Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Central Florida, 2009. / Adviser: Denise Nicholson. Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

Our increasing ability to construct large and complex computer and information systems suggests that the classical manner in which such systems are understood and architected is inappropriate for the open and unstructured manner in which they are often used. With the appearance of mathematically complex and, more importantly, high scale, non-deterministic systems, such as the World Wide Web, there is a need to understand, construct and maintain systems in a world where their assembly and use may not be precisely predicted. In Addition, few have thus far attempted to study such Web-scale systems holistically so as to understand the implications of non-programmable characteristics, like emergence and evolution – a matter of particular relevance in the new field of Web Science. This collection of prior published works and their associated commentary hence brings together a number of themes focused on Web Science and its broader application in systems and software engineering. It primarily rests on materials presented in the book The Web’s Awake, first published in April 2007.

Recent studies of queries submitted to Internet Search Engines have shown that non-English queries and unclassifiable queries have nearly tripled during the last decade. Most search engines were originally engineered for English. They do not take full account of inflectional semantics nor, for example, diacritics or the use of capitals which is a common feature in languages other than English. The literature concludes that searching using non-English and non-Latin based queries results in lower success and requires additional user effort to achieve acceptable precision. The primary aim of this research study is to develop an evaluation methodology for identifying the shortcomings and measuring the effectiveness of search engines with non-English queries. It also proposes a number of solutions for the existing situation. A Greek query log is analyzed considering the morphological features of the Greek language. Also a text extraction experiment revealed some problems related to the encoding and the morphological and grammatical differences among semantically equivalent Greek terms. A first stopword list for Greek based on a domain independent collection has been produced and its application in Web searching has been studied. The effect of lemmatization of query terms and the factors influencing text based image retrieval in Greek are also studied. Finally, an instructional strategy is presented for teaching non-English students how to effectively utilize search engines. The evaluation of the capabilities of the search engines showed that international and nationwide search engines ignore most of the linguistic idiosyncrasies of Greek and other complex European languages. There is a lack of freely available non-English resources to work with (test corpus, linguistic resources, etc). The research showed that the application of standard IR techniques, such as stopword removal, stemming, lemmatization and query expansion, in Greek Web searching increases precision. ii

The increasingly ubiquitous nature of software development has presented new challenges to usability research, thereby introducing a need for investigation of the use of field evaluation methods. This thesis explores the application of field methods to usability evaluation, in order to understand the challenges involved in applying such methods and the contextual issues surrounding their implementation. More specifically, the research aims to investigate the relationship between context and design when using field evaluation studies. This work is especially important because it represents a first step towards systemising HCI field evaluation methodologies. A case study approach was taken in order to provide real-world examples of field method usage, and in addition two exploratory studies were conducted in order to explore methodological challenges. This process resulted in the development of a systematic field evaluation method named Rapid Contextual Evaluation. In providing a rapid approach to field evaluation, this thesis addresses the recent gaps in the literature regarding the recent lack of publication of systematic evaluation methods and the lack of detailed methodological case studies to inform practice. The work reported here is the first to present such case studies, and the first to describe in detail the application of a systematic field evaluation method in a real world context. The research identified the major challenges experienced in implementing field evaluation studies, and proposed methodological changes to address these. The relationship between context and design was discovered to be iterative, and field evaluation approaches were found to identify a broad range of contextual issues which went beyond system interaction. In conclusion, the thesis identifies areas where future research efforts should focus in order to deliver the most valuable improvements to field evaluation methods.

No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (M.S. in computer science)--Washington State University, December 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 98-103).

The thesis discusses the question of how unfamiliar computing systems, particularly those with graphical user interfaces, are learned and used. In particular, the approach of basing the design and behaviour of on-screen objects in the system's model world on a coherent theme and employing a metaphor is explored. The drawbacks, as well as the advantages, of this approach are reviewed and presented. The use of metaphors is also contrasted with other forms of users' mental models of interactive systems, and the need to provide a system image from which useful mental models can be developed is presented. Metaphors are placed in the context of users' understanding of interactive systems and novel application is made of the Qualitative Process Theory (QPT) qualitative reasoning model to reason about the behaviour of on-screen objects, the underlying system functionality, and the relationship between the two. This analysis supports reevaluation of the domains between which user interface metaphors are said to form mappings. A novel user interface design, entitled Medusa, that adopts guidelines for the design of metaphor-based systems, and for helping the user develop successful mental models, based on the QPT analysis and an empirical study of a popular metaphor-based system, is described. The first Medusa design is critiqued using well-founded usability inspection method. Employing the Lakoff/lohnson theory, a revised verSIOn of the Medusa user interface is described that derives its application semantics and dialogue structures from the entailments of the knowledge structures that ground understanding of the interface metaphor and that capture notions of embodiment in interaction with computing devices that QPT descriptions cannot. Design guidelines from influential existing work, and new methods of reasoning about metaphor-based designs, are presented with a number of novel graphical user interface designs intended to overcome the failings of existing systems and design approaches.

The thesis work is centered on five objectives. These objectives are among the main factors in the field of electronic information display technologies. They are namely display optical efficiency, crosstalk, resolution, power consumption and switchable 2D/3D capability. The thesis findings and the different levels of success are covered in detail in chapters 4 through chapter 8. They are then summarized in discussion and conclusion chapter using measurable quantities in tabular format. Specifically, with respect to optical efficiency three different solutions were applied. The first raised optical efficiency by 60%. The second solution raised optical efficiency to 90%. The third solution eliminated the need for backlighting altogether as well as remove pixel circuitry from optical light path. With respect to image crosstalk, two solutions were applied. One method reduced crosstalk by 51% while the other method eliminated crosstalk to zero percent in the viewing zones. With respect to resolution two methods were applied. One method increased 3D display resolution by limiting the reduction of the native display resolution by only half regardless of the number of concurrent 3D viewers. The other method increased display resolution 900%. With respect to power consumption two methods were applied. The first method eliminated the need for backlighting and also reduced the number of thin film transistors [TFTs] needed by 60% for the same display resolution. The second method increased display brightness by 60% without increasing power consumption. Finally with respect to 2D/3D switchable display an optical module was designed that successfully enable a conventional 2D display to become a switchable 2D/3D display.