<p><em> </em></p><p><em><p>This report examines the relationship between usability and subjective judgments</p><p>about aesthetic and emotional aspects of users of a web production. Through the</p><p>development of two prototypes that reflects different aspects of usability and subjective</p><p>assessments examined the consequences of a differentiation of the concepts and</p><p>Usability and Likeability. Thereafter, an evaluation of the two prototypes are made</p><p>through user testing. Finally, the results of the evaluation is presented and are related</p><p>to the concepts of usability and likeability.</p></em></p><p> </p>

<p>When discussing matters of usability, focus is usually kept on functionality whilst other aspects, such as aesthetics, are neglected. Discussions of aesthetics are on the other hand traditionally kept within the area of fine arts. Considering that both usability and aesthetics are of big importance in people’s lives, it is astonishing to find that their relationship has not been fully explored. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to, with interfaces of a Volvo Logistics environmental calculation tool, explore whether aesthetics (in the form of visual beauty) would affect the perceived usability of a system. Hence, the question of research has been whether a visually attractive user interface will be perceived as more usable than a less attractive one when usability/functionality is kept constant? (Or in more general terms; is beautiful more usable?)</p><p>To achieve this, two interfaces with the same functionality but with different levels of visual beauty were designed and used in an experiment where participants rated perceived usability and appearance. The results of the experiment were expected; participants perceived the better looking interface as more usable whereas actual usability appears to have been constant.</p>

<p>In order to increase the independence in everyday life of the elderly population, we have developed a lifting aid for loading in the private car trunk. Independence from outside assistance affects self-esteem in a positive direction and can help increase the quality of life for a large group of individuals. As people age and experience changes in performance, it is important that aids and support is available, particularly to reduce the experience of aging and it’s increasing physical limitations. The aim was to develop a function prototype characterized by simplicity, which facilitates loading of the private car</p><p>trunk.</p><p>The project was conducted at the request of Autoadapt AB, which is one of the leading</p><p>actors in car adaptations for individuals with disablilities. A function prototype of the product Easy Load has been produced through dynamic product development and its</p><p>various tools. In an attempt to meet the requirements of simplicity and ease of use,</p><p>concepts such as universal design and usability affected the project.</p><p>In order to find a user need that could form the basis of the project, proceedings began</p><p>with a pre-study that included observations and group interviews of members in a</p><p>pensioner club in Halmstad. The Product development work continued with several</p><p>brainstorming sessions with participants from a number of the university's engineering</p><p>programs. Ideas from the sessions, together with the results from the benchmarking,</p><p>formed the basis for final product design and function. A key requirement was that the</p><p>product could be fitted in sedan car models with easy grips and without any permanent</p><p>fixings.</p><p>Construction of the prototype was made mostly in the University’s mechanical</p><p>workshop, using both self-constructed and sourced components. Stress and installation</p><p>testing and risk analysis pursuant to FMEA highlighted deficiencies that the project</p><p>group sought to adjust. In cases where this did not happen, the project group made</p><p>concrete improvement proposals to simplify further development.</p><p>This project shows that lifting aids products without permanent fixings are possible to develop for use in sedan car models. Specific product criteria have been met through a designed function prototype for loading in the private car trunk.</p>

Technology plays an increasingly important role in modern health care. This thesis presents an approach to usability evaluation of mobile information and communications technologies designed for diabetes patients&rsquo / use in their daily lives. According to our study conducted on 60 diabetes patients, several important findings were obtained. Fifty nine (98.3%) diabetes patients were highly satisfied with the mobile health technology and expressed that they would use it, and found the measured values reliable. For 57 (95%) diabetes patients / measuring, checking and accessing the blood glucose level easily anytime and anywhere were very important. Fifty six (93.3%) said that they would wish to send their blood glucose levels to their physicians via e-mail. When participants were asked to provide a decision on future health care, predominate number of participants said they would change their lifestyle rather than visit a doctor regardless of their blood glucose level. In conclusion, little is known about such effects of mobile information and communications technologies in self-management care situations. It is clear that usability studies in the field are more difficult to conduct than laboratory evaluations. Further studies with larger sample sizes are needed to further evaluate these initial findings.

Machine-readable privacy policies have been developed to help reduce user effort in understanding how websites will use personally identifiable information (PII). The goal of these policies is to enable the user to make informed decisions about the disclosure of personal information in web-based transactions. However, these privacy policies are complex, requiring that a user agent evaluate conformance between the users privacy preferences and the sites privacy policy, and indicate this conformance information to the user. The problem addressed in this thesis is that even with machine-readable policies and current user agents, it is still difficult for users to determine the cause and origin of a conflict between privacy preferences and privacy policies. The problem arises partly because current standards operate at the page level: they do not allow a fine-grained treatment of conformance down to the level of a specific field in a web form. In this thesis the Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) is extended to enable field-level comparisons, field-specific conformance displays, and faster access to additional field-specific conformance information. An evaluation of a prototype agent based on these extensions showed that they allow users to more easily understand how the website privacy policy relates to the users privacy preferences, and where conformance conflicts occur.

Few studies examine technical barriers, such as usability, to successful Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) system implementation. This thesis explores this literature gap through the evaluation of the Sunnybrook CPOE order set system with a heuristic evaluation of the Sunnybrook CPOE system, the development of a more user friendly CPOE order set interface (Test Design), and a usability study comparing three order set formats (Sunnybrook CPOE, Test Design, and paper order sets). A randomized trial was conducted with 27 Sunnybrook physicians at the hospital. Results showed that the Sunnybrook CPOE order set system was less efficient (task times were on average 364 seconds longer than Test Design and 344 seconds longer than paper), less user-friendly (users were less confident, less satisfied, and more frustrated with Sunnybrook CPOE tasks), and less safe than paper order sets (more harmful errors). Test Design was as efficient and safe as paper order sets.

Game reviews play an important role in both the culture and business of games the words of a reviewer can have an influential effect on the commercial success of a video game. While reviews are currently used by game developers to aid in important decisions such as project financing and employee bonuses, the effect of game reviews on players is not known. Additionally, the use of game reviews to improve evaluation techniques has received little attention. In this thesis we investigate the effect of game reviews on player experience and perceptions of quality. We show that negative reviews cause a significant effect on how players perceive their in-game experience, and that this effect is a post-play cognitive rationalization of the play experience with the previously-read review text. To address this effect we designed and deployed a new heuristic evaluation technique that specifically uses game reviews to create a fine-grained prioritized list of usability problems based on the frequency, impact, and persistence of each problem. By using our technique we are able to address the most common usability problems identified by game reviews, thus reducing the overall level of negativity found within the review text. Our approach helps to control and eliminate the snowballing effect that can be produced by players reading reviews and subsequently posting their own reviews, and thus improve the commercial success of a game.

Few studies examine technical barriers, such as usability, to successful Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) system implementation. This thesis explores this literature gap through the evaluation of the Sunnybrook CPOE order set system with a heuristic evaluation of the Sunnybrook CPOE system, the development of a more user friendly CPOE order set interface (Test Design), and a usability study comparing three order set formats (Sunnybrook CPOE, Test Design, and paper order sets). A randomized trial was conducted with 27 Sunnybrook physicians at the hospital. Results showed that the Sunnybrook CPOE order set system was less efficient (task times were on average 364 seconds longer than Test Design and 344 seconds longer than paper), less user-friendly (users were less confident, less satisfied, and more frustrated with Sunnybrook CPOE tasks), and less safe than paper order sets (more harmful errors). Test Design was as efficient and safe as paper order sets.

ABSTRACT The Usability Implications of Long Ballot Content for Paper, Electronic, and Mobile Voting Systems by Bryan A. Campbell In the 2008 United States presidential election over 131 million ballots were cast. A substantial fraction of those ballots, approximately 23 million (17.5%), were cast as absentee ballots either domestically or by overseas and military citizens (EAC, 2008). These numbers demonstrate that a demand exists in the United States for less centralized voting procedures. One potential solution, allowing voters to cast ballots on Internet-enabled mobile devices, could potentially increase voter participation, reduce election administration costs, increase election flexibility, and provide the ability for voters to interact with familiar technology. Two experiments were conducted to examine the efficacy of a custom-designed mobile voting system as compared to more traditional voting technologies such as direct recording electronic and paper ballot voting systems. The results from experiment one suggest that displaying long ballot content as a single scrollable list may have distinct negative consequences on the effectiveness of electronic voting systems. Further, experiment one showed that candidates appearing below the fold, or not immediately visible without additional action from the voter are at a higher risk of being mistakenly voted against. The results from experiment two are largely consistent with experiment one in that they showed that a scrollable review screen led to more voting errors and that those candidates below the fold were at a distinct disadvantage.

The Help America Vote Act, passed into law in 2002, mandated that all polling places provide privacy and independence to all voters. Given this, many jurisdictions have been forced into making a choice between providing traditional voting methods (such as paper ballots) and offering newer electronic voting systems. Electronic voting machines have been seen as the solution to many usability and accessibility problems, but very little literature exists to indicate whether this is the case among specific populations such as disabled, elderly, and non-English speaking voters. An audio accessible voting interface for visually disabled voters (CHILVote) was designed using specifications from both the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines and a largescale survey of blind individuals conducted by Piner and Byrne [in proceedings of The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 55th Annual Meeting, pp. 1686-1690 (2011)]. CHILVote’s interface utilizes the given design guidelines and includes use of a male text-to-speech voice, a flexible navigation structure, adjustable speed and volume, and an optional review section. Relatively low error rates (M=1.7%) and high SUS scores (M=89.5) among blind subjects are consistent with previous findings. Error rates and satisfaction are not significantly different than those of sighted voters using both paper and DRE, and blind voters using a non-electronic interface. CHILVote significantly reduced the time it takes for blind subjects to vote, from 25.2 minutes (VotePAD) to 17.1 minutes (CHILVote). This is an improvement, but still over 2.5 times slower than sighted subjects voting on an identical ballot. The integration of accessibility into mainstream technology often has benefits beyond allowing more of the population access to a system. This research provides a comparison point and guidelines for future studies of accessibility solutions.