<p>Interaction design is about designing interactive things so that they become usable. An interaction designer’s goal is therefore to design things not only right but also to design the right things, this is called usability. In this thesis the aim is to examine how to best evaluate a user interface that is in the final design phase and that has not involved the end user in its development at all up to this stage. This thesis examined the graphical user interface of GACship III, a system used to accurately record, approve and request payment for all services/charges incurred during port/off-port calls. Three inspection methods and three test methods were investigated. This was done to determine which ones that is appropriate to use during an evaluation with little or no access to end users since this is one of the problem that GAC is facing and since this study only had access to two end users. The system, GACship III, is in the final development phase and so far the development has been made without involving the end users. A checklist for usability evaluations was developed through studying four renowned design principles in the form of Maeda’s, Raskin’s, Nielsen’s and Norman’s view of usability. The results showed that a heuristic evaluation identifies more usability problems than a digital questionnaire. Probably because the heuristic evaluation gave room for more reflections and comments and therefore turned out to be a more in depth evaluation technique. The digital questionnaire proved to be a weaker method under these conditions, but all in all, the two methods complemented each other. The results also indicated a number of usability problems in GACship III, which implied that the system is not fully efficient. The graphical user interface contained for example a severe mode error together with an unreliable drop down menu. The system consisted of parts where the usability was considered satisfactory. However, those findings will not be discussed in this thesis. In order to improve the systems usability GAC is encouraged to rectify the discrepancies. The result of the study is in addition a usability checklist that can be used during further and future graphical user interface development at GAC.</p><p><strong>Keywords: </strong>Usability, evaluation, interface, checklist, shipping. </p>

Interaction design is about designing interactive things so that they become usable. An interaction designer’s goal is therefore to design things not only right but also to design the right things, this is called usability. In this thesis the aim is to examine how to best evaluate a user interface that is in the final design phase and that has not involved the end user in its development at all up to this stage. This thesis examined the graphical user interface of GACship III, a system used to accurately record, approve and request payment for all services/charges incurred during port/off-port calls. Three inspection methods and three test methods were investigated. This was done to determine which ones that is appropriate to use during an evaluation with little or no access to end users since this is one of the problem that GAC is facing and since this study only had access to two end users. The system, GACship III, is in the final development phase and so far the development has been made without involving the end users. A checklist for usability evaluations was developed through studying four renowned design principles in the form of Maeda’s, Raskin’s, Nielsen’s and Norman’s view of usability. The results showed that a heuristic evaluation identifies more usability problems than a digital questionnaire. Probably because the heuristic evaluation gave room for more reflections and comments and therefore turned out to be a more in depth evaluation technique. The digital questionnaire proved to be a weaker method under these conditions, but all in all, the two methods complemented each other. The results also indicated a number of usability problems in GACship III, which implied that the system is not fully efficient. The graphical user interface contained for example a severe mode error together with an unreliable drop down menu. The system consisted of parts where the usability was considered satisfactory. However, those findings will not be discussed in this thesis. In order to improve the systems usability GAC is encouraged to rectify the discrepancies. The result of the study is in addition a usability checklist that can be used during further and future graphical user interface development at GAC. Keywords: Usability, evaluation, interface, checklist, shipping.

Each year, the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) and Food Stamp Nutrition Education (FSNE) receive around 60 million dollars in federal funding. In order to document impacts, it is critical that these programs utilize valid and reliable instruments. By having validated instruments that measure behavior changes, it can be documented that these federally funded programs are achieving program objectives. To date, research on measurements of change is either lacking or under-reported. The goal of this study was to develop a valid and reliable assessment instrument to be utilized with a specific curriculum titled Healthy Futures, which is used within Virginia FSNE. To accomplish this, an expert panel was assembled to conceptualize and construct the instrument. The instrument was pilot-tested, evaluated, then finalized and tested. Results with 73 individuals representing 34 white, non-Hispanics and 36 non-Hispanic blacks, found that the physical activity and dietary quality domains of the instrument had achieved an acceptable test-retest reliability coefficient of .70, however the food safety domain achieved a 0.51. For validity, the instrument scored an overall Spearman Correlation Coefficient of 0.28 for physical activity, 0.34 for food safety, and 0.20 for dietary quality. All three domains were sensitive to change (p < 0.0001). The results indicate that this instrument could detect dietary and physical activity change among limited resource participants of FSNE with confidence. / Master of Science

Student Number : 7729948 - MSc dissertation - School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences - Faculty of Science / As early as 1583 an ultramafic plant was described (Proctor & Woodell, 1975). Since the early 1900s a number of works documenting ultramafic vegetation in various parts of the world have been published (Proctor & Woodell, 1975). The vegetation of the Great Dyke, Zimbabwe was only described in 1965 (Wild, 1965). Much has been written since then, however. It was only as recently as 1989 that any work on ultramafic vegetation in South Africa was published (Morrey et al., 1989), possibly because ultramafic vegetation in the Barberton Greenstone Belt is not noticeably different from that of the surroundings and outcrops are much smaller than the Great Dyke. Studies since then have documented the flora of the ultramafic soils of the Barberton Greenstone Belt (BGB) (Morrey et al., 1992; Williamson, 1994; Balkwill et al., 1997; Williamson et al., 1997; Changwe & Balkwill, 2003; Williamson & Balkwill in prep.). There are around 40 larger outcrops of ultramafic soil in the BGB, the largest of which are shown in Figure 1.1, and to date 29 endemic taxa have been discovered, 5 of which hyperaccumulate Ni (Williamson & Balkwill, in prep). Using IUCN criteria 21 of these taxa have recommended conservation status in the vulnerable categories and four are data deficient. With a number of threatened taxa and scientifically interesting and potentially useful Ni hyperaccumulators on the South African part of the BGB, it was likely that there were additional endemic taxa in Swaziland or additional populations of species collected in South Africa. The ultramafic sites in Swaziland (Figure 1.2) range in altitude from 4750 m above sea level (Figure 1.3) in the south to below 2250 m in the Komati River valley (Figure 1.4), higher than the South African sites which range from 354 – 1648 m above mean sea level (Balkwill et al., 1997). The Swaziland sites thus provide an opportunity to discover the effect of altitude on the vegetation of ultramafic soils in the BGB. The higher sites are cooler than the lowveld sites, with frost at night in winter and even snow on rare occasions. Rainfall averages 127 to 152 mm per year, the highest rainfall being recorded at the higher altitudes, where frequent fog also supplements the rainfall (Compton, 1966). The Swaziland sites also show a range of topography with the lower altitude sites often situated on the slopes of mountains, but higher altitude sites comparatively level. Very little of the ultramafic area in Swaziland has any form of protection and half the area has already been lost to agriculture and forestry. A previous study (Witkowski et al., 2001) identified Kniphofia umbrina Codd. as a critically endangered ultramafic endemic. There was thus an urgent need to study the remaining ultramafic areas and document the vegetation before more of this unique and important habitat is lost, and possibly some endemic plant species too. High population growth, expanding forestry and black wattle encroachment could all impact negatively on the remaining diversity of the ultramafic areas.

Among most of the LEED registered and LEED certified health-care facilities, there is a credit variation between the LEED pilot checklist and the final checklist. The credit variation between the LEED pilot and final checklists implies failure in achieving the pre-defined green objectives. Most of the credits were given up due to financial reasons. Although most of the credits in the LEED credit list emerge as design issues, accomplishing a LEED rating is primarily the owner??s responsibility. In order to minimize the variation between the LEED pilot checklist and LEED approved checklist, the owner needs to conduct significant project planning. The owner should integrate the LEED objectives early in the project and should include the cost of the LEED process in the capital budget. Since there are limited LEED certified health-care projects, adoption of the systems approach for planning and developing a green health-care facility using the IDEF0 method is recommended. The IDEF0 method can produce an outcome array which represents the matrix of all possible circumstances. This will give the owner and the project team the ability to better forecast cost and schedule decisions, even when there is a lack of historical data relating to green health-care projects. The approach will be beneficial in analyzing the various outcomes, cost, and feasibility of projects in terms of integrating LEED objectives early on. This could minimize the credit variation, as well as cost and schedule overruns during the project execution stage. Adequately defining the full development process upfront is vital to the overall success of any project, especially for green buildings, since they are a developing trend in the construction industry.

Among most of the LEED registered and LEED certified health-care facilities, there is a credit variation between the LEED pilot checklist and the final checklist. The credit variation between the LEED pilot and final checklists implies failure in achieving the pre-defined green objectives. Most of the credits were given up due to financial reasons. Although most of the credits in the LEED credit list emerge as design issues, accomplishing a LEED rating is primarily the owner??s responsibility. In order to minimize the variation between the LEED pilot checklist and LEED approved checklist, the owner needs to conduct significant project planning. The owner should integrate the LEED objectives early in the project and should include the cost of the LEED process in the capital budget. Since there are limited LEED certified health-care projects, adoption of the systems approach for planning and developing a green health-care facility using the IDEF0 method is recommended. The IDEF0 method can produce an outcome array which represents the matrix of all possible circumstances. This will give the owner and the project team the ability to better forecast cost and schedule decisions, even when there is a lack of historical data relating to green health-care projects. The approach will be beneficial in analyzing the various outcomes, cost, and feasibility of projects in terms of integrating LEED objectives early on. This could minimize the credit variation, as well as cost and schedule overruns during the project execution stage. Adequately defining the full development process upfront is vital to the overall success of any project, especially for green buildings, since they are a developing trend in the construction industry.

Procedures are standardized lists of instructions that designate the safe and accepted way of accomplishing a task. This study intended to develop and compare the usability of paper-based industrial operating procedures. Two procedures at a plant were redesigned with evidence-based guidelines and human factors input. 16 operators of varying experience were asked to read through and assess the new and old procedures. The new procedures were rated significantly or moderately better than their predecessors for efficiency, effectiveness, and subjective satisfaction. On average, inexperienced operators reported fewer inaccuracies, more confusion, and higher workload ratings than their experienced counterparts, regardless of procedure type or area. For satisfaction, experienced and inexperienced operators reported similar ratings across both procedure types and areas. Future studies should attempt to discern which particular change in the procedures contributed the most to increased usability, and whether operator experience significantly correlates with usability ratings.

Procedures are standardized lists of instructions that designate the safe and accepted way of accomplishing a task. This study intended to develop and compare the usability of paper-based industrial operating procedures. Two procedures at a plant were redesigned with evidence-based guidelines and human factors input. 16 operators of varying experience were asked to read through and assess the new and old procedures. The new procedures were rated significantly or moderately better than their predecessors for efficiency, effectiveness, and subjective satisfaction. On average, inexperienced operators reported fewer inaccuracies, more confusion, and higher workload ratings than their experienced counterparts, regardless of procedure type or area. For satisfaction, experienced and inexperienced operators reported similar ratings across both procedure types and areas. Future studies should attempt to discern which particular change in the procedures contributed the most to increased usability, and whether operator experience significantly correlates with usability ratings.

The present study examined the relationship between marital conflict, parenting conflict and emotional and behavioural problems in children aged 2 to 16 years. Additionally the psychometric properties of the Parent Problem Checklist (PPC; Dadds & Powell, 1991) were examined in sample of 200 parents sharing the role of parenting. The purpose of the present study was threefold: (1) to gain a measure of parenting conflict and children’s behavioural and emotional problems in a non-clinic referred community sample, (2) to examine the individual contribution of conflict specific to child-rearing to the prediction of child problems, and (3) to further validate the psychometric properties and examine the factor structure of the Parent Problem Checklist (PPC; Dadds & Powell, 1991). Findings support the hypothesis that parenting conflict influences children’s outcomes more than either general marital conflict or marital satisfaction. Analyses of the PPC show evidence of strong reliability and validity for the measure and factor analysis provided support for a two-factor structure. Implications for clinical practice and understanding the role of parenting conflict in the development of child difficulty are discussed.

Submitted by Aline Batista (alinehb.ufpel@gmail.com) on 2014-06-06T21:54:07Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Avaliação das boas práticas adotadas nas cozinhas hospitalares da cidade de Pelotas-RS.pdf: 291357 bytes, checksum: e0ab9803b7b0356d9fe7f29fe216c903 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-06T21:54:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Avaliação das boas práticas adotadas nas cozinhas hospitalares da cidade de Pelotas-RS.pdf: 291357 bytes, checksum: e0ab9803b7b0356d9fe7f29fe216c903 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012 / Em unidades hospitalares, vários critérios são estabelecidos com a finalidade de recuperar a saúde do paciente, entre elas o consumo da alimentação hospitalar, que deve estar adequada do ponto de vista higiênico e sanitário. A legislação sanitária brasileira exige dos estabelecimentos produtores e/ou manipuladores de alimentos a implantação das Boas Práticas, que são procedimentos padronizados que visam prevenir o surgimento de toxinfecções alimentares. O objetivo deste estudo foi realizar uma avaliação diagnóstica das condições de aplicação das Boas Práticas em cozinhas hospitalares da cidade de Pelotas-RS. Foram estudados quatro hospitais dentre os cinco que atendem a população da cidade e região. No primeiro artigo foram avaliadas as condições de Boas Práticas nas cozinhas hospitalares por meio da aplicação de um check list e interpretação dos dados comparando com as normas da Resolução de Diretoria Colegiada nº.216 da Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária e da Associação Brasileira de Empresas de Refeições Coletivas. Os resultados obtidos indicaram que a maioria dos itens avaliados em ambas as classificações, apresentou percentuais de adequação satisfatórios, em todos os hospitais, exceto para os itens armazenamento e transporte nos hospitais A e B e manejo de resíduos no hospital A. No segundo artigo, foram realizadas análises microbiológicas, a fim de avaliar as condições higiênicas e sanitárias e comparar os resultados com os dado ar e de mãos de manipuladores de alimentos. Por outro lado, os dados colhidos na aplicação do check list não apontaram os mesmos riscos encontrados nas análises microbiológicas.