The assessment of usability of electronic shopping: A heuristic evaluation

Today there are thousands of electronic shops accessible via the Web. Some provide user-friendly features whilst others seem not to consider usability factors at all. Yet, it is critical that the electronic shopping interface is user-friendly so as to help users to obtain their desired results. This study applied heuristic evaluation to examine the usability of current electronic shopping. In particular, it focused on four UK-based supermarkets offering electronic services: including ASDA, Iceland, Sainsbury, and Tesco. The evaluation consists of two stages: a free-flow inspection and a task-based inspection. The results indicate that the most significant and common usability problems have been found to lie within the areas of ‘User Control and Freedom’ and ‘Help and Documentation’. The findings of this study are applied to develop a set of usability guidelines to support the future design of effective interfaces for electronic shopping

The display of electronic commerce within virtual environments

In today’s competitive business environment, the majority of companies are expected to be represented on the Internet in the form of an electronic commerce site. In an effort to keep up with current business trends, certain aspects of interface design such as those related to navigation and perception may be overlooked. For instance, the manner in which a visitor to the site might perceive the information displayed or the ease with which they navigate through the site may not be taken into consideration. This paper reports on the evaluation of the electronic commerce sites of three different companies, focusing specifically on the human factors issues such as perception and navigation. Heuristic evaluation, the most popular method for investigating user interface design, is the technique employed to assess each of these sites. In light of the results from the analysis of the evaluation data, virtual environments are suggested as a way of improving the navigation and perception display constraints

Effect of gap lenghts of sphere-sphere electrodes on air breakdown level under lightning impulse

Impinging jets are a best method of achieving particularly high heat transfer coefficient and are therefore employed in many engineering applications. In this study we seek to understand the mechanism of the distributed heat on the curve surface with the goal of identifying preferred methods to predicting jet performance. The goals that have been achieved in the numerical results displayed are determine the influence of impingement jet characteristics on thermal and flow field on a curve surface, determine the variation of Nusselt numbers (NuD) along the curve surface in order to understand the heat transfer characteristics and study the effect of position (in the center, in the mid and in the end) and angle (α=90°, 60° and 30°) of jet impingement on curve surface, different Reynolds numbers (ReD) in range of (5000, 6000, 7000, 8000 and 9000). The program, which was extracted results it is (GAMBIT 2.4.6) and (FLUENT 6.3), simulation is (2-D) in submerged jet flow and the continuity, momentum and energy equations were solved by means of a finite volume method (FVM). This study covers the effect of different Reynolds numbers (ReD) on average Nusselt numbers (Nuavg) and local Nusselt numbers (NuD). From the result, the average Nusselt numbers (Nuavg) increased with the increase of Reynolds numbers (ReD) for all cases, in comparison between different positions (center, mid and end), of nozzle on curve surface at angle (α=90°) the maximum value of average Nusselt numbers (Nuavg=388.3) is found when the nozzle locate in the end followed by the mid position and smallest value of average Nusselt numbers (Nuavg=182.25) in the center of curve surface. In case of slant angle (α=60º) the maximum value of average Nusselt numbers (Nuavg=387.47) is found when the nozzle locate in the end followed by the mid position and smallest value of average Nusselt numbers (Nuavg=308.3) in the center of curve surface

Alter ego, state of the art on user profiling: an overview of the most relevant organisational and behavioural aspects regarding User Profiling.

This report gives an overview of the most relevant organisational and\ud behavioural aspects regarding user profiling. It discusses not only the\ud most important aims of user profiling from both an organisation’s as\ud well as a user’s perspective, it will also discuss organisational motives\ud and barriers for user profiling and the most important conditions for\ud the success of user profiling. Finally recommendations are made and\ud suggestions for further research are given

Critical Success Factors for Positive User Experience in Hotel Websites: Applying Herzberg's Two Factor Theory for User Experience Modeling

This research presents the development of a critical success factor matrix for increasing positive user experience of hotel websites based upon user ratings. Firstly, a number of critical success factors for web usability have been identified through the initial literature review. Secondly, hotel websites were surveyed in terms of critical success factors identified through the literature review. Thirdly, Herzberg's motivation theory has been applied to the user rating and the critical success factors were categorized into two areas. Finally, the critical success factor matrix has been developed using the two main sets of data.Comment: Journal articl