The visual design of twelve mobile telephones was studied and compared. Thirteen university students completed sorting tasks and were also interviewed. Significant correlations were found for most phones between ranks of beauty and desire to possess. Preferences varied among participants. Multi Dimensional Scaling of pile sorting data implied that phones were compared on the basis of prototypicality and trendiness. Four themes were found in the motivations of possession ranks: aesthetic judgements, symbolic perceptions and associations, conclusions of functions and practical conclusions. The results suggest that making sense of visual design determines aesthetic experiences and partly desire to possess, thus giving support to the applicability of appraisal theories of emotion to the study of design.

After formulating the problem and reviewing relevant research literature, a study was performed that compared reverse engineering with traditional scenario-based techniques in usability evaluation. In this case study, an online tool for creating asthma action plans was created and evaluated through questionnaires and focus groups. The tool was then tested in a controlled study using both a traditional scenario-based approach and the reverse engineering method. A group of twelve users built asthma action plans using each method in a randomized order. Results concerning usability, efficiency and the types of usability problems found were reported, along with recommendations for further research in the use of reverse engineering as a method of usability evaluation.

After formulating the problem and reviewing relevant research literature, a study was performed that compared reverse engineering with traditional scenario-based techniques in usability evaluation. In this case study, an online tool for creating asthma action plans was created and evaluated through questionnaires and focus groups. The tool was then tested in a controlled study using both a traditional scenario-based approach and the reverse engineering method. A group of twelve users built asthma action plans using each method in a randomized order. Results concerning usability, efficiency and the types of usability problems found were reported, along with recommendations for further research in the use of reverse engineering as a method of usability evaluation.

With the rise of mobile computing and an ever-growing variety of ubiquitous sensors, computers are becoming increasingly context-aware. A revolutionary step in this process that has seen much progress will be user-awareness: the ability of a computing device to infer its user's emotions. This research project attempts to study the effectiveness of enabling a computer to adapt its visual interface to counter user frustration. A two-group experiment was designed to engage participants in a goal-oriented task disguised as a simple usability study with a performance incentive. Five frustrating stimuli were triggered throughout a single 15-minute task in the form of complete system unresponsiveness or delay. An algorithm was implemented to attempt to detect sudden rises in user arousal measured via a skin conductance sensor. Following a successful detection, or otherwise a maximum of a 10-second delay, the application resumed responsiveness. In the control condition, participants were exposed to a “please wait” pop-up near the end of the delay whereas those in the adaption condition were exposed to an additional visual transition to a user interface with calming colours and larger touch targets. This proposed adaptive condition was hypothesized to reduce the recovery time associated with the frustration response. The experiment was successfully able to induce frustration (via measurable skin conductance responses) in the majority of trials. The mean recovery half-time of participants in the first trial adaptive condition was significantly longer than that of the control. This was attributed to a possibility of a large chromatic difference between the adaptive and control colour schemes, habituation and prediction, causal association of adaptation to the frustrating stimulus, as well as insufficient subtlety in the transition and visual look of the adaptive interface. The study produced findings and guidelines that will be crucial in the future design of adaptive affective user interfaces.

Specialists in ergonomics believe that what is good ergonomics is also goodeconomics for many industrial settings. This relationship between ergonomicsand economics is supported by research on several industrial settings. Thisstudy turns to investigate this relationship within the maritime domain.Shipping naturally faces the same work environment problems as commonlyseen on work places ashore. Additionally, there is however a social and culturaldimension to the work environment in what might be the most globalisedindustry of all.This study is performed as a pilot study to a larger project within theeconomics of maritime ergonomics. The aim of this thesis is to review themajor issues in the research of maritime ergonomics and how cost-benefit ofergonomics is calculated in other domains. Furthermore, the thesis also aims atinvestigate which ergonomic factors that are considered the most important bythe shipping industry itself and if the economics of ergonomics is calculated inthe Swedish shipping industry.The review of scientific literature on maritime ergonomics is divided into threeareas of interest: organisation and management, occupational health and safetyand psychosocial work environment. No studies were found on cost-benefitcalculations within shipping. There are however several methods for evaluationand calculation from other domains. The result of the nine qualitativeinterviews shows a predominant occupation in the area of organisation.Important factors mentioned in the interviews that are believed to affect safety,productivity and well-being include leadership and social skills,communication between and within the shorebased organisation and the vessel,as well as knowledge on several levels. A survey among ten Swedish shippingowners shows that beyond the costs of sick-leave, the shipowners do not on aregular basis calculate the costs and benefits of ergonomics.Further research includes a stakeholder analysis; defining the operativemeasurements of productivity, quality and effectiveness for a maritime setting;an accident analysis and the compilation of Best Practise within shipping. / Specialister inom arbetsmiljöområdet är övertygade om att en bra arbetsmiljöockså är bra för ett företags ekonomi. Detta förhållande mellan arbetsmiljö ochekonomi har påvisats i flera studier inom olika branscher. Den här studienundersöker sambandet mellan en god arbetsmiljö och god ekonomi inomsjöfarten. Inom sjöfarten återfinns naturligtvis samma arbetsmiljöproblem somhos andra branscher men i det som kanske är den mest globaliserade branschenav alla finns det också en framträdande social och kulturell dimension iarbetsmiljön.Den här uppsatsen är utförd som en pilotstudie till ett större forskningsprojektinom sjöfart och arbetsmiljöekonomi. Målet med uppsatsen är att undersökainom vilka områden det forskas på inom sjöfartens arbetsmiljö samt attundersöka hur kostnadsnytta av arbetsmiljö beräknas. Dessutom ämnaruppsatsen undersöka vilka arbetsmiljöfaktorer som de olika sjöfartsaktörernasjälva anser vara de viktigaste och om branschen själv räknar på arbetsmiljönidag.Granskningen av den vetenskapliga litteraturen om sjöfartens arbetsmiljö äruppdelad i tre områden: organisation och ledarskap, hälsa och säkerhet, samtden psykosociala arbetsmiljön. Inga studier återfanns som berördearbetsmiljöekonomi inom sjöfarten. Det finns däremot ett flertal metoder ochmodeller för ekonomisk utvärdering och beräkning av arbetsmiljöåtgärder frånandra branscher. Resultatet av nio kvalitativa intervjuer visar fokus påorganisatoriska arbetsmiljöfaktorer. Viktiga faktorer som informanterna anserhar inverkan på säkerhet, arbetsmiljö och produktivitet inkluderar ledarskap;kommunikation ombord och mellan fartyg och landorganisation; och kunskappå olika nivåer. En undersökning hos tio svenska rederier visar att utöverkostnader för sjukfrånvaro räknar företagen inte regelbundet på kostnader ochvinster för arbetsmiljön.Förslag till framtida forskning inkluderar en intressentanalys, att definiera ochbeskriva de operativa rationalitetsmåtten produktivitet, kvalitet och effektivitetför sjöfarten, olycksfallsanalys och sammanställandet av exempel av ”BestPractise” inom sjöfarten.

Three flight simulator experiments examined how a health monitoring system may aid pilots in detecting flight control faults. The first experiment introduced an unexpected fault in the flight control system during an approach to a fictitious airport. The second experiment used a factorial design of (1) presence ?? notof a Fault Meter display and (2) presence ?? not ?? an Alerting System, which could have one or two phased alerts. In half the runs, a fault was triggered at some point, and pilot response was recorded. The next experiment comprised one flight in which pilots were given a false alarm by these systems, testing for automation bias. No consistent pilot response was found to the faults, with pilots sometimes successfully landing the aircraft, sometimes immediately or eventually initiating a go-around, and sometimes loosing aircraft control and crashing. The pilots were not able to identify the fault in 11% of the cases. Tunnel tracking error increased following the faults and the false alarm, suggesting it may be both a manifestation of attempts to diagnose a fault and a cue to pilots of a problem. Finally, the triggering of a false alarm showed the existence of automation bias induced after a small number of interactions with the HMS.

INTRODUCTION: Older people are a vulnerable population for falls and the risk may be increased by unfamiliar hospital environments. Using a mixed method ergonomic approach to acknowledge the complexity of contemporary hospital environments, this thesis aims to explore the associations between patient characteristics and environmental causal factors of in-patient falls for older people. METHODS: A series of three exploratory pilot studies were carried out, followed by two large scale research projects using nationally collected data from patient incident reports and overnight bedrail audits. The mixed method approach included; secondary data analysis, interviews, surveys, and audits. MAIN FINDINGS: 1. Patients in care of older people wards have different characteristics compared to same age peers in other wards, with higher levels of frailty and confusion. 2. Bedrail use was found to rise with increasing level of confusion which is against general guidance. Staff rationales for bedrail use suggested an underlying intent to restrain confused patients. 3. Up to 92% of patients falls were reported to be un-witnessed. This may be explained by only 24% of patient beds being visible from nursing stations. 4. There were significant differences found in the fall locations between patients who were described as frail and those who were described as confused. CONCLUSION: Patients in care of older people wards have a different set of characteristics compared to same age peers in other wards. This suggests that they will have different requirements for fall prevention in terms of layout, visibility, equipment use and facilitating independence. Further research should focus on designing wards for care of older people patients which improve visibility, layout and way-finding to toilets and investigate whether these design improvements will facilitate independent movement and prevent patient falls.

Modern social networking sites offer node-centralized streams that display recent updates from the other nodes in one's network. While such social activity streams are convenient features that help alleviate information overload, they can often become overwhelming themselves, especially high-throughput streams like Twitter’s home timelines. In these cases, recommender systems can help guide users toward the content they will find most important or interesting. However, current efforts to manipulate social activity streams involve hiding updates predicted to be less engaging or reordering them to place new or more engaging content first. These modifications can lead to decreased trust in the system and an inability to consume each update in its chronological context. Instead, I propose a three-tiered approach to displaying recommendations in social activity streams that hides nothing and preserves original context by highlighting updates predicted to be most important and de-emphasizing updates predicted to be least important. This presentation design allows users easily to consume different levels of recommended items chronologically, is able to persuade users to agree with its positive recommendations more than 25% more often than the baseline, and shows no significant loss of perceived accuracy or trust when compared with a filtered stream, possibly even performing better when extreme recommendation errors are intentionally introduced. Numerous directions for future research follow from this work that can shed light on how users react to different recommendation presentation designs and explain how study of an emphasis-based approach might help improve the state of the art.

The purpose of this research was to examine physical layout and organization of equipment as it pertained to patient care in rotor-wing air ambulances. The qualitative approach included observations, interviews, surveys and incident report reviews; and involved paramedics, educators, engineers and physicians affiliated with Ornge Transport Medicine. Findings showed that there is inconsistent placement of equipment within and between bases. A standardized approach to storing equipment, including labelling, could improve readiness for a call by assisting paramedics in ensuring equipment is properly stocked. It was also found that the layout of the patient care compartment was not optimal for some tasks, such as intubation and documentation, due to lack of space. Future helicopters should have seating, both behind the head and at the side of the patient that accommodates safe postures and allows paramedic’s access to the supplies necessary for the full spectrum of patient care expected in this environment.

The purpose of this research was to examine physical layout and organization of equipment as it pertained to patient care in rotor-wing air ambulances. The qualitative approach included observations, interviews, surveys and incident report reviews; and involved paramedics, educators, engineers and physicians affiliated with Ornge Transport Medicine. Findings showed that there is inconsistent placement of equipment within and between bases. A standardized approach to storing equipment, including labelling, could improve readiness for a call by assisting paramedics in ensuring equipment is properly stocked. It was also found that the layout of the patient care compartment was not optimal for some tasks, such as intubation and documentation, due to lack of space. Future helicopters should have seating, both behind the head and at the side of the patient that accommodates safe postures and allows paramedic’s access to the supplies necessary for the full spectrum of patient care expected in this environment.