Este trabalho propõe uma estratégia para realizar uma avaliação de usabilidade situada de equipamentos médicos. A área da saúde tem feito cada vez mais uso da tecnologia da informação e a cada dia, o usuário de sistemas médicos se depara com mais equipamentos dotados de interfaces computacionais mais complexas. Avaliações de usabilidade tornam-se necessárias para garantir que o equipamento atenda as demandas das atividades dos profissionais da saúde e para minimizar a probabilidade de erros relacionados à interação com o sistema. Propõe-se, neste trabalho, uma estratégia para realizar a avaliação de usabilidade no ambiente de uso do equipamento. A estratégia proposta é avaliada em um estudo de caso com a avaliação de um monitor multiparamétrico dentro de uma UTI (Unidade de Terapia Intensiva), concluindo-se que ela se mostra útil ao processo de desenvolvimento, pois produz resultados de natureza diferente dos geralmente encontrados em laboratório. Adicionalmente, discutem-se os aspectos de ética envolvidos na avaliação situada de usabilidade. / This paper considers a strategy to perform a situated usability evaluation of medical equipments. The use of information technology in the health sector has increased, as a result, medical system users need to deal with a complex computer interface that becomes even more complex each day. Usability evaluation become useful to ensure that the equipment fullfills healthcare professionals demands and also minimize the probability of errors associated with computer-human interaction. In this study a strategy to do a usability evaluation on the equipments intended environment has been proposed. The proposed strategy is evaluated in a case study with a multiparameter monitor in an ICU (Intensive Care Unit), concluding that it is useful to the development process because it produces different kinds of results when compared to those found in laboratories. This study also discusses the issues of ethics involved in the usability situated evaluation .

Este trabalho propõe uma estratégia para realizar uma avaliação de usabilidade situada de equipamentos médicos. A área da saúde tem feito cada vez mais uso da tecnologia da informação e a cada dia, o usuário de sistemas médicos se depara com mais equipamentos dotados de interfaces computacionais mais complexas. Avaliações de usabilidade tornam-se necessárias para garantir que o equipamento atenda as demandas das atividades dos profissionais da saúde e para minimizar a probabilidade de erros relacionados à interação com o sistema. Propõe-se, neste trabalho, uma estratégia para realizar a avaliação de usabilidade no ambiente de uso do equipamento. A estratégia proposta é avaliada em um estudo de caso com a avaliação de um monitor multiparamétrico dentro de uma UTI (Unidade de Terapia Intensiva), concluindo-se que ela se mostra útil ao processo de desenvolvimento, pois produz resultados de natureza diferente dos geralmente encontrados em laboratório. Adicionalmente, discutem-se os aspectos de ética envolvidos na avaliação situada de usabilidade. / This paper considers a strategy to perform a situated usability evaluation of medical equipments. The use of information technology in the health sector has increased, as a result, medical system users need to deal with a complex computer interface that becomes even more complex each day. Usability evaluation become useful to ensure that the equipment fullfills healthcare professionals demands and also minimize the probability of errors associated with computer-human interaction. In this study a strategy to do a usability evaluation on the equipments intended environment has been proposed. The proposed strategy is evaluated in a case study with a multiparameter monitor in an ICU (Intensive Care Unit), concluding that it is useful to the development process because it produces different kinds of results when compared to those found in laboratories. This study also discusses the issues of ethics involved in the usability situated evaluation .

A implantação da TV Digital Terrestre no Brasil permite que os usuários da TV aberta, principal fonte de informação e entretenimento do país, tenham acesso aos serviços oferecidos pela TV Interativa (TVi). Estes usuários, que constituem uma grande e heterogênea população composta por indivíduos de diversos graus de instrução, faixas etárias e índices de alfabetização digital, passam a adotar uma atitude muito mais ativa em relação a este meio de comunicação tradicionalmente coletivo e passivo, aumentando a possibilidade de escolha e a oferta de conteúdos personalizados. A TVi se torna possível na forma de aplicações interativas enviadas junto com o conteúdo audiovisual da TV. Neste cenário, o rastreamento do olhar, técnica usada para identificar as posições observadas pelo usuário, se apresenta como uma poderosa ferramenta de análise capaz de identificar comportamentos típicos dos usuários, enquanto produz evidências conclusivas, mensuráveis e repetíveis das atividades observadas durante a interação do usuário com a aplicação. Esta pesquisa explora a utilização da técnica de rastreamento do olhar na avaliação de usabilidade de aplicações de TVi e estuda como o rastreamento do olhar pode ser usado para obter dados sobre a interação com estas aplicações. Para tanto, a literatura sobre rastreamento do olhar é investigada, identificando as técnicas e métodos empregados para obter as posições observadas pelos usuários, assim como o uso destas técnicas em avaliações de usabilidade. Para estudar a utilização do rastreamento de olhar em avaliações de usabilidade no ambiente de uso das aplicações da TVi, são feitas adaptações nos sistemas para coleta de dados do rastreamento de olhar no ambiente de TVi. Em seguida, desenvolve-se um experimento em que as técnicas de rastreamento de olhar são usadas simultaneamente com as técnicas clássicas de avaliação de usabilidade, para avaliação de duas aplicações de TVi. Os procedimentos e o ambiente de teste utilizado são apresentados em detalhes. Os resultados obtidos da realização do experimento com 30 usuários, com ambas as técnicas, são comparados, mostrando as contribuições e limitações do rastreamento do olhar para explicar problemas de usabilidade e identificar comportamentos dos usuários. / The introduction of digital terrestrial TV in Brazil allows users of free TV, the main source of information and entertainment in the country, to have access to services offered by Interactive TV (TVi). These users, who constitute a large and heterogeneous population, composed of individuals of varying degrees of education, age and knowledge of computers, will adopt a more proactive attitude regarding this means of communication traditionally collective and passive, raising the possibility of choice and supply of personalized content. The TVi becomes possible in the form of interactive applications sent together with audiovisual content of TV. In this scenario, the eye tracking, technique used for identifying positions observed by the user, presents itself as a powerful analysis tool with the ability to identify typical behavior of users, while producing conclusive, measurable and repeatable evidence about the activities observed during the interaction of users with applications. This research explores the use of eye tracking technique in the usability evaluation of TVis applications and examines how eye tracking can be used to obtain data about users and applications interaction. Hence, the eye tracking literature is investigated; identifying techniques and methods used to obtain the observed positions by users, and how to use these techniques in the usability evaluation. To study the use of the eye tracking in usability evaluations that took place in the environment of use of TVi\'s applications, changes are made in the systems that collect the eye tracking data on this environment. Then, an experiment in which the eye tracking techniques are used together to the traditional usability evaluation techniques is developed to evaluate two TVi\'s applications. The test procedures and the test environment are presented in details. The experiment results, with 30 users, using traditional and eye tracking evaluation techniques are compared, showing the contributions and limitations of eye tracking to explain usability problems and to identify users behaviors.

Sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevalence rates are increasing in the United States and globally. Education has been found to be an important strategy for increasing STI testing and treatment rates among sexually active young adults. The goal of this project was to develop an interactive educational game suitable for young adults to decrease the social and economic burden of STIs. The health belief model informed the project. A moderated usability evaluation was conducted using the concurrent think-aloud technique. The participants (N = 5) were a purposive sample of professionals who played the interactive game and then completed Schnall, Cho, and Lie’s Health-Information Technology Usability Evaluation Scale instrument. The findings revealed the necessity of (a) an introduction screen, (b) a reward system for correct answers, and (c) avatars, while also highlighting that (d) the effect on indicator value bars is difficult to understand and (e) the timer led to a feeling of being rushed. The Cronbach’s alpha for the participant group was 0.798, the subscale “Perceived Ease of Use” achieved an alpha level of 0.815, and the subscale “Perceived Usefulness,” 0.762. Refinements to the game based on these data might help to ensure that use of the interactive game contributes to social change by increasing knowledge of STIs in the young adult population.

<p>This paper, the corresponding wireframe documentation including the functional prototype and flowchart document the evaluation and redesign of the beta version of the social networking platform ModernFamilies.net. In order to reveal possible usability flaws for people of different generations, in particular the elderly, a user-centered design approach including an expert review, diary studies and interviews were conducted. The findings reflected the need for consistency and feedback in general. For young children, the concept of the site appeared to behard to grasp. Experienced users found the access and management of relatives cumbersome. Most importantly, the elderly, novice computer users had a hard time getting started with the site on their own because they did not have access to a PC nor internet at their home. The latter and the fact, that some issues might never be solved by traditional usability testing because the user just feels overwhelmed by the vast amount of communication features he is faced with today calls for alternative, more intelligent, ambient interfaces. However, we came to the conclusion that although evaluation of such new technologies with elderly people is not alwayseasy, it is best to be conducted in the participants home or a similar environment.</p> / AGNES

Healthcare is an important part of life in most societies that attract a significant amount of public investment. Primary healthcare is a fundamental branch of the healthcare system where patients and doctors initially meet. Family Medicine Information Systems are developed in an effort to ease the daily work of family doctors with the help of information technology. Such systems are generally used for handling critical tasks such as managing health records of patients, monitoring pregnancy and keeping track of children&rsquo / s vaccination. Like any medical information technology, the usability of such systems is a vital concern for enabling efficient and effective primary healthcare operations. Family Medicine is a recently established practice in Turkey and there are a number of systems in service to aid the daily work of family doctors. However, none of these systems have been subjected to a systematic usability analysis. In this study, a usability analysis of a popular Family Medicine Information System used in Turkey is conducted. By combining several usability evaluation techniques, the study identified several important usability issues and provided recommendations for further improving the system. The main usability issue observed in the system was the overall complexity of the information presented at the main interface that often confused and misled the users. In order to address this problem, it is suggested that features related to the most frequent family medicine operations should be placed on the main screen, whereas remaining features should be organized under auxiliary pages with clear navigation aids.

Most of the largest databases currently available have a strong geospatial component and contain potentially useful information which might be of value. The discipline concerned with extracting this information and knowledge is data mining. Knowledge discovery is performed by applying automatic algorithms which recognise patterns in the data. Classical data mining algorithms assume that data are independently generated and identically distributed. Geospatial data are multidimensional, spatially autocorrelated and heterogeneous. These properties make classical data mining algorithms inappropriate for geospatial data, as their basic assumptions cease to be valid. Extracting knowledge from geospatial data therefore requires special approaches. One way to do that is to use visual data mining, where the data is presented in visual form for a human to perform the pattern recognition. When visual mining is applied to geospatial data, it is part of the discipline called exploratory geovisualisation. Both automatic and visual data mining have their respective advantages. Computers can treat large amounts of data much faster than humans, while humans are able to recognise objects and visually explore data much more effectively than computers. A combination of visual and automatic data mining draws together human cognitive skills and computer efficiency and permits faster and more efficient knowledge discovery. This thesis investigates if a combination of visual and automatic data mining is useful for exploration of geospatial data. Three case studies illustrate three different combinations of methods. Hierarchical clustering is combined with visual data mining for exploration of geographical metadata in the first case study. The second case study presents an attempt to explore an environmental dataset by a combination of visual mining and a Self-Organising Map. Spatial pre-processing and visual data mining methods were used in the third case study for emergency response data. Contemporary system design methods involve user participation at all stages. These methods originated in the field of Human-Computer Interaction, but have been adapted for the geovisualisation issues related to spatial problem solving. Attention to user-centred design was present in all three case studies, but the principles were fully followed only for the third case study, where a usability assessment was performed using a combination of a formal evaluation and exploratory usability. / QC 20110118

Web developers are confronted with evaluating the usability of Web interfaces. Automatic Web usability evaluation tools are available, but they are limited in the types of problems they can handle. Tool support for manual usability evaluation is needed. Accordingly, this research focuses on developing a tool for supporting manual processes in Heuristic Evaluation inspection. The research was conveyed in three phases. First, an observational study was conducted in order to characterize the inspection process in Heuristic Evaluation. The videos of evaluators applying a Heuristic Evaluation on a non-interactive, paper-based Web interface were analyzed to dissect the inspection process. Second, based on the study, a tool for annotating Web interfaces when applying Heuristic Evaluations was developed. Finally, a survey is conducted to evaluate the tool and learn the role of annotations in inspection. Recommendations for improving the use of annotations in problem reporting are outlined. Overall, users were satisfied with the tool. The goal of this research, designing and developing an inspection tool, is achieved.

<p>Most of the largest databases currently available have a strong geospatial component and contain potentially useful information which might be of value. The discipline concerned with extracting this information and knowledge is data mining. Knowledge discovery is performed by applying automatic algorithms which recognise patterns in the data.</p><p>Classical data mining algorithms assume that data are independently generated and identically distributed. Geospatial data are multidimensional, spatially autocorrelated and heterogeneous. These properties make classical data mining algorithms inappropriate for geospatial data, as their basic assumptions cease to be valid. Extracting knowledge from geospatial data therefore requires special approaches. One way to do that is to use visual data mining, where the data is presented in visual form for a human to perform the pattern recognition. When visual mining is applied to geospatial data, it is part of the discipline called exploratory geovisualisation.</p><p>Both automatic and visual data mining have their respective advantages. Computers can treat large amounts of data much faster than humans, while humans are able to recognise objects and visually explore data much more effectively than computers. A combination of visual and automatic data mining draws together human cognitive skills and computer efficiency and permits faster and more efficient knowledge discovery.</p><p>This thesis investigates if a combination of visual and automatic data mining is useful for exploration of geospatial data. Three case studies illustrate three different combinations of methods. Hierarchical clustering is combined with visual data mining for exploration of geographical metadata in the first case study. The second case study presents an attempt to explore an environmental dataset by a combination of visual mining and a Self-Organising Map. Spatial pre-processing and visual data mining methods were used in the third case study for emergency response data.</p><p>Contemporary system design methods involve user participation at all stages. These methods originated in the field of Human-Computer Interaction, but have been adapted for the geovisualisation issues related to spatial problem solving. Attention to user-centred design was present in all three case studies, but the principles were fully followed only for the third case study, where a usability assessment was performed using a combination of a formal evaluation and exploratory usability.</p>

ABSTRACT A USABILITY EVALUATION FRAMEWORK AND A CASE STUDY ON A SUPPLIER PORTAL SYSTEM Babayigit, Elif Fatma M.Sc., Department of Industrial Engineering Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tayyar Sen December 2003, 229 pages The goal of this thesis is to provide a usability evaluation framework in the area of e-procurement technologies and a case study on this base. A survey of the concepts of human computer interaction, usability and usability evaluation techniques is carried out. Additionally current e-procurement technologies are explored and specifically a Company&rsquo / s Supplier Portal System which was employed in year 2003, as an e-procurement technology for the procurement of direct goods, is taken into consideration. Pointing from the findings of the survey, a usability evaluation methodology is developed based on user and task analysis of the Supplier Portal. Within this methodology, in terms of performance metrics of the Supplier Portal, usability attributes to be measured are determined and a checklist for a heuristic system evaluation is developed. iv While a laboratory testing structure is proposed for the case, a usability satisfaction survey and empirical usability tests are implemented with the actual users of the Company Supplier Portal. Descriptive and inferential formal analyses of the survey and field test results are studied, contributing to the Usability Evaluation of the Portal. Lastly further prospects are pointed, where usability, formal analysis, supply chain management and systems design intercept.