This thesis investigates empirically multimodal socially interactive e-commerce interfaces. The overall hypothesis is that multimodal social interaction will improve the usability of e-commerce interfaces and increase the user‘s feeling of social presence, decision making and product understanding when compared to an equivalent non-multimodal socially interactive interface. The investigation consisted eight conditions in three experimental phases. The first experimental phase investigated non-socially interactive, static-socially interactive, and interactive-socially interactive interfaces (three conditions) using an e-commerce platform with a dependent sample of users (n=36). The second experimental phase continued with the comparative evaluation of a further two conditions based on the results of the first phase. An audio and an avatar-based socially interactive conditions were evaluated with two independent groups of users (n=18 for each group). The third experimental phase investigated three socially interactive conditions. These were text with graphics, auditory stimuli, and avatars. The results demonstrate that socially interactive metaphors in e-commerce interfaces improved the ability of users to use presented information effectively, make decisions in comparison to non-social or static social interactive interfaces. An avatar-based socially interactive e-commerce interface improved the user‘s social presence. A set of empirically derived guidelines for the design and use of these metaphors to communicate information in a socially interactive atmosphere is also introduced and discussed.

In the field of Human computer interaction, currently aesthetics has become one of the most frequently research dimension. Most of the researchers have found the correlation between aesthetics and usability, while some other could not discover the correlation between aesthetics and usability. This irregularity to find the correlation between aesthetics andusability makes to further research on this topic.Also based on the previous studies and empirical analysis, it is unclear the factors and issues that are affecting usability and aesthetics while analyzing the correlation. This thesis clearly discusses about the previous empirical studies on aesthetics and usability, methods followed by authors to find the correlation and the results obtained by the authors. In this study, systematic review method [12] was followed to extract the knowledge from the databases (ACM and Science Direct). Two persons have participated in the review and 13 articles from 1995-2012 are taken into the study. Three research questions are discussed in detail to analyze the correlation between aesthetics and usability and the factors affecting the correlation between aesthetics and usability. Finally this study is concluded, by discussing the reasons for irregularity in the correlation results.

BACKGROUND: Peri-operative anticoagulation management plans reduce the risk of bleeding and thrombotic events in patients who are on anticoagulation therapy and undergoing surgical procedures. A mobile application (Thrombo-Link) has been developed as a clinical decision support tool to aid healthcare professionals in providing these management plans. Little literature exists exploring the usability of such an application. PURPOSE: The purpose of this thesis is to examine: 1) How Jakob Nielsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics can be used to identify usability shortfalls of the Thrombo-Link application to improve subsequent iterations, and 2) the role of end user testing in further identifying usability issues of the Thrombo-Link application in a clinical setting. METHODS: This study included the participation of three usability experts and five staff from the Hamilton Health Sciences peri-operative anticoagulation management clinic. Usability experts utilized Jakob Nielsen’s 10 usability heuristics to identify usability shortfalls of Thrombo-Link which were conveyed to the software developer. Iterative changes were made to the application. During the end user testing, participants were asked to use the application as they would in the clinic and completed the system usability scale (SUS) to assess the overall usability of Thrombo-Link. RESULTS: A total of 51 usability issues were identified by the heuristic evaluators and 7 usability issues were identified by the clinic staff. Clinic staff rated the application with a median answer of 5/5 on the SUS in terms of ease of use. CONCLUSIONS: Both Nielsen’s heuristics and end user testing identified usability concerns within the Thrombo-Link application which were addresses by iterative software development. This furthers our understanding of the usability of this clinical decision support tool / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / It is estimated that each year 10% of patients who use blood thinning therapy need to interrupt their medication to undergo surgery. This study focuses on how easy it is to use a mobile application (Thrombo-Link) that was designed to manage the process of interrupting these medications. We wanted to identify shortfalls of the application. This study used methods that made sure the application did what it was designed to do without risking patient safety. A team of usability experts did the heuristic evaluation using Jakob Nielsen’s methodology. The end user participants were staff from Hamilton General Hospital bridging clinic. Both testing approaches helped us find ways to make the application work better for the people who would be using it.

On behalf of Inspectera HK AB in Norrköping a web-based drawing tool has been developed in Java, mainlywith the library Google Web Toolkit (GWT). The purpose of this tool is to facilitate both the staff's at Inspecteraand their client's work with different types of drawings such as blueprints for pest control, fire protection andespecially drawings of the company's e-service of self-checks. Besides developing the drawing tool usabilitytesting and a usability evaluation has been performed.

Various methods exist for performing usability evaluations, but there is no systematic framework for guiding and structuring assessment and reporting activities (Andre et al., 2000). Researchers at Virginia Tech have developed a theoretical foundation called the User Action Framework (UAF), which is an adaptation and extension of Norman's action model (1986). The main objective of developing the User Action Framework was to provide usability practitioners with a reliable and structured tool set for usability engineering support activities like classifying and reporting usability problems. In practice, the tool set has a web-based interface, with the User Action Framework serving as an underlying foundation. To be an effective classification and reporting tool, the UAF should be usable and reliable. This work addressed two important research activities to help determine the usability and reliability of the User Action Framework. First, we conducted a formative evaluation of the UAF Explorer, a component of the UAF, and its content. This led a re-design effort to fix these problems and to provide an interface that resulted in a more efficient and satisfying user experience. Another purpose of this research was to conduct a reliability study to determine if the User Action Framework showed significantly better than chance agreement when usability practitioners classified a given set of usability problem descriptions according to the structure of the UAF. The User Action Framework showed higher agreement scores compared to previous work using the tool. / Master of Science

Usability evaluation results in several usability problems and the non-UE developer is often not a part of the evaluation as it might deter the participant from reporting all the errors and also, conducting usability evaluation is a usability engineer's responsibility. Thus the evaluator needs to create unambiguous usability problem reports, which will help the developer fix the usability problems. This research involves the development and evaluation of the Usability Problem Diagnosis tool, which supports problem diagnosis through analysis and storage in a common database shared between the evaluation and the development team. This tool uses the User Action Framework as an underlying knowledge base to support problem diagnosis. / Master of Science

Increasing the usability of software by integrating usability engineering into the development cycle has become common practice. Although usability engineering is effective, it can be expensive, and organizations want to receive the best possible returns on their investments. Oftentimes, however, organizations spend large sums of money collecting usability problem data through activities such as usability testing, but do not receive acceptable returns on those investments during redesign. The primary reason is that there is an almost complete lack of methods and tools for usability problem data analysis to transform raw usability data into effective inputs for developers. In this thesis, we develop an infrastructure for usability problem data analysis to address the need for better returns on usability engineering investments. The infrastructure consists of four main components: a framework, a process, tools, and semantic analysis technology. Embedded within the infrastructure is the User Action Framework, a conceptual framework of usability concepts, which is used to organize usability data. The process addresses extraction of usability problems from raw usability data, diagnosis of problems according to usability concepts, and reporting of problems in a form that is usable by developers. The tools leverage the framework and guide practitioners through the process, while the semantic analysis technology supplements the capabilities of the tools to automate parts of the process. / Master of Science

This thesis investigates in which way principles and theories of usability is revelant when evaluating interactive systems for children aged 10-12. It also investigates whether there are specific factors that you should keep in mind while developing interactive products for the targeted group.The results of the qualitative study shows that priciples and theories of usability is relevant when evaluating interactive systems for the targeted group. However there is one concept that is more significant than the others. Our study shows that our targeted group is sensitive to time-consuming activities such as loading times etc. which has to do with the efficiency of the system. In the analysis of our empirical data we distinguished four factors of importance when developing interactive products. The system should help the user in terms of navigation and information retrieval. The system should consider the users exploratory behaviour by avoiding too many focal points in informative systems. The system should, in a distictive manner, visualize loading times etc. as the targeted group may accuse the system for being disfuntional. The system should only let the user make sensible decisions. Otherwise annoyance and confusion may occur. / Denna C-uppsats undersöker på vilket sätt användbarhetsprinciper och teorier är relevanta vid utvärdering av interaktiva system med målgruppen barn 10-12 år. Den undersöker även om det finnsf aktorer som är viktiga att tänka på när man ska utveckla en interaktiv produkt för vår målgrupp. För att besvara dessa frågeställningar har vi genomfört en kvalitativ studie med hjälp av observation och användartest. Studien visar på att användbarhetsprinciper och teorier som finns idag även kan användas för utvärdering av system för vår målgrupp men det finns begrepp och attribut som har mer relevans än andra. Effektivitet som är ett begrepp taget ur ursprungsdefinitionen av användbarhet är enligt vår studie det viktigaste begreppet, detta för att vår målgrupp är uppenbart känsliga för tidskrävande aktiviteter som t.ex. laddningstider. I analysen av vår studie uppmärksammade vi fyra faktorer som är viktiga att tänka på vid utveckling av interaktiva system för vår målgrupp. Dessa fyra är att: Systemet bör hjälpa användaren i navigation och informationssökning för att på så sätt minimera antalet fel. Systemet bör ta hänsyn till användarnas explorativa beteende genom att undvika för mångafokuspunkter i informativa system. Systemet bör vara visuellt tydligt med att visa laddningstider och dylikt då målgruppen annars kan beskylla systemet för att ej fungera. Systemet bör överlåta alla val till användaren. Så fort användaren upplever att ett val inte är medvetet så skapas irritation och förvirring.

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This thesis investigates the application of multimodal metaphors in electronic Customer Loyalty Management Systems (e-CLMS) in terms of efficiency, effectiveness, user satisfaction, and understandability of the customisation tasks and information communicated. The potential of users developing loyalty as a result of better usability and user satisfaction is also accessed via questionnaires. The first experiment investigated issues of usability and the users' views of an e-commerce platform developed for these experiments using three conditions with three independent groups. A visual group (VICLMS, n=25) that was communicated information within the platform using text with graphics, a multimodal group (MICLMS, n=25) that usedrecorded speech, earcons and auditory icons and an expressive avatars group(AICLMS, n=25) that was predominantly communicated information using avatars. The second experiment evaluated three avatar-based multimodal conditions using a dependent group (n=50). This experiment evaluated user satisfaction, perceived convenience, enjoyment, ease of use and customisation, and successful completion of user tasks. The conditions were avatars with earcons (AEICLMS), avatars with auditory icons (AAICLMS) and avatars with both earcons and auditory icons (AICLMS).The use of expressive avatars in the e-CLMS interface contributed to the positive predisposition of usersto develop loyalty. Multimodal metaphors contributed more significantly to complex customisation tasks. A set of empirically derived guidelines and a validation approach is suggested for designing multimodal E-CLMS interfaces.