The thesis investigated the use of combination of sections using learning steps in the development of courseware presentation in the 3D Virtual Worlds platform. The technical objective of the study is to present the design of multisection strategy in developing healthcare course in 3D Virtual World online environment. The main aim of this study is to know the effects of multisection [objective, tutorial (with or without video), quiz and test] sections incorporation in an online 3D Virtual World towards the usability. The empirical research described in this thesis comprised three experimental phases. In the first phase, an initial experiment was carried out with 21 users to explore the usability and learning performance of courseware created using 3D the Virtual World platform of Second Life. The second experiment phase involved an experiment conducted with 30 users to investigate their perception, satisfaction and performance of the role of each main section involved in Virtual World courseware. In the third phase, a total of 30 users experimentally examined a unique approach to the use of video segment added in the Tutorial section of the OTQT framework. The overall obtained results demonstrated the usefulness of the tested multisection to enhance the development of healthcare course in an online learning of 3D Virtual World program. These results in three experiments provided a set of unique and empirically derived guidelines for the design and the use of three multisection frameworks to generate more usable courseware in the 3D Virtual Worlds of an online learning interface. For example, when designing avatars as animated virtual lecturers in e-learning interfaces, specific facial expression and body gestures should be incorporated due to its positive influence in enhancing learners' attitude towards the learning process.

L'implantation par les collectivités locales d'un ENT (Espace Numérique de Travail) dans les lycées et collèges n'est pas sans conséquences pour le quotidien de la communauté éducative. Notre étude s'intéresse ainsi à comprendre les usages émergents en procédant à une décomposition du processus d'appropriation. Elle répond également à une commande institutionnelle dont l'objectif politique est tourné vers l'encouragement et la stimulation des usages de ce type d'outil. Par conséquent, nous avons cherché à créer un modèle permettant de comprendre qui sont les utilisateurs de l'ENT et comment s'enclenche le passage des usages prescrits par les concepteurs aux comportements d'usages constatés sur le terrain.Pour sa concrétisation, notre modèle s'est construit sur la base d'un ensemble de travaux préalables.- L'étude du cadre de fonctionnement, à partir d'entretiens auprès des prescripteurs et de l'analyse du cahier des charges de l'ENT lorrain.- L'étude du cadre d'usage, d'une part, grâce aux mesures d'audiences de la CDC (Caisse des Dépôts et Consignation), d'autre part, par des questionnaires chargés de rendre compte des premiers usages ainsi que de la représentation sociale de l'ENT et de son cahier de textes pour les élèves, leurs enseignants et parents.Le modèle ainsi formalisé, soutenu par une littérature déjà robuste, est nommé : DAME (Dynamic Acceptance Model for Education). Il a été élaboré sur une population de 3 100 élèves, 774 parents, 617 enseignants et 44 membres du personnel de la vie scolaire.Les résultats obtenus, témoignent dans un premier temps, de l'importance à accorder aux perceptions d'« utilité » et d'« utilisabilité ». Pour favoriser l'adoption d'un l'ENT et donc son acceptabilité dans le cadre des activités quotidiennes d'enseignement, il est essentiel que sa prise en main ainsi que sa plus-value liée à son usage soit pleinement perçue. Dans un deuxième temps, il apparaît nécessaire de tenir compte des personnes qui entourent l'utilisateur, ce que nous qualifions dans notre modèle de « pression sociale », les élèves et le personnel de vie scolaire y étant particulièrement réceptifs. Dans un troisième temps, nous observons que les propriétés de l'outil peuvent engendrer ce que nous désignons par une « pression instrumentale » qui agit de manière rétroactive sur les précédentes variables. Du fait d'un usage répété, une dépendance à l'ENT peut s'installer lorsque celui-ci devient essentiel au bon déroulement de son activité, qu'elle soit professionnelle ou d'apprentissage, ce qui est notamment le cas pour les fonctionnalités : cahier de textes et espace d'informations. Néanmoins, notre modèle met également en évidence que d'autres facteurs sont susceptibles d'intervenir pour expliquer les usages, de nouvelles perspectives de recherches sont par conséquent à prévoir. Enfin, il apparaît évident, sur la base de nos différentes enquêtes, que les principaux bénéficiaires des ENT restent incontestablement les parents et les élèves. Ils manifestent tous deux de forts intérêts pour son usage mais se heurtent à la résistance de certains enseignants dénonçant une charge de travail supplémentaire et une trop grande transparence des informations qu'ils y déposent. / The implementation, by local collectivity, of a VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) in secondary schools and high school is not without consequences for the educational community daily activities. Our study aims to understand emerging uses by carry out a decomposition of the appropriation process. It also responds to an institutional command whose aim is turned toward the promotion and stimulation of the utilisation of this type of tool. Therefore, our objective is to create a model to understand which are VLE users and how is managed the transition between uses prescribed by the creators and observed behaviors.For its concretization, our model is built on a set of preliminary work.- The operating frame study based on interviews with prescribers and the analysis of the Lorraine VLE project specification chart.- The use frame study, on one hand, through uses counter measures from the CDC (Caisse des Dépôts group), on the other hand, by questionnaires upon which functions we report first uses and social representation of a VLE and his book-texts by students, teachers and parents.The model pattern, supported by a robust literature, is called: DAME (Dynamic Acceptance Model for Education). It was applied to a population of 3,100 students, 774 parents, 617 teachers and 44 staff members of school life.The results show in a first step, the importance given to "usefulness" and "usability" perceptions. To promote the adoption of a VLA, and therefore its acceptability in the daily teaching activities, it's crucial that its handling and its added value were associated with its use are fully perceived. In a second step, it seems necessary to take into account, the social network of the user, what we call in our model "social pressure", students and staff of school life being particularly responsive to it. In a third step, we observe that tool properties can generate what we designate by "instrumental pressure" which retroactively impact on previous variables. Due to repeated use, addiction to ENT may be installed when it becomes essential for the quality of his professional or learning activity, which is notably the case for two functionalities: text-book and information space. Nevertheless, our model shows that other factors can be able to explain uses; therefore, new research prospects can be expected. Finally, it seems clear, on the basis of our various surveys, that the main beneficiaries of VLE are mainly parents and students. But if both show strong interest for its use, they are confronted to the resistance of some teachers denouncing an overwork and an excessive transparency of uploaded information.

New approaches are needed to improve outcomes for safety training in hazardous industries. In this dissertation, following a detailed needs assessment and field studies of training in the mining industry, I will develop and validate a new approach for safety training that couples advancements in "serious games" with user interaction techniques to enhance training workflows. This approach is two-fold. First, the training content, practices, and outcomes are illustrated through non-linear stories with consequence-driven game play in a realistic, "sandbox" world. Second, the conventional game interfaces are extended using emerging natural user interfaces and complexity management techniques to improve the usability of complex data sets common in the application domain. MineSAFE, a custom-built platform to create serious games for training in mine safety, has been developed to enable the proposed approach. Several games that were created with this platform, including Harry's Hard Choices, will be presented. I will also discuss usability studies that have been carried out in realistic training situations to evaluate the user acceptance of the serious games approach for mine safety training. These studies suggest a high level of acceptance among domain users. Finally, I discuss workspace-level extensions to elevate serious games into an Augmented Virtual Reality, where gestures and tangible interaction drive the gaming experience. Although this work focuses on training for the mining industry, my hope is that the insights and technologies provided here will be transferable to other domains where safety, emergency response, and complicated information play a major role in shaping training outcomes.

Idag sker organisatoriskt administrationsarbete till stor del med hjälp av datoriserad teknik. Det finns dock en ineffektivitet i hur detta administrationsarbete går till i olika datasystem vilket lett till högre kostnad för mindre genererad nytta åt kunderna. Inom den offentliga sektorn är dessa kunder invånarna. Denna studie undersöker hur Huddinge kommun arbetar med ärendehantering i olika medieformer, vad som påverkar ärendehanteringen i och mellan medieformerna, samt vilka problem som uppstår i ärendeprocessen till följd av dessa. Studien tar upp hur socioteknik och människa-dator interaktion samverkar inom ramen för informationssystem och datahantering i förhållande till användarna och ärendehantering. Observationer och intervjuer har genomförts vid tre förvaltningar, samt Servicecenter på Huddinge kommun. Resultatet visar att ärendehanteringen inom kommunen är beroende av flera olika medieformer där informationssystemens användbarhet och funktionalitet påverkar hur säkert, konsekvent och tillförlitligt ärendehanteringen sker. Återkommande problem gällande dubbelarbete, oavslutade ärenden och inkonsekvent datainsamling och registrering av data kopplat till ärenden kan identifieras. Resultaten kan användas av Huddinge kommun vid kravställning och inköp av informationssystem ämnade för ärendehantering. Avgränsningar har gjorts gällande antalet representerade förvaltningsenheter inom kommunen. Övriga förvaltningsenheter kan använda sig av andra medieformer och ha andra erfarenheter gällande användning av dessa vid ärendehantering. / Today organizational management work is largely done with the help of computer technology. However, there are inefficiencies in how these management efforts are performed in various computer systems which has led to higher costs for less-generated benefits for customers. In the public sector, these customers are the residents. This study examines how the municipality of Huddinge works with case management in various forms of media, what influences the case management in and between these media forms and the problems that arise in the case process as a result of these. The study addresses how sociotechnology and human-computer interaction cooperate within the field of information systems and data management in relation to users and case management. Observations and interviews were conducted at three municipal administration units and the Service center in Huddinge. The results show that case management within the municipality is dependent on various forms of media, where the information systems usability and functionality affects how safe, consistent and reliable case handling takes place. Recurring problems regarding duplication of work, unfinished cases and inconsistent data collection and registration of data linked to case work can be identified. The results can be used by the municipality of Huddinge when defining requirements and purchasing information systems intended for case management. Limitations have been made regarding the number of represented administration units within the municipality. Other units within the municipality can use other forms of media, and therefore have other experiences regarding the use of these when working with case management.

An ICT tool is not only used in healthcare as an aid for caregivers, but can also help enhance the care experience of care recipients as these tools can bring benefit to the recipient. The positive care experience can also have the opposite effect, depending on the quality of information conveyed to the recipient. This study deals with SMS reminders information related to the quality of the care experience. It examines whether SMS reminders within the health system contains sufficient quality information to influence recipients care experience to the positive. This study was conducted by a qualitative method of semi-structured interviews with both care recipients and caregivers. This is to get two different perspectives on the information and quality care experience – from a care recipients perspective as receiving the SMS reminder, and from a caregivers perspective that send out the SMS reminders. By conducting a literature review, we acquired material that formed the basis of our interview questions. The results of the study show that SMS reminders in the current situation does not contain sufficient high quality information in order to reach a positive care experience for patients. In addition to information quality, we have also identified communication as a major factor contributing to increasing health care experience. Besides these two factors, we could also deduce that health care consumers have different needs depending on the life situation they are in.

This thesis investigated the use of novel combinations of multimodal metaphors in the presentation of learning information to evaluate the effect of these combinations on the usability of e-learning interfaces and on the users' learning performance. The empirical research described in this thesis comprised three experimental phases. In the first phase, an initial experiment was carried out with 30 users to explore and compare the usability and learning performance of facially animated expressive avatars with earcons and speech, and text with graphics metaphors. The second experimental phase involved an experiment conducted with 48 users to investigate their perception of avatar's facial expressions and body gestures when presented in both the absence and presence of interactive e-learning context. In addition, the experiment aimed at evaluating the role that an avatar could play as virtual lecturer in e-learning interfaces by comparing the usability and learning performance of three different modes of interaction: speaking facially expressive virtual lecturer, speaking facially expressive full-body animated virtual lecturer, and two speaking facially expressive virtual lecturers. In the third phase, a total of 24 users experimentally examined a novel approach for the use of earcons and auditory icons in e-learning interfaces to support an animated facially expressive avatar with body gestures during the presentation of the learning material. The obtained results demonstrated the usefulness of the tested metaphors to enhance e-learning usability and to enable users to attain better learning performance. These results provided a set of empirically derived innovative guidelines for the design and use of these metaphors to generate more usable e-learning interfaces. For example, when designing avatars as animated virtual lecturers in e-learning interfaces, specific facial expression and body gestures should be incorporated due to its positive influence in enhancing learners' attitude towards the learning process.

Websites have a significant impact on the competitiveness of organizations. Therefore it is necessary to deal with aspects that affect their success. At least it is worth to detect weaknesses which can be repaired with minimal effort and which baffle effective use of the site. It is possible to use quite a number of audit methods and tools but the global approach to this issue is missing. The aim of this thesis is to create audit methodology and its implementation into the online tool, to allow automatic audit performance. I first describe aspects of success of a website such as search engine optimization, accessibility, usability, information architecture and information value. Then I analyzed the methods and tools for webpages audit and explored the possibilities of their system integration. This enabled me to design the optimal process of audit and realize the tool which is the main output of the thesis and is enclosed on the CD. The benefit of this tool lies primarily in the comprehensive conception which focuses not only on a certain area, but tries to evaluate all possible facts within a single analysis. The advantage of the tool is its mass utilization. It allows detection of possible errors and solutions proposition with minimal costs and without the need of special knowledge. The tool contains several unique algorithms that check some aspects of sites and eliminate manual verification.

This study presents a way to design a visualization method in a geographic information system for complex electronic warfare assessment. Enhanced usability was in focus and the work covers important factors and challenges when evaluating usability during the development process in a complex domain.   Electronic warfare is an important part of each country’s defence. Assessing Electronic Warfare capabilities in real war zones is normally impossible, making simulations and visualizations important parts of the process. The field of visualization covers visual techniques for presenting large data sets in ways that provide insight to the user. In a visualization, an enhanced usability is achieved with a user-centered interface. Developing a visualization towards usability has its challenges, to develop it in a complex domain with few domain experts as users is even more challenging.   The study used an iterative method with three iterations of implementation and evaluation, applying an approach adapted for experts working in a complex domain. When designing a visualization for a complex domain, the most important factors during the design process are to understand how the users work in the system and to make the visualization simple and over-intuitive.   The last user testing indicated that the users were able to draw conclusions about high-level conceptual goals based on the visual representation as well as to use the GUI to interact with the system. The result of this study is a visualization method for radar propagation with local refractive index, together with a process that can be used to design and evaluate a visualization method towards usability in a complex domain.

Big data is a term used to describe large amounts of data. The aim of the work has been to develop an efcient system that analyzes large quantities of data. Which in this case is the transport of wood between forest and industry. By man- aging this amount of data, the user can quickly receive information about the lo- cation of the timber and compare historical data regarding it. This report de- scribes the work of implementing a dashboard that compiles "Big data" in real time and in a comprehensible way. The project uses scrum as a project tool. This means an iterative development where you work towards smaller sub-goals. The report also includes evaluations conducted with a focus on usability and also a compilation of research within the subject of data visualization and BI. The evalu- ation indicated that by using the developed dashboard, it took a standard com- puter user an average of 3.4 seconds to fnd the requested information. Before, programming skills would be required and it would take much longer to obtain corresponding information. / Big data är ett begrepp som idag används flr att beskriva stora datamängder. Må- let med arbetet har varit att utveckla ett efektivt system som analyserar stora mängder data. I det här fallet transportfldet av virke mellan skog och industri. Genom att hantera den här mängden data får användaren snabbt fram information om vart virket befnner sig och mljlighet till att jämflra historiska data. Den här rapporten beskriver arbetet med att implementera en dashboard som i realtid sammanställer Big data på ett begripligt sätt. Projektet använder sig av scrum som projektverktyg. Det betyder ett iterativt arbete där man arbetar mot delmål. Rap- porten innehåller även utvärderingar som genomflrts med användbarhet i fokus samt en sammanställning av forskning inom området datavisualisering och BI. Utvärderingen visade att med den utvecklade dashboarden så tog det flr en nor- mal datoranvändare i snitt 3,4 sekunder att hitta den efterslka information. Tidi- gare så krävdes det programmeringskunskaper och betydligt längre tid flr att få fram motsvarade information.

RSAT (Reticulation Sag And Tension) software is a tool available for use as part of the medium voltage Eskom Distribution standard. This software is scrutinised for its usability and for errors such that it can be revised to improve the usability of the tool. The type of software being studied is used to ensure optimum design performance and reduce the probability of a conductor failure on distribution lines. The algorithms for calculating tension, sag and clearance values take into account research into optimum design tensions. This ensures low bending forces due to conductor vibration. An algorithm for creep is designed based on common life expectancy of line conductors. The design methodology and algorithms were then put into software form as RSAT. Review and alterations include the changing of compiler, user interface, data storage mechanisms and the inclusion of options allowing the addition of new data.