Human-Computer Interaction. HCI Applications and Services: 12th International Conference, HCI International 2007, Beijing, China, July 22-27, 2007, Proceedings, Part IV
Abstract
The 12th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, HCI Inter- tional 2007, was held in Beijing, P.R. China, 22-27 July 2007, jointly with the Symposium on Human Interface (Japan) 2007, the 7th International Conference on Engineering Psychology and Cognitive Ergonomics, the 4th International Conference on Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction, the 2nd International Conf- ence on Virtual Reality, the 2nd International Conference on Usability and Inter- tionalization, the 2nd International Conference on Online Communities and Social Computing, the 3rd International Conference on Augmented Cognition, and the 1st International Conference on Digital Human Modeling. A total of 3403 individuals from academia, research institutes, industry and g- ernmental agencies from 76 countries submitted contributions, and 1681 papers, judged to be of high scientific quality, were included in the program. These papers address the latest research and development efforts and highlight the human aspects of design and use of computing systems. The papers accepted for presentation th- oughly cover the entire field of Human-Computer Interaction, addressing major - vances in knowledge and effective use of computers in a variety of application areas. This volume, edited by Julie A. Jacko, contains papers in the thematic area of - man-Computer Interaction, addressing the following major topics: • Business Applications • Learning and Entertainment • Health Applications • Work and Collaboration Support • Web-Based and Mobile Applications and Services • Advanced Design and Development Support
Chapters (100)
We present guidelines to foster quality industrial online tourism. This is the first guideline ever made where the component
of presentation of the contents prevails over the other categories of design in a hypermedia system, such as navigation or
structure. As well as this, a heuristic table has been determined to show whether the website correctly represents the online
content for tourist promotion. The main features that a heuristic assessor in the industrial multimedia/hypermedia systems
has to consider are those locations where there is a crossing point among tourism, communicability, design industry and trade.
This paper discusses a sensory evaluation technique to find relationships between advertisements on Auto teller Machine (ATM) screen and users’ financial preferences under the extended AIDMA model which represents Attention, Interest, Desire, Memory and Action. The basic three financial preferences are purchasing, savings and investment.
Twenty assessors performed three steps of; checked by Marble Method and Correspondence Analysis with Supplementary Treatment thorough trial experimentation of e-Commerce. This survey, using ATM advertisements, clarified users’ dynamic financial preference shifts through the e-Commerce influence.
In conclusion, the purchasing and the investment groups shift to the saving group. In this tendency it is surmised that looking at full varieties of the catalogues in the e-Commerce influenced the financial preferences.
This experimentation can be applied to the environment of the customer relationship management (CRM).
This paper reports from an initial stage of a Swedish project concerning mobile IT support for tourism. From three workshops with actors within the tourism sector we identified barriers and challenges in designing IT support for all phases of the tourist life cycle. Thereafter we designed and evaluated a mobile tourism guide in real life setting with six different user groups. The research question of this paper is: What factors influence the design of mobile services to be used by multi-users in multiple contexts? The initial findings show that indeed there are several design challenges regarding e.g. a) the visibility of the content of the screen when multi-users are simultaneously using the service, b) the audibility of the speaker voice in the service when used in a surrounding with traffic noise, c) providing optional designs for different context, i.e. indoors/outdoors etc, and d) providing personalization options for different group sizes.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the usability problems while using one of the applications of smart card, electronic
purse with self service interfaces of NETMATIK. The usability problems of this self service interface were evaluated by heuristic
evaluation and user trials.Two target groups, students and staffs, were involved in user trial. The average age for the first
(younger) group was 18 while it was over 40 for the second (older) group. The problems that two target groups have encountered
were evaluated seperately and the effect of age differences on problems has been explored whether it is the same for both
target groups or not. The result of this study shows that both target groups had approximately same problems with the interface;
however, these problems are more severe for the older groups. The common problems which both groups have with the interface
are being timed out by the system, failing to enter password for card, failing to enter required password for e-purse. Implication
for interface design is discussed.
Timely traffic identification is critical in network security monitoring and traffic engineering. Traditional methods using
well-known ports, protocols and precise signature matching are no longer accurate with the proliferation of new applications.
Recently, applying pattern recognition methods to classify network application traffic based on the flow parameters (e.g.
port, flow duration, etc.) has become increasing popular. However, many methods developed in the previous works are either
too complex to be applied in real-time, or suffer from lower accuracy due to the insufficient knowledge of the application.
In this paper, we first give an overview on the developments of pattern recognition methods as traffic classification tools.
We then develop two separate pattern recognition methods: one with supervised learning, and one with un-supervised learning,
and apply them to classify traffic captured from a campus backbone network. The supervised learning method (an optimized SVM
method) yields approximately 99.41% accuracy for the collected traffic. The un-supervised learning method (an entropy based
clustering method) gets the average accuracy of 92.41% for the top 20 traffic generating hosts during the same time period.
Performance test on a single PC with 3GHz Pentium 4 processors and 1GB of memory show that both methods can handle more than
10000 network flows per second, close to real time requirements for many situations.
The current study extends theory related to the truth effect and mere-exposure effect by detailing how increased familiarity with third-party vendor logos will increase consumer short-term trust in unfamiliar websites, based on short-term impressions. The study uses a controlled 254-participant experiment. The results indicate that familiarity with a third-party logo positively impacts the credibility and short-term (swift) trust of an unfamiliar website. Additionally, the study finds that credibility of a third-party logo positively impacts the swift trust a visitor has in a website. Overall, the study concludes that both familiarity and credibility of third-party logos positively impacts swift trust in consumer websites, and familiarity has a positive impact on increasing credibility.
In spite of the large extent and variety of on-line ads, their effects on users are largely unknown. Although the diversity
of ads on the web is staggering, and new types spring up all the time, their properties can be abstracted to a relatively
small number of important generic features. These characteristics include whether they obscure content and whether users have
the control to remove them. These factors were tested in a laboratory study and results will be shared with participants at
the conference.
With the rapid growth of the Internet technology, e-Commerce has taken one major way of doing business. However, research
on the measurement of e-Commerce service quality, has not been sufficient. Only the evaluation of web sites has been usedto
measure indirectly service quality of e-Commerce. Due to paucity of research on the measurement, the robust research result
has not been achieved, and some research presented inconsistent results in the same domain. This research used WebQual, a
measurement uniquely developed for e-Commerce service quality through continuous revisions, to measure e-Commerce quality
of four representative Internet Bookstores in Korea. Some statistical analyses were conducted to verify the reliability and
validity of WebQaul as an e-Commerce service measurement. According to the research results, WebQual was confirmed as a robust
e-Commerce measurement in terms of its reliability and validity. Further, it is identified that e-Commerce service quality,
customer satisfaction, and site revisit have positive relationships in sequence.
One common information display design which appears in nearly all the online retailing websites is the product list on e-tailing
websites, where a number of products are displayed together to allow online consumers to search for and choose from. While
some e-tailers present their product list in an alphabetic order of brand or model, which results in a somewhat random list
in terms of product quality, many e-tailers provide sorting functions which allow consumers to sort the products in a descending
or ascending order. However, the extant literature has not been particularly insightful on how consumers respond to different
order of product list. Despite the intuitive postulation that items appearing in an early position of a list may draw more
attentions from consumers (serial position effect), it is not evident whether and how different order of products in a list
affect consumer decisions. The purpose of this research is to investigate how product list design (ascending list, descending
list, and random list) influence consumer decisions. Such investigations are important because the design of product listing
pages explains more than half of the variance in monthly sales on commercial websites. Accounting for the sorting effect in
models that explain online consumers’ decision making can enable marketers to construct strategically product list driven
by business objectives.
Internet-based interactive multimedia technologies enable online firms to display featured products via a variety of product
information and various presentation formats. This study investigates how consumers evaluate the usefulness of online product
presentations from their experience with the virtual products. Three different product displays on two products are tested
in a survey. Using a written protocol analysis approach, the study has confirmed our expectations on the impact of information
quality and system quality on consumers’ online shopping experience.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in fashion lifestyles, shopping orientation, the perception of
time constraints and shopping cost among two consumer groups(day and night-time internet shopping mall users). 1. Fashion
lifestyles depend on fashion leadership, the importance of fashion, fashion imitation and fashion indifference. Compared to
night-time users, day-time users showed relatively low interest in fashion while night-time users showed a high degree of
fashion persuit. 2. Shopping orientation was summarized as six factors; Enjoyment shopping orientation, Fashion orientation,
Brand orientation, Convenience/time saving, Price conscious orientation, Practical orientation. Night-time users were also
noted to have a high interest in fashion and tendencies to pursue brand names and trends. 3. Not much difference was shown
between the two groups about perception of time constraints and shopping costs.
People differ and we tend to notice the physical differences among them more readily than we notice their differences in thinking
styles. The success of an information system can be influenced by the psychological make-up of an individual. Specific biographical,
psychological and cognitive factors were identified that may explain why, with the same amount of computer training and experience,
some people will have a higher degree of computer proficiency than others. Two formulas were derived and it was found that
different variables predict the computer proficiency of white and black students, respectively.
This work aimed to investigate the relevance of hipertextuality in interactive systems designed for children’s´ learning.
For that, it was carried out eight interviews within experts from the following areas: teachers, pedagogic coordinators and
Pre-School and Low Elementary Supervisors. These professionals were asked about the importance of the usage of interactive
systems in scholar and educational environment, its learning’s efficiency during usage, frequency of usage during classes
and trends of these products. Collected information was discussed using the “contents analysis” method.
Interactive game, especially for users can be physically involved in the game, is one of important applications for gaming
nowadays. With the most up-to-date mediated devices, experience design has inspired lots of researches to explore possible or better innovative interactivity between human and machines. With physical
interaction and rapid prototyping, a new computing paradigm combining both sensor/electronic/robotic technology and digital
design media starts to show its root in both design and computing, namely ubiquitous computing and ambient intelligence. In
addition to this paradigm, we adapt the interactivity of design and the design methods for studying situated interactive design.
Furthermore, this paper documents a series of interacting plays for exploring possible interactions. Three attempts have conducted:
Smart Toys, Spatial Components and Ambient Interaction under the realm of computational design and digital media. The outcomes
of exploration are documented in the paper.
The purpose of this study is to explore how student competition using the tit-for-tat strategy could be remedied with a minimum design change in order to support student to collaborate constructively in a computer supported-collaborative
learning system called SWoRD (Scaffolded Writing and Reviewing in the Discipline) [5], a reciprocal peer reviewing of writing
system. We identified a factor for the tit-for-tat that causes learners to compete each other, and removed the factor from
the interface. The results show when with the interface improvement the tit-for-tat strategy was restrained in the SWoRD system,
which helped the learners constructively respond to peer comments.
We present here a heuristic evaluation of the use of videogames among inexperienced players through the notion of acteme. Firstly, we're going to analyse the evolution of new technologies, videogames, and behaviours of people from childhood to school age by drawing a parallel between adults and children. Secondly, we will take into consideration mass media theorists' different points of view regarding the introduction of videogames in homes and educational institutions. Third, the role of the main types of interactive games in each formative process of the individual has also been studied. Finally, a guideline has been created with those components of videogames that encourage self-learning and increase attention and motivation of inexpert users.
This paper describes a multi-platform framework that supports a set of activities performed by both teachers and students
within an educational context. The framework’s main contribution lies on the possibility given to teachers to customize, according
to various dimensions (e.g., content, user context, and subject), material that is later provided to students. On the other
hand, students are allowed to accomplish their activities ubiquitously through mobile devices (e.g. PDAs). The second contribution
however, is the ability that teachers gain to detect learning difficulties and problems faced by students while accomplishing
their tasks even while away from classes and school. We describe the experiences that have been conducted and present some
results that address both educational and human-computer interaction issues.
The story-telling multimedia Living Book is one of the most common edutainment genres, in which children hear and play with
interactive and animated stories. Living Books are designed so that that every word of the narrated story is projected on
the computer monitor as it is narrated. This enables listeners to integrate between the audio and textual representation of
words and thus to understand their meaning and learn their pronunciation. The present paper presents results of a study which
showed that young children who did not know how to speak or read the English language became proficient in pronunciation and
gained a high level of understanding by playing with Living Books. Results show that the participants were able to correctly
pronounce almost 70% of the words in the Living Book, and could identify the meaning of about 70% of them. On the other hand,
it was found that they were able to read words as orthographic units but not to identify individual letters (average of 6.25%).
Our findings point to the potential for incidental learning in highly-interactive, engaging and playful multimedia environments,
such as Living Books.
Due to popularization of the wireless Internet and mobile devices, the infrastructure of the ubiquitous environment is created
and users can get information whatever they want, anytime and anywhere. Therefore, many laboratories study methods for efficiency
of information transmission using on-line and off-line contents. In the educational field, many laboratories also study methods
which apply on-line contents to off-line contents and make dynamic contents. In this paper, we propose the Mixed Mobile Education
system(MME) that improves educational efficiency using on-line and off-line contents on mobile devices. Unlike the previous
studies, the proposed system does not use additional makers but recognizes off-line contents as we extract feature points
in the input image using the mobile camera to provide the natural environment. We use the SIFT(Scale Invariant Feature Transform)
algorithm to extract feature points, which are not affected by noise, color distortion, size and rotation in the input image
captured by the low resolution camera. Experimental results show that compared with previous work, the proposed system has
some advantages and disadvantages and that the proposed system has good efficiency on various environments.
Since 1990 there have been a series of studies examining the effects of diagrams versus text on computer user’s performance.
There have also been studies investigating the effects of metaphors on learning and information searching. Research results
indicate that verbal meatphors help learners to develop more complete mental models. However, little is know about the effects
of visual metaphors that possess both the features of diagrams and metaphors. In response to the gaps in the metaphor research
literature, the present study aims to compare the effects of visual versus verbal metaphors in facilitating novices and experts
in the comprehension and construction of mental models.
The mismatch between ‘traditional‘ educational model and the e-Learning has drawn the research attention on personalized instruction,
one of the growing concerns in HCI. This paper presents a framework that can be used as a basis for the identification of
an appropriate type of personalization. Our idea is that users who demonstrate particular learning styles, as identified in
Felder-Silverman’s learning style theory, require a specific e-learning environment that matches their learning preferences.
In particular, the framework is formulated to investigate how the different modalities presenting e-Learning content will
influence the students’ learning quality and experience. The considered learning styles profile in this paper is typical for
a science and technology domain student. Through this framework we expect that learning preferences of a certain type of learners
could be better supported and consequently their improved learning performance.
Evaluation is one of the most important activities in the didactic materials development process since it allows developers
to check if the obtained material satisfies all requirements and it also provides developers with reliable information about
material’s utility, validating if the obtained material can be effective support in the achievement of the educational goals
which it intends to support. Evaluation results provide valuable information for the material redesign in such cases when
the requirements or educational goals are not satisfied. Nevertheless its importance, the evaluation has been often neglected
in most of the approaches related to the development of didactic materials, which are more focused on issues such as interoperability
or reusability. In this paper we present the MD2 evaluation framework based on a general evaluation procedure that include
a set of criteria and measures for the two more important evaluation objectives of IMS LD-based didactic material: its usability
and pedagogical usefulness.
This work presents the features and results of a problem-solving collaborative game for 8th graders science classes’ curriculum. Software for pocketPC was developed for this game, based on a complete framework methodology
with students and teachers. From our point of view, the key to integrate mobile devices into school is the methodological
framework which provides meaning; technology by itself does not contribute much to education. The evaluation study was focused
on software usability and the results in the application of the methodology, observing their performance in problem-solving
skills. A high degree of user satisfaction with the final product was found. They were motivated to participate actively in
the proposed tasks. Results indicate that the experience contributed to the development of the student’s problem-solving skills
obtaining positive gains as a result of this experience.
Online environments are regarded as well constructed to support collaborative and social learning. This research investigates
small group collaboration and learning in the context of online exams. Incorporating constructivism and collaborative learning
theories, the online Collaborative Exam features students’ active participation in various phases of the exam process through
small group activities. The online Participatory Exam features similar processes except that students participate in the exam
individually. A large scale field experiment was conducted to compare the two exam structures in terms of learning strategies
and exam outcomes. Results show that students in the collaborative exam adopted significantly higher levels of social engagement
than those in the participatory exam, learned from other students, and formed a sense of learning community. Areas for future
research are briefly discussed.
According to traditional marketing wisdom, customers’ preferences are a core issue in designing successful products, and the
design process in game is crucial for guaranteeing gamers’ satisfaction. This research aimed to explore critical factors for
the game design based on the new framework of the usability evaluation. We examined the usability in Massively Multi-player
Online Role-playing Games (MMORPGs) and reviewed literatures related to games simultaneously. We identified eighteen usability
issues in MMORPG and presented its recommendation relevant to the issues. Moreover, the results of the study showed fifty
four critical factors composed of game interface, game play, game narrative, and game mechanics for the game design. The research
is concluded with key implications to support the early stage of the design process in game.
A well designed interaction mechanism creates a shortcut to learning. However, there is little research which analyzes learners’
perceptions of the interface as they interact with WBI, especially from the human-interaction perspective. This study is therefore
designed to provide a new framework to design systems with different degrees of interaction, and to examine learners’ perceptions
of these interaction elements. Forty-five subjects participated in the experiment. The results show that increased interactivity
levels directly influence learners’ perceived interactivity, perceived ease of use and usefulness, and satisfaction. It is
noteworthy that the interactivity levels perceived by the designers and learners are different. We hope that designers can
adopt different degrees of interactivity as suggested by the study results to design WBI systems that will best facilitate
various learners’ learning needs.
Using a modified Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), a study was conducted to investigate the relationship between perceived
usefulness, perceived ease of use and intention to use weblogs for learning in higher education. Sixty-eight students of a
local university responded to the study. The findings suggested likely acceptance of weblog use if it is perceived to be useful
for learning. The paper concludes with a discussion on implications for education.
Cases are stories about specific activities of a real world practice with a purpose to educate. Often providing contextual background information, cases present problem situations and expert solutions. Studying cases offers students the authentic learning experience of “seeing” how experts carry out design projects in the practice. In this paper, we present our ongoing work of designing case-based authentic learning activities in usability engineering (UE) courses, and developing collaborative tools to support the activities. We describe a collaborative case commenting tool that enables students to collaboratively browse and comment on the documents from an existing usability case library both synchronously and asynchronously, and a collaborative case builder tool that provides a virtual workspace for the students to collaboratively build a case based on their authentic design project. We discuss three collaborative case commenting activities in the UE course of Spring 2006, and a collaborative case building activity in the UE course of Fall 2006.
Nowadays more and more higher education institutes implement CSCL (Computer Supported Collaborative Learning) environments
to free learners of the requirement to share physical space and communicate synchronously providing a less competitive situation
and promoting a more equal participation as compared to face-to-face collaboration. However in order to support effective
and reusable collaborative learning design we need represent collaborative learning activities in a formal way so that they
can be recognized and processed automatically by the computer. In this paper we present IMS LD, a process modelling language
to formalize collaborative learning activities, and then discuss the limitations and extensions of the language in modelling
collaborative learning activities.
Multiplayer online games (MOG) bring HCI into a new era of human-human interactions in computer world. Although current MOG
provide more interactivity and social interaction in the virtual world, natural facial expression as a key factor in emulating
face to face communications has been neglected by game designers. In this work, we propose a real-time automatic system to
recognize players’ facial expressions, so that the recognition results can be used to drive the MOG’s “facial expression engine”
instead of “text commands”. Our major contributions are the evaluation, improvement and efficient implementation of existing
algorithms to build a real-time system that meets the requirements specifically imposed by MOGs. In particular, we use a smaller
number of fixed facial landmarks based on our evaluation to reduce the computational load with little degradation of the recognition
performance.
The present paper introduces user experience guidelines addressing trust, user interaction (including usability and accessibility)
and service aspects applicable to the research, design, development and deployment of telecare services. The work, co-funded
by the European Commission and EFTA, is performed in ETSI and is entering its final phase of development. An ETSI Guide with
the above title will be published in December 2007.
A clinical setting is usually a very busy place for nurses because they must deal with a relative large number of patients.
Nurses’ interventions with patients are critical for their health and in some cases can be a matter of life and death. Electronic
medical record systems can be valuable tools for assisting nurses providing in-time quality health care to patients. In particular,
an alerts and reminders system can keep nurses aware of pending interventions or procedures for patients and provide warnings
on abnormal conditions or potential health hazards for them. This paper discusses the usability issues dealt with in the development
of an alerts and reminders system for a nursing documentation application. It describes the conceptual framework and the evolution
of the user interface through the development process. Results of a usability study of the system are presented that demonstrate
that nurses understood the system very well and were very satisfied with it.
This paper presents a couple of tool-sets that allows the management of group therapy sessions, for a single room with a large
public display setting. These sessions involve several patients, a main therapist and eventually a second therapist. Information
is created, exchanged and discussed between them during those sessions. All participants recur to different devices to perform
their activities, from PDAs to PCs, through an interactive large display, if available. Devices are selected and tool-sets
designed adequately for each setting and participant role. For the main therapist, the variant with an interactive large display,
required the simultaneous usage of a complimentary devices, to cope with non-public aspects of the therapy. Preliminary evaluation
rose interesting, one hand usage issues for that variant.
In recent years, an increasing number of malpractice cases have been reported, more than half of which are related to drug
labels or packages. Press-through package (PTP) sheets are widely used to wrap tablets especially in Japan. In this research,
we report the results of experiments to establish an optimum display design for PTP sheets.
The present paper deals with the problems regarding the persuasive computational technique. While the notion of persuasion
is somewhat conventional in the psychology and pedagogy, the application research in the computing system is relatively young
and still establishing its basic tenets. The aim of this research is to examine the persuasive intervention type and to thereby
explore the feasible strategy for motivating users to change their attitudes or behaviors related to lifestyle. To measure
the degree of intervention in persuasion, an experiment was performed using the designed website with thirty-three female
subjects in their twenties. Results indicate that ‘Source Credibility‘ and a combination of the source credibility and two
other interventions led to significantly better motivation than other interventions alone or together. This research has some
limitations such as restricted experimental period and condition but suffice it to say that we had a meaningful experiment
enough to lay a foundation for future work.
Feedback in surgical simulation has been limited to offline analysis of movement, time taken to complete simulation and in some cases a virtual playback of completed simulation tasks. In comparison to aircraft simulation, these feedback schemes are very rudimentary. Research in military simulations has shown that real time feedback significantly improves performance on the task at hand and leads to skill generalization and transfer. However, such systems have not been developed for surgical simulation. Lack of effective feedback systems also has the added effect of increasing workload of senior surgeons leading to increased costs and decreased overall efficiency. In a pilot study performed with 8 surgical residents, we tested the effect of real time feedback on movement proficiency.
After declining through the 1990s, foreign aid to poor countries has made a comeback since 2000. Africa has been a major recipient
of this increased attention. This paper describes the development of an international consulting model that has been used
to percolate innovation and integrate technology within the medical environment of a private hospital in Tanzania. It has
several unique features that differentiate it from other foreign aid projects.
We applied the data mining technique to medical near-miss cases collected by a foundation related to the Japanese Health,
Labor and Welfare Ministry, and extracted information such as pairs of confusing medicines, the cause of near-miss cases in
some situations, which cannot be obtained by simple aggregation calculations and descriptive statistics. We also introduce
the results of text mining applied to the free-description data regarding the backgrounds and causes of near-miss cases and
their counter measures.
So as to prevent the mistakes at handling soft bag type intravenous solution bags, renewal of the display of label design
of fifty-seven kinds of intravenous solution bags was conducted based on the human centered design. The requirements towards
the display were investigated and analyzed. The cognitive step of handling of bags was discussed and the general display design
guideline was developed.
Research has shown the impact design may have on apparent, as well as inherent, usability. Through collaboration, Industrial
Designers and Human Factors Engineers can design medical devices that address emotional design and thus contribute to apparent
usability. This collaboration must overcome challenges common in the industry including design influences and standards, business
factors, and regulatory processes. Integrating the two disciplines, their tools and methods, and ensuring their incorporation
in the product development process can overcome these challenges. In doing so, end users will benefit from medical devices
with both improved usability and elegance.
Recently, a number of medical incidents and accidents have been reported over the world. Since many are related to medicine,
the importance of “Safety in the use of medicine” has attracted a lot of attention. This paper describes experiments conducted
to improve the opening of the sealed partition of infusion bags and to indicate an understandable bag design that shows how
to use.
There are many hospital appliance PCs, Notebooks and PDAs used in clinical but they have several limitations. Tablet PCs combine the advantages and improved disadvantages of these media, but are not widely used in the clinical. 'Scenario observation' is an approach for product development processes. Its basic theorem is 'user-orientated design (UOD)'. During the development process 'visualization' and 'actual experience' methods are employed to guide developers from the user's point of view and scenario to evaluate the maturity and 'completeness' of a product. Therefore the purpose of this study has been to use 'scenario observation' approach to define the design strategy for medical Tablet PC applications. The results of this study indicate that the 'hospitalized-placed' nurse has more demand than other medical workers. Accordingly, there are 10 proposed design demands concerning medical Tablet PCs. Current medical Tablet PCs do not fully understand or satisfy medical workers' demands therefore using user 'scenario observation' surveys will help to define better design strategies and better medical Tablet PC applications.
Safety-critical medical work requires an error-minded approach for design of the technologies that support its processes. We define the requirements that such a framework should meet and propose ICAD - an adverse-event minded design approach for high-risk eHealth applications that considers users, joint activity processes, the distributed computer-supported medical setting, and the workflow areas that allow for communication and coordination breakdowns to occur. We leverage knowledge for human error analysis during the task-modeling stages from other safety-critical domains, and expand the focus of analysis to integrate complex joint activity aspects and to account for the role of technology, both as a medium and as an interactor. The outcome of our technique is design and workflow solutions that prevent accidents, a priori.
Many accidents and incidents are occurred in the medical fields. The medication is related to many of these errors, and some
of errors are caused by order entry system. These are concern with the drug name similarity. We developed the system that
was able to judge the similarity of the drug names objectively in 2001, and through a psychological experiment, we remodeled
this system. As a result, it came to be able to avoid similarity of the new drug’s name. This paper summarizes how to prevent
medication errors caused by order entry system.
In this paper we explore how we can use technology to help people to stay motivated to do home fitnessing. Two experiments with a total of 48 par-ticipants were performed, both deploying a virtual reality in a bicycling task, one focusing of effects of immersion, the other on the intrinsic impact of movement. From the results it becomes apparent that user and technology can cooperate to achieve a optimum home fitnessing experience.
We describe a role-based multiple view approach to support sharing and coordination of knowledge in geo-collaborative planning.
The software coordinates multiple unshared role-specific views with one shared team view. The rationale for this approach
is that: (1) it affords clear separation between role-specific and shared knowledge; (2) it leverages experts’ knowledge to
filter out role-specific details; and (3) it promotes implicit sharing of strategic knowledge (i.e. about roles). We illustrate
the key features implemented in a prototype to evaluate this approach, describe design requirements extracted from a paper
prototype study, and discuss relevant design issues.
The objective of our study was to design and evaluate a user interface concept for a so-called Project Browser, following
a user-centered design method. Previous work has suggested that users prefer to access project-related information instrumental
to the task they have to carry out. First, a domain analysis was carried out, followed by an extensive user requirements study,
eliciting input from people experienced with working in project teams. This formed the basis of a prototype user interface
design of a Project Browser, which provides direct access to action points and decisions taken, irrespective of the source
of the information (documents, messages or meetings). The information from meetings was extracted from digital (multi-media)
recordings of meetings, through the application of automatic recognition and information processing technologies. The user
interface concept was evaluated with a number of prospective users which resulted in positive and promising findings. Next,
the browser will be further evaluated in a scenario-based project setting.
Today’s collaborative working environment requires real-time control and monitoring of business processes which involve participants
with different roles and responsibilities. Therefore, a Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) system should provide personalized
monitoring capabilities. The purpose of this paper is to develop a personalized BAM system. We have identified functional
requirements of the system and then develop a system design. Implementation of the design is also provided on top of a commercial
BAM solution.
Due to the progress of Internet technology and the increase of distributed information on networks, the present knowledge
management has been based more and more on the performance of various experienced users. In addition to the increase of electronic
documents, the use of paper documents has not been reduced because of their convenience. This paper describes a method of
tracking paper document locations and contents using radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. This research also
focused on the expression of a task process and the seamless structuring of related electronic and paper documents as a result
of task knowledge formalization using information organizing. A system is proposed here that implements information organization
for both Web documents and paper documents with the task model description and RFID technology. Examples of a prototype system
are also presented.
The main task of operators in the modern nuclear power station is to monitor and control the processes related to power production
and safety. In order to efficiently support operators’ tasks the human-system interface should, e.g., support awareness of
the process and collaboration with different stakeholders. In a Finnish project, Novel Affordances of Smart Environments,
the aim is to develop an interaction concept and a prototype for more efficient and effective operation of complex industrial
processes. The central element in this is “Affordance Table” which is equipped with innovative smart artefacts based on, e.g.,
tangible computing and virtual reality applications. In the present theoretical paper we first present a conceptual model
and definition of Affordance Table based on James Gibson’s ecological theory. After that, suggestions are made for a combination
of smart tools to be applied for supporting the monitoring and control of the power process.
For the advanced main control rooms (MCRs), various types of decision support systems have been developed. It is very important
to design highly reliable decision support systems in order to adapt them in actual MCRs. In addition, to evaluate those support
systems and validate their efficiency and reliability is as important as to design highly reliable decision support systems,
because inappropriate decision support systems or automation systems can cause adverse effects. In this work, decision support
systems are evaluated experimentally. The target system of this work is the integrated decision support system including an
alarm system, a fault diagnosis system, a computerized procedure system, and an operation validation system. The result of
the experiment showed that decision support functions reduce subjects’ workload and failure probabilities.
This study develops a new computer console that is to be used on a ship according to ergonomics principles. The proposed design
enables console operators to safely, comfortably, and efficiently operate equipment in the ship navigating environment. This
study discusses human limitations to work with computer consoles in extreme motion conditions and confined workspaces that
is typical of the ship environment. The system architecture, developments, and detailed design considerations are discussed
in the paper.
This paper describes a systems development study that used the human-centered approach to ship facility design. The study
followed human systems engineering processes for developing facility and equipment in ships, from design, test and evaluation,
to manufacture and maintenance. Ship engineering and systems development procedures are re-engineered to develop an integrated
process of ship facility design that considers all aspects of optimal human operations, living, and working conditions. Use
of this approach will be critical to future complex ship systems design towards an integrated system life cycle that ensures
best operational safety, comfort, and performance.
This paper is presenting a new software application, which supports activities for user experience professionals. We call
this application “UX Office”. The application is based on key learnings: 1. Many activities of user experience professionals follow a similar structure
and process. 2. User experience activities are very often done in a collaborative way between clients and user experience
service providers. 3. Project information is used in several stages of the project and some project information is even being
reused in other project. 4. The quality of outcomes between user experience service providers varies sometimes quite a lot.
The UX Office is addressing these observations and providing support for user experience professionals. The paper describes some background
information and how the UX Office deals with the observations. The UX Office makes the professional life of user experience experts easier, is cost efficient, enriches the result quality of outcomes
and allows collaboration between clients and service providers.
This paper describes some results of a project that studied how multimedia can help the worker in an assembly task. The test
case was a deep-cut assembly of a grid-anode for a cathodic protection system. A multimedia tool was implemented and compared
with the conventional support method for the same task. The tool helps the worker by providing training and background information.
During the task the tool acts as a guide and a set of well-defined instructions. The comparison of the methods was done by
means of a field experiment. The results show that the use of the implemented tool helps to produce a slight increase to the
quality of the work. However, the execution time of the work was not better when using the multimedia tool. According to a
user questionnaire done in the test situation, the multimedia tool was more useful and easier to use, and gave the users more
confidence than the conventional support method. It can be said that the use of multimedia support helps the worker to produce
better quality in the task.
This paper presents several experiments carried out by the AmILAB research group of Tekniker in the framework of the WearIT@work
project (EC IP 004216) on the use of wearable technology base solutions for the training process of workers in a manufacturing
environment. The description includes both the initial work at the SKODA production facilities in Czech Republic and the experiments
with local workers at Tekniker. As an introduction, the authors of this paper shortly describe current training processes
at Skoda, and derive the potential benefits and risks of applying wearable computing technology.
In this article, we will review the procedures and techniques used to significantly improve the ease of use of enterprise software applications in the framework of a small company with limited resources. We will present the achievements and lessons learned from applying these techniques to the development process at Tumbleweed Communications, a moderate-sized Silicon Valley company that builds secure messaging applications for enterprises. We will conclude by showing examples of screens before and after implementing our user-centered design approach.
Reusing documents as intellectual assets is one way of improving productivity and quality of products and services. The reuse
process is well-known to make effective use of document-type intellectual assets and consists of four parts: (1) collecting
and accumulating documents, (2) searching and browsing documents, (3) extracting and identifying documents, and (4) creating
new documents. We describe problems in reusing document-type knowledge and propose solutions for each problem. The most important
point in reusing documents effectively is to accumulate them in an appropriate format and accurately identify them by content.
A method that uses an e-mail exchange log we developed is described that evaluates the communication patterns within a project.
A frequency map enables the strength of communication to be measured among members, and inner vector analysis enables clear
understanding of the exact position of members directly displaying the relationships among members. Experimental analysis
of a real project within an organization confirmed the effectiveness of the method, and communication patterns were clearly
represented. Our method is unique in that communication patterns within a project can be identified computationally only by
using the e-mail exchange log.
The growing ubiquity of computer processing power, storage and bandwidth has helped stimulate increased interest in computer-mediated
interaction in recent years. Concurrently, many technological solutions to essentially human problems are maturing to the
point where their higher socio-psychological context is becoming the limiting factor. An example of this is real time collaboration
between remote team members, where new telepresence and groupware solutions continue to close the gap between remote and co-located
collaboration. Here, an improved understanding of what types of cues are critical to preserve common ground, the coupling
of work, and awareness between remote sites is still fundamentally required. In the HxI Initiative we are investigating, designing,
developing, and evaluating Human Computer Interaction, Human Human Interaction, and Human Information Interaction for distributed
teams of teams who are intensely collaborating. The mixture of co-located and remote interaction in social communication as
well as interaction with a shared digital artifact provides complex research challenges in areas which address particular
interaction issues such as multiple cursor support, mixed-presence communication, and action-communication disparities. We
present the research platform [braccetto] that we designed as an enabler for the investigations of the above research challenges.
The hardware design and setup discussed in this paper are the result of careful requirements engineering and design discussions
for rapidly composable and adaptable telepresence workstations for distributed, intensely collaborating teams of teams. We
also present underlying software services and components as enablers for telepresence and groupware capabilities that are
deployed in our application domains.
This paper presents an information exchange table. We named InfoRiver Table. The system provides users a platform that can
display and manipulate information objects on its surface. It is a collaborative and cooperative information exchange device.
It also allows users broadcast their information objects in different places. The system embedded several sensors in, and
it can identify user and detect user’s behavior on the table surface. Users can read information and transmit information
on the table. The system can get data from database via network, and save data also. In advantage, the system using visual
image displays that information object on the table surface. We think it is convenient to communicate for people.
Mobile services supporting mobile work among non-office workers have received limited attention. To support designers to map
out possible mobile services supporting work among such workers, we have developed a framework that groups work into primary
and secondary activities. A primary activity is directly associated with the primary, or main, objective of the work. A secondary
activity has a more supportive or indirect association with the primary activity. We have used the framework in three different
settings: - nursing in hospitals, home health-care, and construction. Our research shows that even if primary activities differ
considerably, we identified a set of generic, secondary activities relevant to personnel working in all three areas. Examples
are communication, collaboration, coordination, reporting, handling papers, or handling logistics. Such activities are supportable
by mobile services. We have found that the framework is an appropriate analysis tool for investigating the possible use of
mobile services supporting non-office workers.
In production, today’s machines become increasingly intelligent. The use of embedded CPUs has become obligatory, whereas more
and more machines are equipped with higher level computers. This way production machines are enabled not only to be driven
via remote control but to deliver detailed status information and sensory output. To date, most of this generated information
is wasted in the archives of the machines, only read in case of upcoming machine failures. New approaches like decentralized
peer-to-peer production networks promise new possibilities to exploit this information and take a step beyond Manufacturing
Execution Systems (MES). Production Cockpits are able to assemble collected data filtered on several layers and to decide
which data are important enough to be presented to the user.
At the beginning of each new product strategy there is a complex bunch of needs and requirements. designafairs consults socio-cultural
trend research to get the needs of future users to focus all the requirements. In initialization workshops scenarios are created
together with the customer. These scenarios reflect respectively single socio-cultural trends in form of narrative stories,
which describe a detailed product environment. This serves as an extensive briefing for the interdisciplinary design team:
Industrial, interface, color and material designers, anthropologists, psychologists and engineers. Different product concepts
are developed and verified qualifiedly by different methods of testing. The top resulting ideas are developed further and
culminate in first functional prototypes. They cover a predefined performance range and are subject to further international
usability and acceptance tests. Also later during the specification and implementation phase rapid prototyping helps to guarantee
the user centered design process and implement a common understanding in the international interdisciplinary development team.
In the following this innovation process is briefly represented with the example of the development of a new office phone
generation for Siemens.
Advanced business applications like enterprise resource planning systems (ERP) are characterized by a high degree of complexity in data, functionality, and processes. This paper examines some decisive causes of this complexity and their implications for software configuration and user interaction. A case study of SAP ® 's R/3 ® Sales & Distribution module exemplifies complexity in order management systems, and documents its impact on the user experience. We emphasize the need to shield users appropriately from underlying system complexity to provide a convenient and simple-to-use software tool. We discuss several approaches for how to address this.
Collaborative workspaces are in dire need of elegant floor control policies, resolving and preventing conflicts without interrupting
the dynamic workflow. Our approach employs the user’s roles and focus to extend existing solutions. Roles define a user’s
responsibilities and privileges during a particular activity; tracking the users’ focus provides a means of improving mutual
awareness within a multi-user setting. Furthermore, in combination with document properties such as content type and sensitivity,
roles make up an effective access control system. We apply the approach to a co-located group of users, interacting simultaneously
on a collaborative shared display, which results in graceful (e.g. correct in a socio-organizational context) conflict handling
and access to shared data.
Air traffic controllers use visual displays to interact with various automation systems. Information complexity in those systems
may cause controllers to miss or misinterpret visual data, thereby reducing safety. The purpose of this study was to answer
three basic questions: 1) What constitutes information complexity in automation displays? 2) How complex is “too complex”
for controllers? 3) Can we objectively measure information complexity in the displays? We first developed a general framework
for measuring information complexity. The framework reduces the concept of complexity into three underlying factors: quantity, variety, and the relations between basic information elements; each factor is evaluated at three generic stages of human information processing: perception, cognition, and action. We then developed nine metrics of display complexity, each measuring the effects of a complexity factor on information processing
at a given stage. These metrics provide an objective method to evaluate automation displays for acquisition and design prototypes.
In order to support the management of the offshore projects, HOPE (Hitachi Offshore Project Examiner) is developed based on
some open source tools. HOPE can automatically collect the raw project data, organize them in the database, calculate the
different data granularities, analyze the project indexes, detect the exception/release information according to some specified
rules, and generate the HTML reports for the offshore projects. Furthermore, HOPE can be executed periodically according to
the schedule specified by the user. To ensure HOPE adapt to the different users, an extensible plug-in architecture is designed.
Both the data collection and the project diagnosis are implemented by the customizable plug-ins.
Brainstorming is a commonly used method for diffusion thinking in early design stage. While the communication between two
participants is blocked with isolated communication boundaries, the ideas are often transferred via a propagated interaction
process among design team participants. The paper describes an organization-communication method to study the interaction
between designers and design teams using act/react characteristics of role-interplay. Adapting a role-play framework called
DARIS; a particular controlling agent called Playwright Agent is developed and used for implementing the adaptive scripts.
Furthermore, by simulating the interconnecting process among discrete communication boundaries, the interaction and controlling
mechanism of Playwright Agent is also unleashed in the paper. The mechanism and the agent implementation of proposed framework,
namely DARIS + is shown to represent the interaction as well as their consequence. An example for describing how Playwright Agent works
is also shown in the paper.
Enterprises are investing a great amount to utilize information systems. These investments are expected to increase worker
productivity and thus bring forth a considerable amount of profit to the enterprise. Given this situation, there are many
studies being conducted on the relation between IT investment and an increase in individual productivity. This study deals
with more general enterprise information systems, and has the objective of developing a model to assess the user’s utilization
of the enterprise information systems. Using the User competency evaluation model as the basis, the assessment model uses
User’s EIS basic knowledge, general application, master application, personality as the measurement areas, and utilizes a
different measurement method for the different categories taking into account the characteristics of each category. Also,
in order to test the validity and credibility of the assessment model, we applied a case among approximately 18,000 female
employees of Korea’s representative automobile companies. As a result, all of the measured categories with the exception of
User’s EIS Personality were proven to be valid and credible. The User’s EIS Personality is an index that is more prone to
be affected by the individual characteristics of the user, and thus requires further research.
This paper attempts to bring forward the idea of the role of cognitive styles in groupware acceptance. The study examines
the role of cognitive styles and other TAM variables and predicts the role of cognitive styles in influencing the usage of
groupware. A simple random sampling method was used in this study and 109 respondents were participated who are from Administrative
staff in Universiti Teknologi Mara, Shah Alam (Uitm), Selangor. A theoretical framework from information system (Technology
Acceptance Model) was based for this study and cognitive styles as external variables. The goal for studying cognitive styles
in groupware acceptance is to understand how user process information and how systems can be better built to accommodate the
diversity of the population. Due to this, it leads the understanding of the individual differences in groupware acceptance
specifically in making a decision to change. The results indicate that cognitive styles do affect ease of use and usefulness;
unfortunately it does not significant lead to the usage of the system. This result will help system designers in creating
the interface design and etc. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of three selected elements (colors, fonts and locations) of physical
consistency of a Website interface on performance and satisfaction of users. An experiment was conducted using an Arabic Website,
where three physically inconsistent designs of the Website according to each of the selected elements of physical consistency
were used as independent variables, and a consistent design was used for control. Subjects were instructed to perform a number
of common Web tasks in the Websites. Two performance variables (dependent variables) were measured: tasks completion time
and number of errors. Satisfaction level was also recorded. Results showed that both the fonts element and the locations element
have a significant effect on number of errors. The locations element and the colors element have a subjectively significant
effect on satisfaction. None of the three elements has a significant effect on completion times.
In face of the diversified individual and collective requirements of Web applications, we argue that the Web interfaces should
be flexible enough to adapt or to be adapted to each usage context. We draw on the idea of Tailoring to design for flexibility.
However, due to the additional effort to provide flexibility, usually the construction of a tailorable application results
on higher costs and complex solutions. The objective of this work is to provide developers and designers with a framework
to support the development of tailorable Web applications. This framework is based on a normative approach to describe the
volatile requirements including social and pragmatics aspects of the system usage. In the paper we discuss the theoretical
basis, describe the framework, and provide short examples of how to use it.
It is important to unobtrusively observe users’ interactions on web browsers for the measurement of users’ interest. Moreover,
the observation should be performed on the client side in real time, because the contents of web pages are dynamically subject
to change in the current Internet environment. In this paper, we suggest a simple method of inferring a user’s interest for
web contents by monitoring the amount of processed GUI messages while the user is reading a web page. We developed a software
module that runs behind the Internet Explorer and monitors the number of processed GUI messages, the viewing time and the
size of a web page. We found that the number of processed GUI messages, when properly normalized by the size of a web page,
is close correlated with a user’s interest for web contents.
To design for positive web experience designers require an understanding of what factors elicit specific affective or cognitive
responses. To gather user perceptions, which may offer insight for future objective exploration, an online survey asked five
open ended questions regarding user perception of design aspects associated with a range of affective and cognitive states;
specifically what stimulates web user’s curiosity and creativity, what challenges their abilities, what surprises them and what alters their sense of time. The majority of responses can be categorized as either usability or design factors, but 17.4% cannot and warrant further
exploration to determine their utility for designing optimal user experience. Results also indicate that for each of the states
there are trends in the responses, suggesting that certain aspects of web interface design elicit specific reactions. These
aspects should be explored and applied if designers want to encourage pleasurable website experience.
Information security is a great concern to computer users, which is not only a technical problem, but also related to human
factors. The objective of this study is to investigate the factors that can influence people’s perception of different threats
to information security. In the survey study, 602 respondents were asked to evaluate one of 21 common threats to information
security with regard to its position on each of the 20 threat-related items. An exploratory factor analysis was then conducted,
and a six-factor structure modeling people’s perception of different threats to information security was derived. The relations
between the factors and the perceived overall danger of threats were also tested by multiple regression analyses.
Personal stories make our everyday experiences memorable over time. This paper presents 'Everyday Mediated Storytelling', a model of the casual storyteller's process of capturing, creating and sharing personal mediated narratives. Based on this model, an online authoring and publishing application for sharing everyday rich-media narratives named 'Confectionary' was developed. Results from a lengthy study with a group of committed users signify the success of the Confectionary system as an engaging everyday tool for personal storytelling that stimulated self-reflection, broadened the scope of storytelling strategies demonstrated by its users and supported active audience interpretation. The model, methodology, and system presented in this paper provide a basis for understanding how we move fluidly between our direct experiences, our cognitive and emotional reflections and our storied representations and interpretations. This paper also demonstrates how a spatial everyday authoring and publishing application advances the digital storytelling process from one of media collection to one of storied reflection.
Our goal is an interface that allows novice users to browse and enjoy Web contents as easily as they can watch TV. Given this
goal, Web page contents should be converted into fully-animated TV-like audio/visual contents, taking users’ mental situation
into consideration. Moreover, this paper focuses on generating adaptive Web page presentation according to the emotional parameters.
To get the user’s interest and attention, we utilize two robots which can speak. In order to develop conversions that take
account of the user’s mental situation, we performed two step surveys. First, the emotional impressions of primitive audio/visual
effects were investigated. Second, the effect of the combinations of robot and primitive effects was investigated. The first
experiment yielded a ’situation composition grammar;’ given an emotional situation, the appropriate audio/visual effects can
be selected. The second experiment suggested that presentation media components exhibit mutual interaction. We implemented
a prototype and subjectively evaluated it. The results confirm the effectiveness and validity of our proposal.
We have performed a Web-based survey to analyze a variety of services provided via mobile devices, and we studied how the
usage of mobile Internet services is influencing the life behavior of mobile users. The survey was targeted to young generation
users in their 20’s-early 30’s, who are main users of mobile Internet services. Mobile services are categorized into Entertainment,
m-Commerce, and Information Service in this work. In total, 236 users participated in the survey. We reviewed the current
usage status of mobile services and analyzed how each service affected users’ mobile life behavior. The results of this paper
illustrate that “Mobile e-mail,” “Listening to music,” “Travel information,” and so on have a significant influence on users’
mobile life behavior.
Previous research on ubiquitous computing in homes has tended to focus on system-oriented issues such as automated controls
and sensor networks. In contrast, this paper reports on research oriented to families living in homes. Handling and sharing
memories stored on external media is difficult within current homes, though sharing memories, and communicating through them
is an important part of family life. Relevant data is often kept in digital storage and infrequently accessed if at all. We
have established design principles and developed the following prototype interfaces within the home that increase interactions
amongst family members: TimeAfterMirror; PushPull; MemoryBubbles; Asnaro. These prototypes jointly form a system for dealing
with family memories. This system can be used to capture, organize, review representations of past events, and support communication.
These prototypes were demonstrated within a home-like environment at an exhibition in Tokyo in November 2006.
In this paper, we introduce a wearable and handheld Intelligent Gadget (IG). IG is a prototype system for implementing a concept
of personalized smart object defined in SPOT. we design and implement a personal life logger and belonging monitor using IGN
which provides interaction among IGs for supporting real-time online logging of personal life log and dynamic reconfiguration
of personalized services. We also propose a reliable data transmission method within IGN based on ZigBee network, and show
performance analysis through an experiment of transferring JPEG data.
The objective of this study is to develop a measurement of search result relevance for Chinese queries through comparing four
Chinese search engines (A, B, C, D). The relevance measurement was First N method and statistical test. By blind evaluating
of first 10 search results, four indexes such as average precisions within first n results (P @ n), hit rate within n results
(H @ n), mean dead link rate within n results (MD @ n) and mean reciprocal rank of first relevant document (MRR1 @ n) were
figured out. The results implied that except for MD @ n engine C was better, the other three indexes engine A were the best.
However, by statistical analyzing, it indicated that there were no significant difference of the P @ n, H @ n and MRR1 @ n
among the four engines except for the index MD @ n.
The multiple viewed search engine presented here retrieves documents of an indicated search area and displays a matrix of
the distribution of the clustering from two aspects of the retrieval result. The search engine provides a visual and semantic
bird’s-eye view of the entire retrieval result. In addition, the characteristic words of each cluster are displayed in the
matrix, and supports narrowing of the search. Furthermore, it is possible to immediately change the analysis criteria or the
number of clusters and to use a zooming function. Thus, various retrieval conditions for a query can be attempted immediately
and continuously. As a case study, this paper performs several analyses on the electronic journal Zoological Science using a multiple viewed search engine.
The recent development has suggested a multi-dimensional approach in understanding social presence. Based on environmental psychology literature and prior research on social presence, we propose three dimensions of social presence, i.e., sensory, affective and cognitive, and examine its effect on virtual community participation with a partial mediation of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. The research model was empirically tested with a survey involving 430 individuals. The empirical results provided strong support for the multi-dimensional conceptualization of social presence and clarified the effects of various social presence dimensions on participation. But we did not find significant mediating effects of motivational factors. Both theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
This paper presents a framework for emotional interface where a method for emotional interface evaluation is purposed and
the emotion eliciting conditions in online graphic interfaces are explored. Those eliciting conditions are concerning the
design elements of an online storytelling system. For the purposes of the evaluation two online storytelling interfaces are
compared: a plain user friendly interface versus animated with images interface. The results are analyzed for the user’s emotional
responses as well as for the user’s feedback on the functionality of the interfaces. It is shown that users find “positive
emotion” web sites more functional, than the non emotional ones.
We will describe a field test and its evaluation of a truly novel type of mobile computer programs that will assist foreign tourists in their communication with Chinese people. The software is an electronic phrase book and a translation aid but at the same time a powerful multilingual information system connected to numerous services via the Internet. It effectively helps visitors to navigate through the streets, temples and shopping centres of the Beijing megalopolis. It was developed in the German-Chinese project COMPASS 2008, a research action within the Digital Olympics framework. The subjects of the field test were fifteen tourists from seven countries. The test concentrated on usability and acceptance. The applied methodology adapts recognized standards and widely accepted best practice to the specific application type.
The nature of the conscious experience of love is a puzzle to people all around the world. Many of us want to understand our
love in order to make it more sustainable. An application developed for this purpose is presented in this paper: Rose is a
self-evaluation application that aims to help individuals evaluate and understand the many dimensions of their love. Rose
is freely available on the Internet. In this paper, we summarize the results of everybody who has taken part in the on-line
self-evaluation using this application.
In order to support fast, freedom and natural multi-user interaction, a replicated framework for collaborative design of 3D
solid model is presented. The framework combines general collaborative problems with special challenges from 3D design. In
consistency maintain of multi-user interaction, an extended event order of operations is studied to integrate causal order
and independent order based on semantic analysis of 3D design. A special consistency problem, the name consistency, is analyzed.
A collaborative naming mechanism is provided with a case study. The proposed method will constructed the footstone to take
the potential advantages of replicated 3D collaborative design.
In order to extraction the product form features, the Web-based feature database system was carried out and the feature cognition
space was constructed. The form feature information was analysed and processed through Multidimensional Scaling (MDS), hierarchical
clustering and morphological analysis technology. To enhance the efficiency of the automatic conceptual design, the interactive
evolutionary design system (IEDS) based on the Orthogonal Interactive Genetic Algorithm (OIGA) in form design was advanced.
With this method, the genetic convergence effects are improved and users’ fatigues are alleviated by means of simplifying
the solution space orthogonally, communizing the fitness evaluation and visualizing the project interface. Example results
indicate the improved IEDS was more feasible and reasonable than the simple IEDS.
In our daily life, human beings tend to use both hands to accomplish complex tasks, but not to computers. However, multi-touch
technology allows users to control all objects on the screen with more than just one finger. Therefore, how designers can
take advantage of such technology and explore its potentials? So we propose a multi-touch interface builder called MToolKit
for easy and effective construction of multi-touch interface for designers. By using camera-based sensor framework, we further
analyze the multi-touch examples available for the interactive patterns. With these analysis and design requirement for building
up an interface builder for designers, we conduct a two-point input and implemented them into our system called MToolkit.
MToolkit was implemented by java and based on processing programming environment and a video processing C++ library with java
wrapper. An example of using our MToolkit is elaborated in this paper.
Engineering changes, whether it is desirable or undesirable, incur cost and delay in schedule. It should be avoided as much
as possible and change management strategy should be chosen as to minimize the overall cost. This paper proposes a method
to represent change propagation and formulate change absorbing problem into mathematical programming. Solution to the mathematical
problem can lead to optimal change absorbing strategy that minimizes overall cost.
This contribution presents an approach for a scientific driving simulator platform for the representation and evaluation of
new driver assistance and information systems. We will give a short introduction to the used gaming engine and then present
the developed components of our new driving simulation platform. For a most realistic driving behavior, we implemented an
own physics-component basing on a real vehicle model. Further, the platform provides the opportunity to easily create new
scenarios depending on the test setup.
The design of the underlying storage subsystems for multimedia applications faces significant challenges for capability Ahigh
I/O performance and availability requirements. A RAID system is defined as a storage system that distributes data redundantly
across array of disks and can provide high throughput as well as higher availability. In this paper, we present a novel cache
scheme (for short Stripe-cache) for building a multimedia oriented RAID system. This efficient stripe-cache has the following
innovations: (1) Hierarchy architecture with different block structure according to the underlying data layout that exploits
temporal locality and spatial locality (2) Timing-transfer and replacing scheme forwardly move data block in cache for special
efficiency. We built up the multimedia oriented RAID system as a device driver module upon the X86-Linux platform with the
stripe-cache. Evaluation results show that the system can offer much higher I/O performance in handling multimedia applications
than lots of conventional storage systems.
DiFac is an IST research project (FP6-2005-IST-5-035079) funded by the European Commission within the 6th
Framework Programme priority called “Collaborative Working Environment”. The project aims to develop an innovative Collaborative Manufacturing Environment (CME) for the next generation of Digital Factory in order to support the competitiveness of SMEs. A digital factory represents a persistent hybrid community where a rich virtualised environment representing a variety of factory activities will facilitate the sharing of factory resources, manufacturing information and knowledge, and help the simulation of collaborative design, planning, production and management among different participants and departments. The DiFac CME will be used as a framework to support group work in an immersive and interactive way for three manufacturing activities: product development; factory design and analysis; and training of workers. Furthermore it will provide support for data analysis, visualization, advanced interaction and presence within the VE, ergonomics analysis and collaborative decision-making.
![Fig. 5. Structure of the Software The Mobile Control System (MCS) is shown on the Frond-end layer. It is running on a handheld computer SONY VAIO [8] and acts as a graphical interface for a user to get information about the industrial environment as well as for the interaction with the environment (see next paragraph). The communication between the TCS and the MCS is organized via a network abstraction layer. Due to the usage of a universal data format, the efforts for integrating with a new industrial environment are minimal, because only changes to the data processing modules must be made, while the core modules will stay the same. The TCS is responsible for the registration management of Mobile Control Systems.](https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Istvan-Mezgar/publication/221099182/figure/fig3/AS:669973848530961@1536745621324/Structure-of-the-Software-The-Mobile-Control-System-MCS-is-shown-on-the-Frond-end_Q320.jpg)
The European research project INT-MANUS embedded in the I*PROMS European network of excellence addresses the increasing demand
for flexibility and adaptivity, which is summarized by rapid reconfigurations of complete factories as well as related aspects
in Human Computer Interaction (HCI), Software, and Production Systems. The project’s main goal is to develop a new technology
for the production plants of the future, the Smart Connected Control Platform (SCCP). This platform allows controlling a factory
with the help of an open distributed learning agent platform that integrates machines, robots, and human personnel.
D modeling applications are widely used in many application domains ranging from CAD to industrial or graphics design. Desktop environments have proven to be a powerful user interface for such tasks. However, the raising complexity of 3D dataset exceeds the possibilities provided by traditional devices or two-dimensional display. Thus, more natural and intuitive interfaces are required. But in order to get the users' acceptance technology-driven solutions that require inconvenient instrumentation, e.g., stereo glasses or tracked gloves, should be avoided. Autostereoscopic display environments in combination with 3D desktop devices enable users to experience virtual environments more immersive without annoying devices. In this paper we introduce interaction strategies with special consideration of the requirements of 3D modelers. We propose an interscopic display environment with implicated user interface strategies that allow displaying and interacting with both mono-, e.g., 2D elements, and stereoscopic content, which is beneficial for the 3D environment, which has to be manipulated. These concepts are discussed with special consideration of the requirements of 3D modeler and designers.
With the rapid development of social information, the application of distributed database system is increasing. Distributed
data mining will play an important role in data mining, because distributed database system is different from centralized
database system. We need to develop special algorithm for data mining on distributed database. Although current algorithms
of association rules based on apriori have been optimized to a certain extend, we still have more work to do to increase its
efficiency. This paper analyzes and introduces the algorithm for mining distributed association rules, and puts forward a
new method for distributed data mining based on similarity which takes the heterogenous data source well into account. Finally
the experiment also proves the increased veracity of this model.
Product evaluation throughout various stages of a design process is crucial to the final product’s success, and this may be
a costly, time consuming and logistically complex process. Currently there are limited product design evaluation tools available
to provide better support to the whole product design and development process. Virtual reality (VR) has matured to become
useful technology to support efficient and effective product design and development applications. This paper reports an investigation
on applying VR technologies to computer aided product evaluation. The research work has concentrated on: i) investigating
the potential of emerging VR based technologies such as three dimensional (3D) haptic interaction and 3D stereoscopic viewing,
ii) integrating and implementing these VR based technologies into a computer aided product evaluation application and iii)
exploring the efficiency and effectiveness of these VR based technologies in comparison with traditional techniques used during
the product design evaluation process.
The CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) is classified into two mainstream technologies; CDMA2000 and CDMA-TDD (Code Division
Multiple Access with Time Division Duplex mode). Specifically, in China, the CDMA-TDD mode has been used as the standard of
3G mobile network system. In this paper, we investigate the performance of automatic protection switching (APS) of CDMA-TDD
wireless communication system, where APS is the familiar technology to guarantee highly reliable communication networks such
as an asynchronous transfer mode network. We develop a stochastic model based on a continuous-time Markov chain for the CDMA-TDD
wireless communication system with APS, and derive some related quantitative performance measures in terms of Quality of Service
(QoS). Throughout numerical experiments, we examine how the design of APS and network affects the performance measures quantitatively.
In DSM and nanometer technology, there will present more and more new fault types, which are difficult to predict and avoid.
Applying fault tolerant algorithms to achieve reliable on-chip communication is one of the most important issues of Network-on-Chip
(NoC). This paper reviews the main on-chip fault tolerant communication algorithms and then proposes a new routing algorithm
with end-to-end feedback. The average transmission latency, power consumption and reliability are compared with other techniques.
As experiments show, the proposed algorithm has lower latency, lower power consumption compared with those of others, and
it can provide high reliability.
Telework technologies have been known since the 1970s, yet their adoption levels remained low until Covid-19-related lockdowns and curfews. The known rational and non-rational technology acceptance theory and biases cannot fully explain this effect. One of the possible answers to fill this gap could be availability bias which has probably also affected the lag in adopting other technologies. To examine this phenomenon, we conducted a qualitative study with 22 interviews with individuals from different organizational backgrounds and telework adoption levels. Following a combination of inductive and deductive coding, we identified three key aspects of availability bias: intention, cognitive visibility, and cognitive transfer. The findings also allowed us to delineate this bias further from other biases, e.g., the status quo bias, and classical technology acceptance models, e.g., UTAUT. Thereby, this study examines a bias so far only very limitedly researched in the information systems and extends technology acceptance and cognitive bias literature. The findings should also enable practitioners to question their way of working and technology use more thoroughly.
Currently, immersive virtual environments (IVE) are widely used in fields such as architecture and environmental psychology. These simulated environments allow for a detailed evaluation of how different designs impact users’ perception and interaction with the built environment, under controlled conditions and without incurring high costs. The validity of these IVEs is related to their capacity to evoke a participant’s response similar to that of the space they are simulating. This paper presents a validation study of a virtual classroom with two phases: the analysis of the sense of presence in the generated IVE and the comparison of the psychological and neurophysiological response of subjects in the two environments (physical vs. IVE). The psychological response captures cognitive processes via the performance of attention and memory tasks. The physiological response records the subject’s activity monitored via electroencephalogram, electrocardiogram, and electrodermal activity. The results showed that the psychological and physiological responses in both environments (physical vs. IVE) were similar. This may be of interest to architecture researchers and professionals as they validate IVE systems as tools to study the effects of the built environment on users’ cognitive responses.
The main goal of every production is an optimally set and stable production process with the lowest possible costs. Such settings can only be achieved through many years of experience or very specific research, which focuses on several critical factors. An example of such factors can be the size and use of available space or the location of the production line and the logistical location of individual production sites, which is individual for each production process. Specific research can be carried out, for example, by means of the TX Plant simulation application, which was used in the present article for the production process of making fiber from pellets. The output of this research is the effective use of the so-called “Digital factory” to make the process in the already created conditions more efficient. This was achieved by the TX Plant simulation application, resulting in a reduced production time and increasing overall productivity. An intuitive interaction with factory equipment is possible with this approach, which allows users to immerse themselves in the virtual factory environment. As a result, a layout’s efficiency of surface use, flow of martial, and ergonomics can be assessed in real time. This paper aims to demonstrate how virtual reality (VR) can be used to simulate a digital factory to aid in decision making and enhance factory efficiency.
Serious games offer a magnificent potential for developing future skills along with the 21st‐century learning ecosystem. A close nexus between the design and effectiveness of serious games is still argued. In this regard, the current study provides a systematic literature review on serious game design approaches with a special focus on future skill development. A systematic review protocol, including planning, conducting, and reporting stages, is followed to comprehensively interpret the existing studies. Applying quality controls, 32 serious game studies which include a practical serious game design approach are selected. For providing a more systematic analysis, these approaches are then categorized based on the intended outcome of the serious game that the approach aims to facilitate. It is found that 8 (25%) of these design approaches support at least one future skills, among which problem‐solving as well as collaboration and teamwork are the most commonly supported ones. It is also discovered that clear goals and interactivity, used in 6 (75%) and 5 (63%) of the 8 design approaches respectively, are the most commonly implemented game design elements. Considering the significant literature gap on the implementation of serious games for future skills development, this study consequently provides valuable insights for the game designers, software developers, educational technology researchers, and engineering educators in various domains.
The research on the use of virtual reality (VR) in the design domain has been conducted in a fragmentary way so far, and some misalignments have emerged among scholars. In particular, the actual support of VR in early design phases and the diffusion of practices involving VR in creative design stages are argued. In the present paper, we reviewed VR applications in design and categorized each of the collected 86 sources into multiple classes. These range from supported design functions to employed VR technologies and the use of systems complementing VR. The identified design functions include not only design activities traditionally supported by VR, such as 3D modelling, virtual prototyping, and product evaluation, but also co-design and design education beyond the early design phases. The possibility to support early design phases by means of VR is mirrored by the attention on products that involve an emotional dimension beyond functional aspects, which are particularly focused on in virtual assemblies and prototypes. Relevant matches between VR technologies and specific design functions have been individuated, although a clear separation between VR devices and supported design tasks cannot be claimed.
In the main control rooms of nuclear power plants, operators frequently have to switch between procedure displays and system information displays. In this study, we proposed an operation-unit-based integrated design, which combines the two displays to facilitate the synthesis of information. We grouped actions that complete a single goal into operation units and showed these operation units on the displays of system states. In addition, we used different levels of visual salience to highlight the current unit and provided a list of execution history records. A laboratory experiment, with 42 students performing a simulated procedure to deal with unexpected high pressurizer level, was conducted to compare this design against an action-based integrated design and the existing separated-displays design. The results indicate that our operation-unit-based integrated design yields the best performance in terms of time and completion rate and helped more participants to detect unexpected system failures.
Practitioner Summary:
In current nuclear control rooms operators frequently have to switch between procedure and system information displays. We developed an integrated design that incorporates procedure information into system displays. A laboratory study showed that the proposed design significantly improved participants’ performance and increased the probability of detecting unexpected system failures.
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