Orientador: Heloísa Vieira da Rocha / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-20T14:48:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Vargas_Ariel_D.pdf: 20092407 bytes, checksum: a759e10b287a819834ba069524f29fee (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012 / Resumo: Observar as ações de usuários interagindo com a interface de uma aplicação computacional é a base de métodos tradicionais de avaliação de usabilidade, como os testes com usuários e a observação em campo. Apesar de populares e eficientes na descoberta de problemas, esses métodos tradicionais são considerados bastante caros, devido aos custos de envolver usuários, de preparar a infra-estrutura e especialmente da própria execução dos métodos e análise de seus resultados. A qualidade dos resultados da execução desses métodos depende da escolha dos usuários participantes da avaliação, que precisam ser representativos de todos os perfis de usuários da aplicação avaliada. Na Web, devido à diversidade e característica distribuída dos usuários, a obtenção de usuários representativos dos diversos perfis torna-se bastante difícil. Nos métodos tradicionais de avaliação, especialistas em usabilidade analisam a interação de cada usuário interagindo com a aplicação, para encontrar problemas de usabilidade. Esta análise depende do conhecimento e esforço desses especialistas para encontrar problemas na aplicação avaliada. Desse modo, os métodos tradicionais, se utilizados em grande escala de usuários, tornam-se demasiadamente caros devido a seus custos e tempo de execução. Outra característica importante das aplicações Web é sua constante evolução, o que necessita de avaliações de usabilidade periódicas e constantes, para verificar se alterações não prejudicam sua usabilidade. Da mesma forma, os métodos tradicionais de avaliação de usabilidade tornam-se demasiadamente caros, se utilizados em avaliações constantes da usabilidade de aplicações Web. Nesse contexto, esta tese buscou, na automatização do processo de avaliação de usabilidade, uma alternativa para diminuir as dificuldades mencionadas anteriormente em se avaliar a usabilidade de aplicações Web, especialmente em sua fase de manutenção. Assim, esta tese defende a hipótese de que, utilizando-se um método de avaliação de usabilidade fundamentado na captura e análise da interação de usuários de maneira remota e automatizada, é possível diminuir as dificuldades existentes nos métodos tradicionais na fase de manutenção de uma aplicação Web, possibilitando ainda: a análise da interação de usuários em campo e em grande escala de usuários; a identificação de padrões de interação dos usuários com a aplicação; uma avaliação com baixo custo de execução, favorecendo a realização de avaliações periódicas de usabilidade de uma aplicação Web. Neste sentido, esta tese apresenta o desenvolvimento do WebHint, um método remoto e automatizado de avaliação de usabilidade para aplicações Web. O método proposto nesta tese foi aplicado em três estudos de usabilidade que validaram o WebHint como uma alternativa viável para a realização de avaliações remotas e automatizadas de usabilidade de aplicações Web / Abstract: Observing users interacting with user interfaces is the basis of traditional usability evaluation methods as user tests and field observation. In spite of their popularity and efficiency in finding usability problems, these traditional methods are considered expensive, due to the costs of involving users in the evaluation, preparing the infrastructure and specially, due to the costs of executing the methods and analyzing the results. The quality of the results obtained with these methods depends on the users participating of the evaluation, who need to represent all the user's profiles of the evaluated application. In the Web, due to the diversity and distributed location of the users, it is difficult to obtain representative users. In traditional methods, usability experts analyze the behavior of each user interacting with the application in order to detect usability problems. This subjective analysis depends on the knowledge and work of the expert to find the problems. This way, the traditional methods became too expensive when it is necessary to involve high number of users in the evaluation. Another important aspect of Web applications is their frequent evolvement, which requires usability evaluations performed frequently to avoid usability problems caused by changes on the applications. The same way, the traditional methods are too expensive to be performed in a regular basis. In that context, this thesis proposes an automatic method for usability evaluation, as an alternative approach to deal with the difficulties mentioned above. This way, this thesis supports the hypothesis that is possible to decrease the difficulties regarding to the traditional methods through a usability evaluation method based on the automatic capture and analysis of user's interaction. Thus, this thesis, presents the development of the WebHint, a remote and automatic usability evaluation method for Web applications. The proposed method was applied in three usability studies, and their results validated the WebHint as a feasible alternative to perform remote and automatic usability evaluations of Web applications / Doutorado / Ciência da Computação / Doutor em Ciência da Computação

A case study was conducted to document the changes in the attitudes of academic administrators at Langston University with regards to the use of various types of information sources for strategic planning. Environmental scanning of external factors was accomplished for six months by the use of a selective dissemination of information (SDI) service. Pre- and post-assessments of the perceived reliance on, satisfaction with and adequacy of personal and library-type information sources were conducted. Findings indicated the continued reliance on personal sources. No statistically significant changes were found in perceived adequacy levels in the use of library-type materials. The overall satisfaction level for the use of library-type information sources and retrieval methods showed a significant increase. Further study is recommended that will utilize additional information technology and other academic institutions.

The study investigated the effect of accessibility and utilization of electronic resources by academic staff on productivity at the University of Calabar and the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. In order to determine the effect of accessibility and utilization of e-resources on productivity of academic staff, a lone hypothesis was formulated thus: there is no significant correlation between accessibility and utilization of e-resources and productivity of academic staff in Nigerian universities. The study adopted quantitative approach as research paradigm; with survey and bibliometrics as research methods. Questionnaire was used as the primary instrument for data collection on accessibility and utilization of e-resources and productivity of academic staff in the study. The population of 2035 academic staff and sample size of 586 academic staff were used for the study, and a response rate of 55.29% was obtained for data analysis. The data for the study were analysed with SPSS. The finding of the study revealed that there is significant correlation between accessibility and utilization of e-resources and productivity of academic staff at the surveyed universities (r=0.135; p=0.004), especially at the level of international publication (r=0.158; p=0.004). The study concluded that there is a positive effect due to accessibility and utilization of e-resources on productivity at the surveyed universities. Further findings of the study revealed a low level of electronic information environment at the surveyed universities in relation to global practices; although, the University of Ibadan was found to have a better electronic information environment than the University of Calabar. The result from questionnaire survey revealed that the University of Calabar was more productive than the University of Ibadan; the converse was obtained with bibliometric analysis as the University of Ibadan was found to be more productive than the University of Calabar. From the findings of the study the influence of demographic variables (discipline, gender, age, education and professional rank) on accessibility and utilization of e-resources was not significant at the surveyed universities. The study recommended increased investment in ICT facilities at the surveyed universities to promote increase in accessibility and utilization of e-resources by academic staff in research. / Information Science / D.Litt et. Phil. (Information Science)

The study investigated the effect of accessibility and utilization of electronic resources by academic staff on productivity at the University of Calabar and the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. In order to determine the effect of accessibility and utilization of e-resources on productivity of academic staff, a lone hypothesis was formulated thus: there is no significant correlation between accessibility and utilization of e-resources and productivity of academic staff in Nigerian universities. The study adopted quantitative approach as research paradigm; with survey and bibliometrics as research methods. Questionnaire was used as the primary instrument for data collection on accessibility and utilization of e-resources and productivity of academic staff in the study. The population of 2035 academic staff and sample size of 586 academic staff were used for the study, and a response rate of 55.29% was obtained for data analysis. The data for the study were analysed with SPSS. The finding of the study revealed that there is significant correlation between accessibility and utilization of e-resources and productivity of academic staff at the surveyed universities (r=0.135; p=0.004), especially at the level of international publication (r=0.158; p=0.004). The study concluded that there is a positive effect due to accessibility and utilization of e-resources on productivity at the surveyed universities. Further findings of the study revealed a low level of electronic information environment at the surveyed universities in relation to global practices; although, the University of Ibadan was found to have a better electronic information environment than the University of Calabar. The result from questionnaire survey revealed that the University of Calabar was more productive than the University of Ibadan; the converse was obtained with bibliometric analysis as the University of Ibadan was found to be more productive than the University of Calabar. From the findings of the study the influence of demographic variables (discipline, gender, age, education and professional rank) on accessibility and utilization of e-resources was not significant at the surveyed universities. The study recommended increased investment in ICT facilities at the surveyed universities to promote increase in accessibility and utilization of e-resources by academic staff in research. / Information Science / D.Litt et. Phil. (Information Science)

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / In today's fast paced world, people have become increasingly interested in online communication to facilitate their lives and make it faster. This goes on from simple social interactions to more advanced actions like shopping on the internet. The presence of such activities makes it crucial for people to use their common sense and judgment to process all this information and evaluate what/who they trust and what/whom they do not. This process would have been much easier if the number of people in such networks is really small and manageable. However, there are millions of users who are hooked online every day. This makes the person very overwhelmed with his trusting decision, especially when it comes to interacting with strangers over the internet, and/or buying personal items, especially expensive ones. Therefore, many trust models have been proposed by computer scientists trying to evaluate and manage the trust between users using different techniques and combining many factors. What these computer scientists basically do is coming up with mathematical formulas and models to express trust in online networks and capture its parameters. However, social scientists are the people better trained to deal with concepts related to human behaviors and their cognitive thinking such as trust. Thus, in order for computer scientists to support their ideas and get a better insight about how to direct their research, people like social scientists should contribute. With this in mind, we realized in our group work the importance of such contribution, so we came up with the idea of my research work. In my search, I tried to find how these social scientists think and tackle a dynamic notion like trust, so we can use their findings in order to enhance our work and trust model. Through the chapters, I will discuss an already developed trust model that uses measurement theory in modeling trust. I will refer back to this model and see how other social scientists dealt with some of the issues encountered by the model and its functionality. Some small experiments have been done to show and compare our results with social scientists results for the same matter. One of the most important and controversial points to be discussed from social scientists' point of view is whether trust is transitive or not. Other points to be discussed and supported by social scientists' research include aggregation, reputation, timing effects on trust, reciprocity, and experience effects on trust. Some of these points are classified into trust mapping categories and others are related to trust management or decision making stages. In sum, this work is a multidisciplinary study of trust whose overall goal is to enhance our work and results, as computer scientists.

The scarcity of financial resources often poses challenges for organisations in both the private and the public sector, which require productive (tangible) resources, in order to thrive. Organisations are developing innovative and cost-effective methods to secure productive resources that are needed to drive performance. Special libraries in the public sector face the same pressures that resulted in some of them being overwhelmed by poor resources. The purpose of the study is to determine the levels of resources available to the libraries in the Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG) and the extent to which tangible resources can predict information service provision in GPG libraries. The theory of the firm and the resource-based view (RBV) theory were used as theoretical framework to support the study. The study addresses the identified gap of resource adequacy in special libraries by measuring adequacy from the perspective of those responsible for exploiting the resources, instead of the library services (the output) and library users. This approach differs from those in similar studies, which measured adequacy from the perspective of consumers. The study adopted a positivist philosophical assumption, using a quantitative research approach, with questionnaires and interviews as the data collection tools. The population of the study involves all the library officials of the libraries in Gauteng Provincial Government departments, including management. Due to the nature and size of the target population, there was no need for sampling. A total of 30 respondents for both quantitative and qualitative data, participated in the study. In order to achieve acceptable levels of validity of collected and analysed data, the face validity method was used, whereas the representative reliability method was used to ensure reliability and consistency of the measuring instruments. Mean and standard deviation, multiple regression and Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient analyses on quantitative data was conducted by using the data analysis tool Statistical Software for Social Sciences (SPSS). Atlas Ti was used to analyse the qualitative data collected. No major limitations were identified. The study found the level of physical, financial, ICT-based resources and staff development and training in the GPG libraries to be low, similarly the level of information services provided was found to be low. The resources were found to have predictive value on one another, but not on information services. Furthermore, the study did find a positive and strong relationship between resources and services at GPG libraries. The study recommended a resourcing model that is based on the collaborative consumption/sharing economy concept and principles. / Information Science / D. Phil (Information Science)