No / A mobile language learning system is implemented using an adventure game. The primary emphasis is upon graphical design and rich interaction with the user. A wide range of functionalities are described, and an efficient navigation system is proposed that uses contextual information, allowing the players to move seamlessly between mobile real and virtual worlds. The game environment is designed to have consistent graphics, dialogue, screens, and sequences of actions. Quick Response (QR) codes provide the necessary shortcuts for the players and Bluetooth connections automatically send and receive scores between teams. A response for every action is produced depending on the screen type, while keeping the file size manageable. Similar user tasks were kept spatially close together with a clearly designated beginning, middle and end. The main sources of error such as entering and extracting contextual data are predicted and simple error handling is provided. Unexpected events in mobile environments are tolerated and allowed. Internal locus of control is provided by ‘automatic pause’, ‘manual pause’ and ‘save’ commands to help players preserve their data and cognitive progress. The game environment is configurable for novice or expert players. This game is also suitable for students with auditory problems and female students are also specifically addressed.

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Jag kommer i denna uppsats beskriva den designprocess som pågått vid skapandet av en webbaserad informationsplattform från koncept till slutprodukt. Mitt uppdrag har varit att effektivisera en webbyrås nuvarande sätt att hantera och sprida information på, som bestod av en blandning mellan digital och analog information, och skapa en ny webbaserad informationsplattform. Den nya webbaserade informationsplattformen ska kunna samla all information på en plats och skapa ett effektivare informationsutbyte mellan de anställda på företaget. Jag har använt mig av två teoretiska ramverk; Nielsens tio heuristics samt Krugs visuella design hierarki. Jag har arbetat nära beställaren för att kunna skräddarsy webbplatsen till deras behov. Resultatet efter ett omfattande arbete med designmallar och front-end kodning blev grunden för webbyråns webbaserade informationsplattform, utvecklad för att effektivisera spridningen av information på företaget. / In this essay I will describe the design process during the creation of a web-based information platform, from concept to final product. My assignment has been to take a web agency’s current way of managing and distributing information, which consisted of a mix between digital and analog information, and create a new web-based information platform. The new web-based information-platforms purpose is to gather all information in one place for easier exchange of information between employees at the company and make it more efficient. I used two theoretical frameworks as a theoretical base working on the project; Nielsen's ten heuristics and Krugs visual design hierarchy. I have worked closely with the client to customize the platform to their needs. The result after extensive work with design templates and front-end coding became the foundation for the web agency’s web-based platform, developed to distribute information more efficiently within the agency.

The aim of this project was to develop and evaluate an interactive Augmented Reality interface for teaching children aged 8 to 15 about biological systems present in the human body. The interface was de- signed as one component of a “human body scanner” exhibit, which is to be featured at the ScienceAlive! Science Centre. In the exhibit, the interface allows visualization and interaction with the body systems while being moved across a human male mannequin named BRET. Prior research has shown that Augmented Reality, Visualization applications, and games are viable methods to teach biology to university aged users, and Augmented Reality and interactive systems have been used with children and learning biology as well. BRET went through three iteration phases, in the first phase, prototypes were evaluated by ScienceAlive! and designs and interactions were implemented, while the use of Augmented Reality through a transparent display was rejected. Iteration two included integration of the non-transparent touch display screen and observational evaluation of six children from 9 to 15 years old. This evaluation resulted in design and interaction changes. Iteration three was the last iteration where final interface and interaction modifications were made and re- search was conducted with 48 children from the ages 8 to 15. This was to determine whether learning, fun, and retention rates were higher for children who interacted with BRET versus those who watched video clips, or read text. Each child used one learning method to learn the three different body systems: skeletal, circulatory, and digestion. The results of the final evaluation showed that overall there was no significant difference in the children’s rating of fun or the amount of information they retained between the different learning methods. There was a positive significant difference between some of the expected fun scores and the actual fun scores. It was also found that learning with text was higher than the interactive condition but there was no differences between learning with video and interaction, or with text and video.

The evolution of Patient Reported Outcomes (PROs), has made an essential impact on patient-centered symptom management. PROs enable us to measure the patient‘s feels about their symptoms during treatment. ePROs (electronic PROs) are interfaces that allow a patient or health care provider to manage symptoms using an application such as mobile computing applications. The growth of mobile technologies in the healthcare sector has enabled us to take advantage of features like data manipulation, portability and standardization enable a better patient-driven symptom management. The Pan-Canadian Oncology Symptom Triage and Remote Support (COSTaRS) is a paper-based symptom management guideline designated for nurses. The objective of COSTaRS is to help and improve the decision-making process and create a consistent symptom management reporting system. Although this tool introduces numerous advantages in cancer symptom management, it also induces a number of issues for patients due to being overwhelming. Moreover, a noticeable portion of drawbacks originates from the paper-based nature of COSTaRS. In addition, cancer care symptom management mobile applications do not offer proper evidence-based centered symptom management system to the users. The purpose of this study is to design and developed the mobile version of COSTaRS for patients and caregivers. We identify problems with the current paper-based structure and related academic and non-academic works and then, we design and evaluate a mobile version of COSTaRS that takes advantage of advances in mobile technology. We leverage COSTaRS knowledge to create a mobile application for symptom management. We create an evidence-based platform for cancer treatment-related symptom management. A usability testing has been conducted for evaluation of the COSTaRS mobile application. The results of this study verify the usability of COSTaRS mobile application.

Speech technologies, or technologies that recognize and respond to human speech, have recently emerged as a ubiquitous and cost-effective form of customer self-service (e-service). Although customer satisfaction is regarded as an important outcome of e-service interactions, little is known about users affective responses to conversational interactions with technology. Using a theoretical foundation derived from research in social cognition, interpersonal communication, psycholinguistics, human factors, and services marketing, two studies develop items for a speech interface usability scale, which is then used to examine interrelationships among individual differences (e.g., self-monitoring, need for interaction with a service provider, inherent novelty seeking), usability, comfort, and customer satisfaction. In the first study, speech and language experts' ratings of sixteen speech interfaces are used to identify six stimuli for the second study that represent high, average, and low quality. In the second study, participants listen to the six interfaces and provide ratings for the primary variables of interest. Results indicated that speech interface usability consists of four factors (User Goal Orientation, Customer Service Behavior, Verbosity, and Speech Characteristics). Usability items and individual differences predict affective responses to speech-based e-service. Implications of these findings for psychological and communication research and applied speech technology are described.

With increasing pressure to better manage the environment many government and private organisations are studying the relationships between social, economic and environmental factors to determine how they can best be optimised for increased sustainability. The analysis of such relationships are undertaken using computer-based Integrated Catchment Models (ICM). These models are capable of generating multiple scenarios depicting alternative land use alternatives at a variety of temporal and spatial scales, which present (potentially) better Triple-Bottom Line (TBL) outcomes than the prevailing situation. Dissemination of this data is (for the most part) reliant on traditional, static map products however, the ability of such products to display the complexity and temporal aspects is limited and ultimately undervalues both the knowledge incorporated in the models and the capacity of stakeholders to disseminate the complexities through other means. Geovisualization provides tools and methods for disseminating large volumes of spatial (and associated non-spatial) data. Virtual Environments (VE) have been utilised for various aspects of landscape planning for more than a decade. While such systems are capable of visualizing large volumes of data at ever-increasing levels of realism, they restrict the users ability to accurately perceive the (virtual) space. Augmented Reality (AR) is a visualization technique which allows users freedom to explore a physical space and have that space augmented with additional, spatially referenced information. A review of existing mobile AR systems forms the basis of this research. A theoretical mobile outdoor AR system using Common-Of-The-Shelf (COTS) hardware and open-source software is developed. The specific requirements for visualizing land use scenarios in a mobile AR system were derived using a usability engineering approach known as Scenario-Based Design (SBD). This determined the elements required in the user interfaces resulting in the development of a low-fidelity, computer-based prototype. The prototype user interfaces were evaluated using participants from two targeted stakeholder groups undertaking hypothetical use scenarios. Feedback from participants was collected using the cognitive walk-through technique and supplemented by evaluator observations of participants physical actions. Results from this research suggest that the prototype user interfaces did provide the necessary functionality for interacting with land use scenarios. While there were some concerns about the potential implementation of

<p>Usability is an important aspect of product development that deals with the quality of interaction between the user and the product. Capturing requirements is aimed at understanding what the users expect the system to do. This report attempts to apply principles from both the Usability Engineering and the Requirements Engineering methodologies in the development of a subsystem for managing an e-commerce solution. The main focus is on the user interface design, which is developed by iterating the three phases of design, usability testing and evaluation, until the desired level of usability is achieved. Prototyping was central to the rapid development, but the use of software prototyping tools instead of paper-mockups would reasonably have improved the usefulness of the evaluations. The desired usability level was set to reach a specified fix point, instead of attempting to achieve some absolute usability metrics as is typically practiced. The former approach was apparently simpler to use without the broader experience otherwise needed to write reasonable requirements. The transition from the throw-away prototype to the implemented evolutionary prototype in ASP.NET posed some interesting problems that are further discussed.</p>

<p>Boverket har huvudansvar för att skapa en portal för samhällsplanering som ska kunna förse kommuner, landsting, företag och privatpersoner med olika typer av kartinformation. Denna portal kallas Planeringsportalen och som ett led i dess utveckling hölls ett designmöte i april 2007. Inför mötet gjordes en analys av diverse förebilder för att beskriva de goda designlösningar som finns i genren WebGIS, enligt förlaga från Lundberg, Holmlid och Arvolas (2007) arbete. Uppsatsen beskriver hur dessa designlösningar kan användas i designen av Planeringsportalen tillsammans med en redogörelse för hur förebilder kan bidra till en bättre designprocess. Genren representeras i arbetet av webbplatserna Eniro, Norge digitalt, RATP samt Mapquest som alla studerats enligt ett formaliserat förfarande. Analysen identifierade ett stort antal goda designlösningar varav en del ansågs passa in i Planeringsportalens designsituation.</p>