<p><p>Context represents any information regarding the situation of entities, being these a person, place or object that is considered relevant to the interaction between a user and an application.</p><p><p>The results obtained permits an user to save context information attached to a picture in a database, as well as retrieve pictures from that database and show it in a web interface with its context information associated. The web interface also allows the user to perform searches by using different criteria, so only the pictures that matches with that criteria will be shown.</p></p></p> / Final Degree Project - Thesis

Denna rapport presenterar en utveckling av uDecide, som är ett sorts hjälpmedel för att lättare kunna ta beslut. Ett verktyg som man kan använda för att ställa frågor till andra människor med hjälp av en bild och svarsalternativ för att få ett personligt svar eller åsikt. Syftet med detta projekt är att utveckla en användbar hi-fi prototyp som i sin tur ska vidareutvecklas av webbyrån Roxbury och uDecidegrundarna. Arbetet utgår från en befintlig uDecide iOS mobilapplikation, och fokus har lagts på att förbättra användarupplevelsen och implementera nya funktioner. Med hjälp av förstudier och användartester har vi utvecklat en webbaserad, responsiv hi fi-prototyp. Lösningen presenterar ny utveckling av navigering, struktur på inlägg och ny meny. Ett kommentarsfält har implementerats i hi-fi prototypen vilket kommer att ge användarna möjlighet att interagera med varandra och ge mer personliga åsikter. / This report describes a development of the mobile application uDecide. uDecide is a tool which you can use to ask other people a question including a picture and alternative answers to get an individual answer or opinion. The objective of this project is to develop an usable hi-fi prototype, which in turn will be further developed by the web designers Roxbury and the founders of uDecide. The development originates from a current uDecide IOS mobile application and focus is to improve user satisfaction and to implement new functions. Supported by pre-development research and user tests we have developed a webbased, responsive and interactive hi-fi prototype. The solution presents a new development in navigation, structure of additions and responses, including a new menu. A commentary function has been implemented in the hi-fi prototype, which will give the users the option to interact and provide more personal opinions.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-11T14:02:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 bruno araujo.pdf: 1894932 bytes, checksum: 3283d30b868fd5576735ba6c2378d8ff (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-03-05 / The increasing interest on mobile technologies and the evolutionary context in which mobile applications are developed have made the usability evaluation of these applications an important research area. However, usability evaluations are often avoided by developers or companies due to their lack of experience in the field. This thesis presents the UBICUA (Usability-Based Inspection CUstomizable Approach) technique, an inspection technique specifically proposed to assess the usability of hybrid mobile web applications (i.e., applications that rely on the Internet, such as widgets). Also, our approach is customizable by the inspector s knowledge, which results in a greater usability problem identification even by non-expert users. To support our UBICUA technique s creation process, this research has adopted an evidence-based methodology. Then, this thesis describes how UBICUA was created based on the outcome of a secondary study, two results feasibility studies and observation studies. Our ultimate goal is to increase the quality of hybrid mobile web applications and improve the user s interaction in this technology. We also present the guidelines and resources developed to support the execution of usability inspections of mobile applications in software development organizations. / O crescente interesse em tecnologias móveis e o contexto evolutivo no qual aplicações móveis são desenvolvidas têm tornado a avaliação de usabilidade destas aplicações um importante campo de pesquisa. No entanto, as avaliações de usabilidade são normalmente evitadas pelos desenvolvedores ou empresas, devido à falta de experiência na área. Esta dissertação apresenta a técnica UBICUA (Usability-Based Inspection CUstomizable Approach), específica para avaliação de usabilidade de aplicações Web móveis híbridas (i.e., aplicações locais que dependem da Internet). Esta nova abordagem é customizada pelo conhecimento do inspetor visando maior identificação de problemas de usabilidade, mesmo por inspetores com pouco conhecimento. Para a avaliação e evolução da UBICUA, esta pesquisa adotou uma metodologia baseada em evidências. Esta dissertação mostra como a UBICUA foi definida e aprimorada a partir dos resultados de diferentes estudos experimentais: mapeamento sistemático de literatura, estudos de viabilidade e de observação. O objetivo final é aumentar a qualidade das aplicações Web em dispositivos móveis e melhorar a interação dos usuários com estas tecnologias. Adicionalmente, são apresentadas diretrizes e recursos desenvolvidos para apoiar a realização de inspeções de usabilidade de aplicações deste porte.

User perceived latency is the most prominent performance issue influencing the World Wide Web (www) presently. Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol(HTTP) and Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) have been the backbone of web transport for decades, thus received a lot of attention recently due to end-to-end performance degradation in mobile environments. Inefficiencies of HTTP and TCP strongly affect web response time mainly in resource limited devices. HTTP compression reduces some of the burden imposed by TCP slow start phase. However, compression is still an underutilized feature of the web today [1]. In order to fulfill the end user expectations, we can optimize HTTP to improve Page Load Time (PLT), low memory usage and better network utilization. SPDY, a web latency reducing protocol and HTTP pipelining are a recent proposal to provide faster information exchange over web. Through the course of this work, we present a comprehensive study of new approaches to reduce mobile web latency. At first, we measure the PLT after implementing SPDY, HTTP and HTTP pipelining. Secondly, we also analyze the performance of these protocols after tuning the network parameters like bandwidth and round-trip time (RTT). Finally, we compare the performance of HTTP and other latency reducing protocols. We have conducted all experiments over DummyNet under user-configured network conditions. We critically discuss the challenges of shifting from HTTP to these latency-reducing protocols.

Det blir allt vanligare att ägare till webbplatser anpassar sin webbplats till lågupplösta enheter som t. ex mobiltelefoner. För att genomföra en anpassning finns flera tekniska alternativ. I denna uppsats har det undersökts vilka tekniska aspekter som kan utgöra eventuella hinder när utvecklare möter webbyråkunders krav på upplösningsoberoende design med en av teknikerna, nämligen responsiv webbdesign. Arbetet innefattar en intervju med en webbyråkund som resulterade i en kravspecifikation som sedan stod till grund för en prototyp, där tekniken responsiv webbdesign testades och utvärderades. På grund av varierande stöd för CSS i skilda webbläsare samt flera webbplatsers komplicerade struktur visar resultatet på flera utmanande tekniska aspekter, som till exempel hanteringen av bilder och iframes. / It is becoming increasingly common for web site owners to customize their site to low-resolution devices such as mobile phones. To implement such an adjustment there are several technical options. This paper examines the technical aspects that can constitute an obstacles for web developers when they meet their customers' demands for resolution-independent design, with responsive web design. The work includes a interview with a client that resulted in a product specification, which then was used as the basis for a prototype. In which responsive web design was tested and evaluated as a technical option. The study revealed several technical aspects that can be challenging,e.g. pictures and iframes,so due to varying support for CSS in different browsers and many web sites complex structure.

The goal of this diploma thesis is to conduct analysis of process of web design and to compare two cases, where responsive design was used and where responsive design was not used. In theoretical part, there are explained basic terms and procedures connected with responsive and non-responsive design. In analytical part, the procedures of responsive design are applied to one particular example. Afterwards, two approaches of creating websites and the outputs of it are compared. In the end of the thesis the author compares basic and responsive web approach from different points of view.

This work deals with an analysis of ways to create webpages optimized for mobile devices. Issues concerning current state of mobile market along with theoretical foundations of mobile industry are described in the beginning of the thesis. The main part examines methods of creating webpages for mobiles devices. The imlementation part describes a prototype of a webpage, which is based on analyzed methods.

This thesis analyses tools for mobile web portal logs processing which could be used for reporting of required metrics. The area covers not only web analytics, but also mobile web and mobile handsets capabilities. The objective is to analyze possibilities of existing products which can be used to process web logs and choose appropriate existing or propose proprietary solution. This solution should comply with requirements and limitations given by the portal platform limitations. Theoretical part introduces the web analytics domain and the mobile web environment. Basic concepts and metrics are described as well as the fundamental data collection methods and mobile internet basic specifics. The knowledge of the web analytics and mobile web basics are crucial to be able to eruditely assess the tools capabilities introduced in the second part of this thesis. In the practical part, there are technical details on the mobile portal operating environment described. The requirements for the tool outputs are defined there and the prospective ready-to-use solutions are researched. The final part of the text addresses the final solution for the mobile portal reporting tool including the operational data processing. The secondary output of this thesis comprises of explanation of the mobile web analytics area for the broader audience. The main output of the practical part is analysis and specification of the requirements for mobile portal reporting tool and design of the solution with the supervision of the implementation and deployment within the production environment.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) provides unique advantages such as superior soft tissue contrast, true multiplanar imaging, variable contrast mechanisms, measurement of temperature changes, perfusion and diffusion, and no ionizing radiation. Despite considerable research efforts in the field of interventional MRI, numerous challenges remain including restricted access to the patient, high acoustic noise and a shortage of MRI-safe devices. Novel methods and devices are presented in this thesis with the primary objective of enabling effective MRI-guided interventions, particularly abdominal needle and common catheter-based endovascular interventions. Firstly, a set of MRI-safe devices (guidewires, micro guidewires, catheters and micro catheters) were developed with passive or inductively coupling resonant markers for MRI visualisation. Secondly, a method was implemented for wireless tracking and dynamic guidance of instruments. Thirdly, a framework of technologies was developed for in-room display, wireless MRI remote control and multi-user communication along with a dedicated user interface and imaging protocol. These implementations were assessed in regards to MRI-safety, performance and usability and evaluated for MRI-guided liver biopsies, balloon angioplasty procedures and also for mechanical thrombolysis. Flow phantoms, Thiel soft-embalmed human cadavers with partially re-established perfusion and a porcine model were used for in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo validation, respectively. The results demonstrate that these interventions are experimentally feasible and practical when using the presented developments: automated device tracking and equipment designed for MRI-guided interventions streamlined procedural workflow. Specifically, it was shown that fast and accurate needle placements along complex trajectories were feasible using a wireless interactive display and control device with a dedicated user interface for interventions. Moreover, safe and efficacious balloon angioplasties of the iliac artery were practical using the described framework of technologies along with a dedicated MRI protocol. Finally, it was demonstrated that these developments could be adapted and applied to MRI-guided endovascular mechanical thrombolysis of the middle cerebral artery. The technologies, described in this thesis have been shown to overcome many of the present limitations and should therefore be useful for enabling MRI-guided interventions while not further constraining the operating physician in an already complex environment. Nevertheless, it is acknowledged that many crucial issues remain to be solved in the field of iMRI and in the context of the presented research. In particular further device optimisations, improvements of the tracking implementation along with further in vivo evaluations are required before moving towards clinical evaluation. This thesis sets the groundwork for moving ahead with the eventual clinical realisation of optimised MRI-guided interventions.

My thesis pursues the development of a tool to empower designers and non-designers to better understand humor’s function in design and to encourage the use of humor as a rhetorical device to undertake social problems. Humor research is a field that is largely based on linguistic studies, but because of its multidisciplinary stretch in the past decade has displayed a broad rhetorical influence; however, it has yet to form a substantial relationship with design. Through a literature review of linguistic, rhetorical, and design theories, I identified a set of heuristics that guide how humor should operate in design. I then tested the effectiveness of the heuristics, and with their final revision, applied them to designing for motivational problems associated with public displays of political mobilization. My user research inferred the creation of a mobile instructional tool that guides the collaborative and/or individual production of political communication artifacts (e.g. rally signs), which use humor to confront socially complex issues. The artifacts’ implicit intent is to motivate political mobilization and to found and/or empower communities. My project focus entails the creation and testing of the tool on the individual level. Whether the artifacts created produce the desired effect regarding mobilization and community strength is unknown; Future work should lend itself to testing humorous design’s effect on political mobilization and ability to empower communities.