En Interaction Homme-Machine, la qualité est une utopie : malgré toutes les précautions prises en conception, il existe toujours des utilisateurs et des situations d'usage pour lesquels l'Interface Homme-Machine (IHM) est imparfaite. Cette thèse explore l'auto-explication des IHM pour améliorer la qualité perçue par les utilisateurs. L'approche s'inscrit dans une Ingénierie Dirigée par les Modèles. Elle consiste à embarquer à l'exécution les modèles de conception pour dynamiquement augmenter l'IHM d'un ensemble de questions et de réponses. Les questions peuvent être relatives à l'utilisation de l'IHM (par exemple, "A quoi sert ce bouton ?", "Pourquoi telle action n'est pas possible ?) et à sa justification (par exemple, "Pourquoi les items ne sont-ils pas rangés par ordre alphabétique ?"). Cette thèse propose une infrastructure logicielle UsiExplain basée sur les méta-modèles UsiXML. L'évaluation sur un cas d'étude d'achat de voitures montre que l'approche est pertinente pour les questions d'utilisation de l'IHM. Elle ouvre des perspectives en justification de conception. / In Human-Computer Interaction, quality is an utopia. Despite all the design efforts, there are always uses and situations for which the user interface is not perfect. This thesis investigates self-explanatory user interfaces for improving the quality perceived by end users. The approach follows the principles of model-driven engineering. It consists in keeping the design models at runtime so that to dynamically enrich the user interface with a set of possible questions and answers. The questions are related to usage (for instance, "What's the purpose of this button?", "Why is this action not possible"?) as well as to design rationale (for instance, "Why are the items not alphabetically ordered?"). This thesis proposes a software infrastructure UsiExplain based on the UsiXML metamodels. An evaluation conducted on a case study related to a car shopping webiste confirms that the approach is relevant especially for usage questions. Design rationale will be further explored in the future.STAR

Thesis (MTech (Information Technology))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2005. / This thesis explores the design and implementation of an intelligent semantic machine control system with specific reference to human-machine interface design. The term "intelligent" refers to machines that can execute some level of decision taking in context. The term "semantic" refers to a structured language that allows user and machine to communicate. This study will explore all the key concepts about an intelligent semantic machine control system with human-machine interface. The key concepts to be investigated will include Artificial Intelligence, Intelligent Control, Semantics, Intelligent Machine Architecture, Human-Machine Interaction, Information systems and Graphical User Interface. The primary purpose of this study is to develop a methodology for designing a machine control system and its related human-machine interface.

Context. How end user development can be enabled and made attainable through the use of a web based graphical user interface, in systems that contains logic for handling BPMN flows as variation points. Investigated from a UX and usability perspective. Objectives. Designing prototypes of such a web-based interface, and then evaluating the usability with regards to the usability attributes effectiveness and learnability, with the goal finding relevant usability issues & solutions as well as investigating how the two usability attributes affected the participants’ subjective satisfaction. Methods. Two prototype versions were implemented, one based upon the other. A usability inspection (expert evaluation) was performed after the first prototype version (named alpha) was finished and the second version (named beta) was built based on that feedback. The usability of the prototypes were then evaluated in usability test sessions using the think aloud method together with the SUS (System Usability Scale) questionnaire.The recorded data from the usability test sessions was analysed. Usability issues & solutions were noted, filtered, tagged and grouped by design principle with the goal of looking for patterns. SUS scores were calculated from the questionnaires. Additional factor analysis was performed on the SUS data to get separate usability and learnability scores. Results. The results consisted of SUS scores for both prototypes together with learnability and usability scores. Common and noteworthy usability issues & solutions grouped by design principle. Detailed appendixes with scenarios exemplifying recorded video & voice data for four of the most relevant test participants. Conclusions. The two prototypes were compared. Improvements to effectiveness and learnability was found to have a positive impact on the participants’ subjective satisfaction in the described context. Additionally, a number of usability issues and solutions was identified that could be of value when developing similar software. In summary, the following findings were made related to effectiveness: Adding constraints to the number of options available to users helped increase effectiveness. The lack of keyboard shortcuts was a deal breaker for many users and had a negative impact on effectiveness.. Consistency in navigation was more important than expected. The lack of functionality for saving drafts in the browser, without downloading, was something that most users expected and was surprised not to find. Several users expected their drafts to be automatically saved. They were frustrated when their changes were lost without warning. The lack of an undo function was also a big issue for users, causing problems with recovery. Giving immediate feedback with a notification popup after users had deployed a flow worked well and was easier to implement than expected. The connection tool that ship with bpmn-js was hard to learn and use for several users. Additionally, some learnability related findings: Sandbox intended to boost learnability but caused problems with effectiveness. The BPMN notation was not familiar to the test participants. Some training or introduction would have been necessary in a real usage scenario. When important functionality was concealed in submenus it was harder for users to learn how to operate the editor, specifically a problem with the context pad. Properties panel. Issues with visibility of single items due to tabs being too cluttered. Affordance issues on input/output parameters tab. Consistency issue with the bpmn.io logo being placed in the where users expected a save button. Consistency. Negative impact on learnability due to lack of keyboard shortcuts. Users likely to learn faster if they could use the shortcuts they already know. Placement of the download button not consistent with other webapps. Unconventional to only have drag and drop for upload and no button. Issues with visibility and consistency related to maximizing/minimizing editor in beta prototype. Familiarity findings related to deploy button colour and label might have affected learnability.

Orientador: Wu, Shin-Ting / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Eletrica e de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-05T08:16:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 SiqueiraJunior_CelioFlores_M.pdf: 5026800 bytes, checksum: 599605f96479f58b6dd6525ebb76ae99 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005 / Resumo: Nesta dissertação apresentamos um paradigma para apoio à elaboração de pré-despachos de um sistema elétrico, no qual os recursos gráficos desempenham um papel fundamental para prover uma representação mais legível, intuitiva e eficiente dos dados provenientes de simulações, além de mecanismos de interação para sua análise. Acreditamos que esta representação, como parte integrante de um sistema de suporte a decisões, não só diminuiria o trabalho mental dos operadores na interpretação dos dados envolvidos no planejamento do sistema elétrico, como também poderia fornecer novos subsídios para a solução dos problemas, melhorando a qualidade e confiabilidade das decisões tomadas. Para facilitar a correlação dos potenciais problemas e suas soluções, dados geo-referenciados são integrados ao longo do processo de modelagem dos dados, contextualizando os usuários geograficamente. Nossa proposta consiste basicamente em um modelo que mapeia um conjunto de dados elétricos e temporais, provenientes de simulação, em um conjunto de dados gráficos geo-referenciados, utilizando recursos gráficos de visualização para destacar as informações essenciais ao pré-despacho, além de recursos de interação para visualizar os impactos de alterações nas restrições do sistema. Visando validar a factibilidade de nossa proposta, desenvolvemos o protótipo batizado de VisciPower. A partir dos testes de usabilidade, o potencial do nosso modelo gráfico interativo para aplicações de engenharia na área de energia elétrica pôde ser confirmado / Abstract: In this dissertation we present a paradigm to support the elaboration of pre-dispatches for a power system, where the graphic resources play a fundamental role to provide a more legible, intuitive and efficient representation of the simulation data, besides interaction mechanisms for its analysis. We believe that this representation, as an integrating part of a decision support system, would not only reduce the operator's mental effort on the interpretation of the data involved in power system planning, but also give new insights for the solution of the problems, enhancing the quality and reliability of the decision-making process. To ease the correlation of the potential problems and its solutions, geospatial data are integrated during the data modeling process, contextualizing the users geographically. Our proposal consists basically of a model that maps the set of electrical and simulated data into a set of graphical geospatial data, using visualization graphic resources to highlight the essential information for the pre-dispatch, besides interaction resources to evaluate the impact of alterations on the system's restrictions. Aiming to validate the feasibility of our proposal, we developed a prototype named VisciPower. From the usability tests, the potential of our interactive graphic model for power engineering applications could be asserted. / Mestrado / Engenharia de Computação / Mestre em Engenharia Elétrica

Många systemutvecklare idag saknar kunskap om hur ljud kan användas i system för att öka användarupplevelsen och är skeptiska till ljudets användningspotential. Auditory display är ett samlingsnamn för olika tekniker som nyttjar ljudet som ett medium för att kommunicera olika typer av data och information från systemet till användaren. Då mycket av forskningen rörande auditory display fokuserar på utvecklingen av hjälpmedel för synskadade istället för mer generella system för användare utan särskilda behov ser vi att det finns ett behov av en litteraturstudie med fokus på den sistnämnda gruppen system. Vi ställde frågan "hur kan auditory display tillämpas vid utveckling av traditionella IT-system" och genomförde en litteraturstudie där 23 artiklar analyserade för att identifiera olika tillämpningsområden för auditory display, med syfte att återge dessa tillämpningsområden i ett format som är av intresse för utvecklare som vill kunna använda ljud i sina system men inte vet vart de ska börja. Resultaten visar att auditory display kan användas till god effekt exempelvis vid övervakning av nätverkstrafik, i gränssnitt och widgets och i fordonsgränssnitt i bilar. Vi föreslår även lovande användningsområden som bör undersökas vidare av framtida forskare. / Today, there is a certain lack of knowledge on how sound can be utilized in systems to enhance the user experience among systems developers and many developers have a skeptical outlook on the usability of sound. Auditory display is an umbrella term for an array of different techniques that utilize sound as a medium to communicate different sorts of information and data from the system to the user. As much of the research revolving around auditory display has the development of accessibility tools for visually impaired as its sole focus, instead of more general systems intended for users without specific needs, we see that there is a need for a literature review focused on the latter. We asked ourselves the question "how can auditory display be utilized in the development of traditional IT-systems?" and carried out a literature review where 23 articles were analyzed to identify different use cases, with the purpose of presenting these use casers in a way that can be used by developers who are interested in implementing sound in their systems but are unsure where to start. Results indicate that auditory display can be used to good effect in, among others, systems for monitoring network traffic, user interfaces and widgets and in-vehicle technologies. Lastly, we propose promising potential use cases that are in need of further research.

Military work-practice is a difficult area of research where paper-based approaches are still extended. This thesis proposes a solution which permits the digitalization of information at the same time as workpractice remains unaltered for soldiers working with maps in the field. For this purpose, a mobile interactive paper-based platform has been developed which permits the users to maintain their current work-flow. The premise of the solution parts from a system consisting of a prepared paper-map, a cellular phone, a desktop computer, and a digital pen with bluetooth connection. The underlying idea is to permit soldiers to take advantage of the information a computerized system can offer, at the same time as the overhead it incurs is minimized. On one hand this implies that the solution must be light-weight, on the other it must retain current working procedures as far as possible. The desktop computer is used to develop new paper-driven applications through the application provided in the development framework, thus allowing the tailoring of applications to the changing needs of military operations. One major component in the application suite is a symbol recognizer which is capable of recognizing symbols parting from a template which can be created in one of the applications. This component permits the digitalization of information in the battlefield by drawing on the paper-map. The proposed solution has been found to be viable, but still there is a need for further development. Furthermore, there is a need to adapt the existing hardware to the requirements of the military to make it usable in a real-world situation.

Abstract User experience research has focused mainly on understanding user experiences during or directly after use. However, studies that focus on anticipated user experiences are scarce. Different methods and metrics have also been developed to measure user experience, but only a few are suitable for evaluating visual user interface design in an anticipated use situation. Moreover, these methods do not provide guidance on how to create suitable examples for research. This thesis investigates how anticipated user experiences, needs, and wishes for visual user interface design can be studied in the early development phase. Furthermore, it investigates how visual design examples can be created and used in these studies as well as their benefits. To answer these questions, it was necessary to create and evaluate prototypes and visual design examples in the user early development phase user experience studies. The examples allowed the study of how interactive elements of user interfaces should be visually designed to draw users’ attention to them. In addition, the thesis explains the means of increasing the visibility of an interactive object and the impact of its use context on its visual design. A constructive design research approach is used in this thesis. The research material is compiled from the artifacts and results of the seven user studies. The main data collection and analysis methods are qualitative, supported with some quantitative methods. The main contribution of this thesis is a practical EDE method for creating visual design examples and evaluating them in early development phase anticipated user experience studies focused on the visual design of a user interface. The second contribution of this thesis is user experience-based preliminary suggestions for the design of interactive elements within the studied user interfaces. The findings are useful for both practitioners and researchers dealing with user experience and visual user interface design. / Tiivistelmä Käyttäjäkokemustutkimus on keskittynyt käyttäjien kokemuksiin varsinaisen käytön aikana tai heti sen jälkeen. Kiinnostus ennakoidun käyttäjäkokemuksen tutkimukseen ennen käyttötilannetta on herännyt vasta hiljattain. Käyttäjäkokemuksen arviointi- ja mittausmenetelmiä on kehitetty paljon, mutta vain harvat niistä sopivat visuaalisen käyttöliittymäsuunnittelun tutkimiseen ennakoidussa käyttötilanteessa. Menetelmät eivät myöskään opasta arviointiin sopivien visuaalisten esimerkkien suunnittelussa. Tutkielmassa selvitetään, miten käyttäjien ennakoituja kokemuksia, tarpeita ja toiveita visuaalisesta käyttöliittymäsuunnittelusta voidaan tutkia tuotekehityksen alkuvaiheessa. Lisäksi selvitetään, kuinka visuaalisia esimerkkejä voidaan luoda ja käyttää alkuvaiheen ennakoidun käyttäjäkokemuksen arvioinneissa sekä pohditaan niiden etuja tutkimuksille. Jotta näihin kysymyksiin voidaan vastata, täytyi luoda prototyyppejä ja visuaalisia esimerkkejä sekä arvioida niitä käyttäjätutkimuksissa. Esimerkkien avulla tutkitaan, miten vuorovaikutteisia käyttöliittymäelementtejä tulisi visuaalisesti esittää, jotta käyttäjä erottaisi ne muusta sisällöstä. Lisäksi selvitetään, miten elementin vuorovaikutteista ilmettä voitaisiin vahvistaa sekä arvioidaan sovellusympäristön vaikutusta elementin visuaaliseen esittämiseen. Tutkimuksen lähestymistapa on konstruktiivinen suunnittelun tutkimus. Aineisto muodostuu artefakteista ja seitsemän käyttäjäkokemustutkimuksen tuloksista. Tutkimusten tiedonkeruumenetelmät ja aineiston analyysimenetelmät ovat laadullisia. Lisämenetelminä on käytetty myös määrällisiä mittareita ja analyysimenetelmiä. Tutkielman päätulos on käytännöllinen EDE-menetelmä, joka on tarkoitettu visuaalisten esimerkkien luontiin ja arviointiin alkuvaiheen ennakoiduissa käyttäjäkokemustutkimuksissa, jotka keskittyvät tuotteen visuaaliseen suunnitteluun. Tutkielman toinen tulos on käyttäjäkokemuspohjaiset alustavat suositukset tutkittujen käyttöliittymien vuorovaikutteisten elementtien visuaaliseen suunnitteluun. Tulokset palvelevat visuaalisen käyttöliittymäsuunnittelun tai käyttäjäkokemuksen parissa työskenteleviä tutkijoita ja teollisuuden ammatinharjoittajia.

This dissertation presents the design and implementation of a graphical user interface (GUI) to display spatial data in a web-based environment. The work is a case study for a web-based framework for distributed applications, the Web Computing Skeleton, using a distributed open spatial query mechanism to display the geographic data. The design is based on investigation of geographic information systems (GISs), GUI design and properties of spatial query mechanisms. The purpose ofthe GUI is to integrate information about a geographic area; display, manipulate and query geographic-based spatial data; execute queries about spatial relationships and analyse the attribute data to calculate the shortest routes for emergency response. The GUI is implemented as a Java applet embedded in a web document that communicates with the application server via generic GIS classes that provide a common interface to various GIS data sources used in the spatial query mechanism to access a geographic database. Features that are supported by the distributed open spatial query mechanism include a basic set of spatial selection criteria, spatial selection based on pointing, specification of a query window, description of a map scale and identification of a map legend. The design is based on a formal design process that includes the selection of a conceptual model, identification of task flow, major windows and dialog flow, the definition of fields and detailed window layout and finally the definition of field constraints and defaults. The conceptual model characterises the application and provides a framework for users to learn the system model. This model is conceptualised as a map that the user manipulates directly. Unlike a typical map, which just shows spatial data such as roads, cities, and country borders, the GIS links attribute data like population statistics to the spatial data. This link between the map data and the attribute data makes the GIS a powerful tool to manipulate and display data. To measure the performance of displaying spatial data, two main factors are considered, namely processing speed and display quality. Factors that affect the processing speed include the rate of data transfer from the generic GIS classes, the rate data is downloaded over the network and the speed of execution of the drawing. Two factors that influence the spatial data display quality are pixel distance and bitmap quality. The pixel distance set in the geographic database is represented by two pixels on the display screen, which affects the display quality since the pixel distance is the upper limit for display granularity. This means that setting the pixel distance is a trade-off between the processing speed and the display quality. Bitmaps are raster images that are made up of pixels or cells. To improve the raster image quality, the bitmap resolution can be adjusted to display more pixels per centimetre. / Dissertation (MSc (Computer Science))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Computer Science / unrestricted

The purpose of this research is to propose metrics to evaluate the user interface factors that impact on the user experience of Software Accounting Applications (SAAs) used to support the accounting business activities in Small Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) operating in developing countries. The research commences by outlining the conceptual background that introduces the study. In the introductory chapter, the problems together with the objectives that motivate the significance of the study are presented. In the same chapter, the overall research focus and how each of the research questions are treated to accomplish the intended goals are defined. In Chapter 2, the typical accounting business activities for SMMEs operating in developing countries are investigated. Findings from the preliminary survey revealed that Pastel accounting is the commonly used SMME accounting application used in developing countries. Inventory management, cash book processing, preparation of financial statements, customer and supplier documents processing are revealed as the most prevalent SMME accounting activities. This chapter highlights the problems that inhibit the implementation and the delivery of full benefits of using these SAAs. After indentifying the SAA problems, user experience aspects of the SAA are addressed in Chapter 3. User experience (UX) is defined and existing UX evaluation criteria are discussed. The findings form the basis for choosing the applicable criteria for evaluating the User Interface (UI) factors impacting on the UX of Pastel accounting. The proposed user experience evaluation metrics are described in Chapter 4. A discussion on how the metrics are implemented and what UI aspect they measure is presented. The research design and methodology followed is discussed in Chapter 5. The chapter outlines the possible research philosophy, strategy, methods and data collecting methods. A choice is made about the appropriate approach to answer the stated research questions to satisfy the intended overall research objective. A phenomenologist, qualitative inductive approach is adopted in the study. A contextual inquiry case-study strategy is chosen as applicable to this research. Data is collected using expert reviews, user observation and subjective questionnaires. After the choice of the research techniques, the case study results are presented and analysed in Chapter 6. It is found that Pastel UI is attractive and the users are happy with the visual design of the application. The major factors that impact on Pastel accounting are its lack of 4 feedback and its complexity which makes it difficult for first time users to use the application and the paucity of the help function. After the observed findings, the conclusions and recommendations of the research are presented in Chapter 7. It has been concluded that Pastel accounting UI fails to captivate a positive user experience for first-time users; the users do not find the expected help from the Help function and are often left wondering about the status of the system and the outcome of their actions on a task. Recommendations on how designers would make Pastel user interface more helpful, easy to use, and provide adequate feedback are presented in Chapter 7.

The number of citizens, who access e-Government websites, is growing significantly and their expectations for additional services are increasing. The Internet has become an essential instrument to distribute information to citizens. Poorly designed websites, however, can divide governments and its citizens. Consensus amongst researchers is that user experience (UX) is an important factor in designing websites specifically e-Government websites. Problems, experienced with website usability, prevent people from accessing and eventually adopting technology, such as e-Government. Countries, such as the United States, United Kingdom and Canada, have shown increased support for UX in e-Government websites. At present, a number of guidelines and design principles exists for e-Government website UX design; however, the effectiveness of the implementation of these guidelines and principles depends on the profiles of the individuals on a website development team and on an organisation’s understanding of UX. Despite the highlighted importance of UX, guidelines and principles are rarely adopted in South African e-Government websites. Usability and UX guidelines cannot be implemented; if there is no executive support; an inadequately trained staff; no routine UX practice; insufficient budget; inefficient use of usability methodologies and user-centred design (UCD) processes. The challenge at present in the UX design field is the institutionalisation of UX, specifically at government level. The goal of this research was to propose and evaluate a methodology to institutionalise UX in South African Provincial Governments (PGs), named the “Institutionalise UX in Government (IUXG) methodology”. The research used the Western Cape Government (WCG) in South Africa as a case study to evaluate the proposed methodology to institutionalise UX in a South African PG. The IUXG methodology (1.0) was proposed from five UX methodologies, as well as from best practices found in literature. The IUXG methodology (1.1) was updated, based on results of a survey to South African PGs, a survey to WCG employees, as well as literature from the WCG. The IUXG methodology (2.0) was updated a final time, based on the case study results and on a confirmation survey with WCG employees after the implementation of the case study. The research study made use of three surveys during this research. The first survey, incorporating UX maturity models, confirmed that understanding and buy-in of UX are limited and that UX maturity levels are low at South African PG level. The second and third surveys were administered to WCG e-Government website officials before and after the implementation of the IUXG methodology. The surveys measured the UX maturity level of the WCG in the component, e-Government for Citizens (e-G4C), responsible for the WCG e-Government website. The final survey results demonstrated that, after the implementation of the IUXG methodology, the WCG improved its level of UX maturity on the identified UX maturity models. Implementation of the IUXG methodology institutionalised UX in the WCG. UX activities became standard practice in the e-Government website environment after the systems development lifecycle (SDLC) incorporated UCD. UX policy, strategy and guidelines were documented for the WCG e-Government website. The WCG constructed the first usability testing facility for a South African PG and improvements to the WCG e-Government website were implemented. The proposed IUXG methodology institutionalised UX in the WCG e-Government website environment. This research is a major contribution, to addressing the current lack of UX practices in South African PGs. South African PGs can use the proposed IUXG methodology to institutionalise UX and it will assist PG officials to develop increased UX maturity levels. The advantage of the IUXG methodology is that it provides PG officials with a step-by-step method how to institutionalise UX in a PG by following the six phases of the IUXG methodology: startup, setup, organisation, method, standards and long-term. The IUXG methodology will assist South African PGs to establish UX practice as a norm. The IUXG methodology will assist PGs with the resources, methods and tools to enable them to implement UX guidelines, which will result in an improved, more usable and more user-centric PG e-Government website.