In the past decade and more than any time before, new technologies have been broadly applied in various fields of interaction between human and machine. Despite many functionality studies, yet, how such technologies should be evaluated within the context of human computer interaction research remains unclear. This research aims at proposing a mechanism to evaluate/predict the design of user interfaces with their interacting components. At the first level of analysis, an original concept extracts the usability results of components, such as effectiveness, efficiency, adjusted satisfaction, and overall acceptability, for comparison in the fields of interest. At the second level of analysis, another original concept defines new metrics based on the level of complexity in interactions between input modality and feedback of performing a task, in the field of classical solid mechanics. Having these results, a set of hypotheses is provided to test if some common satisfaction criteria can be predicted from their correlations with the components of performance, complexity, and overall acceptability. In the context of this research, three multimodal applications are implemented and experimentally tested to study the quality of interactions through the proposed hypotheses: a) full-body gestures vs. mouse/keyboard, in a Box game; b) arm/hand gestures vs. three-dimensional haptic controller, in a Slingshot game; and c) hand/finger gestures vs. mouse/keyboard, in a Race game. Their graphical user interfaces are designed to cover some extents of static/dynamic gestures, pulse/continuous touch-based controls, and discrete/analog tasks measured. They are quantified based on a new definition termed index of complexity which represents a concept of effort in the domain of locomotion interaction. Single/compound devices are also defined and studied to evaluate the effect of user’s attention in multi-tasking interactions. The proposed method of investigation for usability is meant to assist human-computer interface developers to reach a proper overall acceptability, performance, and effort-based analyses prior to their final user interface design.

In this thesis, an IT company asked for a tool for improving some aspects of daily work for employees working with customer support. A web-site was constructed for this purpose, and development was steered by applying usability evaluation methods in an iterative manner. These methods were combined with the approach of following the guidelines of user-centered design. The aim was to see if an increase of user-satisfaction towards the user-interface could be measured between iterations.Another significant question that was central to the study was the comparison between the industry-leading Nielsen’s heuristics and Gerhardt-Powals principles. Only one previous study was found making this comparison which made it interesting to see if the same result would be reached in this study.

COELHO, Odete Máyra Mesquita; PINTO, Virgínia Bentes. Recuperação da Informação: estudo da usabilidade na base de dados Public Medical (PUBMED). 2014. 172 f. Dissertação (Mestrado) - Universidade Federal da Paraíba, Mestrado em Ciência da Informação, Paraíba, 2014. / Submitted by Lidya Silva (nagylla.lidya@gmail.com) on 2016-07-01T14:54:21Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2014_diss_ommsales.pdf: 4229373 bytes, checksum: 0087285c704b68c550008eeb3ca7869a (MD5) / Rejected by Márcia Araújo (marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br), reason: Por gentileza, faça as devidas correções de acordo com as orientações recebidas. Qualquer dúvida ligar 33667659. 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No. of bitstreams: 1 2014_diss_ommsales.pdf: 4229373 bytes, checksum: 0087285c704b68c550008eeb3ca7869a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / It investigates the understanding that resident doctors have about the process of information retrieval on the basis of Public Medical (PubMed) data, taking into consideration the aspects of usability in human-computer interaction, the resources available and the level of user satisfaction in searching process. The theoretical framework used for this research relates the concepts of information and information systems for the healthcare, and then addresses the Information Retrieval systems and databases, entering the field of information architecture for evaluating the usability of these sources information. The methodological approach includes exploratory research whose first phase consisted of the heuristic evaluation of the PubMed database interface, using the guidelines proposed by Nielsen and Tahir (2002). The results of this analysis show that although these guidelines have been designed to build homepage, thirty-eight of them are suited to the PubMed interface. Therefore, it is inferred that these guidelines can be used for heuristic evaluation of databases focused on the area of Health regarding the usability of this database, it was observed that the interface has a well-structured architecture, is friendly and objective, and present numerous possibilities for search and retrieval of information. The second phase of empirical study took place through the application of prospective usability testing to measure user satisfaction database. These tests were done using a semi-structured questionnaire administered to resident doctors specialty of Internal Medicine, University Hospital Walter Cantídio the Federal University of Ceará, totaling 36% of participants. The results of this step show a good performance and a good user satisfaction PubMed regarding the usability of the database, considering that enables them to achieve their research goals with real effectiveness and efficiency, yet they do not know all the resources available to search and retrieval of information offered by this database. / Investiga qual o entendimento que os médicos residentes têm sobre o processo de recuperação de informação na base de dados Public Medical (PubMed), levando em consideração os aspectos relativos à usabilidade na interação humano-computador, os recursos disponíveis e o nível de satisfação do usuário no processo de busca. O referencial teórico utilizado para esta pesquisa relaciona os conceitos de informação e de informação para a área da saúde, e em seguida aborda os Sistemas de Recuperação de Informação e as bases de dados, adentrando no campo da arquitetura da informação para avaliar a usabilidade dessas fontes de informação. O percurso metodológico contempla a pesquisa exploratória cuja primeira etapa constou da avaliação heurística da interface da base de dados PubMed, utilizando- se as diretrizes propostas por Nielsen e Tahir (2002). Os resultados dessa análise evidenciam que, embora tais diretrizes tenham sido pensadas para a construção de homepage, trinta e oito delas se adequaram à interface da PubMed. Portanto, infere- se que essas diretrizes podem ser utilizadas para a avaliação heurística de bases de dados voltadas para a área da Saúde. Com relação à usabilidade dessa base de dados, evidenciou-se que a interface tem uma arquitetura bem estruturada, é amigável e objetiva, além de apresentar inúmeras possibilidades de busca e recuperação da informação. A segunda etapa do estudo empírico deu-se por meio da aplicação dos testes prospectivos de usabilidade para mensurar a satisfação dos usuários da base de dados. Esses testes foram feitos por meio de um questionário semiestruturado aplicado aos médicos residentes da especialidade de Clínica Médica do Hospital Universitário Walter Cantídio da Universidade Federal do Ceará, perfazendo um total de 36% de participantes. Os resultados dessa etapa evidenciam um bom desempenho e uma boa satisfação dos usuários da PubMed quanto à usabilidade dessa base de dados, haja vista que permite a eles atingirem seus objetivos de pesquisa com real eficácia e eficiência, ainda que não conheçam todos os recursos disponíveis para a busca e a recuperação da informação oferecidos por essa base de dados.

Heuristic Evaluation (HE) is a popular method of usability inspection. However, its outcomes are dependent on the expertise of evaluators. This study explored and described the difference in quality of outcomes (reports) of a collaborative HE conducted by evaluator groups of distinct composition, regarding different numbers of expert evaluators in each group. Twenty-seven (27) evaluators voluntarily contributed with this study, nine (9) expert and 18 novice evaluators. Thus, I organized seven (7) HE groups according to four (4) different levels of the factor presence of an expert, which ranged from no expert up to three (3) experts in the same group. Each group agreed to provide their reports for this study. Thereafter, I conducted a comparative analysis on the reports based on standard methods of the field and on a cluster analysis of similarities. I described the F-measure for each group report according to a relaxed and a strict criteria. Also, I described the dendrograms formed from the cluster analysis and the respective similarities indicated by each cluster. The results showed that the quality of reports from collaborative HE conducted by experts and novices together can be more similar to the quality of reports from a traditional HE with multiple expert inspectors (Benchmark Group) then to the quality of reports from a collaborative HE conducted by a group composed only by novice evaluators (Baseline Group). Finally, I discuss additional findings and implications for future studies in the field. / A Avaliação Heurística (AH) é um método popular de inspeção de usabilidade. Entretanto, seus resultados são dependentes da experiência dos avaliadores. Este estudo explorou e descreveu a diferença na qualidade de resultados (relatórios) de AH colaborativa conduzida por grupos de avaliadores de composição distinta, considerando diferentes quantidades de avaliadores experientes em cada grupo. Vinte e sete (27) avaliadores contribuíram voluntariamente com este estudo, nove (9) experientes e 18 novatos. Assim, foram organizados sete (7) grupos de AH, de acordo com quatro (4) níveis diferentes do fator presença de avaliador experiente, variando de nenhum experiente até três (3) avaliadores experientes no mesmo grupo. Cada grupo de avaliadores concordou em entregar seus relatórios de AH para este estudo. A partir de tais relatórios, foi conduzida uma análise comparativa baseada em métodos específicos da área, e também baseado em uma análise de agrupamento com base em medidas de similaridade. Como resultado, descreveu-se as medidas F (F-measure) referentes ao relatório de cada grupo respeitando critérios estritos e relaxados de comparação. Além disto, foram descritos os dendrogramas resultados das análises de agrupamento. Os resultados mostraram que a qualidade de relatórios de AH colaborativas conduzidas por avaliadores experientes e novatos juntos pode ser mais similar à qualidade de relatórios de AH tradicional conduzida por múltiplos avaliadores experientes (Grupo Benchmark) do que à qualidade de relatórios de AH colaborativa conduzida por grupos formados apenas por avaliadores novatos (Grupo Baseline). Finalmente, discutiu-se resultados adicionais e implicações para pesquisas futuras na área.

Do ponto de vista do usuário, a interface é uma das partes mais importantes dos sistemas computacionais, porque por meio dela o usuário vê, ouve e sente. Essa relevância motiva pesquisadores da área de Interação Humano-Computador a estudarem maneiras de se criarem interfaces com design focado em usabilidade. A avaliação da usabilidade de interfaces visa verificar se elas atendem aos requisitos do usuário de forma que as funcionalidades do sistema sejam realizadas de modo efetivo, eficiente e que satisfaça as expectativas do usuário. Tendo em vista que o ciclo de desenvolvimento de software costuma ser longo, avaliações da usabilidade de diferentes versões de interfaces devem ser realizadas no decorrer do processo, como forma de minimizar erros e reduzir custos de produção do sistema. Uma das avaliações de usabilidade mais conhecidas é a avaliação heurística, criada por Jacob Nielsen, que se destaca pelo baixo custo e rapidez de aplicação. Nela, especialistas avaliam as interfaces e os diálogos do sistema com base em um conjunto de regras gerais, as heurísticas, que lhes permitem identificar problemas de usabilidade. Apesar de respeitadas e amplamente usadas, as heurísticas de Nielsen foram criadas sem foco em interfaces de dispositivos móveis, muito difundidos atualmente. Por meio deste trabalho, verificou-se que as heurísticas de Nielsen têm limitações para encontrarem problemas de usabilidade em interfaces de dispositivos móveis. Por conta disso, propôs-se um conjunto de heurísticas para avaliação de interfaces de dispositivos móveis e se definiu um conjunto de diretrizes para o desenvolvimento dessas interfaces. A validação das heurísticas propostas indicou que elas foram mais efetivas que as de Nielsen para encontrarem problemas de usabilidade considerados pelos especialistas como catastróficos ou de baixa gravidade / From the users point of view, the interface is one the most important part of computer systems, because everything he sees, hears and feels are contained therein. This relevance motivates researchers of Human-Computer Interaction to study ways to create interfaces with design focused on usability. The usability evaluation of interfaces aims to determine whether the interfaces meet the requirements of the system so that its functionalities are carried out effectively, efficiently and satisfying the users expectations. Considering that the software development lifecycle is often long, usability evaluations of different versions of interfaces should be made during the process, in order to minimize errors and reduce production costs of the final system. Heuristic evaluation, created by Jacob Nielsen, is one of the most used usability evaluation methods, because of it low cost and ease of implementation. In this evaluation method, experts evaluate interfaces and systems dialogues based on a set of general rules, called heuristics, which enable them to identify usability problems. Although respected and widely used, Nielsens heuristics were not created having mobile devices interfaces in mind. Through this work, it was verified that Nielsens heuristics have limitations in finding usability problems in mobile devices interfaces. Because of this, we proposed a set of heuristics for evaluating interfaces for mobile devices and defined a set of guidelines for the development of these interfaces. The validation of the proposed heuristics indicated that they were more effective than Nielsens to find usability problems considered by experts as catastrophic or of low gravity

Tools development is a sometimes overlooked process that is crucial for developing high quality games. The experience of the users will vary which makes usability an important issue as well as having good guidelines for communications and development of user interfaces. This report presents the development process of two different tools used in production of high-quality projects at Avalanche Studios and describes both the added functionality as well as the methods used to provide them. / Programmering av verktyg är en process som ofta är förbisedd men som är mycket viktig för utvecklingen av hög-kvalitativa spel. Den varierande kunskapsnivån hos användare gör att det är viktigt att fokusera på användarbarheten samt även ha bra riktlinjer för kommunikationer och utvecklingen av användargränssnitt. Den här rapporten presenterar hela utvecklingsprocessen av två olika verktyg som används vid utveckling av högkvalitativa projekt vid Avalanche Studios, och går igenom både ny funktionalitet samt även använda metoder för att uppnå detta.

The innovation progress for municipalities is currently going slowly. Today most of the communication, decision-making, delegation and service of process are still handled via letter mail or phone calls. Companies and municipalities are starting to comprehend this and see opportunities. With the technology that exists today it is possible to speed up the processes when citizens and municipalities comunicate with each other. By migrating from the old way of applying and filing different matters by letter mail to so-called digital e-services, the citizen can apply, complement and get info on how their matter is going directly on the web. Abou AB works with optimizing information handling for municipalities and has recently made it possible for municipalities to eliminate their tedious way of handling matters by traceable web communication. They have a vision to take this to a new level of easement to the municipalities and their citizens by offering these services in mobile phones as so-called apps. One of these contemplated services is to file error reports. The service will offer the citizen to send in a report with attached meta data such as photo and the location of the regarding matter. This will be done by the mobile phones built in hardware in form of camera and GPS. This master’s thesis will describe the work to develop a prototype for filing an error reports in mobile phones that support Android and iOS operating systems. The goal for this thesis work is to develop this prototype by means of a process tool called Kanban and investigate if the tool fits the situation properly. The situation is that two persons will work in parallel with slightly different projects. Also the quality and usability of the resulting prototype applications is asserted with qualitative evaluations that results in higher awareness of the defects and suggestions on how to reform and improve the application in a usability point of view. The actual implementation work was planned according to a slightly loose Kan- ban paradigm. Kanban is all about improvements along the way and the im- plementation phase is divided into smaller phases with sub goals and recurring process evaluations. Suggestions of improvement regarding the work processes is a result of this. A Kanban board that helps visualize the workflow is used to help team members and project owners to get a good overview of current situa- tions. Several adjustments were made throughout the project and the so-called lead times, the time it takes to complete a task, was shortened in average from the beginning of the project compared to the end of the project. Each phase in the implementation part of the thesis work resulted in different functionalities in the application. A phase was two weeks long and ended with a demo were the new functionality was demonstrated. Prior to each demo session everyone at the company where the thesis work was performed was invited. The participants in these sessions were encouraged to give feedback on what they saw to help increase the quality of the applications. The prototype applications resulted in a more easy accessible service to citizens. By cutting out the process steps that previously needed to been done on a computer the 1application contributes to the possibility of an increased democratization grade for the citizen. The investigation regarding if the Kanban process tool was a suitable aid in the implementation part of the project resulted in that it was suitable for the specific situation. By measuring both lead times and other activities that did not concern the implementation work and plot them in a diagram explained why some weeks did not have as high productivity as others. To assert the awareness and quality of the developed applications in terms of usability a so-called heuristic evaluation was performed. This qualitative eval- uation resulted in a set of usability problems. These problems were all graded into different priority to be solved and some was given suggestions on how to be solved. The main purpose with this evaluation was to find the problems and document them to possible future programmers if the prototype will go into production. The result of this evaluation has increased the usability of the application and consequently the quality.

The purpose of this study was to develop a list of usability guidelines, i.e. a usability checklist, which can assist in evaluating the usability of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) user interfaces. Interviews were conducted to help understand their context of use and to find design focus points for the evaluation of MOOCs interface. These design focus points were then inspected for usability issues with Jakob Nielsen’s usability inspection method - heuristic evaluation - using author’s own set of 10 usability heuristics. The study reveals two main findings. Firstly, the context of use of MOOCs differs from a regular university course in the manner of how users perceive and approach them. And secondly, the usability checklist has to be adaptable and up-to-date in order to support the constant change of context of use of MOOCs. The combination of both findings is what makes this study not just another checklist, but a valid contribution to the understanding of MOOCs and the research field in HCI.

Introduction. Studies have been conducted on serendipitous encounters in the physical library environment. In this study, we aimed instead to look at features in the online library catalog that can lead to serendipitous en-counters. The aim was also to see if libraries took active steps to promote serendipity in their online library cata-logs. Method. A heuristic evaluation of four online library catalogs was conducted. The set of heuristics used was based on previous research, with the aim of identifying facets of a serendipitous environment. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with librarians from three of the researched libraries. The results from the heuristic evaluation and the transcripts of the interviews formed the data for the analysis. Analysis. Thematic analyses were carried out on the data. The data from the heuristic evaluation and the interviews were analyzed and presented separately, leading up to a joint summary. Results. Most of the online library catalogs had features like "Similar items" and book recommendations, which can lead to serendipitous encounters. Librarians often experience a lack of influence over their online library catalogs. Librarians identified problems such as patrons expecting their online library catalog to function more like a web search engine, for example, Google Search. Conclusion. The online library catalogs have features that promote serendipitous encounters but we identified problems in how they are best designed. Using an integrated interface for the online library catalog and the library's website was one way to give the librarians more influence over their interface, which increased their likelihood to provide it with more information and content. We suggest further research with an extensive approach of serendi-pitous encounters not only in the online library catalog but also in other digital library environments such as web-sites, social media, blogs and apps. This is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.

Content Management Systems (CMS) can support the creation and maintenance of an e-commerce website and its content. Together with the advance of mobile technology and Internet, it is now possible for business owners to manage their online store using their mobile touchscreen devices. This thesis aims to define the usability problems of the existing CMSs when they are used on mobile touchscreen devices. Heuristic evaluation was performed in three CMSs in order to gain a better understanding of how CMS on touchscreen works and what are the major issues that could downgrade usability. Based on the results of the evaluation, a prototype was implemented and evaluated in order to find out if the design characteristics of the prototype can enhance usability. The impact of the prototype is discussed in terms of efficiency and heuristics violations. Moreover, design guidelines are suggested and uncovered usability problems for further research are provided. / Innehållshanteringssystem (från engelskans Content Management System, CMS) kan stödja skapandet ochunderhållet av en e-handelswebbplats och dess innehåll. Utvecklingen av mobilteknik och internet har gjort detmöjligt för företagare att hantera sin webbutik med hjälp av sina mobila enheter. Denna studie syftar till attdefiniera användbarhetsproblemen hos befintliga CMS när de används på mobila enheter. En heuristiskutvärdering av tre CMS utfördes för att få en bättre förståelse av hur CMS fungerar på en pekskärm, samt för attidentifiera de största problem som kan minska användbarheten. Baserat på resultaten av utvärderingenutvecklades och utvärderades en prototyp för att ta reda på om prototypens designegenskaper kunde förbättraanvändbarheten. Prototypens inverkan diskuteras med avseende på effektivitet och heuristiska oegentligheter. Designriktlinjer föreslås och funna användbarhetsproblem presenteras för vidare forskning.