We investigate whether usability aspects affect the design and development of the browsing experience in electronic commerce applications. The study is limited to the generic electronic commerce activities and does not address the financial perspective. As background we studied the electronic commerce domain, interaction design and information systems development methodologies. Within a quasi-experimental research design we then developed two experimental websites to test our hypotheses that the usability principles of consistency, structured information and navigation affect the users of a website: one adhering and one violating these principles. Respondents were required to record their perceptions of both using a questionnaire. We found that usability issues had a minimal influence on the perceived success of the websites. It is thus only one of many factors that needs to be considered in the design and development of a successful electronic commerce website, and cannot be treated as an isolated add-on. / Kotzé, P. / Information Science / M. A. (Information Science)

We investigate whether usability aspects affect the design and development of the browsing experience in electronic commerce applications. The study is limited to the generic electronic commerce activities and does not address the financial perspective. As background we studied the electronic commerce domain, interaction design and information systems development methodologies. Within a quasi-experimental research design we then developed two experimental websites to test our hypotheses that the usability principles of consistency, structured information and navigation affect the users of a website: one adhering and one violating these principles. Respondents were required to record their perceptions of both using a questionnaire. We found that usability issues had a minimal influence on the perceived success of the websites. It is thus only one of many factors that needs to be considered in the design and development of a successful electronic commerce website, and cannot be treated as an isolated add-on. / Kotzé, P. / Information Science / M. A. (Information Science)

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2018-09-28T12:25:54Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Juliana Somekh.pdf: 1105964 bytes, checksum: e95f09685cf91805d123f838a61a6076 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-09-28T12:25:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Juliana Somekh.pdf: 1105964 bytes, checksum: e95f09685cf91805d123f838a61a6076 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-08-31 / This study presents and questions an experiment carried out in the discipline of Ergonomics, which I teach in a Course of Design at a São Paulo university. The concern of the experiment is to awaken in the youngsters - the future designers -, the responsibility to create a design which is more inclusive and more affectionate towards old people. The project selected with this aim consists of the production of an user friendly guide, which teaches the elderly how to use, by themselves, the APP to watch films Netflix. The work investigates whether there is a gain in the quality of the produced guide and in the learning process of ergonomics when the teaching method includes a more humane view on aging, based in great part on the philosophy of encounter of Martin Buber and on exercises experiencing empathy with aging. The general aim of the research is to elaborate a proposal for a teaching method based on the principles of the science of Ergonomics allied with a theoretical analysis of empathy, and guiding the student of design to adopt a posture of respect with the aged and to seek more inclusive and user friendly solutions for products. The evaluation method of the project consisted of reports elaborated by the students after tests of their user guides with the aged people, as well as questionnaires answered by them in class about their impressions on their work and experiences. The result of the experiment shows that, although a more lasting more positive view of the aged by the young had not been achieved, when the latter would see the former as an active, eager to achieve individual it was possible to witness moments of true empathy during the tests of the guides. With the support of humanist thinkers like Buber, we conclude that it is necessary to continue the fight against prejudices ingrained in human beings and that the educator has nowadays a great responsibility to promote in the teaching environment activities originating more humane, more affectionate and more inclusive view on human diversity / Esta investigação apresenta e problematiza uma experiência da disciplina de Ergonomia que leciono em um curso de Design em uma universidade paulistana, cuja preocupação é despertar nos jovens, futuros designers, a responsabilidade por um design mais inclusivo e afetuoso aos idosos. O projeto escolhido com esta finalidade é a criação de um Manual ergonômico, que ensina o velho a usar sozinho o aplicativo de filmes NETFLIX. Investiga-se neste trabalho se há um ganho na qualidade do Manual produzido e no aprendizado de Ergonomia, ao incluir, na didática de ensino, um olhar mais humano da velhice, baseado em grande parte na filosofia de encontro de Martin Buber e em vivências de empatia com o envelhecimento. O objetivo geral da pesquisa é elaborar a proposta de uma metodologia de ensino fundada nos princípios da ciência da Ergonomia, do design inclusivo, aliada a uma análise teórica da empatia, orientando o aluno de design para uma postura de respeito com o usuário-idoso, de busca por soluções de maior afeto e usabilidade. O método de avaliação empregado consistiu em relatórios elaborados pelos alunos após o teste do manual com os idosos, bem como em questionários respondidos por eles em classe sobre suas impressões dos trabalhos e das vivências. O resultado das experiências mostra, na finalização deste trabalho, que - embora não se tenha conseguido uma mudança mais duradoura de olhar na relação jovem-velho, quando o primeiro veria o segundo como um ser produtivo e desejoso de realizações -, foi possível atestar que ocorreram momentos verdadeiramente empáticos durante o teste final do manual. Concluímos, com apoio em pensadores humanistas como Buber, que é preciso continuar a luta contra os preconceitos arraigados no ser humano e que é muito grande a responsabilidade social que deve ter hoje o educador em propiciar, no ambiente de ensino, atividades práticas, que gerem um olhar mais humano, mais afetuoso e inclusivo à diversidade humana

During an incident, which is critical in nature, sense-making by the individuals involved are essential in ensuring an optimal response to the incident. The incident management systems employed to manage the allocation of resources to an incident allow for the visualisation of the incident and its constituents, and this visualisation supports sense-making by improving knowledge transfer. Knowledge visualisation contains pitfalls that can be avoided by implementing knowledge visualisation criteria. The purpose of this study is to identify the knowledge visualisation criteria that optimise the knowledge transfer by visual artifacts in incident management systems like emergency medical or fire-response systems. This study used the design science research (DSR) methodology and was conducted in the context of critical incident response management. A review of the existing literature was done to identify an initial set of knowledge visualisation criteria. The initial set was evaluated by content experts (using questionnaire driven interviews) and usability experts (using questionnaire driven interviews, usability testing with eye tracking and a survey) in the context of an emergency incident management system. The main contribution of this study is a validated set of knowledge visualisation criteria to guide knowledge transfer in incident management systems. / School of Computing / M. Sc. Computing

There is a growing interest in bringing online and streaming content to the television. Gaming platforms such as the PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii are at the center of this digital convergence; platforms for accessing new media services. This presents a number of interface challenges, as controllers designed for gaming have to be adapted to accessing online content. We conducted a user study examining the limitations and affordances of novel game controllers in an interactive TV (iTV) context and compared them to "second display" approaches using tablets. We looked at task completion times, accuracy and user satisfaction across a number of tasks and found that the Wiimote is most liked and performed best in almost all tasks. Participants found the Kinect difficult to use, which led to slow performance and high error rates. We discuss challenges and opportunities for the future convergence of game consoles and iTV. We also analyzed the usability of the interfaces themselves with respect to each device. Accuracy ratings and context of task type were used to determine ideal component attributes such as button size and spacing. Additional strategies like snapping cursor to buttons in the case of small targets were also suggested. Paying attention to the strengths and weaknesses of each input method, we put forth a set of design recommendations for future iTV interfaces that leverage novel input devices. / Graduation date: 2012

The main objective of the presented research is to design, fabricate, fully characterize, and assess the usability and functionality of a novel wireless tongue-operated assistive technology, called Tongue Drive System (TDS), that allows individuals with severe physical disabilities (such as quadriplegics) to effectively access computers, drive powered wheelchairs, and control environments using their voluntary tongue motion. The system can wirelessly detect users' tongue movements using an array of magnetic sensors, and a magnetic tracer secured on the tongue, and translate them into a set of user-defined commands in real time, which can then be used to communicate with target devices in users' environment. The principal advantage of the TDS is that a combination of magnetic sensors and a small permanent magnet can capture a large number of tongue movements, each of which can represent one specific command. A set of dedicated tongue movements can be configured as specific commands for each individual user based on his/her preferences, lifestyle, and remaining abilities. As a result, this technology can benefit a wide range of potential users with different types of disabilities. The work carried out in this dissertation is largely split into three portions: (1) Development, fabrication and characterization of external TDS (eTDS) prototypes to verify the concept of TDS that is detecting and extracting user's intention through their voluntary tongue motion, utilizing a combination of magnetic sensors and a small magnet, as well as the application of this idea in the context of assistive technology. This part of the work is presented in Chapters IV, V and VI. (2) Assessment of the TDS performance in medium term usage for both computer access and wheelchair control. The main purpose of this work was to gain valuable insight into the TDS learning process and its current limiting factors, which could lead the way in designing new generations of TDS with improved usability. This portion of the work is described in Chapter VII. (3) Development and performance assessment of a multimodal TDS (mTDS), that operates based on the information collected from two independent input channels: the tongue motion and speech. This multimodal system expands the access beyond one input channel and therefore improves the speed of access by increasing the information transfer bandwidth between users and computers. This part of the work is presented in Chapters VIII and IX. This dissertation has contributed to the innovation and advancement of the start-of-the-art assistive technology research by exploring, realizing and validating the use of tongue motion as a voluntary motor output to substitute some of the lost arm and hand functions in people with severe disabilities for computer access, wheelchair navigation, and environmental control.

With the improvement of multimedia technologies such as broadband-enabled HDTV, video on demand and internet TV, the computer and the TV are merging to become a single device. Moreover the previously cited technologies as well as DVD or Blu-ray can provide menu navigation and interactive content. The growing interest in video conferencing led to the integration of the webcam in different devices such as laptop, cell phones and even the TV set. Our approach is to directly use an embedded webcam to remotely control a TV set using hand gestures. Using specific gestures, a user is able to control the TV. A dedicated interface can then be used to select a TV channel, adjust volume or browse videos from an online streaming server. This approach leads to several challenges. The first is the use of a simple webcam which leads to a vision based system. From the single webcam, we need to recognize the hand and identify its gesture or trajectory. A TV set is usually installed in a living room which implies constraints such as a potentially moving background and luminance change. These issues will be further discussed as well as the methods developed to resolve them. Video browsing is one example of the use of gesture recognition. To illustrate another application, we developed a simple game controlled by hand gestures. The emergence of 3D TVs is allowing the development of 3D video conferencing. Therefore we also consider the use of a stereo camera to recognize hand gesture.

The availability and scale of user generated data in online systems raises tremendous challenges and opportunities to analytic study of human activities. Effective modeling of online human activities is not only fundamental to the understanding of human behavior, but also important to the online industry. This thesis focuses on developing models and algorithms to predict human activities in online systems and to improve the algorithmic design of personalized/socialized systems (e.g., recommendation, advertising, Web search systems). We are particularly interested in three types of online user activities, i.e., decision making, social interactions and user-generated contents. Centered around these activities, the thesis focuses on three challenging topics: 1. Behavior prediction, i.e., predicting users' online decisions. We present Collaborative-Competitive Filtering, a novel game-theoretic framework for predicting users' online decision making behavior and leverage the knowledge to optimize the design of online systems (e.g., recommendation systems) in respect of certain strategic goals (e.g., sales revenue, consumption diversity). 2. Social contagion, i.e., modeling the interplay between social interactions and individual behavior of decision making. We establish the joint Friendship-Interest Propagation model and the Behavior-Relation Interplay model, a series of statistical approaches to characterize the behavior of individual user's decision making, the interactions among socially connected users, and the interplay between these two activities. These techniques are demonstrated by applications to social behavior targeting. 3. Content mining, i.e., understanding user generated contents. We propose the Topic-Adapted Latent Dirichlet Allocation model, a probabilistic model for identifying a user's hidden cognitive aspects (e.g., knowledgability) from the texts created by the user. The model is successfully applied to address the challenge of ``language gap" in medical information retrieval.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2005. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In the last decade, the use of computers has proliferated the industrial arena in South Africa. Due to frequent changes in computer programs and developments in the computing field, users have often been adversely affected. Users experience problems with computer programs that are not user friendly. Usability is about satisfying the user needs by allowing the user to accomplish their goals quickly, efficiently and easily. Thus it is crucial that industries invest in computer programs that offer optimum usability. In this research an attempt is made to provide a framework for methodology that can be used to test and evaluate usability in the Transwerk Risk Management Information System, that is Computer Assisted Risk Management Systems (CARMS). I first consider the difference between unusable and usable programs. Usability properties are then identified including properties enhancing effectiveness, efficiency, flexibility, laemability and attitude of the computer program. The CARMS components or modules and users were identified. Usability problems were identified that cause the users to be selective and discouraged to use other components of CARMS. To further verified and address the usability problems identified, the whole program needs to be tested and evaluated. The methodology was laid for how to do usability testing and evaluation in computer program that are currently in use like CARMS. Benefits and limitations of testing and evaluating usability were detailed in this research. It is recommended that, testing and evaluating usability should be done to prevent errors, dissatisfaction and to improve usability of the CARMS program. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In die laaste dekade het die gebruik van rekenaars uitgebrei in die industriele arena in Suid-Afrika. Weens gereelde veranderings in rekenaar programme en ontwikkellings in die informatika veld is gebruikers gereeld nadelig geraak. Gebruikers ervaar probleme met rekenaar programme wat nie gebruikersvriendelik is nie. Bruikbaarheid het te make met bevrediging van gebruikersbehoeftes deur hulle in staat te stel om hulle doelwitte vinnig, doelmatig en maklik te bereik. Dit is dus van kritiese belang dat industriee investeer in rekenaar programme wat optimale bruikbaarheid bied. In hierdie navorsing word gepoog om 'n raamwerk vir metodologie wat gebruik kan word om die bruikbaarheid van die "Transwerk Risk Management Information System" (dit is "Computer Assisted Risk Management Systems" of CARMS) te toets en te evalueer. Ek bespreek eerstens die verskil tussen onbruikbare en bruikbare programme. Bruikbaarheidseienskappe word dan geidentifiseer, insluitend eienskappe wat doeltreffendheid, doelmatigheid, buigsaamheid, aanleerbaarheid en houding van die rekenaar program verbeter. Die CARMS komponente of modules en gebruikers is geidentifiseer. Bruikbaarheidsprobleme is geidentifiseer wat veroorsaak dat gebruikers selektief raak en ontmoedig raak om ander komponente van CARMS te gebruik. Om verder die geidentifiseerde bruikbaarheidsprobleme te verifieer en adreseer moet die hele program getoets en evalueer word. Die metodologie is vasgele waarvolgens bruikbaarheidstoetsing en evaluasie van rekenaar programme wat tans in gebruik is (soos CARMS) gedoen kan word. Voordele en beperkings van bruikbaarheidstoetsing en -evaluasie is in hierdie navorsing vervat. Dit word aanbeveel dat bruikbaarheidstoetsing en -evaluasie gedoen moet word om foute en ontevredenheid te voorkom en om die bruikbaarheid van die CARMS program te verbeter.

It is a fundamental Human-Computer Interaction problem to design a tangible programming environment for use by multiple persons that can also be individualised. This problem has its origin in the phenomenon that the meaning an object holds can vary across individuals. The Semiotics Research Domain studies the meaning objects hold. This research investigated a solution based on the user designing aspects of the environment at a time after it has been made operational and when the development team is no longer available to implement the user’s design requirements. Also considered is how objects can be positioned so that the collection of objects is interpreted as a program. I therefore explored how some of the principles of relative positioning of objects, as researched in the domains of Psychology and Art, could be applied to tangible programming environments. This study applied the Gestalt principle of perceptual grouping by proximity to the design of tangible programming environments to determine if a tangible programming environment is possible in which the relative positions of personally meaningful objects define the program. I did this by applying the Design Science Research methodology with five iterations and evaluations involving children. The outcome is a model of a Tangible Programming Environment that includes Gestalt principles and Semiotic theory; Semiotic theory explains that the user can choose a physical representation of the program element that carries personal meaning whereas the Gestalt principle of grouping by proximity predicts that objects can be arranged to appear as if linked to each other. / School of Computing / Ph. D. (Computer Science)