigate user experiences to understand the nature and impact of Danmaku technology. We report on a focus group discussion with experienced users of Danmaku video sites. Our findings suggest that the Danmaku functions (interface design, control, augmented display, anonymity) and Danmaku comments (density, relevance, timeliness, subdivision) play essential roles in creating a play experience (company, fun, emotional release, sense of belonging, attentiveness). Design principles and possible applications of Danmaku technology are discussed.

Users are interacting with an increasing number of devices and screens. However, these screens are usually used independently without collaboration between them. Although there have been several advances in multi-screen applications the game community does not seem to have fully explored this opportunity as yet. This paper presents an approach for the development of mobile multi-screen and multi-device games. The approach aims to enable and foster the creation of multi-device games sharing information via a centralized screen and is demonstrated by means of an example, the well-known Casino Roulette game. The results of a preliminary evaluation of the game are also presented.

This paper examines the role of gamification for enjoyment in physical exercise and a healthy diet. The lack of motivation for these health-related behaviors is associated with the rising incidence of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, hypertension, and obesity. Gamification involves leveraging on enjoyment derived from game mechanics that could galvanize individuals to exercise and consume healthier meals. Literature has also noted that enjoyment is associated with competing activities, personal investments, valuable opportunities, social constraints, and social support. This work introduces Zest!, a gamified application designed to enhance enjoyment to exercise and diet. Zest! aims to enhance enjoyment by entwining exercising and dieting activities with game mechanics. An evaluation was conducted to understand users’ perception of enjoyment associated with exercising and dieting as a result of using Zest!. It validates the game mechanics in enhancing the enjoyment to the activities. A total of 70 participants took part in the study and used it for two days. During the study, the participants were given tasks to utilize the available features. A questionnaire was administered at the end of the study to elicit their perceptions. Regression analyses were performed on the data collected. The results indicate that gamified applications has to potential to enhance enjoyment for physical exercise and a healthy diet. The implications from this study are presented.

Understanding what makes computer games enjoyable is important not only for game design, but for the design of any interactive experience where it is important that users will want to use the design. We define enjoyment broadly as the positive evaluation of your experience. Existing models of game enjoyment are either not comprehensive enough, were not generated by empirical research, or both. We aim to fill this gap in the literature with a card sorting study exploring participants’ experience and mental models around what leads to computer game enjoyment. A broad literature review identified 167 sources of enjoyment. Our research group conducted an open card sort with these items to identify 24 initial categories of enjoyment sources. Sixty participants will sort the 167 sources of enjoyment into the 24 categories, plus a “not a source of enjoyment” category. After every ten participants, we will calculate inter-rater agreement with Randolph’s free-marginal multi-rater kappa. We hope this research will lead to a new, more comprehensive and content valid model of the sources of computer game enjoyment.

The development of applications that helps urban mobility has been pushed by the increase of processing capacity and miniaturization of the mobile device as well as the improvement of speed and availability of Internet. Such applications can support users in several activities such as tracing routes and searching for addresses. In this scenario, this work aims to: (i) understand how users use urban mobility applications; (ii) evaluate the quality of interaction and interface into real applications called “Waze” and “Meu Ônibus”; and (iii) improve the applications based on the results of the evaluations. Moreover, this study also suggests a set of recommendations for urban mobility applications in developing countries like Brazil.

As new and better versions of smartphones come out, users increasingly have their old models of smartphones unused at home. Smartphones have remarkable capabilities, and it seems that these unused phones are a waste of potential. The MAEK project was inspired by the question: what if the computing power of a personal phone wasn’t handheld? Where else could this tech exist? If it were imbedded in a more public environment instead of contained to the hand or pocket, does it open up new interaction opportunities? The MAEK project at Draper explored these questions. Using a User-Centered approach, a team of designers at Draper researched, designed, prototyped, and tested a product (MAEK) that proved the new and exciting interactions of personal cellphone tech embedded in the environment. This project included 4 parts: the adhesive case hardware, the gesture recognition computer vision, the automatic video parsing, and the user experience of the application interface. This paper focuses on the user experience.

Users spend hours making selections with ineffective tools, we therefore examine selection methods for efficiency in various touch trials. In a preliminary study three alternative selection methods were identified, we compared these to a smart selection tool. The study showed that a single selection method was the fastest; however, when the amount of targets increased, a multiple selection tool became more efficient. A secondary study with more targets revealed similar results. We therefore examined the single selection method against traditional selection methods in a user study. The results reveal a model of the average action and time cost for all methods within the parameters of mental preparation and target addition. The study revealed that the most favored selection methods were a lasso and brush selection tool. The study provides evidence towards a predictive model of selection performance for multiple target selection trials.

Technology adoption rates of older adults typically lag behind those of their younger counterparts; a digital divide. This is unfortunate because technology has many potential benefits for older people. Among older adults, attitudes and cognitive abilities predict computer and Internet adoption, use, and proficiency. However, an important trend over the past two decades has been the rise of mobile computing (specifically with respect to smartphones and tablet computers). High quality interactions with mobile technology critically depend upon individuals’ technology proficiency, making it important to understand how mobile device proficiency might be anticipated. This paper explored predictors of mobile device proficiency among older adults (65+) using a dataset from a cognitive intervention study that included 60 participants. Measures of computer and mobile device proficiency were obtained. Demographic variables and assessments of reasoning ability, processing speed, and executive control were collected and explored as predictors of mobile device proficiency. Even within this older adult sample, mobile device proficiency was related to age, but contrary to predictions, cognition was not significantly related to mobile device proficiency; the strongest predictor of mobile device proficiency was computer proficiency. This implies some transfer of proficiency from one technology platform to another. These results have implications for predicting quality technology interactions given the link between interaction quality and technology proficiency.

In this paper, in order to study the user fatigue of gesture interaction of wearable device, we combine Surface electromyography (sEGM) and the subjective fatigue evaluation of users to evaluate the fatigue degree of the basic interactive gestures of the left arm. By analyzing the normalized date of the sEMG in time domain, we featured the EMG discharge. We also find that the operation of information content has lower physical fatigue compared with the operation of physical device and layer structure. And because of the asymmetry of gesture, gesture of different direction has different fatigue even they belong to same type. And we build a model by combining sEMG and the subjective fatigue feeling evaluation of users to mapping the relationship between the objective energy expenditure and subjective fatigue. The result of this experiment provides basis and measures for fatigue detection, mission planning and the design of gesture interaction.

Z-force cubic interface is a 3D interface using the cube as a core design element and utilizing z-force touch as the general interaction medium. Unlike previous research conducted to provide the 3-dimensional interface or new ways of controlling interfaces, z-force cubic interface combines effective mediums to provide intuitive and real-life like control of virtual mobile space. A prototype was produced to conduct heuristic research on the concept and several z-force touch gestures with high applicability were chosen as a controlling system. 3D navigation of the cube, zooming in and out, and unconstrained manipulation of application mimics real word interactions, leading to improvements in usability. Utilizing the 3D cube to see 360-degree photos or videos and sending VR emotions pulled down the boundaries between the conventional interface and reality. Interactive feedback of incoming alerts and notifications by rotation or resizing the cube itself works as an intuitive and entertaining factor for operating mobile space. Z-force cubic interface, as a whole, tries to give users a novel opportunity of experiencing the real world in a virtual mobile space without additional equipment, such as VR gadgets.

In this paper, we present a soft keyboard, called Meyboard, which enables the user to touch-type. To achieve this, we designed the Meyboard such that the bottom row of the QWERTY layout is omitted, and the positions and sizes of the keys are automatically adjusted to user’s fingers while the user is typing. Omitted keys are input by performing a flicking action on the remaining keys. This design allows the user to type faster and more accurately than with a conventional soft keyboard, even if the user does not see the keys while typing. We have implemented a Meyboard prototype, and have performed a longitudinal user study involving one participant. The results show that in the final week of the user study, the participant is able to type at a rate of 40.7 words per minute, with an error rate of 4.57%.

Entering text on a small mobile device is not easy due to the relatively small screen space and the fat finger problem. We consider a multimodal text input method, called Vouch-T (Voice + tOUCH - Text) combining the touch and voice input in complementary way. With Vouch-T, the user makes an approximate touch among densely distributed alphabetic keys, accompanied with the voice input to effectively disambiguate the target among possible candidates. We have assessed the potential of Vouch-T in terms of the usability and performance compared to the conventional touch-only based method. We considered two types of text input layout, namely, the QWERTY and 3 × 4 telephone keypad on two sizes of mobile devices, the smart phone and smart watch. The comparative simulation experiment validated that the multimodal approach of Vouch-T improves the input performance and usability for the smaller-sized smart watch, but only marginally for the larger smart phone.

The presented approach solves the problem of organizing a well-structured dialogue between a smartwatch wearer and a health assistance app running on the smartwatch. Especially for emergency situations, when the app has concluded the presence of several threatening health or security hazards. Such situations require an effective, joint handling of all acute health and security hazards in one combined dialogue. Otherwise, the domain specific knowledge for concluding present hazards has been isolated deliberately into separate units for efficient maintenance and comprehensibility. It is represented in a declarative way by finite state machines. A multitude of such finite state machines will be executed simultaneously in the app for monitoring all relevant potential health and/or security hazards. Furthermore, the tactical knowledge for dialogue handling of concluded hazards is represented independently from the domain specific knowledge by “critical dialogue sections”, CDSs. A CDS has an internal activity structure for controlling the dialogue with the smartwatch wearer in order the handle the concluded hazard. During the execution of a CDS, the smartwatch I/O and communication devices are exclusively attached to the CDS. Effective handling of such concluded hazards does typically include to establish a speech connection with distant family members or a home emergency call center. This can be achieved via the integrated cellular phone of the smartwatch. The selection of the situationally most appropriate hazard for handling is done via a central scheduler utilizing a blackboard. Our application framework relieves the software developer from dealing with the details and obstacles of effective dialogue implementation and allows to focus on the domain specific knowledge and handling logic of the assistance app.

Many people use their smartphone before going to bed. However, using a smartphone before sleeping can cause problems, such as difficulty falling asleep and light sleep. We propose a notification system to encourage a user to refrain from using smartphone before going to bed. The proposed system displays messages about influence of sleep on plans for the next day and health risks of smartphone use. In addition, the proposed system displays the time remaining before going to bed. We conducted an experiment to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed system and discuss the results of this experiment. The target of the proposed system is university students in Japan. From the experimental result, features of the proposed system motivate participants to think about not using their smartphones. However, the participants did not actually refrain from using them.

This paper introduces mLogoped, a mobile application for delivering remote speech-language pathology (SLP) therapies. With an aim to examine quality of a mLogoped application, an empirical study was carried out. Participants in the study were parents of children diagnosed with SLP disorders. Data was collected with pre- and post-use questionnaire. Items in pre-use questionnaire were related to the participants’ computer literacy, their experience in using mobile devices and applications, and their preferences with respect to attending online SLP therapies. After spending a week using the application, the study participants examined its quality by means of user version of Mobile App Rating Scale (uMARS) post-use questionnaire adapted to SLP domain. An analysis of collected data revealed to what extent mLogoped has met one subjective (perceived quality) and four objective (engagement, functionality, aesthetics, and information quality) facets of mobile quality.

As wearable devices have been intelligentized in recent years, many high-teach companies launch smart watches successively. These companies constantly upgrade shapes and functions of smart watches. However, market performances of some products are not up to the expected standard, since smart watches are in the leading-in period of product life cycle and the market demand remains unclear. Furthermore, because different consumer groups have different consumer psychologies and behaviors, they show various preferences for functions of smart watches. For instance, male group tends to be more rational and regular in consumer behaviors, while female group is more sensitive with active thinking and strong initiative in consumer behaviors. Moreover, female group prefers to pursue fashion and novelty, purchase some new products and try new life. As a result, how to locate developments of smart watches in light of needs of different users is an important research topic. According to the questionnaire data, this research adopts Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) to explore the differences of consumer psychologies and behaviors of customers in product preferences, concluding the determinant attributes for attracting consumers to buy products. Compared with traditional Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), FAHP combines AHP and fuzzy theory. Ambiguous problem assessments must use the concept of fuzzy function in FAHP to calculate fuzzy weights. This research adopts questionnaire survey to handle research questions in hierarchical analyses. Similarity aggregation method is utilized to integrate opinions of research objects. Then, FAHP is used to figure out importance degrees of all hierarchies, analyzing the differences of the two groups in preferences for functions of smart watches. First of all, this research collects opinions of experts and experienced product designers through surveying users of smart watches. In addition, various kinds of evaluation criteria are selected. The representative five criteria and thirteen sub-criteria are arranged through classification. The five criteria are battery time, interaction, communication, security and APP development. The thirteen sub-criteria are voice, touch, physical, auxiliary communication, independent communication, waterproof, theftproof, time management, geographic information, intelligent life, sports health, sociality and battery time. After confirming the hierarchical structure established by five criteria and thirteen sub-criteria, this research adopts paired comparison method to design the questionnaire. Moreover, this research sets up paired matrix table of questionnaire data in accordance with the defined evaluation values of fuzzy linguistic. Besides, this research integrates opinions of research objects through similarity aggregation method, calculating fuzzy weights for obtaining eigenvectors and eigenvalues. Eventually, this research conducts criteria ranking of all data from assessment criteria and sub-criteria. That is how to infer the differences of different gender consumers in preferences for functions of smart watches. According to the methods and results of this research which can be aimed at different target populations, development strategies of smart watches are proposed respectively and recommendation of product function combination is presented in light of different target markets.

This paper proposes two three-finger-tap methods designed for navigation in three-dimensional (3D) scenes. The proposed methods can be implemented in 3D applications installed on a tablet. One method integrates rotation, scaling, and translation (RST) into the specification of a triangle as a region of interest. The other is a point-of-interest (POI) method using multi-touch techniques without a virtual widget. Two experiments showed that the proposed methods perform better than a conventional RST method in two kinds of 3D scenes. Moreover, questionnaire results support the conclusion that the two methods not only performed better than a conventional POI method, but also enabled users to interact as freely and precisely as with a conventional RST method.

Computational thinking has gained a revival as a movement to promote the early teaching of programming concepts in the schools; it has been considered a fundamental skill in the contemporary world, not only for computers scientists but also for anyone in the future. In fact, in the last decades, the digital technology has provoked profound transformations in a world in which computer systems are underlying objects of the physical and social world, mediating our actions in society. This amplified view of the computational technology in our life brings to question the reach of the ‘computational thinking’ concept and leads us to reflect on what would mean fluency with (digital) information technology. In this work, we argue that a wider understanding for ‘computing’ should be addressed if we are to construct computer-based applications that enrich human life in the world. In this paper, we revisit the concept of computational thinking from its origins in computer science to the educational use of it, and address programming as designing in different layers of sign system, bringing issues of the social and informal nature (culture, commitments) to the formal and technical levels of programming. A case study with the design and use of a low cost tangible programming learning environment illustrates our proposal. The article ends up with a discussion on how the proposal faces risks of exaggerating the enthusiasm for the subject and concludes highlighting main findings.

The quality of communication between a teacher and students is deeply related to the cultivation of students’ motivation, autonomy, and creativity in a university education. It is important to evaluate such communication and improve it to enhance faculty development. In this study, a system for measuring this communication has been developed. To implement the system, an application for measuring students’ body movements using the acceleration sensor of a smartphone was developed. At the same time, a server-side web system that visualizes the measured data was developed. Using this measurement system, the communication in a seminar of a university laboratory was measured. The results show that the activities of a presenter and audience can be clearly detected by the raw and frequency-analyzed accelerometer data. Moreover, the correlation between the sonograms of the presenter and of the audience members became stronger when they had constructive discussion. These results suggest that the synchronization between a presenter and the audience is related to their level of rapport.

Situation is a computational abstraction that encapsulates human-centric contexts, which can be human-oriented behavioral contexts as well as the relevant environmental contexts. Its potential applications in computer science range from artificial intelligence, service computing, human-computer interaction, pervasive computing to software engineering and software systems. In this paper, we introduce a user-centric situation-aware Intelligent Online Learning Platform (IOLP) that aims to provide a personalized learning experience for those conducting online-learning activities. It joins the engineering techniques from Machine Learning, Intelligent Systems (IS) and Human-Computing Interaction (HCI) to offer highly personalized services to the users. It serves as an experimental subject for, as well as a real-world implementation of situations. Under the strength of the abstraction of situation, various elements drawn from different areas in computer science are seamlessly integrated towards a user-centric Intelligent Online Learning Platform (IOLP). Our discussions on the IOLP are further supported by an online class instance it currently hosts featuring Python Programming.

Based on an observational study of astronomy education using a tangible globe system, this paper aims to elicit implications for effective learning procedure for tangible learning environments. By analyzing the experiment based on “embodied design” concept, we found that, when appropriate instruction is not provided, intuitive operability of tangible user interface at times rather disturbs learners’ thinking opportunities. We also found that by properly limiting the information to show learners, the system can make learners be more conscious of the meaning of manipulating tangible objects and result in better understanding of the learning content.

Tangible User Interfaces are one of the ideas to develop a learning materials as an invisible computing system. First, we developed a tangible learning system for learning Solar System that allows the users themselves to manipulate astronomical models of the sun, earth, and moon, which exist as visible tangible bodies. Second, the tangible learning system was implemented in an elementary school science class and twenty 6th grade students from a public elementary school participated in this practical study. The results clearly showed that the comprehension test scores of students who scored high on mental rotation test increased greatly following the class using the tangible learning system.

Learning activities were evaluated using questionnaire survey, video, or audio. However, these methods have the following problems. First, writing on the questionnaire paper is difficult, especially for little children. Second, because the answering questionnaires was performed after the experiments were finished. They were different temporally and spatially from the scene to be evaluated. Moreover, sometimes participants has forgot the part of the contents. Finally, by recording video or audio, we can look back at each scene and evaluate them, however, video or audio analysis takes a very long time. This research aims to solve these three problems and evaluate natural reactions; first, for children of a low age group, second, including changes in the state of participants during an activity, and third, as much as possible without wasting time and effort. In this paper, during storytelling events for children, we attempted to obtain the values of acceleration and angular velocity sensors with sensors placed on the participant’s heads, and tried to estimate their motions and degree of interests. Motions were calculated using the F-value, with accuracies of 0.66 in “Sitting state”, 0.26 in “Sitting again”, 0.47 in “Wriggling”, and 0.93 in “Playing with hands”. From these results, “Playing with hands” had the highest degree of interest, with a motion recognition rate of 0.93 in F-value. Comparing the proposed method with the video evaluation later, the proposed method can obtain the evaluation result during the learning activity. Therefore, by feeding back the estimation result in real time, we can make improvements while doing activities.

This paper describes the development of a tangible puppetry role-play simulation system called “EduceBoard”, which enables students to role-play, based on various character’s voices, in role-play simulation. It is to be noted that students are unable to play the diverse roles of children due to psychological inhibition and other factors in face-to-face self-performed role-play. EduceBoard is a tangible puppetry role-play simulation system that assists improvisational role-play, such as microteaching, by enabling students to play using puppets. It also provides web animation and comment functions for reflecting upon their play, recorded in a server. This paper describes the design specifications and implementation of the EduceBoard system, and discusses the current and future system applications.

In this paper, we investigate the effect of the types of user interfaces on human cognitive processes of learning. We built the systems of making logic circuits with TUI and GUI. In the initial stage of learning, the participants took the same strategy and the behaviors of problem solving were very similar. However, as the learning proceeded, we found that the behaviors got different between each interfaces. Moreover, we found that the strategies adopted with each interface are different. When the subjects learn with GUI, they keep considering by predicting the results with only the already obtained knowledge, and, if they cannot apply the knowledge because of being difficult problems, they just repeat the process of the trials and errors. On the other hand, when the subjects learn with TUI, they use various strategies and think from various viewpoints. If they face to some difficulties, they try to find new rules or knowledge to overcome the difficulties.

This paper describes the design of XingBoard (Crossing Board) system from the viewpoint of bodily control of interaction. XingBoard is a tablet-based tool that supports a bi-directional transition between personal and collective activities in collaborative learning process. For this purpose, this system provides a shared space for discussion comprised of multiple, connected tablet terminals and allows users to move post-it like cards from one terminal to another. In addition, the sys-tem can copy cards from a shared space to each learner’s tablet for individual work, which consists of reflection on or revision of the results of the group discussion. To evaluate the system from an interaction perspective, we record scenes where a group of 4 subjects use XingBoard. As a result of interaction analysis, it turns out that XB, by its tangible nature, supports collaborative work by enabling learners to use their bodily movements as interaction re-source.

This paper describes a tangible programming tool named Plugramming that promotes collaborative work and reports on how learning this tool can have beneficial effects on children. In recent years, there have been many programming workshops for children. However, ordinal computers are designed to be operated by only one person. This means it is difficult for children to collaborate with other children in the workshop. Therefore, Plugramming is focused at enabling collaboration among children when compared to the other tools. It consists of module blocks and plug cables; a user can create a program by connecting module blocks with plug cables. Plug is an important concept of this tool. To evaluate this tool, we held a workshop and observed various children. We determined that there was physical advantage of making a program with tangible blocks. In the future, we will continue the development while discussing the possibility of enabling various studies.

We introduce an interactive, dynamic visualization aimed at improving navigation in complex systems, including but not limited to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. Users of these types of industrial behemoths are typically presented with a multilayered menu structure for navigating the various task interfaces. The vast number of options and paths tends to overwhelm users rather than encourage system exploration. Experienced users prefer memorizing transaction codes that take them directly to the page for that task, leaving them with a fragmented understanding of how tasks fit together. The Dynamic Task Map with information (DTMi) addresses these issues by providing an interactive, dynamic mapping of the tasks supported by the system and the connections between them. A laboratory evaluation involving an earlier version of this interface, referred to as DTM, revealed that users were at least twice as fast at finding transactions with DTM than with a standard SAP interface and were correct nearly twice as often in their answers to questions concerning those transactions. Outcomes from that study, including feedback from participants, led to improvements that were incorporated into DTMi. In this paper, we present this new interface, describe how it extends the earlier version, compare it to alternative approaches, and discuss our plans for user evaluations and future research in this area.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) so-called drones are getting more and more popular in the civil sector as well as in the military scope. One of the main challenges is the interaction of the pilot and the drone. This paper explores the usage of different game controllers as input device to control an UAV. In an explorative study, participants fulfill a predefined flying task and report their expectations before and experiences after performing the flight with different gaming controllers. The resulting insights are a basis for further interaction research activities.

There has been increasing awareness of the need for disaster prevention in Japan. The aim of this research is to ascertain whether a basic knowledge of disaster prevention can be acquired through fieldwork learning activities for purposes of creating a disaster prevention map. We developed a disaster prevention learning support system that facilitated the task of recording information at real locations, and then aggregated it. Using this system, we conducted a classroom exercise at a high school to help students identify the kinds of hazards that are likely to develop in specific areas—based on their features—in the event of a large earthquake. After conducting fieldwork, they returned to the classroom. Under the guidance of their teachers, they referred to the information they had recorded and the knowledge they had acquired to postulate a scenario in which a large earthquake occurred. They further assumed that this earthquake had occurred while they were outdoors. The students then devised evacuation measures using paper simulations. The results of this exercise revealed that the knowledge of disaster prevention acquired through this exercise had practical applications.

This paper use the interface of airplane HUD as object and based on the color design theory and visual perception theory to study the HUD foreground color adaptive system. First, selecting the best appropriate color model and put forward the best matching color scheme based on the color adaptive theory, color design theory and visual perception theory. Second, proposing the way of background master color extraction by study the color processing theory. Finally, typical aircraft background environments selection and processing results. In this paper, the research provides background color processing method and HUD foreground color adaptive scheme. There are positive contributions to improving HUD interface color design. A better HUD interface can strengthen cognitive abilities of pilots and make more correct decisions or judgments during the process of flight mission.

This paper proposes a sightseeing support system that uses pictures and location information to guide tourists to of interest when they take a stroll during the free time available in sightseeing tours. This system allows the selection of a place that the user wants to visit by displaying various pictures of nearby interesting places on a map. This enables the user to choose a course freely, and enjoy detours at one’s own leisure. The system thus helps tourists in visiting multiple places of interest other than their predetermined destination within the limited time available for sightseeing. The results of experiments on 30 min strolls using the proposed system suggest that in choosing the places of interest, the pictures displayed on the map were found to be very useful, and comparing the actual scenery with the pictures helped the subjects reach their destination easily. They were also able to change their destination to a different one easily during the strolls.

A Recommender System (RS) provides personalized suggestions of objects of users’ interest or that they may like. Traditional RS techniques consider only aspects related to users and items to recommend and ignore contextual information. Context-Aware RS (CARS) consider information about the user’s context to improve the recommendation process. Time is adimension of context that has the advantage of being easy to collect, since almost any system can record the interaction timestamp. Moreover, time can serve as valuable input for improving recommendation quality. Therefore, this work aims to investigate how time is being applied in CARS and, for this purpose, we used a Systematic Mapping methodology. In total, 88 papers were considered to answer the research questions defined. Initially we observed that the papers’ distribution by year have been increased in the last years. As a result, we also defined seven categories of how CARS uses the time in recommendation process.

For an efficient emergency response, emergency responders (ERs) should exchange information with one another to obtain an adequate understanding and common operational picture of the emergency situation. Despite the current developments on information systems, many ERs are unable to get access to the relevant information as the data is heterogeneous and distributed at different places and due to security and privacy barriers. As a result, ERs are unable to coordinate well and to make good decisions. Therefore, to overcome these difficulties, a web-based application called LifeRescue was developed for supporting easy information access during emergency search and rescue operation. The goal of the paper is to test the developed LifeRescue system against the user requirements. We conducted a workshop with nine participants i.e., six ERs from fire protection service and three ERs from police service. First, the workshop session started with prototype demonstration and trial, then a System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire was given, and finally a semi-structured interview was conducted to collect data on the user requirements validation. The results presented in this paper combine both qualitative and quantitative data from a semi-structured interview and a survey conducted after the prototype demonstration and trail. The interview results indicate that our developed system fulfils the user requirements of 6 ERs from fire protection and 3 ERs from police services. Furthermore, the survey results indicate that the participants would like to use our developed system frequently as they felt that it was easy for them to get access to information with a simplified view.

As an input device suitable for operation in VR space, we developed a prototype in 2003. Comparison experiment results with other input devices, including game controllers, showed that our prototype had learnability and memorability advantages; that is, this device is suitable for intuitive operation in VR space. After the improvement of the device, it was placed on the market under the name Cyberbird. Moreover, we experimentally proposed the best combinations between a 3-DOF analog stick and two buttons on Cyberbird and six movements of drones: pitch, roll, yaw, throttle, take-off and landing. This article introduces the results of the experiment evaluating the usability of Cyberbird for older people and students unfamiliar with playing TV games using a game controller.

In recent years, a pervasive shift of thinking has emerged in distributing the existing electrical grid in urban areas from centralized power generations to decentralized local power infrastructures, as a promising contribution to the energy resiliency of cities. Communities and neighborhoods adopting distributed energy resources as a means towards decentralization are designated to communal energy co-generation practices. Along with the co-generation of energy in such communities, it is as important to view energy consumption more than a personal decision but as a response to shared experiences and resources. Re-visioning energy consumption requires re-defining users as an indispensable element of a community through their participation in groups. This paper explores the benefit of computational means of energy feedback delivery, structured upon a collaborative incentive program, as an effective intellectual means of performing a participatory energy sharing dynamics within users of a community. We use the word “participatory” rather deliberately to place emphasize on humans as the end users of community-scale local power infrastructures, and on the institutional forces that reimagine the role of human action on constructing energy resiliency in such communities.

In frame of OPTIMOS project (Open, Practical Infrastructures for Mobile Services) an open practical ecosystem based on Near Field Communication (NFC) will be developed and demonstrated by different implemented use cases in the field of public transport services in two German regions. One of the main objects is e-ticketing. For the generic definition of the OPTIMOS application (APP) user requirements are surveyed among the recruited friendly user group. Based on the results of different research studies and a conducted pretest among a student group an evaluation concept with a user-centred approach is developed and discussed.

Cloud computing allows organizations to deliver better and faster services at reduced cost. Moreover, cloud also enables organizations to expand or contract based on market demand and requirements. Despite many benefits, concerns around security and privacy challenges in cloud are on the rise.In this paper we have developed a cloud security and privacy taxonomy which is used to capture the traditional security challenges with the divergence cloud technology. The content analysis revealed that cloud security and privacy inherits most of the challenges existing in traditional security, however it also introduces several new challenges around virtualization, trust, legal, privacy and data interoperability issues. The paper identifies also the gaps found in literature around Security as a Service. Finally, it introduces Privacy-by-Design (PbD) framework integrated with cloud security. We developed a control matrix based on the literature review integrated with PbD to offer organizations, developer, business architects, and decision makers a mechanism for assessing security and privacy concerns before adopting a new cloud solution.

Smart buildings and autonomous vehicles are expected to see rapid growth and adoption in the coming decades. Americans spend over 90% of their lives in buildings or automobiles, meaning that 90% of their lives could be spent interfacing with intelligent environments. EMBR Labs has developed EMBR WaveTM, a wearable thermoelectric system, for introducing thermal sensation as a connected mode of interaction between smart environments and their occupants. In this paper we highlight applications of wearable thermal technology for passengers in autonomous vehicles and occupants of smart buildings. Initial findings, collected through partnerships with Draper and UC Berkeley, respectively, are presented that illustrate the potential for wearable thermal technology to improve the situational awareness of passengers in autonomous vehicles and improve personal comfort in smart buildings.

Robotics technology can assist Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) by allowing to explore environments inaccessible or unsafe for a human team [1]. This creates the need to develop a better understanding of the USAR procedures and specific requirements in order to guide the design of the robotics technology which will be accepted by USAR professionals. The current paper explores the specific requirements for the assistive technology, and extracts design guidelines for development of the robotic technology to be used during USAR operations. Design guidelines are derived from both literature review and from a qualitative study performed with Vancouver Heavy Urban Search and Rescue Task Force (HUSAR), focusing on usage scenarios and specific requirements for communication, control and user experience. The study revealed that the most crucial factors for the design of the robot are speed, robustness, reliability, weight, affordability, and adaptability to different environments and tasks, as well as ability to provide a two-way audio/video communication. For the interface, the most important characteristics are its learnability, immersiveness, and ability to afford a high sense of spatial presence. We further discuss how the above requirements were implemented though a case-study of the development of the “TeleSpider” (a hexapod tele-operated walking robot), and assess its effectiveness during the field testing at the Vancouver HUSAR warehouse. Failing to meet a number of the discussed requirements will likely result in the technology to be rejected by the USAR team, and never being used during actual deployments as has happened with a number of existing technologies.

The comprehensive digitalization of the economy requires efficient actions from all market partners involved. This also applies to public transport sector. Proprietary solutions and closed systems are inefficient and hamper interoperability, harmonization, competition and market success. The paper presents the planned establishment of an NFC-based open ecosystem to offer secure identification for mobile services, which is demonstrated in the eTicketing domain of public passenger transport. Objectives, approaches and initial results of the OPTIMOS project are discussed, as well as further steps of action and expected results. In the run-up, the paper deals with the characteristics of the NFC technology, the NFC enabled mobile devices, the necessity of standardization and the new developed specifications in cooperation with NFC Forum, GSMA, ISO and other standardization bodies. The use cases to be implemented within the scope of the customer mobile life cycle are presented as well as the first results of interoperability tests between NFC-enabled smartphones and reader devices in public transport vehicles. At the same time, user acceptance, a high level of usability and ease of use is at the focus of the project and has to be evaluated.

Pilots use powerful and complex tools to support the mission planning process. However, during the mission planning process, pilots need tools that support the capture and referencing of common mission data objects. Specifically, pilots need to capture data objects, such as key waypoints, to reference across individual planning user interface (UI) components. Pilots also need methods for capturing actions and tasks on key mission data objects. To address these needs, Charles River Analytics designed and developed a software component that enables lightweight capture of data objects for reference across mission planning components and track pending actions on data objects. In this paper, Charles River Analytics presents our overall approach and solution to address these needs and create software that better supports the mission planning process.

Despite the general positive attitude towards renewables, protests against renewable energy infrastructure continues in Germany. The study aims to explore acceptance-relevant aspects of renewable energy sources and their infrastructure to gain a better understanding for argumentation lines of protesters and supports of renewables. The research followed a two-step procedure, beginning with an extensive focus group study. In the focus groups, participants discussed which aspects of renewables they perceived as problematic or advantageous. Based on the results, an ACA (adaptive conjoint analysis) study was designed as an online study, which 109 people fully completed. The most important attributes which resulted from the study were those that represented direct impact on nature and humans. The studies confirmed current research on energy-related infrastructure, which stress the importance of communicating about possible local impacts on the environment and residents. Methodologically, the study exemplified a user-centered research design based on bottom-up principles, in which qualitative analyses were used to determine attributes relevant to laypersons.

The design and implementation of spatial Web-based projects has been driving much research and development interest from the global community of practice over the past 10 years. The user centered evaluation of such projects outputs should be a vital part of the overall system development lifecycle. Continuously measuring and improving the User Experience (UX) of the output systems is a key factor driving better usage and enhanced user engagement.Our research objective was first to track real-time and real-world usage of Tehran web based map, developed by TMICTO (Tehran Municipality ICT Organization), then to perform a usability test on selected tasks within a defined context of use and finally, to evaluate the UX strategy maturity of Tehran web based map based on existing maturity models.We used mixed user research methods, including remote and on-site user research methods, to understand the context of use, usage behavior patterns in terms of actions and engagement, then we designed and performed usability testing and finally we evaluated the UX strategy maturity of Tehran web based map. Concrete and practical recommendations to improve the level of UX strategy maturity of Tehran web based map oriented towards short term, medium term and long term visions are formulated at the end of our research.

The creation of tools that can be used by the people in case of disaster, had been our main topic since two years ago. We created a system that generated aid links between the communities of people interconnected inside a Social Network Service. The system provides them gives the opportunity to start the relief efforts in advance and in a well organized way. As part of this platform, it is necessary the creation of a user front application. We always kept in mind that this platform should be easy to use. This may be possible with the use of a non-lingual interface with the help of a set of pictograms that should be related to the disaster field. These pictograms were collected, evaluated and animated to enhance their concept. In this paper, we will discuss about all the process that was conducted to get the set of pictograms that will be used in our user interface.

Kawaii is a Japanese word meaning cute or pretty. Authors classified this concept into three categories, i.e. the psycho-physical Kawaii, cultural Kawaii and generic Kawaii. Kawaii, especially the cultural Kawaii, could be regarded typical to the female in Japan. But the psycho-physical Kawaii and generic Kawaii may be shared by both of male and female. Authors conducted a questionnaire survey by showing 225 photographs to 89 university students including 54 male and 34 female students. Based on the statistical analysis of data, it was found that female students tend to evaluate the stimuli to be more Kawaii, beautiful and preferred than male students regarding the psycho-physical Kawaii and generic Kawaii. Further study is expected by conducting the comparative study among various cultural regions.

Virtual Reality (VR) had a banner year in 2016. VR has attracted a lot of media attention because many companies have launched Head Mounted Displays (HMDs) and other related products. As a result, the term “immersive feeling” has become more widely known. In this study, we evaluated immersive feeling using HMD. For that purpose, we created two types of content: one expected to generate high immersive feeling and another expected to generate low immersive feeling.

To avoid work fragmentation and the consequent decrease in intellectual productivity of office workers, control of interruptions based on estimated interruptibility is desired. While existing studies mainly focus on work on PCs, non-PC work is also performed in offices and is considered to affect the interruptibility of workers. In this study, we focused on the transitions between PC work and the use of smartphones or walking, which are likely interruptible moments. We developed an experimental system to detect the use of smartphones and walking and to collect users’ subjective ratings of his/her interruptibility. As the result, it was revealed that the moments at the transitions to walking tend to more interruptible, whereas the transitions to or from smartphone use are not necessarily interruptible. Furthermore, it was also found that the transitions to smartphone use without an external trigger (self-transitions) are more interruptible moments than the transitions triggered by notifications.

Currently the digitization of processes often focuses on efficiency enhancement, productivity enhancement, individualization etc., i.e. on optimizing the min-max principle. Yet, there has been an economic paradigm shift in the last years. The complexity of the digitization makes the everyday use of technical systems, products or services considerably disadvantageous for users. Products do not fit into the users’ familiar activity processes but rather stress them with additional secondary tasks.By analysing the usage phases, it is possible to derive various service innovations according to the user requirements. In the course of this work, we identified a new approach for the structuring of development processes (“innovateurship”) that will be evaluated and substantiated in further works. By establishing a normative development process in the fuzzy front end, we aim to optimise the efficiency of the development process.

In view of new challenges, the boundaries of current travel planning systems are discussed and the need for holistic mobility planning becomes clear. The agenda planning approach frees passengers from the expensive single trip planning and leads to holistic planning based on the intentions behind mobility, such as daily appointments and to-dos of users. This research addresses a definition of agenda planning and describes its importance with respect to human-computer interaction as well as mobile passenger information systems. In detail, the article discusses the challenges for usability and user experience and furthermore presents a set of seven design guidelines that can support developers in developing mobile agenda planning applications.

In designing and developing intelligent automation systems, there is often tension between the computational capabilities of the automated system and its usability and understandability. This paper presents a case study in which this tension was manifest and how we attempted to resolve it in a particular application. The application requires intelligent automation in distributed simulation for training. We describe an initial approach to such control, feedback we received from potential users, and a revision to the capability that eliminated some features but that was more acceptable to the user community. This case study may offer some observations and lessons applicable to other domains, especially in situations where penetration of a technology into everyday use is driven by informal user adoption criteria (transparency, trust, perceived usability) alongside formal functional requirements.

The automotive display market has been expanding due to the combination of auto-mobiles and IT, and the role of displays comes to be more important by increasing demands for entertainment in a car in line with the development of self-driving car. The purpose of this study is to analyze the demand of the user regarding the location of display in smart car to improve user experience. For this study, the qualitative investigation through focus group interview was performed and based on this, the major issues related to the utilization of each location were deducted. In this study, the qualitative investigation is performed to analyze the motivation and needs of the user depending on the location of the display inside a vehicle. The FGI is performed as a qualitative investigation. This study is significant that the needs of the user regarding the location of the dis-play in smart car are deducted and future studies on appropriate utilization method of each location as well as contents are necessary.