Visuzalizing time information using a timeline has been done for over 250 years. Using a timeline can assist users in making sense of time data which could otherwise be hard to understand. A timeline has been implemented at Ida Infront, and its purpose is to help managers understand how cases are progressing in a case management system created by Ida Infront. The timeline is designed using usability methods and has been evaluated with regards to its usability and how it interacts. Results show that there are a number of things that can increase usability and add meaningful interaction, such as using icons to collect similar data into one point and adding filtering capabilities so that users can find interesting data faster.

Recent terrorist attacks and the subsequently perceived threats to national security have meant that the demands of security networks are greater than ever before. The walkthrough metal detector (WTMD) is on the frontline of the personal security screening network and is used to check individuals for metallic threat objects such as knives or guns. In many operational conditions each positive identification of a metallic object is first considered to be a threat, however in many instances the source of the trigger does not necessarily constitute the detection of a threat object as many innocuous metallic items are allowed in certain secured zones, e.g. a mobile phone in an airport. Operators are often required to perform physical searches to confirm that the trigger was not due to a threat object. Often little or no positional information is provided, and as a result the time taken to conduct a physical search is often significant and causes delays to people waiting to be screened. A tomographic magnetic imaging system was designed and built with the intention of recovering detailed information about magnetic and/or conductive objects within the detector space, in addition to identifying the position of the detected object to a greater degree of accuracy than is possible with the current generation of WTMDs. The object-specific information that is recovered by the system is in the form of the magnetic polarisability dyadic tensor, which is considered to completely describe the behaviour of an object when it interacts with a magnetic field. The prototype system that has been produced is capable of inverting object tensors with a typical error of < 20%, and determines three-dimensional object location with an error of ±2 to ±3 cm. Given that both the inversion of an object tensor, and object location to this degree of accuracy have not been observed in the academic or commercial literature it is claimed that both of these factors represent original work. In order to achieve this level of performance a special 8-transmit, 8-receive coil array has been produced which is capable of minimising mutual coupling between all channels during background operation. This allows for greater detection of changes occurring as a result of the presence of the object, rather than from the excitation source. A procedure for modelling the response of this prototype coil array to a specified magnetic polarisability dyadic tensor is derived and tested by examining the response of the system to a ferrite sphere. This testing indicates that the measurements from the WTMD and simulated object response differ by less than 10% in almost all cases. Testing of the inversion algorithm has been conducted with six known objects, and the system has been shown to perform consistently, and to an acceptable degree of accuracy. The procedure for the inversion of an object tensor is based upon the response of the model, and consequently this error contains a portion of the error contained from the model. The detector system was tested in an airport environment where sensitivity was shown to be beyond the levels required for typical operation.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Psychology / John J. Uhlarik / Usability practitioners need effective usability assessment techniques in order to facilitate development of usable consumer products. Many usability evaluation methods have been promoted as the ideal. Few, however, fulfill expectations concerning effectiveness. Additionally, lack of empirical data forces usability practitioners to rely on personal judgments and/or anecdotal statements when deciding upon which usability method best suits their needs. Therefore the present study had two principal objectives: (1) to validate a hybrid usability technique that identifies important and ignores inconsequential usability problems, and (2) to provide empirical performance data for several usability protocols on a variety of contemporary comparative metrics. The User-Centered Hybrid Assessment Tool (User-CHAT) was developed to maximize efficient diagnosis of usability issues from a behaviorally-based perspective while minimizing time and resource limitations typically associated with usability assessment environments. Several characteristics of user-testing, the heuristic evaluation, and the cognitive walkthrough were combined to create the User-CHAT. Prior research has demonstrated that the User-CHAT supports an evaluation within 3-4 hrs, can be used by individuals with limited human factors / usability background, and requires little training to be used competently, even for complex systems. A state-of-the-art suite of avionics displays and a series of benchmark tasks provided the context where the User-CHAT’s performance was measured relative to its parent usability methods. Two techniques generated comparison lists of usability problems – user-testing data and various inclusion criteria for usability problems identified by the User-CHAT, heuristic evaluation, and cognitive walkthrough. Overall the results demonstrated that the User-CHAT attained higher effectiveness scores than the heuristic evaluation and cognitive walkthrough, suggesting that it helped evaluators identify many usability problems that actually impact users, i.e., higher thoroughness, while attenuating time and effort on issues that were not important, i.e., higher validity. Furthermore, the User-CHAT had the greatest proportion of usability problems that were rated as serious, i.e., usability issues that hinder performance and compromise safety. The User-CHAT’s performance suggests that it is an appropriate usability technique to implement into the product development lifecycle. Limitations and future research directions are discussed.

A rápida evolução tecnológica tem proporcionado que a população mundial vivencie novas formas de interação. Um fenômeno que também tem ocorrido em escala global é o envelhecimento populacional, que faz com que grande parte da população seja afetada por limitações decorrentes da idade. Jogos digitais podem oferecer diversos benefícios para um envelhecimento saudável, tais como bem-estar físico e mental, sociabilização com outros jogadores, relaxamento e entretenimento. A literatura apresenta esforços em direção a abordagens visando tornar as aplicações cada vez mais usáveis, por meio de diferentes métodos de avaliação de usabilidade. O Percurso Cognitivo (PC) é um desses métodos, que tem como finalidade a avaliação da facilidade de aprendizado. No entanto, o declínio cognitivo, especialmente quando decorrente do envelhecimento, dificulta o aprendizado pelos usuários. Assim, faz-se necessário uma investigação sobre o método PC para que considere também acessibilidade, devido a barreiras enfrentadas por pessoas idosas. O objetivo deste projeto foi propor um método de avaliação por inspeção, que considere questões de usabilidade e acessibilidade, com ênfase na facilidade de aprendizado, de modo a apoiar desenvolvedores e especialistas nas avaliações de jogos para o público idoso. Assim, foram realizados procedimentos metodológicos, tais como pesquisa bibliográfica e três Estudos de Caso (EC) para embasar o método proposto, nomeado Percurso de Barreiras Cognitivas (PBC). O primeiro EC foi realizado para analisar a aplicação do método PC, bem como identificar as possíveis vulnerabilidades do método ao avaliar jogos tendo como público alvo os idosos. Com base na primeira versão do método PBC, no segundo EC foi analisada sua aplicabilidade e foram coletadas sugestões de melhorias. A segunda versão do PBC foi então desenvolvida. No terceiro EC, foi analisada a viabilidade da aplicação da segunda versão do PBC em uma situação real. Finalmente, por incluir integralmente as questões do método PC tradicional, no PBC é esperado que um mesmo especialista ao avaliar um jogo, encontre (seja com base no PBC ou PC), no mínimo, os mesmos problemas, independente da experiência deste especialista. Foram evidenciadas que as questões e procedimentos do método PBC tendem a auxiliar / Fast technological evolution has provided the world population with new forms of interaction. A phenomenon that also occurred on a global scale is population aging, which causes a large part of the population to be affected by age-related disabilities. Digital games can offer several benefits for healthy aging including improvement of mental and physical condition of their players. Games also help users to improve personal capabilities, to become more sociable and relaxed, and to increase interaction with other users. The literature presents efforts that consider different usability evaluation methods to make applications even more usable, Cognitive Walkthrough (CW) is one of these methods. However, while CW proposes the evaluation of ease of learning, Cognitive decline, especially due aging, hinders users learning. Thus, it is necessary to extend CW, usually applied to usability domain, in order to consider issues involving accessibility. The objective of this project was to propose an inspection method for evaluating games regarding the usability and accessibility issues for the older public, with emphasis on ease of learning. Thus, methodological procedures, such as bibliographic research and three case studies (CS) were used to support the proposed method, called Cognitive Barriers Walkthrough (CBW). The first CS was performed to analyze the application of the CW method, as well to identify its possible vulnerabilities for evaluating games with the target audience as the elderly people. In the second CS, the applicability of the first version of the CBW method was analyzed and suggestions for improvements were collected, and then the second version of CBW was then developed. In the third CS, the feasibility of applying the second version of CBW was analyzed in a real situation. Finally, since the traditional CW questions were all included in CBW, it is expected that the same expert will find at least the same problems, regardless of the evaluators level of expertise. It was evidenced that the questions and procedures of the CBW method tend to help the experts to find more problems than they would find with the traditional CW method.

Denna studie undersökte hur datorsimuleringar från satellitvy kan användas i tjänstedesign, med drönarleveranser ur ett medborgarperspektiv som fallstudie. Genom användandet av forskning genom design utforskades vilken information simuleringar kan förmedla och hur de kan användas för att ta ett medborgarperspektiv. Med hjälp av en spekulativ leveranstjänst med drönare jämfördes en simulering från UTM City med en desktop walkthrough. Studien genomfördes genom en mellangruppsdesign där deltagare utvärderade den drönartjänsten. Resultatet visade att deltagarna många gånger diskuterade liknande saker, men bland annat hade en skillnad i perspektivtagande där simuleringsdeltagarna tog ett samhällsperspektiv och såg dystopiska risker, men även använde simuleringen för att avgöra avstånd och hastighet. Deltagarna som använde desktop walkthrough tog istället oftare ett kundperspektiv och diskuterade mer kring drönarteknik. Resultatet visade att denna typ av simulering kan användas för samråd med medborgare i ett senare skede av designen av tjänsten för att ge medborgarna en rättvis bild av hur deras område kommer att förändras tillsammans med möjligheten att påverka i detaljplaneringen. Simuleringen bör dock kombineras med andra prototyper för bästa resultat. / This study explored how computer simulations from a satellite view can be used in service design, using drone deliveries from a citizen perspective as a case study. With the use of research though design the study investigated what information computer simulations mediate compared to desktop walkthrough and how it can be used to facilitate a citizen perspective. A simulation from the project UTM City was compared to a desktop walkthrough in a between group design, where participants evaluated the drone delivery service. The results showed that the participants discussed many of the same aspects, but also found a difference in perspective taking where the participants using the simulation mostly took a community perspective and found dystopian risks, but also used the simulation to compare distance and speed. The participants utilizing the desktop walkthrough, on the other hand, more often used a customer perspective and discussed drone technology. From these results, simulations from a satellite view can be used for citizen communication in a later part of the creation of a service to give them a fair image of the service and its impacts on the community, together with the possibility to influence the final service. The simulations should, however, be used together with other prototypes for the best result. / UTM City

ABSTRACT Cloud computing has become increasingly important over the years, as the need for computational resources, data storage, and networking capabilities in the field of information technology has been increased. There are several large corporations that offer these services to small companies or to end-users such as GCP, AWS, Microsoft Azure, IBM Cloud, and many more. The main aim of this thesis is to perform the comparison of GCP and AWS consoles in terms of the user interface while performing tasks related to compute engine. The cognitive walkthrough has been performed on tasks such as the creation of VPC, creation of VM instances, and launching them and then from the results, both the interfaces are compared using usability heuristics. Background: As the usage of cloud computing has increased over the years, the companies that are offering these services have grown eventually. Though there are many cloud services available in the market the user might always choose the services that are more flexible and efficient to use. In this manner, the choice of our research is made to compare the cloud services in terms of user interaction user experience. As we dig deep into the topic of user interaction and experience there are evaluation techniques and principles such as cognitive walkthrough and usability heuristics are suitable for our research. Here the comparison is made among GCP and AWS user interfaces while performing some tasks related to compute engine. Objectives: The main objectives of this thesis are to create VPC, VM instances,s and launch VM instances in two different cloud services such as GCP and AWS. To find out the best user interface among these two cloud services from the perspective of the user. Method: The process of finding best user interface among GCP and AWS cloud services is based on the cognitive walkthrough and comparing with usability heuristics. The cognitive walkthrough is performed on chosen tasks in both the services and then compared using usability heuristics to get the results of our research. Results: The results that are obtained from cognitive walkthrough and comparison with usability heuristics shown in graphical formats such as bar graphs, pie charts, and the comparison results are shown in the form of tabular form. The results cannot be universal, as they are just observational results from cognitive walkthrough and usability heuristic evaluation. Conclusion: After performing the above-mentioned methods it is observed that the user interface of GCP is more flexible and efficient in terms of user interaction and experience. Though the user experience may vary based on the experience level of users in cloud services, as per our research the novice user and moderate users have chosen GCP as a better interactive system over AWS. Keywords: Cloud computing, VM instance, Cognitive walkthrough, Usability heuristics, User-interface.

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Esta investigación se orienta en estudiar la accesibilidad de los sitios web de varios países de Latinoamérica, para evaluar si cumplen con los estándares mínimos de accesibilidad web establecidos por el W3C. Además, este estudio se enfoca a las personas interesadas en conocer el estado relativo a la accesibilidad y estándares de las WCAG 2.0 y 2.1 en los sitios web de varias instituciones de Latinoamérica, y la importancia de utilizar estas normas. Este estudio investigó si los sitios web educativos de Latinoamérica cumplen con los lineamientos vigentes de accesibilidad web y si estas condiciones dependen de la ubicación en el ranking establecido por Webometrics en donde se encuentran aproximadamente 3,942 universidades de Latinoamérica. El estudio permitió evaluar la accesibilidad de 348 páginas de inicio de las universidades de Latinoamérica, de acuerdo con el cálculo del tamaño de la muestra. En la evaluación de la accesibilidad de los sitios web aplicamos herramientas de revisión automática y un método manual que permitan comprobar los estándares de accesibilidad. El mayor número de los problemas identificados con relación a la accesibilidad de los sitios web muestran que es obligatorio robustecer las políticas de accesibilidad web en cada país y brindar lineamientos en este espacio para que los sitios web sean cada vez más inclusivos. Los futuros trabajos deberían seguir analizando la evolución de los sitios web, proporcionando clasificaciones actualizadas periódicamente y haciendo públicos los resultados y los informes. Por otro lado, existen métodos cualitativos y cuantitativos para evidenciar si un sitio web es accesible. La mayoría de los métodos aplican herramientas de revisión automática porque son de bajo costo, pero no presentan una solución ideal. En cambio, los métodos heurísticos requieren un apoyo manual que ayudará al experto a evaluar la accesibilidad mediante el establecimiento de rangos de severidad. Razón por la cual, en esta investigación se utilizó una modificación del método de Barrier Walkthrough propuesto por Brajnik teniendo en cuenta las WCAG 2.1. La modificación consistió en incluir un valor de persistencia para determinar la severidad de una barrera de accesibilidad. Este método permitió medir la accesibilidad de los sitios web para probar un proceso heurístico y obtener datos de muestra para el análisis e interpretación de resultados. La propuesta permite probar una nueva heurística con un rango de persistencia más amplio, que ayude a los evaluadores a tener una aproximación más realista de la severidad de una barrera de accesibilidad web. Esta investigación concluyó que, aunque un sitio web está en una clasificación alta según un ranking, no necesariamente cuenta con un sitio web accesible e inclusivo. Este método puede ser replicado para otros sitios web al incluir diferentes tipos de discapacidades, escenarios de prueba y usuarios finales. Como resultado de esta investigación encontramos que ningún sitio web seleccionado en la muestra alcanzó un nivel aceptable de accesibilidad. Por lo tanto, las universidades de Latinoamérica y los sitios web más visitados según Alexa deben realizar esfuerzos significativos para perfeccionar la accesibilidad en los sitios web. Por último, sugiero animar a los diseñadores y creadores de sitios web a aplicar los lineamientos establecidos en las WCAG 2.0 y 2.1 como punto de partida a la hora de desarrollar sitios web accesibles. En conclusión, los sitios web deben hacer esfuerzos significativos para mejorar la accesibilidad, incluir la diversidad y construir sitios web inclusivos.

Accessible web design is crucial for creating equal access to the internet for everyone. While numerous guidelines and standards exist to promote accessibility, it is often of low priority among professionals and unfortunately many websites remain inaccessible to people with disabilities. Accessible web design is often seen as a checkbox task, believed to decrease usability for people without disabilities, to result in less attractive designs, and be economically challenging to justify. Previous research has disproved some of these beliefs by demonstrating that accessible design enhances usability for all users. However, there remains a gap in research regarding the economic incentives associated with accessible design.  Therefore, this thesis aimed to investigate the impact of accessible web design on purchase intentions and customer experience. This was done by evaluating and redesigning an existing website for accessibility and subsequently conducting comparative testing between the two versions of the website.  The comparative testing consisted of A/B and user testing. Purchase intention was measured using statements derived from prior studies, alongside statements measuring concepts related to purchase intention. Furthermore, the customer experience was assessed using the After Scenario Questionnaire (ASQ), the System Usability Scale (SUS), and conducting user interviews.  The results show that accessible redesign positively influences purchase intentions and indicate that one possible primary contributor to this is an increase in information quality on the website. The customer experience showed no significant differences between the two versions, although user interviews revealed a small rise in user preference for the more accessible version.  In conclusion, this study shows that a redesign with a focus on accessibility increases user intentions to purchase while at the same time not decreasing the customer experience on the website. Hopefully, these results can contribute to creating a more accessible web for all users.

Este trabalho aborda a utilização de tecnologias para a criação de ambientes virtuais baseados em imagens, com uma aplicação na praça central da cidade de Pelotas/RS. Possibilita que o usuário realize interativamente um passeio no entorno da praça com recursos que permitem avaliações arquitetônicas e urbanísticas por meio de simulações de troca de cor nos prédios, inserção de novas construções e análise do estado de conservação de imóveis, com vantagens sobre métodos tradicionais de análises em montagens fotográficas estáticas. Enfatiza a pesquisa de soluções para visualização interativa de ambientes, focado na identificação de fontes de informação e não na sua modelagem matemática. Para a apresentação do trabalho, além da seleção das cenas urbanas que seriam estudadas, foram consideradas técnicas para a modelagem dos elementos arquitetônicos de forma que se obtivesse a máxima preservação das características naturais (estado de conservação, cores e riqueza de detalhes), formas para a visualização destes dados de maneira integrada com dados bibliográficos (histórico, técnicas construtivas e localização) e também a utilização de objetos multimídia para o enriquecimento na apresentação de conteúdos. Na busca de soluções, foram investigadas as técnicas de modelagem fotogramétrica como forma de obtenção de objetos realísticos com a manutenção das características do objeto original em modelos geométricos simplificados. Foram feitos estudos sobre as formas de apresentação de ambientes virtuais navegáveis através de panoramas interativos e também foi estudada uma forma de aproximar a visualização dos conteúdos com a visão natural humana, através da estereoscopia. O trabalho culmina com a fusão de todas as tecnologias estudadas em uma aplicação denominada “Praça República Virtual – PRV” (para resgatar o antigo nome da atual Praça Coronel Pedro Osório), que funciona como um canteiro de provas na medida que abre um leque de opções para utilização em estudos na área de Arquitetura e Urbanismo. / This work approaches the uses of technologies for creation of virtual environments based on images, with an application to the central square of the city of Pelotas/RS. It makes possible to the user to accomplish an interactive walkthrough with resources that allows architectural and urban planning evaluations through simulations of color changes in the buildings, insertion of new constructions and analysis of the conservation condition of the buildings, with advantages if compared to traditional methods of analysis with static photographic assemblies. It emphasizes the research of solutions for interactive visualization of environments, focused in the identification of sources of information and not in mathematical modeling. Besides the selection of the urban scenes to be studied, it was considered techniques for modeling the architectural elements to obtain the maximal preservation of their natural characteristics (conservation state, colors and wealth of details), ways of visualization of nowadays conservation, but integrated with bibliographical dates (historical, constructive techniques and location). It also includes the uses of multimedia objects to the presentation of contents. In the search of solutions, techniques of photogrammetric modeling were investigated, looking for the construction of realistic objects and maintenance of the characteristics of the original object but using simplified geometric models. It was done a search about forms of presentation of navigable virtual environments through interactive panoramas and also using a prototype of stereoscopy. The work culminates with the coalition of all studied technologies in a prototype of the central square of Pelotas called “Praça República Virtual–PRV” (to rescue the old name of the current Square Cel. Pedro Osório). It works like a stonemason of proofs in the measure that opens various options of use in studies in the area of Architecture and Urban Planning.