本研究的主要目的有二：一為探討多媒體軟體使用者介面的螢幕標示效果 與使用者反應時間之間的關係，另一為探討多媒體軟體使用者介面的螢幕 標示效果與使用者主觀態度之間的關係。實驗中根據物件文字標示與表徵 圖文字標示兩個變數，分為實驗組與控制組，其中實驗組具備物件文字標 示與表徵圖文字標示，而控制組則不具備物件文字標示與表徵圖文字標示 。本實證研究中，對二百零三位大學商學院一、二年級生進行測試，包括 線上雛型系統軟體測試與使用者主觀評估問卷兩部份。其中線上雛型系統 軟體測試的主要收集資料為使用者反應時間，而使用者主觀評估問卷則收 集系統內記憶性問題及使用者主觀態度等資料。研究進行方法如下：．依 學生隨機安排在電腦教室內上機，由預先安裝好的軟體來決定實驗組與控 制組。．首先系統將顯示中文之遊戲說明，以及各功能鍵所代表之意義， 使用者按滑鼠鍵即可進入遊戲。．於遊戲結束後，系統以自動方式展示一 段與先前系統不同的示範，在實驗組中，系統提供的是不具圖件文字標示 ╱表徵圖文字標示的展示，而在控制組中，系統提供的是具備圖件文字標 示╱表徵圖文字標示的展示。 ．自動展示停止之後，使用者始填答問 卷。 ．進行問卷評估與線上資料收集。實證研究結果顯示，在使 用者反應時間方面，實驗組與控制組之間確實有顯著差異 (P = 0.01)， 而在使用者性別與使用者年級方面， 使用者反應時間的差異性則並不明 顯 ( P of GRADE = 0.3348, P of GENDER = 0.2975)。至於主觀評 估問卷方面，大部分受測者皆肯定螢幕上圖件文字標示與表徵圖文字標示 存在的必要性，認為確實對系統進行有幫助，其中又以對於表徵圖文字標 示表示肯定者較多。

<p>Internet is one of the major achievements of 21 century by human kind. Retailers have moved their business towards a global market through internet. Human computer interaction is getting enhanced in different contexts. Consumers can now access the global markets online for the sake of shopping. Fashion industry is getting tremendous popularity in an online environment. Fashion is transformed into digital fashion where people from all over the world have easy access to the world of fashion and can interact and get hands on every piece of art. They can simply buy any fashion product anywhere in the world. The most important part in this domain is the interaction of the consumer with the media for the sake of spending money for goods having a fashion designer at the back end. So here the interaction needs to be precise and specific, especially when it comes to the sizing phase of the activity called shopping garments online. This paper investigates the current sizing trends offered by online fashion retailers and proposes the preferred state interface in order to discover the facts that enables consumers to finalize perfect size for them. The focus is on female users. The results will lead to understanding of the cause of confusion that consumer faces in selecting right size while shopping garments online.</p>

The impact of digital (new) media has caused both challenges and threats to newspapers’ continuing existence as a profitable and influential mass medium. While this is not the first time in history that new media appear to be challenging the future of the newspaper medium, from one perspective digital media offer not only direct competition, or alternative ways to produce and deliver news, but also possibilities for convergence, for making new media part of the traditional newspaper, inducing whole new possibilities for publishing. From another perspective, the newspaper medium is an old concept; a powerful mass medium with very profound consumption patterns, strongly associated with its traditional output medium: ink-on-paper. The purpose of the present work has been to examine the impacts digital media have on the old, well-established newspaper medium, and what consequences these impacts have for the future of newspaper as a mass medium, that is, is the medium the message? In order to achieve this aim, the present work has been carried out from three different angles: digital media, publishing and reading behaviour and presentation factors. The areas have been examined using several methods: instrumental experiment, eye-tracking experiment, secondary analysis, and case study design. Newspapers’ ’to be or not to be’ depends, in a theoretical sense, on what media constitute. The medium is the message in the sense that, in the definition of a mass medium, the strength of the newspaper message is that it is recognized as the newspaper concept. It is not, in that the message per se is dependent on the medium it is reproduced on, as a newspaper can be considered a newspaper even if presented on a digital medium, yet the specific way the content is presented will always depend on the technology and characteristics of the chosen output medium. Thus, while defusing the output medium’s significance for the concept, the strength of the newspaper, and its industry, lies in what hitherto constitutes the message: accurate, credible, serendipitous, and diverse content, but which is continuously adapted to the technology of the output medium, thus benefiting from it and further strengthening the developed, digitalized newspaper concept, or what will become of it. The newspaper industry has great potential to differentiate itself in a world where news is becoming increasingly commoditized, though it must further emphasize its power, which lies in the long-defined ‘old’ newspaper concept. Moreover, the industry must be aware of the fact that this refashioning and adaptation is a slow process. / QC 20100804

Internet is one of the major achievements of 21 century by human kind. Retailers have moved their business towards a global market through internet. Human computer interaction is getting enhanced in different contexts. Consumers can now access the global markets online for the sake of shopping. Fashion industry is getting tremendous popularity in an online environment. Fashion is transformed into digital fashion where people from all over the world have easy access to the world of fashion and can interact and get hands on every piece of art. They can simply buy any fashion product anywhere in the world. The most important part in this domain is the interaction of the consumer with the media for the sake of spending money for goods having a fashion designer at the back end. So here the interaction needs to be precise and specific, especially when it comes to the sizing phase of the activity called shopping garments online. This paper investigates the current sizing trends offered by online fashion retailers and proposes the preferred state interface in order to discover the facts that enables consumers to finalize perfect size for them. The focus is on female users. The results will lead to understanding of the cause of confusion that consumer faces in selecting right size while shopping garments online.

Zoomable user interfaces (ZUIs) have been studied for a long time and many applications are built upon them. Most applications, however, only use two dimensions to express the content. This report presents a solution using all three dimensions where the base features are built as a framework with uniform grids and scene graphs as primary data structures. The purpose of these data structures is to improve performance while maintaining flexibility when creating and handling three-dimensional objects. A 3D-ZUI is able to represent the view of the world and its objects in a more lifelike manner. It is possible to interact with the objects much in the same way as in real world. By developing a prototype framework as well as some example applications, the usefulness of 3D-ZUIs is illustrated. Since the framework relies on abstraction and object-oriented principles it is easy to maintain and extend it as needed. The currently implemented data structures are well motivated for a large scale 3D-ZUI in terms of accelerated collision detection and picking and they also provide a flexible base when developing applications. It is possible to further improve performance of the framework, for example by supporting different types of culling and levels of detail

<p>Den här rapporten behandlar frågeställningen om hur man kan anpassa systemutvecklingav ett informationssystem enligt livscykelmodellen till att inkludera användbarhetstester. </p><p>Frågeställningen grundar sig i att god användbarhet inte är ett explicit uttryckt mål i Andersens beskrivning av livscykelmodellen. För att besvara frågeställningen har vi utvecklat och testat ett bokningssystem åt en mindre verksamhet. Utvecklingsarbetet har bedrivits enligt en egen anpassning av livscykelmodellen. Testerna har utförts enligt metoden c<i>ooperativ evaluation. </i></p><p>Frågeställningen besvaras genom att vi presenterar hur vi har gått tillväga för att inbegripa testerna i utvecklingsprocessen. De delar av informationssystemet som vi utvärderat beskrivs i rapporten. </p><p>Testerna hjälpte till att identifiera problem i systemets gränssnitt som annars troligen inte skulle ha upptäckts förrän slutanvändarna fått tillgång till systemet. </p><p>Slutsatserna är att det är möjligt, och dessutom önskvärt ur användbarhetssynpunkt, att innefatta användbarhetstester i utveckling av informationssystem. </p> / <p>This reports regards the question of how one can adjust system development according to the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) to include usability testing. </p><p>The question is based on the fact that usability isn’t an explicit goal in Andersen description of the SDLC. To answer this question we have developed and tested an information system for a small business. The development has been carried on according to an own adaptation of the SDLC. The testings have been performed in accordance with the Cooperativ evaluation method. </p><p>The question is answered by the presentation of our adaptation to include the tests in the development process. The parts of the information system we have evaluated are described in the report. </p><p>The tests helped to identify problems in the user interface which otherwise probably would not have been discovered until the end user gotten access to the system. </p><p>The conclusions are that it is possible, and furthermore desirable from a usability point of view, to include usability testing duringthe development of information systems.</p>

The South African economy, which is largely based on heavy industry such as minerals extraction and processing, is by nature very energy intensive. Based on the abundance of coal resources, electricity in South Africa remains amongst the cheapest in the world. Whilst the low electricity price has contributed towards a competitive position, it has also meant that our existing electricity supply is often taken for granted. The economic and environmental benefits of energy efficiency have been well documented. Worldwide, nations are beginning to face up to the challenge of sustainable energy - in other words to alter the way that energy is utilised so that social, environmental and economic aims of sustainable development are supported. South Africa as a developing nation recognises the need for energy efficiency, as it is the most cost effective way of meeting the demands of sustainable development. South Africa, with its unique economic, environmental and social challenges, stands to benefit the most from implementing energy efficiency practices. The Energy Efficiency Strategy for South Africa takes its mandate from the South African White Paper on Energy Policy. It is the first consolidated governmental effort geared towards energy efficiency practices throughout South Africa. The strategy allows for the immediate implementation of low-cost and no-cost interventions, as well as those higher-cost measures with short payback periods. An initial target has been set for an across sector energy efficiency improvement of 12% by 2014. Thermal and energy system simulation is globally recognised as one of the most effective and powerful tools to improve overall energy efficiency. However, because of the usual extreme mathematical nature of most simulation algorithms, coupled with the historically academic environment in which most simulation software is developed, valid perceptions exist that system simulation is too time consuming and cumbersome. It is also commonly known that system simulation is only effective in the hands of highly skilled operators, which are specialists in their prospective fields. Through previous work done in the field, and the design of a dynamic thermal and energy system simulation scheme for cross industry applications, it was shown that system simulation has evolved to such an extent that these perceptions are not valid any more. The South African mining and commercial building industries are two of the major consumers of electricity within South Africa. By improving energy efficiency practices within the building and mining industry, large savings can be realised. An extensive investigation of the literature showed that no general suitable computer simulation software for cross industry mining and building thermal and energy system simulation could be found. Because the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) of buildings, closely relate to the ventilation and cooling systems of mines, valuable knowledge from this field was used to identify the requirements and specifications for the design of a new single cross industry dynamic integrated thermal and energy system simulation tool. VISUALQEC was designed and implemented to comply with the needs and requirements identified. A new explicit system component model and explicit system simulation engine, combined with a new improved simulation of mass flow through a system procedure, suggested a marked improvement on overall simulation stability, efficiency and speed. The commercial usability of the new simulation tool was verified for building applications by doing an extensive building energy savings audit. The new simulation tool was further verified by simulating the ventilation and cooling (VC) and underground pumping system of a typical South African gold mine. Initial results proved satisfactory but, more case studies to further verify the accuracy of the implemented cross industry thermal and energy system simulation tool are needed. Because of the stable nature of the new VISUALQEC simulation engine, the power of the simulation process can be further extended to the mathematical optimisation of various system variables. In conclusion, this study highlighted the need for new simulation procedures and system designs for the successful implementation and creation of a single dynamic thermal and energy system simulation tool for cross industry applications. South Africa should take full advantage of the power of thermal and energy system simulation towards creating a more energy efficient society. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Mechanical Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2005.

隨著數位相機、智慧型手機等影像記錄產品的普及，人們可以隨時隨地按下快門，使得個人相片的數量不斷的增長。倘若照片中缺少了註釋，進行搜尋檢索大量的個人照片是困難的。雖然如此，人們卻會因為繁瑣累人的照片註釋工作而缺乏意願。 本研究藉由Kuo所發展出的PARIS (Personal Archiving and Retrieving Image System)作為來源系統架構，其系統解決了大部分個人數位影像語義標註的困難，也利用半自動註記方法減少使用者註釋負擔。但由於過去缺乏行動載具，PARIS並未開發一個現代化的行動註釋系統，來協助一般使用者進行個人影像註釋。 為了解決此問題，本研究利用使用性工程進行系統的建構，以設計及開發出一套現代化的行動影像註釋系統iPARIS (Integrated Personal Archiving and Retrieving Image System)。iPARIS擴展了PARIS設計出符合行動載具的後設資料結構與本體，包含將PARIS所定義的DDDC後設資料標準擴充為得以群眾註記之社群媒體地理標籤的iDDDC (Integrated Dozen Dimensional Digital Content)，以及在既有的STO (Spatial and Temporal Based Ontology)的空間架構中加入更具彈性的地理標籤關聯方法GRO (Geotag Related Ontology)。iPARIS並利用工作流程設計、介面線稿設計、視覺設計、系統實作、使用者參與設計等步驟來設計及開發系統，再以迭代設計方法不斷地改善系統的使用者介面及使用者體驗。iPARIS在建置完成後利用參與啟發式評估量表、手勢次數、操作時間、操作路徑、錯誤次數進行使用性測試，而其測試結果也達預期的使用性目標。更進一步，透過分析使用者操作系統的實際行為來找出系統存在的使用性問題，並提出未來系統的改進方式。 透過完整的規劃與適切的設計系統介面，讓使用者在拍照、註釋、組織及管理照片都可以在行動應用程式上完成，並使此系統能滿足具有效率、具學習性、具記憶性、低錯誤率及高滿意度等Nielsen所提出的使用性標準，以降低個人影像註釋時的負擔，並增加使用者註釋個人照片的意願，以應付日益增長地個人數位影像資料的管理需求。 / With the widespread use of photograph recording products, such as digital camera and smartphone, people take photographs easily so that the number of personal photographs increases unceasingly. If photographs are lacking of annotation, searching and retrieving the large number of personal photographs become difficult. However, people are usually reluctant to the cumbersome and exhausted annotation work. In 2004, Kuo et al. developed PARIS (Personal Archiving and Retrieving Image System) to solve these problems. Based on MPEG-7, PARIS resolved most difficulties of personal digital image semantic annotation and lightened users’ annotation burdens by semi-automatic annotation methods. However, because of the lack of mobile device at that time, PARIS did not develop a modern mobile annotation system to help ordinary people annotate personal photographs. Therefore, this thesis builds a system with usability engineering as well as designs and develops a modern mobile image annotation system iPARIS (Integrated Personal Archiving and Retrieving Image System). iPARIS expands PARIS architecture to add the support for mobile. It expands PARIS DDDC metadata standard to iDDDC (Integrated Dozen Dimensional Digital Content) which is a crowdsourcing annotation enabled by third party social networking services, and provides STO’s spatial ontology a more flexible geo-information description methodology GRO (Geotag Related Ontology). iPARIS also takes the steps of workflow design, wireframe design, visual design, system implementation, participatory design to build the system; moreover, it keeps improving the user interface and user experience by iterative design. After implementing iPARIS, we conduct usability testing including participatory heuristic evaluation, gesture times, operation time, gesture path, error times, and interview. The test results reach the expected usability goals. Furthermore, the thesis finds some usability problems by analyzing users’ behaviors when they are using the application and brings future improvement for the system. By integral planning and appropriate interface design, this system lets user take, annotate, organize, and mange personal photos in a mobile application. We hope that iPARIS can meet the usability index to lighten the burdens of personal photograph annotation, arousing users’ desire to annotate personal photographs, and meet the growing needs for the management of personal digital photograph information.

過去，感知物件的互動方式大多發展於大型互動桌上，其技術主要是採用影像辨識來進行互動偵測，隨著平板的普及，我們希望能將大型互動桌的實體互動體驗帶到平板世界，然而現今平板使用之電容式觸控技術有別於大型互動桌之影像偵測技術，無法直接應用影像式的物件辨識方法，因此設計出一套結合平板電腦與感知物件的開發工具，目的是要讓互動設計的開發者能夠快速開發感知物件的互動模式。 而電容式實體互動物件設計較為複雜，對於互動設計的開發者而言，要去製作、開發這些互動物件不論是在電路或是實體物件都是有一定的難度，並不是所有的開發者都擁有相關的背景或是資源。而為了讓原型製作更加的簡單在軟體上我們設計了一套SDK，在硬體上結合了樂高積木和導電的膠帶，不僅製作快速、成本低，在組裝上也能擁有一致的規格以減少誤差的發生。藉由其底座組合方式的差異也就代表著不同的感知物件。因此開發者只需套用我們所設計的SDK就可以將原有的作品加上實體互動物件的互動模式。 / The Tangible User Interface (TUI) has been widely adopted on interactive tabletops by using optical sensing techniques and fiducial markers. With the huge growth of smartphone and tablet market, we hope to expand the tangible interaction experience to the off-the-shelf touch devices. However, most touch devices use capacitive sensing techniques that can only detect human fingers. We create a tangible hardware toolkit base on capacitive touch devices so developers can use it to build tangible interactions in a fast way. We put conductive adhesive tape on LEGO blocks to form an identifiable footprint. The footprint could be attached onto a tangible object. And the pattern of the footprint could be easily arranged to represent different identities. We also provide a flash SDK that can be quickly integrated into a developer’s project and then enable tangible interactions. We expect our hardware toolkit and software SDK can benefit more developers to create tangible UI applications on the capacitive touch devices.

The research addresses current shortcomings of autonomous service robots operating in domestic environments by considering the concept of a semi-autonomous robot that would be supported by human remote operators whenever the robot cannot handle a task autonomously. The main research objective was to investigate how to design the human-robot interaction for a robotic system to assist elderly people with physical tasks at home according to this conceptual idea. The research procedure followed the principles of human-centered design and is structured into four phases: In the first phase, the context of use of the system to be designed was determined. A focus group study yielded characteristics and attitudes of several potential user groups. A survey determined the demands of elderly people and informal caregivers for services a semiautonomous assistive robot may provide. An ethnographic study investigated the living conditions of elderly people and determined technical challenges for robots operating in this type of environment. Another ethnographic study investigated the work environment in teleassistive service centers and determined the feasibility of extending their range of services to incorporate robotic teleassistance. In the second phase, two studies were carried out to understand the interaction requirements. The first study determined common types of failure of current autonomous robots and required human interventions to resolve such failure states. The second study investigated how the human assistance could be provided considering a range of potential interaction devices. In the third phase, a human-robot interaction concept with three user groups and dedicated user interfaces was designed. The concept and user interfaces were refined in an iterative process based on the results of evaluations with prospective users and received encouraging results for user satisfaction and user experience. In the fourth and final phase the utility of two specific user interface features was investigated experimentally. The first experiment investigated the utility of providing remote operators with global 3D environment maps during robot navigation and identified beneficial usage scenarios. The second experiment investigated the utility of stereoscopic display for remote manipulation and robot navigation. Results suggested temporal advantages under stereoscopic display for one of three investigated task types and potential advantages for the other two. / Forskningen behandlar problem med autonoma robotar som agerar i hemmiljö. Specifikt studeras konceptet semi-autonoma robotar, vilket innebär att robotarna stöds av mänskliga operatörer när de inte klarar uppgifter på egen hand. Syftet med forskningen är att undersöka design av människa-robotinteraktion för robotsystem som stöder äldres behov av hjälp med fysiska uppgifter i hemmiljö. Forskningen är användarcentrerad och har strukturerats i fyra faser: I den första fasen undersöktes användarkontexten för systemet. I en fokusgruppsstudie utforskades karakteristika och attityder för flera potentiella användargrupper. Kraven på en semi-autonom robot för att assistera äldre och informella vårdgivare fastställdes. En enkätstudie undersökte levnadsvillkor hos äldre för att utforska tekniska utmaningar dessa omgivningar ställer på robotar. En etnografisk studie undersökte arbetskontexten på servicecenter för teleassistans och undersökte genomförbarhet i att utöka tjänsteutbudet till att även inkludera teleassisterade robotar. I den andra fasen utfördes två studier för att få kunskap om interaktionskrav. Den första studien fastställde vanliga typer av fel som inträffar med nuvarande typer av autonoma robotar och de typer av mänsklig assistans som krävs för att hantera dessa fel. Den andra studien undersökte hur mänsklig assistans kan utformas givet en repertoar av potentiella interaktionsanordningar. I den tredje fasen utformades ett interaktionskoncept för människa-robot interaktionen för tre användargrupper med dedicerade gränssnitt. Koncepten och användargränssnitten förfinades i en iterativ process baserat på resultat från utvärderingar med tänkta användare, och resulterade i uppmuntrande resultat vad gäller användarnas uppskattning och tillfredsställelse. I den fjärde och sista fasen studerades nyttan hos två specifika gränssnitt experimentellt. Det första experimentet undersökte nyttan med att ge operatörer på distans globala 3D-kartor under robotnavigeringen och identifierade användarscenarier där detta kan utnyttjas. Det andra experimentet undersökte nyttan med en stereoskopisk display för att manipulera och navigera roboten på distans. Resultaten visar på temporala fördelar med stereoskopisk display för en av tre undersökta uppgiftstyper och potentiella fördelar för de andra två.