Julie A. Jacko

University of Minnesota Twin Cities | UMN · School of Public Health

Premedical students typically pursue undergraduate specialization in basic biological and other sciences, learning to understand living systems at a microscopic, genetic, or molecular level. However, curricula in the basic sciences do not traditionally include courses that enable students to learn about living systems at the macro level-understandi...

Emergency department (ED) visits for drug overdoses increased nationally during COVID-19 despite declines in all-cause ED visits. The study purpose was to compare characteristics of ED visits for opioid and stimulant overdoses before and during COVID-19 in Florida. This study tested for disparities in ED visits for opioid and stimulant overdoses by...

The integration of medical schools and clinical partners is effectively established through the formation of academic medical centers (AMCs). The tripartite mission of AMCs emphasizes the importance of providing critical clinical services, medical innovation through research, and the education of future health care leaders. Although AMCs represent...

A randomized controlled trial was conducted of a web-based intervention to improve advanced care planning in women with ovarian cancer. A secondary analysis of 35 randomized women focused on changes in distress and knowledge about ovarian cancer through distress monitoring and information tailored to patients' cognitive coping style (monitoring, bl...

A broad-based research team developed a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)-compliant educational website for women with ovarian cancer to improve the quality of supportive oncology care. Prior to a randomized clinical trial of the website, initial usability testing was implemented to evaluate the website. The initial review...

Few available tools facilitate cancer patients and physicians' discussions of quality of life and end-of-life. Our objective was to develop a web-based tool to promote advance care planning for women with ovarian cancer. Women with ovarian cancer, their families, clinicians and researchers met to identify ways to improve cancer care. A prototype we...

Menu systems have been key components in modern graphical user interfaces, and there has been a lot of research about menu design. Menu design features play a significant role from the perspective of customer satisfaction. Therefore, researchers have investigated various features in menu design. 3D menus have been investigated because these can dis...

Speech text entry can be problematic during ideal dictation conditions, but difficulties are magnified when external conditions deteriorate. Motion during speech is an extraordinary condition that might have detrimental effects on automatic speech recognition. This research examined speech text entry while mobile. Speech enrollment profiles were cr...

Electronic health records (EHR) are increasingly being implemented by care providers in order to streamline processes and improve quality of care. Due to EHRs’ complexity, the usability of these systems is crucial to ensure safety and to enable clinicians (users) to focus on their patients rather than the technology. This case study presents experi...

This paper presents the evaluation of eight published Universal Design Resources (UDRs) to measure how effectively they support typical design processes and design psychology. New heuristics and principles to evaluate the UDRs from the point of view of designers who were universal design novices were created. Established methodologies for heuristi...

In this paper, the development process of four Universal Design Resources (UDRs) was analyzed. The results of a heuristic evaluation (HE) of UDRs (Part 1) were used in this (Part 2) study to create an online survey. Thirty-one individuals involved in the creation of the four UDRs responded, 15 of whom were also interviewed. For three resources, the...

Neural evidence exists for cortical reorganization in human visual cortex in response to retinal disease. Macular degeneration (MD) causes the progressive loss of central visual acuity. To cope with this, MD patients often adopt a preferred retinal location (PRL, i.e., a functional retinal area in their periphery used to fixate instead of the damag...

Even though "providing insight" has been considered one of the main purposes of information visualization (InfoVis), we feel that insight is still a not-well-understood concept in this context. Inspired by research in sensemaking, we realized the importance of the procedural aspects in understanding insight. Thus, rather than asking "What is insigh...

When mobile devices are used on the move, a user's limited visual resources are split between interacting with the mobile devices and maintaining awareness of the surrounding environment. In this study, we examined stylus-based tapping operations on a PDA under three mobility situations: seated, walking on a treadmill, and walking through an obstac...

FEATURE AT A GLANCE: There are numerous standards, design guidelines, and other resources that relate to the use of technology by people with disabilities. We examined whether such resources met the needs of designers based on typical design processes and design psychology. We conducted a heuristic evaluation of eight resources and then surveyed an...

This paper investigates the addition of spatial auditory feedback as a tool to assist people with visual impairments in the use of computers, specifically in tasks involving iconic visual search. In this augmented interface, unique sounds were mapped to visual icons on the screen. As the screen cursor traversed the screen, the user heard sounds of...

Many real world mobile device interactions occur in context-rich environments. However, the majority of empirical studies on mobile computing are conducted in static or idealized conditions, resulting in a deficit of understanding of how changes in context impact users’ abilities to perform effectively. This paper attempts to address the disconnect...

In this paper, we present statistical results from testing our precompensation algorithms with 20 human subjects. A factorial experiment was designed and tested to evaluate the significance that the method, icon size, and subject group have on the ability of users to identify icons. These results reinforce software and "artificial eye" test finding...

The current ubiquity of information technology has increased variability among users, creating a corresponding need to properly capture and understand these individual differences. This study introduces a novel application of multifractal statistical methods to distinguish users via patterns of variability within high frequency pupillary response b...

To determine the impact of auditory and haptic (tactile) feedback on computer task performance of patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) compared to controls. Thirty patients with AMD and 29 similarly aged controls with no known ocular disease completed timed computer icon "drag and drop" tasks under all four possible conditions of pr...

High-Order Wavefront Aberration Regularized Deconvolution (HOWARD) is a complete closed loop system developed for simulating human visual function with the primary goal of enhancing graphic computer displays for users that have refractive errors (resulting in difficulty interacting with vis- ual displays). Visual function is a primary requirement f...

This study investigates factors affecting handheld human – computer interaction (HCI) for older adults with Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD). This is largely an uncharted territory, as empirical investigations of HCI concerning users with visual dysfunction and/or older adults have focused primarily on desktop computers. For this study, parti...

The ubiquity of information technologies imposes serious and debilitating limitations on people whose abilities fall outside the range of what is generally considered normal. Those at all ages who experience perceptual, physical, and/or cognitive impairments often have diminished functional abilities, and thus, their technology interaction requirem...

Desktop interaction solutions are often inappropriate for mobile devices due to small screen size and portability needs. Speech recognition can improve interactions by providing a relatively hands-free solution that can be used in various situations. While mobile systems are designed to be transportable, few have examined the effects of motion on m...

The current ubiquity of information technology has increased variability among users, creating a corresponding need to properly capture and understand these individual differences. This study introduces a novel application of multifractal statistical methods to distinguish users via patterns of variability within high frequency pupillary response b...

In this paper we present a 20-participant controlled experiment to evaluate and compare a head-down visual display and a synthesized speech audio display for comprehending text while mobile. Participants completed reading comprehension trials while walking a path and sitting. We examine overall performance and perceived workload for four conditions...

In this paper we discuss the implications of recent research studies on disability-related design guidelines. We have investigated the quality of guidelines with respect to designers as their end-users, and we have conducted field studies of the use design resources in practice. We now look at gaps in the current knowledge regarding the conceptuali...

Universal design (UD) is an approach to design that incorporates things which can be used by all people to the greatest extent possible. UD in information and communication technologies (ICTs) is of growing importance because standard ICTs have great potential to be usable by all people, including people with disabilities (PWDs). Currently, PWDs wh...

In this paper, we describe a multi-domain approach for enhancing text displayed on a computer screen for users with visual aberrations. This research is based on a priori knowledge of the user's visual aberration, as measured by a wavefront analyzer. With this information it is possible to generate text that, when displayed to this user, will count...

This study investigates the effectiveness of two design interventions, the Microsoft® Windows® accessibility settings and multimodal feedback, aimed at the enhancement of a menu selection task, for users with diabetic retinopathy (DR) with stratified levels of visual dysfunction. Several menu selection task performance measures, both time- and accu...

This study explores factors affecting handheld computer interaction for older adults with Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD). This is largely uncharted territory, as empirical investigations of human-computer interaction (HCI) concerning users with visual dysfunction and/or older adults have focused primarily on desktop computers. For this stud...

The possibility of pre-compensating images in a computer display according to the visual aberrations previously assessed in an optical system (e.g., the computer user's eye) has been confirmed for a simple "artificial eye". This device has been constructed from optical components, which include a plano-convex lens, an adjustable aperture, and a Cha...

The holistic understanding of human-computer interaction (HCI) is increasingly important, especially given the impending influx of older users who present dynamic needs that evolve with age. This study explores pupillary response behavior (PRB) during computer interaction to identify underlying differences between older adults of varying ocular pro...

Wide adoption of mobile computing technology can potentially improve information access, enhance workflow, and promote evidence-based practice to make informed and effective decisions at the point of care. Handheld computers or personal digital assistants (PDAs) offer portable and unobtrusive access to clinical data and relevant information at the...

The use of multivariate information visualization techniques is intrinsically difficult because the multidimensional nature of data cannot be effectively presented and understood on real-world displays, which have limited dimensionalities. However, the necessity to use these techniques in daily life is increasing as the amount and complexity of dat...

Computer technologies, frequently employed for everyday tasks, often use Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs), presented through monitors or LCD displays. This type of visual interface is not well suited for users with refractive visual limitations, particularly when they are severe and not correctable by common means. In order to facilitate computer a...

This paper examines factors that affect performance on a basic menu selection task by users who are visually healthy and users with Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) in order to inform better interface design. Linear and logistic regression models were used to examine various contextual factors that influenced task efficiency (time) and accuracy (errors)....

This study examines effects of the most common cause of blindness in persons over the age of 55 in the United States, age-related macular degeneration (AMD), on the performance of older adults when completing a simple computer-based task. Older users with normal vision (n = 6) and with AMD (n = 6) performed a series of drag-and-drop tasks that inco...

There is a clear need for evaluation methods that are specifically suited to mobile device evaluation, largely due to the vast differences between traditional desktop computing and mobile computing. One difference of particular interest that needs to be accounted for is that mobile computing devices are frequently used while the user is in motion,...

For human beings, vision is one of the most important senses in interacting with the surrounding environment, as well as with any tools that require visual communication. As such, the ability to interact effectively with computers through typical graphic user interfaces (GUIs) is greatly affected by any refractive errors present in an individual's...

Interest in context-aware computing has expanded the use of sensing technologies. The accelerometer is one of the most widely used sensors for capturing context because it is small, inexpensive, lightweight, and self-operable. In efforts to obtain behavioral patterns, many studies have reported the use of multiple accelerometers attached to the hum...

Multifractality present in high frequency pupil diameter measurements, usually connected with irregular scaling behavior and self-similarity, is modeled with statistical accuracy. A multifractal spectrum is used to discriminate pupil behavior measurements from four groups differing in ocular pathology. Broadness and the spectrum maximum, two measur...

This paper examines factors that affect performance of a basic menu selection task by users who are visually healthy and users with Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) in order to inform better interface design. Interface characteristics such as multimodal feedback, Windows® accessibility settings, and menu item location were investigated. Analyses of Varian...

This experiment examines the effect that computer experience and various combinations of feedback (auditory, haptic, and/or visual) have on the performance of older adults completing a drag-and-drop task on a computer. Participants were divided into three computer experience groups, based on their frequency of use and breadth of computer knowledge....

Desktop interaction solutions are often inappropriate for mobile devices due to small screen size and portability needs. Speech recognition can improve interactions by providing a relatively hands-free solution that can be used in various situations. While mobile systems are designed to be transportable, few have examined the effects of motion on m...

This study examines the effects of multimodal feedback on the performance of older adults with an ocular disease, Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD), when completing a simple computer-based task. Visually healthy older users (n = 6) and older users with AMD (n = 6) performed a series of drag-and-drop tasks that incorporated a variety of differe...

We report on an investigation of the effects of hardware performance, application design, and cognitive demands on user productivity and perceptions. This investigation focuses on clerical tasks typical of those activities that many lower level organization workers encounter. This was accomplished by engaging one hundred seventy-five representative...

We report on an investigation of the effects of hardware performance, application design, and cognitive demands on user productivity and perceptions. This investigation focuses on clerical tasks typical of those activities that many lower level organization workers encounter. This was accomplished by engaging one hundred seventy-five representative...

This paper examines factors that affect performance of a basic menu selection task by users who are visually healthy and users with Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) in order to inform better interface design. Interface characteristics such as multimodal feedback, Windows® accessibility settings, and menu item location were investigated. Analyses of Varian...

We report on an investigation of the effects of hardware performance, application design, and cognitive demands on user productivity and perceptions. This investigation focuses on clerical tasks typical of those activities that many lower level organization workers encounter. This was accomplished by engaging one hundred seventy-five representative...

This study examines the effects of multimodal feedback on the performance of older adults with different visual abilities. Older adults possessing normal vision (n=29) and those who have been diagnosed with Age-Related Macular Degeneration (n=30) performed a series of drag-and-drop tasks under varying forms of feedback. User performance was assesse...

This study examines the effects of multimodal feedback on the performance of older adults with different visual abilities. Older adults possessing normal vision (n=29) and those who have been diagnosed with Age-Related Macular Degeneration (n=30) performed a series of drag-and-drop tasks under varying forms of feedback. User performance was assesse...

To investigate the impact of graphical user interface screen features on computer task performance in patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Interventional case series. Eighteen patients with visual impairment due to AMD were recruited from the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute Low Vision Clinic. Each patient underwent evaluation of visual...

Through an investigation of how the performance of people who have normal visual capabilities is affected by unimodal, bimodal, and trimodal feedback, this research establishes a foundation for presenting effective feedback to enhance the performance of individuals who have visual impairments. Interfaces that employ multiple feedback modalities, su...

The augmentation of computer technologies with multimodal interfaces has great potential for improving interaction with these technologies via the use of different sensory feedback. This may be of particular importance for individuals from divergent user populations, who have varying interaction needs and abilities. This study examines the effects...

The cost of this massive book may seem prohibitive but at the current exchange rate it amounts to a little over £52. Still rather a lot, you may think, for a personal purchase but libraries can order it for you and for anyone who is interested or working in the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI), and once you flip the bonnet you can really s...

This experiment examines the effect of combinations of feedback (auditory, haptic, and/or visual) on the performance of older adults completing a drag-and-drop computer task. Participants completed a series of drag-and-drop tasks under each of seven feedback conditions (3 unimodal, 3 bimodal, 1 trimodal). Performance was assessed using measures of...

. The objective of this study was to derive empirical knowledge of the visual search strategies of computer users who suffer from age-related macular degeneration (AMD). This was accomplished by recording eye movement during the use of feature-enhanced software. The results from this study show that there are differences between users who have AMD...

To investigate the impact of visual function parameters on computer task performance in patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Interventional case series. Eighteen patients with visual impairment due to age-related macular degeneration underwent evaluation of visual acuity using the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study protocol...

This article presents the outcomes of a technical symposium on the topic of the use of intranets as a tool for organizational learning, which was conducted at the 9th International Conference on Human–Computer Interaction, held in New Orleans, Louisiana, August 5 through 10, 2001. The objective of the symposium was to derive, based on the collectiv...

Multimodal interfaces have the potential to enhance a user's overall performance, especially when one perceptual channel, such as vision, is compromised. This research investigated how unimodal, bimodal, and trimodal feedback affected the performance of fully sighted users. Limited research exists that investigates how fully sighted users react to...

An abstract is not available.

Designing interactive computer systems to be efficient and easy to use is important so that people in our society may realize the potential benefits of computer-based tools .... Although modern cognitive psychology contains a wealth of knowledge of human ...

Multimodal interfaces have the potential to enhance a user's overall performance, especially when one perceptual channel, such as vision, is compromised. This research investigated how unimodal, bimodal, and trimodal feedback affected the performance of fully sighted users. Limited research exists that investigates how fully sighted users react to...

As portable, handheld computing devices become more common, alternatives to traditional keyboards must be explored. These alternatives must be compact, lightweight and sufficiently efficient to support the users' tasks. One alternative is the use of small physical keyboards or soft keyboards presented on touch-sensitive surfaces. Many alternative l...

Usability testing typically focuses on methodology and metrics, while the specific interactions being tested are chosen in an ad hoc way. This paper demonstrates a framework for organizing interaction scenarios for graphical user interfaces (GUI). The framework is an adaptation of the two-dimensional abstraction hierarchy introduced by Rasmussen (1...

This research experimentally examines the effects of network delays, document type, and various user characteristics on the perceived usability of distributed documents on the internet. Six experimental conditions were analysed: text only documents and documents including text and graphics at three levels of delay. Users were undergraduate and grad...

Through 2 experiments, we examined both international differences and the effects of high-end graphical enhancements on the perceived usability of World Wide Web (WWW) sites. To accomplish this goal, we recruited Internet users from Switzerland and the United States to explore 1 of 2 versions of a Web site with the goal of retrieving specific infor...

Researchers have shown that computer users with impaired vision perform visual search more slowly than their fully sighted counterparts. However, little is known about intermediate stages of visual search that exist between stimuli detection and identification. Therefore, the primary focus of this research is to investigate 2 intermediate stages of...

This research investigates an empirical link between characteristics of impaired vision and user performance on computer-based systems. The underlying premise of this re- search is twofold: specific aspects of visual dysfunction can be linked to the task perfor- mance demonstrated by computer users with impaired vision, and graphical user in- terfa...

Network quality of service, as manifest in the delays users experience, effects both user perceptions and performance. Unfortunately, existing research on the usability of network-based documents and applications does not always adequately address the issue of network delays. In this article, we assert that researchers must document, and should con...